Shrine: Now a Major Film Called The Unholy – the Novel Is Even More Terrifying

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The book is a much more mature, well rounded story in which Herbert explores themes around religion in the modern world, the media circus and nature of belief all wrapped up in a sixteenth centaury witch’s curse.

I had this on my shelf because I collect pulpy horror novels with cool covers, and then I heard that a new horror film had been released based on this book ( The Unholy) so I thought it was time to actually read it. And this brings me to the one point with the novel where it seems to either make or break the story for most readers – the ending.I loved the narration and the "boring" parts weren't boring for me they added to the story in an important and impactful way. Where the book lost me was the author’s insistence on sex scenes that did nothing to advance the story.

As with all my reviews I will not give the storyline away, I will save that for those who have better reviewing skills than I, just that James Herbert was a British horror treasure and It is a shame he is no long with us. Needless to say, as with all Herbert’s “heros”, the obnoxious little ferret is inexplicably irresistible to women (obviously! Characterisation is well-developed, intricately set-down and constantly evolving, as is now pretty much taken for granted with Herbert’s work. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.It felt so cheap considering everything I saw the characters go through but the players are bigger than life. We are moving here from witchcraft as the magic of supernatural powers to a more "cultist" kind of magic, where powers are, in fact, natural and merely more evolved. The book is one of those in which you can read a chapter in 5 to 10 minutes and so you are always left wanting to read just one more before you put it down.

Another Herbert novel, another new direction for the author, and in my opinion, another damn fine addition to a thoroughly impressive back catalogue. They're observers and on occasion the recipients of some of the violence but this is a tale of corruption vs the sanctity of creation.

With the principal protagonist of Gerry Finn, the reader is brought into the novel very much following in his progression with uncovering the horrific truth behind the Alice Pagett’s spiritual abilities.

Still, it is a well-constructed horror/supernatural thriller with great suspense and atmospheric scenes and the right amount of cultural references, so indebted to "The Exorcist" or "The Omen", iconic cults whose success will never fade, because the black side of creed and religious practices will never stop catching our eyes. Sure, it might not be as thrilling or as high-octane as some of his other books, but it’s still a cracking read. Alice Pagett is now the centre of a growing media attention; the oak tree all of a sudden a shrine to the massing spiritual believers.

I never actually read this one when I was going through my young teenage horror story reading phase, which lasted into my young adulthood, and, over the past couple of years, has been taken up again. Leaving certain points such that the reader could make of them what they wanted was a better approach. When she suddenly begins to perfectly hear and speak, talks about Mary and the immaculate conception and heals other people too, literally all hell breaks loose.