Brain Child

by Stephen R. George

Book by George, Stephen R.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Novels

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Stephen R. George is a Canadian author of horror fiction, suspense and dark fantasy. He writes under his own name and the pseudonyms Jack Ellis and Valerie Stephens. He has published 14 novels. His novels have been translated into Italian, Polish, Russian, and Norwegian. His short stories have appeared in a number of publications and anthologies including Cemetery Dance and the Hot Blood series. George was born in Scotland in 1959; he lives and works in Canada.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical for George, the Brian Child is set in Minnesota, starting in the twin cities. Our main protagonist, Phylis, has an 8 yo daughter whose father sexually molested her for years. Once Phylis wised up to what was going on, a divorce and some jail time for ole hubby ensued. Now, a few years later, little Celia is still traumatized to say the least. Phylis has been taking her daughter to a shrink for years, but progress is very slow; Celia often still wakes up screaming and and totally panics when Phylis gets intimate with a guy.

One day, after the latest episode, Celia's shrink tells Phylis about an experimental clinic fairly close by that may be able to help Celia and Phylis decides to go for it. Phylis is not a very likeable protagonist for sure. Yes, she feels she failed as a mommy by not figuring out the child abuse thing sooner, and is wracked by guilt over it. Nonetheless, the tipping point seems to be that she cannot get into any relationship with a man due to Celia's outbursts. Anyway, things seem to be improving at the clinic until everything starts to go south...

I like George's writing style; rather laid back with decent pacing. He was one of the better authors in Zebra's stable back in the day. Brain Child is a fun book to read, and it went places I did not see coming (although they really challenged by ability to suspend my sense of disbelief!). I really had a hard time with Phylis, however, and it was hard to root for her during all her trials and tribulations. Little Celia was a doll! 3.5 stars, rounding down due to Phylis.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A particularly helpless, weak single mother who basically allowed herself and young daughter to be taken advantage by a myriad of one-dimensional awful male characters finds herself wrapped up in a military funded psuedo-science scheme to extract monsters from the subconscious of traumatized children.

Since our main character is such a pitiful demonstration, her daughter is the latest to be receiving treatment at said clinic due to mom's incredibly poor choices in men.

Overall, this was far more engaging for me than the standard Zebra tome, but lacked in many departments.

First, it's paced inanely, with very little horror happening within the first two-thirds of the book.

Second, far too much talking about monsters and not enough DOING. The monsters are merely alluded to until the last 50 or so pages.

Third, incredibly weak and one dimensional characters who do very little. The majority of this novel is people who give you very few reasons to care about them doing meaningless activities such as chain-smoking cigarettes, eating ice cream cones, drinking whiskey and reading romance novels. Not enough motion towards a narrative goal.

That being said, despite being slow, I liked it enough to say I'd check out George's later work. He was incredibly prolific with Zebra, here's to hoping he gets better as he goes.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Celine is tormented by memories of her pedophile father. She can barely function and the sight of another man around her mother sends her into nearly inconsolable terrors…until she visits a special clinic in the woods where a cure is promised…but things are very different from what they seem.

Cue parallel universes, monsters, crooked scientists, and childhood trauma as the key to bringing it all together.

Usually debut novels that try to cram all these kind of plot points into any kind of coherent manuscript aren’t very good, especially when they’re debut Zebras, however, for all its faults Brian Child is far from terrible.

Stephen R. George is actually a far better novelist than many of his fellow cabal of Zebra authors. Unlike Patricia Wallace or even some of Neiderman’s early work, Brain Child does work most of the time.

Sure, it’s kind of dumb and some parts feel super rushed, but in all honesty, this book is readable, enjoyable, and penned by a very competent author that deserves more respect than he tends to get.

[Tex-49 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non male come trama, ma poco credibile

[Luca Gonella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Urania decisamente mediocre, con una trama non particolarmente originale.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe the only reason I read this was because I had read Brain Child by John Saul.

[Josh Dormammu · Rating 4 out of 5]

...And then they renamed the town Silent Hill.