Spook: A Novel

by Steve Vance

Long shunned and the subject of horrid rumors by her neighbors in Sturgis, Georgia, Maryann Nelson becomes the center of the new high school administrator's attention when she is determined to redress the girl's neglected education

Genres: Horror, Fiction

234 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Credited as: Writer, Inker, Penciller mainly for DC Comics

list of work can be found here, in chronological order:
http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator.ph...

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The titular Spook is in fact a young woman who lives in an old house with her mother outside of Dalton, Georgia, and has since she was born. It was the locals who started calling her Spook, and all kinds of urban (or should I say rural) legends arose about her as she is supposedly hideously deformed since birth. Spook (really MaryAnn) and her mother live an isolated existence, with her mother making a living by raiding the dump for things to sell and such, although she was an up and coming artist at one time. Spook only goes out at night and covers her head with a hood.

The story kicks off with Lola Aragon, relocating to the Georgia County as an administrator for the school district. After a spell, she finds out about Spook, who will be 16 soon, and starts some inquiries, finding out that she has never been in school, let alone any social services and such. We follow Spook as she plays with her dogs at night and learn she makes all kinds of 'primitive' art; idiot savant? Who knows. Anyway, Aragon gets a bee in her bonnet about Spook and is determined to do something about her. Vance stretches things pretty lean here-- why would Aragon take such and interest in Spook? She has an entire county of kids to manage after all.

Vance also introduces several other characters, including some local cops (one who quickly becomes romantically involved with Aragon, gag) and some local ne'er-do-wells, teenagers, one of whom has a strange interest in Spook. Also, it seems some bodies keep turning up, including some people Vance introduced as cannon fodder early on. It seems only a matter of time that Spook will be outed to the world, even as her mother, armed with a shotgun and vitriol aim to keep everyone away...

Spook had some moments, and the ending (and the big reveal!) were clever, but overall, pretty unredeeming trashy pulp. This reads like a b-movie screen play and maybe that is what Vance was going for; I can see Roger Corman giving this one a go! This is also more thriller than horror, but so it goes. Better than two stars, but not three, so I will go with 2.5, rounding up for the ending.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting find & not what I expected at all. My memory of Steve Vance's writing is long, but all based on one action SF adventure, Planet of the Gawfs. I recently re-read this old favorite & found that Vance had written quite a few other books, so I bought some including this one. I first tried reading The Asgard Run, another SF adventure. It has huge, confusing cast of characters &, at the halfway point, had finally gotten around to what I thought should have been at the beginning. I may finish it at some point, but only out of a sense of obligation.

This book was completely different than the other two. It is a psychological drama with a strong element of horror, but of the kind we humans make for ourselves - nothing supernatural. The dozen characters are well drawn & the story is well paced. I did not foresee the ending at all. It wasn't handled as well as it could have been, a bit choppy & abrupt, but quite powerful, especially in retrospect. I almost want to re-read the book immediately to see what I missed, but I doubt I missed anything. Vance's style of writing is easy going & he just played on my prejudices.

I'm torn between giving it 3 or 4 stars, so I'll give it 4, but it's really a 3.5. Pretty darn good. If you get a chance, it's worth the few hours it takes to read.

[Micha Meinderts · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my memory it was a lot better, but that is what usually happens, right? It was a mediocre horror, with a cliched climax and "twist". I have to give Vance credit for not forcing things to make the twist seem even less likely, writing things that simply can't be true, like other thriller-writers do to put the reader off.

The perspectives were all over the place, shifting within paragraphs, and the characters really didn't come to life all that much. I mean, they were distinct personalities, but not really rounded off, not whole. More like caricatures.

But it was still an entertaining read. Wouldn't mind seeing it as a movie, actually. It's definitely written like one.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1991. The surprise awaiting readers is nothing short of stunning.

[Carrie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just a random grab that I decided to read and I was happy with it! Enjoyable and quick read

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was wandering around the library when I saw the cover of this book. It really stuck out to me because I'm a fan of horror/mystery novels. After reading the inside cover, I was immediately interested. I started reading it that day and it was hard to put down. The plot is so interesting, starting out with a 16 year old girl named MaryAnn Nelson who has been hidden by her mother and raised like an animal. No one has even seen her face, as it is covered with a hood to hide her apparent deformities. But everything changes for her when Lola Aragon, a new school administrator, tries to pursue MaryAnn's education. With the help of the police, Lola finds out the truth about MaryAnn. She is a beautiful girl who has been hidden all these years by her mother in spite of her father, who refused to marry her mother. Her mother is killed, and the novel comes to an end when she moves in with her father. Although I loved the book, I wish there would have been a final chapter where MaryAnn is introduced to regular living for the first time. It would be very interesting to see how she reacts to the outside world. The plot twists were written so creatively that I never saw most of them coming. Steve Vance clearly knows how to write a well-written mystery novel. Spook was a really good read, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys suspense and mystery.

[Melanie Scalera · Rating 4 out of 5]

So it’s hard to say exactly what rating I would give this book. I will admit that I did enjoy reading it, however; on the first page when I first started reading it, I almost wanted to put it down because I do not like reading about or watching anything about animal abuse or murder. I know it’s just a story, but it still puts a bad taste in my mouth. There was another instance, also, about halfway in the book where I felt the same way. I just feel like this is unnecessary to add to the book. Other than that, it was interesting. I do feel like they could’ve explained more though on what Mary Ann actually looks like at the end, aside I’m just saying that she is beautiful. I mean, the whole premises was about how hideous she was.
Anyhow, I think I bought this book in like the early 90s at a local yard sale, and I finally got around to reading it. So at least I didn’t give it to putting it down after the first page 😆

[Kenneth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a young teen. It's not great, but has always stuck with me, much in the way a cheesy b-movie you saw when 13 leaves an impact on you.

[Kathei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok.

[Cheyenne Joy Mijdam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spook door Steve Vance 🌸🌸🌺

Niet al te eng, niet al te spannend, maar gewoon lekker om te lezen.

[Shawnee · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far I'm only a few chapters into the book, but it is a slow start, jumps around a lot, and not that great of a storyline. Sure hope it gets better quickly...

SPOILER ALERT!!!!



Okay... so.... finished the book, and it wasn't horrible. It wasn't great either. The storyline could have gone so much further than it did. The front cover of the book claims that it is "A novel of psychological suspense". Well. No. It wasn't. I would have liked to have seen the story of the girl developed a lot more. For example, you are given a slight idea of what she looks like. Slight. And then in the end, you have no idea what was made up, and what was real, because you didn't have any idea what she really looked like in the beginning! Too little detail and not enough of anything, really. And the ending? Lame. Would have been better to have more detail there too. Interesting. Not a total waste of time, but will I read it again? Uhm. NO.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book started off great! I liked how you saw through a little girls perspective her killing little bunnies, running with dogs, her mama telling her her daddy's the devil. Totally creepy cool.
I also liked the climax and resolution, which I won't give away, I'll just say I actually did not see it coming.
That being said I felt like there were big holes in the plot. Not where things didn't make sense, just where they were left alone and not explained or wrapped up conclusively.
I actually was pretty annoyed with some vulgar sexual things in the book that seemed totally random and not contributing to the plot or character development, just for shock value or something. This would pretty much have been a kids book if not for that.

[Christina Culbertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I don't judge books by the cover but I did see the front and read the inside flap and was interested. At first I liked the idea of what I was reading, the fact Mary Anne ran with her dogs (all named by demons and angels) and how she killed those two people,but then it got really slow. I didn't like "Lola" or Maryannes mama,she was sleeping with the doctor and she got pregnant than he gets her in the end. I give it at least 3 stars since I finished it but really it wasnt even halfway disturbing or scary to me. The story line could have been way better.

[Lindsay Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a rough start. Kind of jumps around a lot, but the writing is well done and it's not painful to read. I wish there was a more embellished middle to the novel. In my opinion it was mostly beginning. The transitions between beginning and middle felt to be missing a piece of the story and then it just ends. Really twisty end, but definitely not something that I didn't consider.

[Jad Driver · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up for a Halloween horror story and was disappointed. Beginning of the book is a beating and overall the book just didn't do it for me. This is the first book I've read from this author.

[Luis&minxy Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

The novel has a lot of child abuse.
However, it was a fast paced and told a story about a deformed girl who was treated as a freak. Although her character was very meaningful to the story. I definitely recommend this book!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up because it had a really cool cover and the premise sounded pretty good. It was pretty boring, took a long time to get going in the story, and even then it wasn't what I was looking for.

[Ger Francus]

It starts of really bad... The beginning just sucks. - Hopefully the rest of the book will be better than this. - Not.

[Judie Dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was OK--younger mpeople would probably enjoy it more. The ending left me confused about a few things

[Megan Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a while ago, it was pretty good but it felt like in the middle it was a little drawn out, it actually scary though!

[Donyae Coles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read this since the 90s but I remember it being really good so I'm going to just go with that.