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Imp
Mary Oaks, a religious woman, marries a man who proves to be far less than she anticipated. After their first child, a daughter, is born, Mary retreats deeper into her religion and when her husband forces her to make love and she becomes pregnant, she decides this child must be evil. After her husband is killed in an accident, she gives birth to the baby in the house and keeps it in the basement. Five years later, he finds his way out and becomes something of a terror during his nocturnal trips. When he endangers the life of a five-year-old girl, the horror is exposed.
314 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1985
4 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Neiderman
73 books389 followersAndrew Neiderman is the author of over 44 thrillers, including six of which have been translated onto film, including the big hit, 'The Devil's Advocate', a story in which he also wrote a libretto for the music-stage adaptation. One of his novels, Tender Loving Care, has been adapted into a CD-Rom interactive movie.
Andrew Neiderman became the ghostwriter for V.C. Andrews following her death in 1986. He was the screenwriter for Rain, a film based on a series of books under Andrews name. Between the novels written under her name and his own, he has published over 100 novels.
Andrew Neiderman became the ghostwriter for V.C. Andrews following her death in 1986. He was the screenwriter for Rain, a film based on a series of books under Andrews name. Between the novels written under her name and his own, he has published over 100 novels.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 20, 2022
"He crawls. He climbs. He calls to me through the floor," she said in that loud whispering voice. "He blows through the boards and touches my hand. He touches my hand!"
Mary lives with a dark secret birthed from an even darker past. The ‘secret’ sleeps beneath the surface of her fictional reality in a dormant state, waiting for a crack in the façade to break through the veil and bring forth Satan to disrupt Mary’s ignorant bliss. Peaking up through the floorboards, poking through holes, dirty fingers reaching out to torment Mary, the ‘secret’ is nothing short of resilient and resourceful – until Mary beats the living crap out of it…
Faith, Mary’s adolescent daughter, is a victim of circumstance. Forced to live within the same walls as her mother’s secret, enduring Mary’s harsh way of life, always fearing holy retribution for mistakes not yet made; said mistakes often coming in the form of male students at the high school she attends. Faith’s upbringing isn’t that of a typical teenager – until a boy takes notice of her…then things get real interesting.
Imp shines a light on crazy and amps it ups with a side dose of unthinkable horror. The characters, primarily Mary and Faith are chalk and cheese, yet are so ingrained in their way of life it’s interesting to see how they interact with situations out of the norm; the Imp’s short reign of terror for instance really throws a spanner in the works – Satan is free and he’s three feet tall!
While horror is the name of the game, it doesn’t come in the form of the Imp, rather the all-too-crazy characters who subject the Imp to an inhumane way of life. Author Andrew Neiderman (of V.C. Andrews fame) does a great job at emphasising the good verse evil narrative while also presenting some b-grade horror fun for the enthusiasts.
This isn’t your typical horror novel, it could easily get lost in the more serious side of things, however I enjoyed it and strongly recommend it for paperback from hell collectors (if just for the awesome cover alone!).
This review (and other horror book reviews) appears on my site: https://justaguywholikes2read.blogspo...
Mary lives with a dark secret birthed from an even darker past. The ‘secret’ sleeps beneath the surface of her fictional reality in a dormant state, waiting for a crack in the façade to break through the veil and bring forth Satan to disrupt Mary’s ignorant bliss. Peaking up through the floorboards, poking through holes, dirty fingers reaching out to torment Mary, the ‘secret’ is nothing short of resilient and resourceful – until Mary beats the living crap out of it…
Faith, Mary’s adolescent daughter, is a victim of circumstance. Forced to live within the same walls as her mother’s secret, enduring Mary’s harsh way of life, always fearing holy retribution for mistakes not yet made; said mistakes often coming in the form of male students at the high school she attends. Faith’s upbringing isn’t that of a typical teenager – until a boy takes notice of her…then things get real interesting.
Imp shines a light on crazy and amps it ups with a side dose of unthinkable horror. The characters, primarily Mary and Faith are chalk and cheese, yet are so ingrained in their way of life it’s interesting to see how they interact with situations out of the norm; the Imp’s short reign of terror for instance really throws a spanner in the works – Satan is free and he’s three feet tall!
While horror is the name of the game, it doesn’t come in the form of the Imp, rather the all-too-crazy characters who subject the Imp to an inhumane way of life. Author Andrew Neiderman (of V.C. Andrews fame) does a great job at emphasising the good verse evil narrative while also presenting some b-grade horror fun for the enthusiasts.
This isn’t your typical horror novel, it could easily get lost in the more serious side of things, however I enjoyed it and strongly recommend it for paperback from hell collectors (if just for the awesome cover alone!).
This review (and other horror book reviews) appears on my site: https://justaguywholikes2read.blogspo...
March 14, 2012
Andrew Neiderman's novels feel a bit like reading book versions of pilot episodes to shows that never became anything. All of his books feel unsure of themselves and
Imp is no exception. Don't get me wrong, it is good enough to entertain you, but so is pretty much anything out there. Some people find golfing to be entertaining after
all. Anyway, Imp is one of the stranger Neiderman books I have read and a little more of a let down because it has so much potential to be better. For me, the tale of
the Imp improsoned in the basement of a over-the-top religious woman felt like one of those victim of circumstance stories. The mother of this creature tries to keep
the little "monster" hidden from the world and her daughter only wants to communicate with it. For the sake of plot, the little creature finds a way out of the basement
and begins exploring his new world with Frankenstein-like consequences. I mean, a little dwarf/troll thing running about, trying to understand how things work in the
world and accidentally getting into trouble along the way sounds interesting if you have an open mind. The problem here is Neiderman's trademark of a lot of build up
but essentially no pay-off. Through the whole book, readers can expect a lot of terrible things to happen if they are use to horror fiction, but this book is very tame.
I am not saying that it would have been better with a ton of violence and scenes with the Imp gnawing people's faces off, but it would have broken up the suspense
nicely. Suspense that leads to an anti-climax isn't really suspense at all in my opinion. Again, to compare this to a pilot episode, the book's ending tries to bring
back suspense after the Cujoesque cop-out ending which nicely solves the complicated problem of rapping up what could have been a slightly meaningful book, but it felt
like a show trying to keep itself alive by saying "to be continued" just before the credits. You know it won't be continued though. Not a chance in an Impy hell.
But anyway, I gave this three stars because, despite being able to compare some of the plot to several other better books, the general idea was something I hadn't
really read and reading something new is always fun even if that something new is like getting a new black and white TV in 2012.
Imp is no exception. Don't get me wrong, it is good enough to entertain you, but so is pretty much anything out there. Some people find golfing to be entertaining after
all. Anyway, Imp is one of the stranger Neiderman books I have read and a little more of a let down because it has so much potential to be better. For me, the tale of
the Imp improsoned in the basement of a over-the-top religious woman felt like one of those victim of circumstance stories. The mother of this creature tries to keep
the little "monster" hidden from the world and her daughter only wants to communicate with it. For the sake of plot, the little creature finds a way out of the basement
and begins exploring his new world with Frankenstein-like consequences. I mean, a little dwarf/troll thing running about, trying to understand how things work in the
world and accidentally getting into trouble along the way sounds interesting if you have an open mind. The problem here is Neiderman's trademark of a lot of build up
but essentially no pay-off. Through the whole book, readers can expect a lot of terrible things to happen if they are use to horror fiction, but this book is very tame.
I am not saying that it would have been better with a ton of violence and scenes with the Imp gnawing people's faces off, but it would have broken up the suspense
nicely. Suspense that leads to an anti-climax isn't really suspense at all in my opinion. Again, to compare this to a pilot episode, the book's ending tries to bring
back suspense after the Cujoesque cop-out ending which nicely solves the complicated problem of rapping up what could have been a slightly meaningful book, but it felt
like a show trying to keep itself alive by saying "to be continued" just before the credits. You know it won't be continued though. Not a chance in an Impy hell.
But anyway, I gave this three stars because, despite being able to compare some of the plot to several other better books, the general idea was something I hadn't
really read and reading something new is always fun even if that something new is like getting a new black and white TV in 2012.
May 18, 2016
If I'd picked up this book, based on the synopsis at the back I wouldn't have read it. It just sounded a bit too corny. For this reason, this book turned out to be a very surprising read for me. Not only did I find the writing style engaging, but I really appreciated to diversity in the personalities of the various characters.
This is the first Niederman book I have read and the general consensus seems to be that it's not the best book he's written. This leaves me eager to read more, because in my opinion he appears to be an incredible author. The character of the Imp, who is made out in the synopsis to be an evil troll-like character who craves the enjoyment that he gets from killing, was, to me, more in depth than I expected. I found myself feeling sorry for him and trying to imagine how he would have turned out had he had a normal upbringing.
The story did leave some unanswered questions; was the 'imp' simply a deformed human, or was he actually the spawn of Satan? What happened to Faith- did she go on to lead a relatively normal and happy life, or did she live out the rest of her days in an asylum? What about Bobby- did he and Faith get their happy ending? That being said, I didn't feel that the story was unfinished and in comparison to some other books I've read recently, I felt that it was well wrapped-up.
Will definitely be reading more Niederman books in the future!
This is the first Niederman book I have read and the general consensus seems to be that it's not the best book he's written. This leaves me eager to read more, because in my opinion he appears to be an incredible author. The character of the Imp, who is made out in the synopsis to be an evil troll-like character who craves the enjoyment that he gets from killing, was, to me, more in depth than I expected. I found myself feeling sorry for him and trying to imagine how he would have turned out had he had a normal upbringing.
The story did leave some unanswered questions; was the 'imp' simply a deformed human, or was he actually the spawn of Satan? What happened to Faith- did she go on to lead a relatively normal and happy life, or did she live out the rest of her days in an asylum? What about Bobby- did he and Faith get their happy ending? That being said, I didn't feel that the story was unfinished and in comparison to some other books I've read recently, I felt that it was well wrapped-up.
Will definitely be reading more Niederman books in the future!
June 5, 2017
Plays like a movie for the most part. It's a bit claustrophobic at points (which suits the premise of the story) but once the plot started developing it became hard to put down.
June 21, 2020
Poor Imp! 😢
December 23, 2023
Well this was another example of an 80s paperback cashing in on the horror boom of the time. This is NOT a horror novel. At best it is a thriller, coming of age tale. The back cover synopsis was totally misleading, which was a common theme in the 80's with horror paperbacks.
IMP is not a Devil's child, Imp did not kill any innocent children. Imp only killed some mice, a snake and maybe a pet rabbit.
****SPOILERS****
What we have here in a nutshell is a extremely religious woman who gave birth to a boy from a man she detested and let the baby grow up hidden in a basement due to shame. No neighbors know anything of this child until the end of the book. ( he escapes thru a hole in the wall of the basement) IMP decides to explore the outside world and unfortunately comes in contact with 2 children on 2 different occasions. He has a older teenage sister who is sheltered from the world and told by her mother that everything is sinful (think of Stephen King's Carrie) The girl defies her mother, and gets locked up in a room, then gets rescued by a police officer and IMP is discovered also. A few other things happen but that's basically it.
IMP is not a Devil's child, Imp did not kill any innocent children. Imp only killed some mice, a snake and maybe a pet rabbit.
****SPOILERS****
What we have here in a nutshell is a extremely religious woman who gave birth to a boy from a man she detested and let the baby grow up hidden in a basement due to shame. No neighbors know anything of this child until the end of the book. ( he escapes thru a hole in the wall of the basement) IMP decides to explore the outside world and unfortunately comes in contact with 2 children on 2 different occasions. He has a older teenage sister who is sheltered from the world and told by her mother that everything is sinful (think of Stephen King's Carrie) The girl defies her mother, and gets locked up in a room, then gets rescued by a police officer and IMP is discovered also. A few other things happen but that's basically it.
July 27, 2020
3.5 stars
February 18, 2016
This book left so many unanswered questions......what happened to Faith? What did her friend Bobby say about all of this? What about his parents? The town? Did anyone do an autopsy on Imp? Wishing there was a sequel...
July 2, 2015
It was okay
May 2, 2017
Not Neiderman's finest work...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews