The Doom Stone

Zone Unknown #2

by Paul Zindel

Driving past Stonehenge on his way to visit his anthropologist aunt, 15-year-old Jackson sees a creature mauling a young man. It turns out that his aunt is leading a team of scientists and military personnel who are investigating a series of mutilations in the area. The creature, an intelligent but bloodthirsty hominid, kills several people, leading Jackson on a hunt for the beast before it kills again.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Childrens, Thriller

Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Paul Zindel was an American author, playwright and educator.

In 1964, he wrote The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, his first and most successful play. The play ran off-Broadway in 1970, and on Broadway in 1971. It won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was also made into a 1972 movie by 20th Century Fox. Charlotte Zolotow, then a vice-president at Harper & Row (now Harper-Collins) contacted him to writing for her book label. Zindel wrote 39 books, all of them aimed at children or young adults. Many of these were set in his home town of Staten Island, New York. They tended to be semi-autobiographical, focusing on teenage misfits with abusive or neglectful parents. Despite the often dark subject matter of his books, which deal with loneliness, loss, and the effects of abuse, they are also filled with humor. Many of his novels have wacky titles, such as My Darling, My Hamburger, or Confessions of A Teenage Baboon.

The Pigman, first published in 1968, is widely taught in American schools, and also made it on to the list of most frequently banned books in America in the 1990s, because of what some deem offensive language.

Reviews

[Brayden Marker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. The doom stone was a mysterious book. The monster in the book in your mind is very cool looking. I feel bad and happy for the grandson of the professor. The professor got bit in the neck and got sent to the hospital for that mysterious bite. when she got bit the monster got shot and it heals. Her grandson Jake also got to go to England and live with the queen of England and ride on her sons dune buggy. He gets to talk to a girl that lives in a cemetery with a dog named coffin. The got to go see some cool stones.
To try to find out where the monster was coming out. He thinks about the night that his aunt got bit and finds out that the monster heals. They know now how to kill the beast. They find out that they are standing over an abandon mine shaft by looking in a hole with a flash light. The ground form under them breaks and they fall in the abandon mine. while in the mind the flash light gets clicked off. They are a bunch of snakes. They search the cave for a while longer. They find this mysterious slime. They get out of the hole and go home. Jake goes back to the spot of the hole and finds the hole bigger. Finds a slime trail down the hole. he goes down the hole follows the slime trail Sees the beast dark red eyes hides form the monster. Watches the monster leave takes a sample of the slime to the hospital.
A few weeks later the professor comes back for the hospital and they found out that the monster was living in the abandon mine shaft They trapped the monster made it eat explosives by the girl sacrificing her self to save the others and blew the monster to bits.

[Kala Lash · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my story you will come across an obvious theme, I believe the theme of my story is to never give up. I say This because In the doom stone they could not give up on killing the monster. If they would of gave up the monster would have wiped out the community. In the doom stone there is a prehistoric homo sapien that is killing the people of Salisbury so the narrator flies into Salisbury England from New York to help battle the monster at Stonehenge. During this battle with the monster the narrator and his aunt battle extreme adverse and do not give up. There for to me the theme is don't give up no matter what.
I believe the authors purpose in my book I to entertain by telling a fictional story. He does this using fictional characters in first person, and using great figurative language. The author also uses a lot of foreshadowing creating a lot of suspense. I think he uses it to entertain because the story is clearly not true but his choice in words puts you in the narrators shoes, makes it very entertaining.

in my book the doom stone by paul zindel, i think the authors style is descriptive, because no matter what all through the story i felt like i was in the narrators shoes. his style is very unique because he uses all the figurative language he can to push the plot along, as well as not make it seem like a list. pauls style overall makes the book very easy to read because it makes you feel like you are the narrator, and really makes the book exiting.

I think this book is perfect for all ages and is very exiting for any reader. this book has perfect suspense and is very exiting. this book has a perfect plot to keep you hooked through every last one of the chapters. i recomend this book to any reader out their over love the book, not on is this a good read its a great read!

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doom Stone it is really not compared to real life because in that book there are monsters. they are not real in the world it was all fiction the book to me was very scary and interesting. it confused my mind a little i thought it was going to be a nice good book but quickly it went from good to scary it really did confuse my mind when u think a book is going to be good but it turns out being scary and you are just shocked because you expected a good book. some books do get tricky I can relate to people in real life that are like the people in the book like my family and friends they sometimes act like the people that I know in real life they get scared they are happy sad they are careless. the book was making me feel good but until the monster came the monster ruined everything I hated the monster it just came out of nowhere the book would of been good but the monster showed up and messed everything. I enjoyed the book it was a really good book.

[trina · Rating 4 out of 5]

another book i read and loved as a kid, and reread yesterday. great YA horror with kind of a weird science-y twist, it played right into my childhood plans to be an anthropologist or archaeologist. nothing is stranger than realizing i read this book for the first time eleven years ago, though. talk about feeling old.

[Isabelle]

ummmmmmmmm.........rather creepy.


.......but good

[Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILERS
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery killer stories.

The doom stone story was about a kid named Jackson. Jackson goes to meet his aunt in London. She is working on a task that the military has given her. She is to find the creature that has been reported killing people and livestock.

The thing that I enjoyed most about the story was how well everything was told. I did not have any questions at the end of the story. Everything that happens is later explained in the story. The only question I do have is if there is going to be another story. But other than that I have no questions about the actual story.

The only thing in the story that could have been done better is character development. Throughout the story the characters do not have any character development. Jackson does not change at all you would think he would because of what he went through. Jackson ´ s aunt does not have development either but she also was gone for most of the story. Alam also has no development and was put in the same situation as Jackson so she should have had character development.

[Kati · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a young-adult thriller it was ok. As much as I enjoy science thrillers, I wish there were more detail as to who the beast ("Ramid") and the hominids might be. I wish the whole mess of a sub-plot with "Aunt Sarah's" infection had been done away with. It left two children with no supervision and tumbling half-blind through the plot. I'm not even sure if I'd have given this more than 3 stars had I read it as a teen. As an adult, that's definitely the best it rates.

[Emkoshka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember Paul Zindel's novels fondly from my teenage years (1990s) and so I just had to grab this when I saw it in a little free library recently. It's short and savage and set at Stonehenge and on Salisbury Plain, where a slavering humanoid beast is on a murderous rampage. There's echoes of everything from The Time Machine to Ghostbusters to Tim Burton's first Batman film, but I found it a lot of fun, if very gory and kind of scary for a YA story.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for Young Readers! This book is part of my literary DNA. I first read it in summer camp, when I was 12 years old, and fell in love. The descriptions, the twists, adventure, relatable characters. This is a perfect book for a young reader to dive into. I'd be hesitant to give it to anyone under a 5th grade level. It's very graphically violent and pretty scary, but it's amazing and will definitely get a young mind interested in reading!

[Ghalia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The storyline was confusing and at the beginning they went STRAIGHT to the point, which was unnecessarily unrealistic. I expected it to bring me to the edge of my seat AT LEAST a couple times but this book was not what I expected at all. I woudn't recommend it to someone my age who's first language is also not English.

[Chey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just for the record, I read this book when I was waaaay too young for it to be in my elementary school library and I can still very vividly remember several parts of the story and the nightmares it gave me for a very long time after. I’m 26 now and have been thinking about this book for a while so I decided to pick it back up for nostalgias sake, and it still scared the pants off me.

[Matt Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 12 and not into reading at all. But it stuck with me and when thinking about reading some fun YA books I remembered this one and decided to reread it.

It was still a super fun read with lots of adventurous and thrilling moments. I’m going to pass it on to my niece and nephew to see if they enjoy it as well.

[Jamie Flick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't grab my interest. And also, if I could fully think of what the entire book was about without actually reading it, it shows that it needs more details. I figured out the entire plot with just reading the first two chapters.

[John Quattrocchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this book as a kid and enjoying it immensely. So much so that I believe I read it in a few days and that I had stayed up too late reading it that my mom had to tell me to go to sleep because I couldn’t put it down haha.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. Sarah Cawley is the only good part of this story.

[Scott E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pure entertainment and a terrific climax. Some unbelievable dialogue though, English characters using really strong American lexicon was really off putting

[UnderseaDavis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reminded me of An American Werewolf in London and that’s a bad thing..

0/1 on YA Fiction found on the street but I will keep trying

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good book loved it my fav part is when they kept getting chased by the monster

[Cassey Cowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and I loved it so much that I am 40 years old and still think about it. May have to reread it to see if it is as good as i remember

[Ricky Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a weird story, but a quick read and fun characters for Paul Zindel fans.

[Donna Pickel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent enough story of a monster and a hero . . . blah blah blah. But what I found was that if this is any indicator, I don't dig young adult. It was almost too simple to get engaged.

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how this book just dives right in and then the excitement keeps going until the end! Quick, easy, and fun read!

[Joe Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of how I remember Zindel’s horror this was always one of the more tamer ones. Focusing on character and atmosphere building rather than all out gore. I remember thinking that in middle school and that’s pretty much the same as how I see it now. Although I can actually appreciate the atmosphere and characters instead of just trying to zoom to the gross parts.

The main thing I love about this is the main character Jackson who sees a man get horribly murdered within like an hour of being at StoneHenge and his only response is basically a welp, that was horrifying but this is my weekend now. He immediately joins up with his aunt and a gravedigger’s daughter and Ahab style goes after this creature.He’s watched it take off people’s heads and doesn’t give a single fuck.

This entire to-do takes place over a weekend. It is totally breakneck speed in terms of seeing the threat and dealing with it. Even though it was always one of my lesser favorites growing up and still is on the weaker Zindel stories for me now, I’m still giving it a solid 3/5

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty sure this is where I first heard about Anthropology (which I now have a degree in), so I guess thanks for that. And for scaring me to death when I was a child. When I went to reread this book I still remembered what happened in it, even though it had to have been fifteen years.

[Matthew McClanahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doom Stone
The book starts out with young Jackson visiting his aunt Sarah in England, at Stonehenge. His aunt is an anthropologist and enjoys Jackson’s visits. This is when Jackson soon learns his visit isn’t going to be the fun he thought he would have, when he sees a young man viciously attacked by a hulking monster. Author Paul Zindel does a great job in this horror and suspenseful book. The book is written in Third person omniscient so you can know how all the characters are doing and feeling.
The main theme of this story is probably family never gives up on each other. I would say this because Jackson risks everything when his beloved aunt is brutally attacked just like the young man and she starts to go crazy. The author never says this but because Jackson faces this monstrosity it becomes more and more evident that he is beginning to figure out this “Skull Face”.
The book was definitely very suspenseful especially when Skull Face appears. You don’t know who will survive and who will die. Jackson find out that his aunt is investigating mysterious attacks on animals and disappearances. They first meet the monster at the local cemetery/crematorium. Jackson, his aunt Sarah, and military men( Rath, Tillman, and Richards) land there because they see a girl standing in a white nightgown out in the cemetery at night and when they see a strange fading heat signature. Sarah goes to talk to the strange girl and Rath has his men find out what the strange heat signature is. The men find a dead man that is the man who was attacked in the beginning. When they go to leave the begin to hear strange noises. Suddenly they are viciously attacked by the monster and soon the same thing happens to Sarah. Through this encounter they soon learn the monster also has healing abilities.Towards the end of the book Jackson and Alma face Skull Face one last time and things come to an exciting end.
In my opinion this was a really good book and there is only a few things I would change. One thing is I would have more action in it. However I like on how Zindel makes you think Skull Face will strike at any moment. I didn’t really like on how there was more problem solving in it than horror. This book isn’t like anything I’ve read before and that’s a good thing. If I had to rate this book on a scale of 1-10 I would give it a 7 because it can be really slow, but when it gets exciting it gets exciting.

[Gale · Rating 2 out of 5]

ANCIENT HORRORS LURKING BENEATH STONEHENGE...

Fifteen-year-old Jackson teams up with Alma, a gravedigger's daughter, to investigate mysterious deaths caused by a gruesome prowler around England's famed Stonehenge attraction. Invited over by his anthropologist Aunt Sarah, the American youth is used to strange occurrences whenever he joins his aunt on some exotic expedition or excavation, but even he is not preprared for the repelling discovery of Skull Face.

Of course the British military is keenly aware of the secret source of the grisly events on Salisbury Plain; their goal is to reduce public consternation as much as possible, thus hiding the truth about the fantatic creature from the unsuspecting locals. These teenage
sleuths ferret information from odd sources and old parchment volumes in the cathedral library, swapping data with wise Aunt Sarah, who has been bitten and thus confined to a hospital. But how is it that Ramid, as she terms this vicious aberration of Nature, has survived for centuries below modern man's radar screen? How does he just Know things in the computer age? And what strange, malicious bond unites Dr. Cawley and the monster? Is there no way to stop his rampage of raw evil? What other secrets are festering deep in the bowels beneath the enchanted horseshoe circle of sarcens and trilithons? This is an action-packed YA adventure, which might stimulate research on the various theories of prehistoric Stonehenge. Chillling, for kids 14 up.

(January 17, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)

[Joshua Piorier Sr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my very first books I bought at a school book sale in '97 or '98 after reading so many Goosebumps by R.L. Stine and finally deciding to try something different. I ended up picking it back up in '05 and reading again as I recalled the vivid and realistic experience. When I first read the book I needed to do further research on Stonehenge, which is the setting of the story, as I wanted to know the truth behind Stonehenge. As a young reader I felt it was my duty to be a private detective and get to know more about this Stonehenge and began reading the history of it. I finally came to realize that it was all fake but there was a ton of other info which I was thankfully able to get out of my research. This is more of a YA novel but is great for anyone who can read fiction with an open mind, which should be a requirement anyway. I would recommend, especially to the young readers. This will set off a good chain reaction.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for something a little different with this book but in the end I came away a little disappointed. The characters were very one dimensional and even the villain was difficult to understand. I had a hard time getting into this book because of how simplistic the story was. The main characters never make a wrong decision and every assumption they make is magically the right one. This book may be good for younger readers but I was disappointed.

A young boy named Jackson goes to visit his aunt who is doing research near Stonehenge. When a mysterious creature begins attacking and killing people in the surrounding region it is up to Jackson to stop it. Jackson will use his aunts research and a lot of luck to face this supernatural force before more people die. This book has intense scenes and violence.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I've read it probably three or four times which is unusual because I generally read a book once or twice unless I fell in love with it. Paul Zindel is one of my favorite authors as well, so this book was on the list of books he wrote and figured I'd give it a try. I'm not one for horror movies, but horror books I'm alright with.

Granted I didn't read this book in the last few years so my memory is a little fuzzy, I remember the creature. I could never forget it, Zindel did a wonderful job writing out the way the creature attacked, moved, and it got in my head. I would sit at home reading this alone and suddenly I'd hear a bang outside, the creature was in my head so much that I HAD to keep reading to see if the good guys really do win.

[L J Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book bears a lot of resemblance to Wilkie Collin’s Moonstone. We have a stolen Diamond that brings a doom on each person who places it in their possession. The book is broken up into four parts. Each is an episode, detached from the others by at least fifty years. The first involves the stealing of the gem in the 1700s. The second episode takes place during the French Revolution. Heads are rolling. The third is centered on a New Orleans home five years after the Civil War and the last takes place in Japan just before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Each segment is compulsively readable and very well done. The first fifteen pages of the Civil War section contains some of the very best writing that Woolrich has ever done.