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The Bogeyman
Lizzie believes in the bogeyman. She's only five years old, but she's seen him, with his horrid, runny face and his deep nasty voice. She knows he wants her - and her mommy too.
Joanna doesn't believe in the bogeyman, doesn't share her daughter's fears and nightmares.
She should...
The bogeyman is waiting for them.
Joanna doesn't believe in the bogeyman, doesn't share her daughter's fears and nightmares.
She should...
The bogeyman is waiting for them.
- GenresHorror
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1986
73 people want to read
About the author
Maxine O'Callaghan
42 books17 followersReceived the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1999.
Aka Marissa Owens
Aka Marissa Owens
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 2, 2019
The Bogeyman is not the kind of book I was expecting from the title and synopsis, nevertheless, it’s actually quite good.
Though more crime and suspense than horror, there is an omnipresent sense of dread lurking in the shadowy background, taunting and tormenting Joanna’s young daughter Lizzie. The subtle nature of this works better than having the nightmarish creature prominently displayed throughout the story, leaving more to the readers imagination (which makes the story often more scary). Don’t worry horror aficionados, the bogeyman depicted through Lizzie’s mind eye is pretty scary – it’s just on the peripheral of the core plot.
The small town setting fits the tone of the book and keeps the cast to a minimum which makes the characters really standout. It did have somewhat of a midday movie feel to it but overall the suspense and associated horror elements worked well together.
My rating: 4/5 stars. If you see this lurking in a second-hand bookstore, I recommend taking the chance and picking it up.
Though more crime and suspense than horror, there is an omnipresent sense of dread lurking in the shadowy background, taunting and tormenting Joanna’s young daughter Lizzie. The subtle nature of this works better than having the nightmarish creature prominently displayed throughout the story, leaving more to the readers imagination (which makes the story often more scary). Don’t worry horror aficionados, the bogeyman depicted through Lizzie’s mind eye is pretty scary – it’s just on the peripheral of the core plot.
The small town setting fits the tone of the book and keeps the cast to a minimum which makes the characters really standout. It did have somewhat of a midday movie feel to it but overall the suspense and associated horror elements worked well together.
My rating: 4/5 stars. If you see this lurking in a second-hand bookstore, I recommend taking the chance and picking it up.
June 17, 2023
O'Callaghan serves up a mean horror/thriller here that had me on the edge of my seat almost from the get go. The Bogeyman starrs Joanna and her 5 yo daughter, who start the novel leaving L.A. for Joanne's parent's place in Vermont. Joanna's marriage to her philandering husband is just about over; she just cannot take more of his lies and fooling around and needs to get away. Meanwhile, things are not ok with little Lizzie, who keeps having horrible nightmares, keeps talking about a bogeyman, and keeps leaving her bed at night to sleep in strange places in the house.
After introducing the main protagonists, O'Callaghan skips around for a few chapters interjecting a fairly wide range of other characters-- a burned out cop in Boston, a former police chief in the small town Joanna's parents live, Joanna's parents and a handful of others, including the pilot Joanna met on her journey East (e.g., a minor romance story arc). What is going on with little Lizzie? Her nightmares have stopped since the move to Vermont, but she is still moving around at night and now starts having daymares about the bogeyman! Is Lizzie something of a psychic or is she just tormented about her parent's breakup? Read it and find out!
What makes this such a good read involves the excellent pacing; O'Callaghan is primarily a mystery/thriller author and it shows here as she builds the suspense and mystery block by hair-raising block. The characters are all believable even if not fully fleshed out, especially the townies with long memories spiced by gossip. After a fairly slow, albeit really creepy start, The Bogeyman just gets up and, well, boogies! 70s/80s horror has a lot of dross so it is nice to finds some real gold every now and then. Recommended for fans of vintage horror and those who like a good thriller! 4.5 spooky stars!
After introducing the main protagonists, O'Callaghan skips around for a few chapters interjecting a fairly wide range of other characters-- a burned out cop in Boston, a former police chief in the small town Joanna's parents live, Joanna's parents and a handful of others, including the pilot Joanna met on her journey East (e.g., a minor romance story arc). What is going on with little Lizzie? Her nightmares have stopped since the move to Vermont, but she is still moving around at night and now starts having daymares about the bogeyman! Is Lizzie something of a psychic or is she just tormented about her parent's breakup? Read it and find out!
What makes this such a good read involves the excellent pacing; O'Callaghan is primarily a mystery/thriller author and it shows here as she builds the suspense and mystery block by hair-raising block. The characters are all believable even if not fully fleshed out, especially the townies with long memories spiced by gossip. After a fairly slow, albeit really creepy start, The Bogeyman just gets up and, well, boogies! 70s/80s horror has a lot of dross so it is nice to finds some real gold every now and then. Recommended for fans of vintage horror and those who like a good thriller! 4.5 spooky stars!
September 29, 2022
So picture this scenario, if you will. A cutesy family drama about a single mom, abandoned by her no-good womanizing ex-husband, doing the best she can to raise her adorable five-year-old daughter. They move in with the grandparents, a wholesome, apple-pie-baking couple in the suburbs of Boston. All the neighbors are cute too. They have that cute little way of saying "Ayuh" to everything like in a Stephen King novel. The owner of the local market gives the little girl an even cuter kitten. And a hard-boiled detective liquored up on a fifth of Popov stumbles into a flop-house to find a decapitated woman spurting blood all over his shoes. Wait, what?!
Detective thriller writer Maxine O'Callaghan, like many of her generation, got her start writing horror paperbacks from hell. And though this one has been out of print since you could smoke in hospitals, "The Boogeyman" deserves a wider readership.
Essentially, this is more of a suspense thriller than a horror novel, though the two sister genres do meld nicely here. The main plot concerns what seems like the anxieties of a little girl after the loss of a father figure. She is driving her mother, Joanna, nuts with her constant talk about the Boogeyman. But when Joanna takes her kid back to the familiar comforts of her old hometown, we learn that there may be more to the child's fears than just daddy issues... and that Joanna has really terrible luck with men.
This author has the gift of evoking legitimate shock and suspense through her abrupt tonal shifts and steady dialing up of threat against sympathetic characters. When the action is slow due to a focus on world-building, she captures elements of the mundane in a way that feels real and exciting, so that the reader instantly is in the headspace of the character.
Her pacing is flawless. I burned through half of 320 pages in the blink of an eye, but that's when things started getting really crazy, so I couldn't stop there. At first, I thought I'd get annoyed or bored reading about a whiny kid who's scared of everything--the monster under her bed, the jetway at an airport, the precious little dog playing fetch at the park. But I was kept engaged and satisfied with this taught and scary mystery.
And yes, it is scary. Perhaps I should say that it's more suspenseful than scary, as it ramps up the tension to eleven for over 150 pages straight, leaving the reader needing some fresh air when it is all over.
Though it may not be the kind of narrative you'll remember for years to come, and it certainly doesn't do a lot different with the genre when all is said and done, I think this book should be on the reading list for you constant readers of horror. If anything, it reinforces the life-saving knowledge that nobody should ever move to a town where the locals say "Ayuh."
Detective thriller writer Maxine O'Callaghan, like many of her generation, got her start writing horror paperbacks from hell. And though this one has been out of print since you could smoke in hospitals, "The Boogeyman" deserves a wider readership.
Essentially, this is more of a suspense thriller than a horror novel, though the two sister genres do meld nicely here. The main plot concerns what seems like the anxieties of a little girl after the loss of a father figure. She is driving her mother, Joanna, nuts with her constant talk about the Boogeyman. But when Joanna takes her kid back to the familiar comforts of her old hometown, we learn that there may be more to the child's fears than just daddy issues... and that Joanna has really terrible luck with men.
This author has the gift of evoking legitimate shock and suspense through her abrupt tonal shifts and steady dialing up of threat against sympathetic characters. When the action is slow due to a focus on world-building, she captures elements of the mundane in a way that feels real and exciting, so that the reader instantly is in the headspace of the character.
Her pacing is flawless. I burned through half of 320 pages in the blink of an eye, but that's when things started getting really crazy, so I couldn't stop there. At first, I thought I'd get annoyed or bored reading about a whiny kid who's scared of everything--the monster under her bed, the jetway at an airport, the precious little dog playing fetch at the park. But I was kept engaged and satisfied with this taught and scary mystery.
And yes, it is scary. Perhaps I should say that it's more suspenseful than scary, as it ramps up the tension to eleven for over 150 pages straight, leaving the reader needing some fresh air when it is all over.
Though it may not be the kind of narrative you'll remember for years to come, and it certainly doesn't do a lot different with the genre when all is said and done, I think this book should be on the reading list for you constant readers of horror. If anything, it reinforces the life-saving knowledge that nobody should ever move to a town where the locals say "Ayuh."
April 27, 2021
While it happens maybe half a dozen times a year, The Bogeyman is one of those novels that comes from nowhere and ends up being an absolute blast to read.
I honestly knew nothing about The Bogeyman other than it was “horror” and it was available to buy from a private seller I know through the incredibly active horror #bookstagram movement happening over on Instagram. With my newly rekindled love for vintage horror, this was an immediate buy (regardless of not knowing anything about it beforehand).
Simply said, I’m pleased as punch that I took a gamble on this one because it’s a great read, especially considering it comes smack dab in the middle of the horror boom of the 70s and 80s when these kinds of books were known for their gaudy (and often misleading) covers, rather than their content.
Regardless, The Bogeyman is a sleeper of a novel. It’s never mentioned in the pantheon of great works of horror and before I grabbed it, I’d never heard of Maxine O’Callaghan. And while I’m usually all for quiet, less popular novels, it’s a shame that this one isn’t more well known. O’Callaghan writes like vintage King, mixing horror and crime together in realistic way that I’ve rarely seen. Her pacing is quick and the story is hard to stop reading. And unlike a lot of schlock horror from this era, it actually has a satisfying conclusion that actually makes sense.
Going back to that content remark, I will say that l, yes, The Bogeyman does have horror elements, but it reads more like a thriller/crime drama. Don’t let that turn you off though, since, like I said, this novel feels like old school Stephen King, through and through.
I honestly knew nothing about The Bogeyman other than it was “horror” and it was available to buy from a private seller I know through the incredibly active horror #bookstagram movement happening over on Instagram. With my newly rekindled love for vintage horror, this was an immediate buy (regardless of not knowing anything about it beforehand).
Simply said, I’m pleased as punch that I took a gamble on this one because it’s a great read, especially considering it comes smack dab in the middle of the horror boom of the 70s and 80s when these kinds of books were known for their gaudy (and often misleading) covers, rather than their content.
Regardless, The Bogeyman is a sleeper of a novel. It’s never mentioned in the pantheon of great works of horror and before I grabbed it, I’d never heard of Maxine O’Callaghan. And while I’m usually all for quiet, less popular novels, it’s a shame that this one isn’t more well known. O’Callaghan writes like vintage King, mixing horror and crime together in realistic way that I’ve rarely seen. Her pacing is quick and the story is hard to stop reading. And unlike a lot of schlock horror from this era, it actually has a satisfying conclusion that actually makes sense.
Going back to that content remark, I will say that l, yes, The Bogeyman does have horror elements, but it reads more like a thriller/crime drama. Don’t let that turn you off though, since, like I said, this novel feels like old school Stephen King, through and through.
October 30, 2021
Content warning:
This book contains sexual violence, and child endangerment.
The first half started as a horror story then became a crime thriller in the second, making the title and description very misleading. Overall, not bad, but failed to deliver any memorable moments.
This book contains sexual violence, and child endangerment.
The first half started as a horror story then became a crime thriller in the second, making the title and description very misleading. Overall, not bad, but failed to deliver any memorable moments.
July 11, 2020
After 5 years of lies, Joanna and her daughter Lizzy fly to Vermont to be free of Walt. Lizzy doesn't want to go. She misses her father and she fears the Bogeyman. A terrifying melting thing who invades her dreams and threatens to find her. It's not long before the dreams start up in Vermont, filling Joanna with confusion and insecurities of her own. Then, just as things seem to be going well, Joanna lets herself get talked into going on a picnic with Miles. And life will never be the same again for any of them. The Bogeyman can see you and he's coming to find you.
April 17, 2016
Dieses Buch war eine richtige Überraschung!
Ich habe es vor einiger Zeit zusammen mit einigen anderen Horror-Paperbacks bei ebay ersteigert und hatte keine konkrete Erwartung daran, zumal mir der Name der Autorin nichts gesagt hat.
Worum geht es? Joanna hat sich vor einiger Zeit von ihrem Ehemann getrennt und reist mit ihrer fünfjährigen Tochter Lizzie nun zu ihren Eltern nach Vermont, um die Trennung endgültig zu machen und sich zu erholen. Dort stellt sich heraus, dass Lizzies Visionen und schrecklichen Ängste vor dem Schwarzen Mann nur allzu berechtigt sind...
O´Callaghan läßt sich Zeit bei der Entwicklung des Plots, was dem Roman nicht schadet, sondern ihm vielmehr Sympathiepunkte einbringt. Fast bis zur Mitte des Buches dauert es, bis Lizzies Angst vor dem Bogeyman ihre Berechtigung findet, der sich dann als höchst real erweist, ein Psychopath schlimmster Sorte, der Mutter und Tochter in seine Gewalt bringt. Von diesem Moment an konnte ich den Roman nicht mehr aus der Hand legen, denn Spannung und Intensität steigern sich bis zum Ende. Aufbau und Personal haben mich überzeugt und es geschafft, dass ich regelrecht mitgefiebert und -gebangt habe, was bei mir nicht allzu oft vorkommt.
Erschienen ist THE BOGEYMAN in der TOR Horror-Reihe, was irreführend ist, weil es sich eigentlich um einen waschechten Thriller handelt, der nur insofern ein Horrorelement beinhaltet, als dass das Verhalten des Psychopathen darauf zurückgeführt wird, dass er vom Bösen besessen sei, was aus meiner Sicht der einzige Schwachpunkt des Romans ist. Krankhaft Kriminelle als Besessene darzustellen, war in den Horrorfilmen und -romanen der 70er und 80er Jahre keine Seltenheit und schließlich geht es auch nicht um soziologische Akkuratesse. Funktioniert hätte der Roman allerdings auch ohne die Grundannahme, dass sich das Böse in Mördern personifiziert. Dieses Manko ist allerdings so gering, dass es dafür keinen Punktabzug gibt. Und irgendwie es war ja auch ganz witzig, immer auf das Hereinbrechen des Übernatürlichen zu warten und zu warten...
Fazit: Unerwarteter Thrillergenuß, der nur knapp an der Bestwertung vorbei schrammt und mich mehr als einmal an Stephen King denken ließ, nicht nur weil er in Neuengland angesiedelt ist, sondern auch wegen der gut gezeichneten Figuren und der Spannung.
Ich habe es vor einiger Zeit zusammen mit einigen anderen Horror-Paperbacks bei ebay ersteigert und hatte keine konkrete Erwartung daran, zumal mir der Name der Autorin nichts gesagt hat.
Worum geht es? Joanna hat sich vor einiger Zeit von ihrem Ehemann getrennt und reist mit ihrer fünfjährigen Tochter Lizzie nun zu ihren Eltern nach Vermont, um die Trennung endgültig zu machen und sich zu erholen. Dort stellt sich heraus, dass Lizzies Visionen und schrecklichen Ängste vor dem Schwarzen Mann nur allzu berechtigt sind...
O´Callaghan läßt sich Zeit bei der Entwicklung des Plots, was dem Roman nicht schadet, sondern ihm vielmehr Sympathiepunkte einbringt. Fast bis zur Mitte des Buches dauert es, bis Lizzies Angst vor dem Bogeyman ihre Berechtigung findet, der sich dann als höchst real erweist, ein Psychopath schlimmster Sorte, der Mutter und Tochter in seine Gewalt bringt. Von diesem Moment an konnte ich den Roman nicht mehr aus der Hand legen, denn Spannung und Intensität steigern sich bis zum Ende. Aufbau und Personal haben mich überzeugt und es geschafft, dass ich regelrecht mitgefiebert und -gebangt habe, was bei mir nicht allzu oft vorkommt.
Erschienen ist THE BOGEYMAN in der TOR Horror-Reihe, was irreführend ist, weil es sich eigentlich um einen waschechten Thriller handelt, der nur insofern ein Horrorelement beinhaltet, als dass das Verhalten des Psychopathen darauf zurückgeführt wird, dass er vom Bösen besessen sei, was aus meiner Sicht der einzige Schwachpunkt des Romans ist. Krankhaft Kriminelle als Besessene darzustellen, war in den Horrorfilmen und -romanen der 70er und 80er Jahre keine Seltenheit und schließlich geht es auch nicht um soziologische Akkuratesse. Funktioniert hätte der Roman allerdings auch ohne die Grundannahme, dass sich das Böse in Mördern personifiziert. Dieses Manko ist allerdings so gering, dass es dafür keinen Punktabzug gibt. Und irgendwie es war ja auch ganz witzig, immer auf das Hereinbrechen des Übernatürlichen zu warten und zu warten...
Fazit: Unerwarteter Thrillergenuß, der nur knapp an der Bestwertung vorbei schrammt und mich mehr als einmal an Stephen King denken ließ, nicht nur weil er in Neuengland angesiedelt ist, sondern auch wegen der gut gezeichneten Figuren und der Spannung.
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