The Calling by Randall, Bob

by Bob Randall

1983 Paperback edition as stated. Strong spine with light creasing. Bright clean cover has rubbing around spine and edge wear. Text is perfect. Same day shipping.

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Fiction, Thriller

Unknown Binding

First published April 1, 1983

Reviews

[Pandora · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a perfectly-formed little book from the early 80s that revolves around a neurotic career mom and landline phones. I wish it could be filmed, I really do.

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the type of horror I like: terror and dread that you can't escape.

'The Calling' is basically broken into two (uneven) halves. Not too much else can be said without spoiling the direction it takes in the second half, but suffice it to say that the first half could well and truly go in either of the two possible directions it presents: protagonist Susan either is revealed to be having a nervous breakdown, or she's not and it's all real.

Both directions would have been a good twist, honestly.

So what's the plot?

Susan is a woman entering middle age and starting to suffer an existential crisis.

She's no longer young and is growing resentful of all the younger girlies who still have time to live their dreams. Her own dream to be an artist got set aside when she dutifully had a child with her hotshot lawyer husband. Now she's back at work, but it's not satisfying, and she's starting to wonder if she ever really wanted to be a mom at all, or if it was just what she was supposed to do. She's becoming dissatisfied in her marriage, more and more convinced that her husband doesn't like her even if he loves her, though she can no longer truly imagine being married to anyone else.

The only relationships in her life that are bringing her any joy are her friendship with her coworker Tara and her long-standing friendship with her elderly dog, Sweet-William.

She's already feeling restless and dissatisfied when the bad omens start. A squirrel she feeds in the park later turns up drowned in a fountain. But that's just a horrible coincidence, surely. But Susan's got a bad feeling. And as it turns out, she's right to be on edge.

All this is going on when she receives a phone call while she's alone at home, only...there's no one there. But there is something there.

"Weeks from then, Susan would still be unable to verbalize how she knew there was evil on the other end of the line, but she knew. There was no sound. Nothing. No background noise, no voice, no static, no air, no white noise. [...] It was as if sound and time and space had imploded. She was listening to a black hole." p.19-20

And it just escalates and escalates from there as no matter where she goes, Susan finds herself stalked by ringing phones. No matter what she does--cutting the phone lines, having the phones ripped out of the walls--she can't make them stop.

And no one believes her.

It's great. Doesn't stick the landing to my satisfaction, but I've certainly read horror endings that miss the mark more than this one.

For schlock written in the '80s by a man, 'The Calling' has a surprisingly feminist sensibility. At the very least it's pretty clear that Bob Randall actually spoke to women and probably had close friends who were women. The hallmarks of 'man writes woman' are largely absent. Susan isn't weirdly obsessed with her boobs or her period, and even though he couldn't resist writing her as being a knock-out, her insecurities about her appearance don't feel eye-rollingly shallow.

Similarly, the types of conflict she has with the men around her and how she feels about them (specifically, the ways in which the men in her life belittle her and browbeat her and her irritation at that and at herself for going along with it out of the social pressure to be polite) are big aspects of what makes this such a good psychological thriller.

As in: I can read this and believe that societal pressure on her to perform womanhood in a very particular way and the way she's treated accordingly drove her insane. But I can also believe that it's really happening and those same societal powers are what lead to her being labelled 'hysterical' rather than believed or listened to.

A very unexpectedly deep novel for all that it goes off the rails at the end (like any '80s horror novel that knows what it's about). It's shocking, but cool, that this was published in 1983 and yet feels so fresh.

Definitely makes me interested to read his other, apparently more famous/successful novel 'The Fan.'

Thank you, Bob Randall for passing the vibe check even ye back in the day; it warms the cockles of my little horror-loving heart.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never heard of this book (or this author) before, but the description seemed interesting, and at under 250 pages it looked like a quick read, so why not give it a shot?

So glad I did. This is some top-notch, Twilight Zone-ish nightmare fuel right here. Intriguing, exciting, and utterly unlike anything I've read before. If you enjoy WTF fiction, this definitely belongs on top of your TBR pile.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

How does this girl have such extreme phone anxiety -- she lives in the 80s! Her phone can't even get texts or refresh Twitter yet!!

[Nate Dawg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent gem of 80’s horror. Even though many things in the book are dated the story is enjoyable. Definitely a page turner.

[Lilliya Wardell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was unnerving and gripping for sure, but the ending felt unsatisfying, and the evil force lost its scariness as the story went on for me. I found myself wanting to rush through it not because of it being scary but by its slow paced anti climatic vagueness.

[Trent Germain · Rating 1 out of 5]

One thing Bob Randall did well was write whiny, self-centered heroines. I enjoyed THE FAN, but found THE CALLING a bit of a snooze fest. Here we have Susan Reed, whose neurotic persistence that there’s evil in the phone seems silly and unfounded at first. Is she just going bonkers? Slowly we see evidence to justify her fears. By then you have to wonder if the evil is after her for being an annoying, selfish shrew.

I wrote a whole blog essay and Facebook post extolling Randall and how grand THE FAN was, but none of the same love exists for THE CALLING. I like to use parentheses in my own writing at times, but Randall goes overboard here, enough to make even Stephen King’s books look void of them. Every other line has some afterthought in parentheses. Parentheses everywhere. God, I think there’s even one in a piece of the dialogue somewhere—how is that even possible? There could have been a better way for the narrative to flow.

Of course, you’ve got the clichéd, sex-crazy, single Rhoda Morgenstern-type friend Tara, who is equally as self-absorbed as Susan. Any non-New Yorker reading this would think all women who live in Manhattan are stuck-up, pretentious bitties (I want to use another similar word so badly but that wouldn’t be nice). Susan’s outlook and views of other people seem outright snobbish at times. How is some reader in middle America supposed to empathize with such a character?

By the time I got to the end, I didn’t care about Susan Reed anymore and was ready for all the evil phones of the world to assemble, chase her down the street, and swallow her whole. I prayed for it, so I could be done with this book. And what causes the evil in the phone? What IS the evil in the phone? I know it’s okay to leave some things ambiguous in a story, but none of it is ever fully explained.

Like THE FAN (again, more enjoyable), this one too is dated in 2017. It has late 1970s/early 1980s written all over it, no pun intended. Thankfully the novel is short and can be read in one day.


I have a paperback copy of Randall’s THE NEXT but am waiting for the sour taste of this one to dissolve before I even attempt to read it.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Years ago, during the height of my Paperbacks From Hell obsession, I was snagging every vintage horror novel I came across, knowing I’d probably read only 40% of them at best, but also knowing they’d be there in my ever growing collection when I decided to read one. The Calling was one such book that I purchased l, then quickly threw in a box in my garage and completely forgot about until it fell out of said box one afternoon while I was in the process of a minor summer rearrangement. Having read Randall’s The Next (which is awful, by the way) but being between books and seeing that The Call was a measly 244 pages, I grabbed it and decided to give it a shot.

Obviously, this book is dated so the creepy feeling of getting a random phone call with no one on the other end doesn’t happen these days, but in 1983, when the internet and cell phones didn’t exist, I’m lead to believe that was a common occurrence. Regardless, what if the silence at the other end of the receiver was malevolent…or at least you thought it might be?

The Call tries to evoke this emotion while at the same time never really giving us a true answer. Is there an evil presence calling and invading our fragile female’s very being or is she insane? Are her dead friends really asking her to join them on the other side or is she losing it?

Randall does a great job of creating a creeping sense of dread, as every page drips with it and you’re left wondering just what the hell is going on, right up until the last paragraph. I

I almost gave this one 4 stars due to its strangeness and wild content, however Randall’s excessive use of parenthetical text in nearly every sentence become incredibly annoying, almost bordering flat out distraction. We didn’t need interruptions of text and dialogue to make this book any different than it already was. While this book was far from great, it was definitely…ok…and, being so odd and far from typical horror, I admit I’m glad I ended up reading it afterall. And believe me…it’s far superior to The Next.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manhattan in 1981 and Susan Reed, wife of lawyer Lou, mother to youngster Andrea and owner of a beloved dog called Sweet William, works at a commercial art firm. Her good friend and colleague, Tara, helps the days pass by until Susan gets a telephone call with nothing but silence coming through the receiver: It’s as if “there was evil on the other end of the line.” The calls soon come frequently, even from pay phones and then there’s an almost biblical run of incidents. One of Tara’s friends, Harriet, works for Ma Bell and puts a tap on the line but Harriet is soon killed and whatever Susan can hear on the phone begins to pursue her.
This starts off really well, as Susan is a great character, there’s a lovely sense of early 80s New York and all this works on the fact that nobody (obviously) has a mobile. But then it starts to drag, because - really - not much happens other than phone calls and I found myself skipping chunks of text (there’s an old friend and a visit to her parents that has nothing to do with the story and the final piece, with a young man Susan meets, could be a quarter of the length) and my enjoyment waned. Essentially, the devil is after Susan (which she realises after she watches “The Black Hole” on television) and it doesn’t matter where she goes, he knows. There’s a wonderfully downbeat ending (typical of that era) which I loved and I did like Susan, but I feel like I would have enjoyed the piece a lot more if it had been a novella, rather than something padded out to become a small novel.

[Diana Nagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent read this was. Its an older book that I picked up while listing books and just began reading. Couldn't put it down and read it in just a few sittings! You'll very much enjoy it as well, surely!

[Patricia M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it really creepy. I read this book about 20 years ago and loved it, then I lost it and my brother found it and gave it to me. It really scared me and loved the end.

[J]

A very '80s horror novel, set in the days before caller ID, when random weirdos could harass you with prank phone calls. Except in this case the calls are coming from Satan.

[KDS · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent enough horror-thriller from the 80's that rips along a cracking pace. It also balances the mundane American lifestyle with some genuine sudden creepiness - Randall does a great job conveying a sense of genuine dark power emananting from the phone and there are some very shocking death scenes.

However, despite it's short length, there's not much here to hold it beyond a short story. It's clear the direction this ends in and despite a rather lame attempt at a twist late in the story - which does more to sidetrack and dissipate the power behind the threat - it's all fairly predictable. And the sheer volume of distracting parentheses became quite grating after a while.

I enjoyed it certainly, I just wish more was done with the concept - or perhaps less in order to leave things more open to the imagination. '80's characters can be rather vacuous in horror and that holds true here. A suitably bleak ending salvages it, but even at only 170 pages it still took too long to get the inevitable.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this story is somewhat dated now, I still had a great time reading it!

You younger folk out there probably don't even remember telephones, never mind using one.
In this novel from 1981, we follow professional artist Susan Reed. She's married to a lawyer and they have a young daughter. One day, Susan receives a phone call, but there's no one on the other end. No sounds, no voices, no nothing. But somehow, she senses evil. She knows evil is on the other end of the line. And evil is going to call back.

I enjoyed the hell out of this tale. The reader is wondering almost the entire time-are these phone calls real? Or is Susan suffering from some type of psychological breakdown? That mystery was solved for me when the cut phone lines grew back together.

I guess this would seem tame to most of today's readers, but for me, with a typical American teen history, the phone was EVERYTHING. The idea of it ringing, and then spitting out an evil silence that may or may not drive people mad, is intriguing and irresistible.

Recommended!

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analogue horror at its finest, The Calling is an ode to the landline in all its 80s horror glory.

Even if the ending isn’t as solid as the buildup to it is, Bob Randall has captured the essence of the early 80s and has written characters, especially female characters, that function as people would in this hellish situation. The two halves of the novel complement each other and by the halfway point, Susan Reed could either be insane or stalked by a devilish entity that will stop at nothing to take her (and a number of other women too). Working as both a horror and a feminist critique of the standards to which women are held, The Calling is a rare pulp horror that has something meaningful to say.

Yet you can’t help but wonder, caller ID would have probably saved everyone a lot of trouble.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun suspenseful read. Bob Randall's writing style is easy to follow, almost conversational. Pacing kept up well throughout. Characters and settings are lively. Scares are set up well, both the expected and the sudden.

The only real negative comment I have about this book is that the explanation behind the phone calls veered almost into silly territory for me, and required a lot of suspension of disbelief. However, not everyone will feel this way, so take this book for what it is- a mostly light but satisfyingly creepy horror experience- and you will likely enjoy it.

[Swati Daftuar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peak WTF fiction from the 80s. A single night's read. I love that, technically, nothing really happens, at least in the first half, to fully justify the absolute, crushing fear that the protagonist feels, and even then, you're right here with her, feeling it, against all logic and reason. This is some great horror - no monsters under the bed, no ghosts, no spooks - just blinding fear. So good.

[Steven Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

i randomly found this a few days before halloween and took a chance: a creepy, deeply unpleasant pleasant surprise. i think period piece horror novels are where it’s at/details of the time add something

[Bob Box · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in 1982. Woman is haunted by strange telephone calls.

[Ian O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A visit from the dark side. A good read highly unbelievable but interesting.

[Tovah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this when i was 10 and i remember being scared....now im just confused lol

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good horror novel. TW for animal harm/death (noting this for the benefit of others, I had to skip those parts)

[Adam Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

An expedient and engaging read, ends well but a bit abruptly. Not without the typical flaws of vintage horror but certainly above average.

[Margaret]

I read horror stories about once a year - this one was really creepy! Would make a good scary movie. The ending was left up to your imagination.

[Sandy Batesel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read and pretty interesting. Funny how far phones have come in the past 20 years.