What do you think?
Rate this book
Catharsis
Spring City, New Hampshire - a small town with a dark past. Overwhelmed by a freak winter storm, the town finds itself cut off from the outside world, and its residents consumed by paranoia and bloodlust. Little do they know there is a purpose to the storm, and the malevolent ghosts of long-dead neighbors might have something to do with it. This is Spring City's last night, but its citizens won't go quietly.
203 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 2011
36 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
November 14, 2018
Storm of the Century meets The Purge, in my home state of NH. AWESOME!
July 17, 2022
Evil attracts evil and in this small town, the attraction is deadly. Murder, rape, arson, and torture are but a few of the sins committed by the residents of Spring City, New Hampshire in their old lives and now, the past has come calling.
December 23, 2012
So I read this book as I have a date with the author this week. Yes, it is a weird reason to read a book, and yes, it totally colored how I read the book.
That being said, its a first date, so I'm pretty sure I'm still impartial and you can trust my review to be honest.
I liked the book, although I wish it had done some things differently. First of all, I loved the time stamp at the end of each chapter. It added a sense of foreboding and served to set the stage. It was clear something fucked up was going to happen, although I wish I had had a better sense of by what time it was going to happen. I think it was a great tool, but it could have been leveraged even more.
I was totally confused by the ghostly kids. Were they ghosts? Were they the embodiment of being pardoned? Were they part of the storm itself? What happened to the kids when they went into the cave? I have so many unanswered questions! It's possible that I've been reading Stephen King for far too long, and have unrealistic expectations for a back story. Or maybe Face just could have given me more explanation for what was going on. And why does the storm come so infrequently? ARGH! I find it so frustrating to have questions, although I suppose I am uniquely positioned to get answers to my questions. If the date doesn't go well, I'm peppering him with book questions and I'm coming back to update this!
So all mechanics and plot points aside, I had a hard time reading about all the fucked up shit the characters did without it making me think about the author. (Side effect of that date, ya'll) And I had about two chapters where all I could think was "wtf is wrong with this guy?". Then I got over myself and realized that I could have come up with way worse things for the characters to have done in their pasts to deserve being purged. And really, the overall message wasn't one of despair but one of hope. To have the universe (or whatever) step in and get rid of people who have done evil, to balance out the karma of a place is a really optimistic way to see the world.
Overall, this reminded me so very much of Stephen King. Everything and everyone was fucked. People died in horrible ways. There was more child sex than anyone has ever needed (although implied and not described). But in the end it was a horror story with a happy ending which is my favorite kind.
That being said, its a first date, so I'm pretty sure I'm still impartial and you can trust my review to be honest.
I liked the book, although I wish it had done some things differently. First of all, I loved the time stamp at the end of each chapter. It added a sense of foreboding and served to set the stage. It was clear something fucked up was going to happen, although I wish I had had a better sense of by what time it was going to happen. I think it was a great tool, but it could have been leveraged even more.
I was totally confused by the ghostly kids. Were they ghosts? Were they the embodiment of being pardoned? Were they part of the storm itself? What happened to the kids when they went into the cave? I have so many unanswered questions! It's possible that I've been reading Stephen King for far too long, and have unrealistic expectations for a back story. Or maybe Face just could have given me more explanation for what was going on. And why does the storm come so infrequently? ARGH! I find it so frustrating to have questions, although I suppose I am uniquely positioned to get answers to my questions. If the date doesn't go well, I'm peppering him with book questions and I'm coming back to update this!
So all mechanics and plot points aside, I had a hard time reading about all the fucked up shit the characters did without it making me think about the author. (Side effect of that date, ya'll) And I had about two chapters where all I could think was "wtf is wrong with this guy?". Then I got over myself and realized that I could have come up with way worse things for the characters to have done in their pasts to deserve being purged. And really, the overall message wasn't one of despair but one of hope. To have the universe (or whatever) step in and get rid of people who have done evil, to balance out the karma of a place is a really optimistic way to see the world.
Overall, this reminded me so very much of Stephen King. Everything and everyone was fucked. People died in horrible ways. There was more child sex than anyone has ever needed (although implied and not described). But in the end it was a horror story with a happy ending which is my favorite kind.
March 16, 2012
3 1/2 stars
The word ‘catharsis’ is the act of purging emotions or relieving emotional tensions, and in the case of this book, is more a purging of evil or bad influences. Set in the small town of Spring City, Catharsis starts by introducing a range of unique characters going about their daily lives as a severe storm closes in and quickly cuts the town off from the rest of the world.
As the story progresses and the residents become more and more isolated, the true characteristics of the townspeople, and the stories of the lives are revealed as tensions start to reach breaking point.
The ghosts of the town past aren’t the kinds that go bump in the night, but instead the type that gradually seep into the lives of the townspeople and begin to influence them to reveal their true colours.
There are a lot of characters in this book, some not being introduced until nearly the halfway mark, which was a little confusing. With each character switch (unless they were obvious stand-outs), I had to stop and try and remember what part they played in the story. There are a lot of bad people in this story, and you may question just how so many psychos ended up in one small town, but it is connected to the town’s past.
The writing is good and the creepiness factor is high, but I found the ending quite disappointing as it seemed too fast for the pacing of the rest of the book, and there wasn’t really a resolution nor a ‘to be continued’ kind of moment. The story itself would have benefited greatly from more background of the history of Spring City. Overall this is a good book, an interesting premise but needs a little more work to be a really enthralling read.
Read more of my reviews on The Aussie Zombie
The word ‘catharsis’ is the act of purging emotions or relieving emotional tensions, and in the case of this book, is more a purging of evil or bad influences. Set in the small town of Spring City, Catharsis starts by introducing a range of unique characters going about their daily lives as a severe storm closes in and quickly cuts the town off from the rest of the world.
As the story progresses and the residents become more and more isolated, the true characteristics of the townspeople, and the stories of the lives are revealed as tensions start to reach breaking point.
The ghosts of the town past aren’t the kinds that go bump in the night, but instead the type that gradually seep into the lives of the townspeople and begin to influence them to reveal their true colours.
There are a lot of characters in this book, some not being introduced until nearly the halfway mark, which was a little confusing. With each character switch (unless they were obvious stand-outs), I had to stop and try and remember what part they played in the story. There are a lot of bad people in this story, and you may question just how so many psychos ended up in one small town, but it is connected to the town’s past.
The writing is good and the creepiness factor is high, but I found the ending quite disappointing as it seemed too fast for the pacing of the rest of the book, and there wasn’t really a resolution nor a ‘to be continued’ kind of moment. The story itself would have benefited greatly from more background of the history of Spring City. Overall this is a good book, an interesting premise but needs a little more work to be a really enthralling read.
Read more of my reviews on The Aussie Zombie
April 12, 2012
This novel did exactly what I wanted: entertained me on a long train journey to France and back. The novel was well plotted and confidently written.
There are definitely influences from Stephen King. Phrases such as "Sometimes they came back" reminded me of his stories; some of the children scenes resembled Salem's Lot; and the plot setup was reminiscent of Needful Things in the way that characters were manipulated so as to create animosities between them.
One downside of the structure is that there is lots of exposition. This is mostly unavoidable if you are going to introduce a large cast of characters and want each to feel rounded. However, although the downside is that it can slow down the novel slightly, it does lead to a feeling of scale and interconnectedness which compensates. I just mention this so that you don't get disappointed with this novel if you are after something fast-paced from the off. Instead it works best if you let it get under your skin and drift along for the ride.
There were a few typos, no more than inevitably sneaks into a work of this length while editing out other errors. I've therefore not let them affect my rating, and rather than list them have emailed Jonathan directly, so they will probably disappear from future versions and you can ignore this comment.
All in all a satisfying read that doesn't answer every question, but does take us to a mysterious and satisfying conclusion.
There are definitely influences from Stephen King. Phrases such as "Sometimes they came back" reminded me of his stories; some of the children scenes resembled Salem's Lot; and the plot setup was reminiscent of Needful Things in the way that characters were manipulated so as to create animosities between them.
One downside of the structure is that there is lots of exposition. This is mostly unavoidable if you are going to introduce a large cast of characters and want each to feel rounded. However, although the downside is that it can slow down the novel slightly, it does lead to a feeling of scale and interconnectedness which compensates. I just mention this so that you don't get disappointed with this novel if you are after something fast-paced from the off. Instead it works best if you let it get under your skin and drift along for the ride.
There were a few typos, no more than inevitably sneaks into a work of this length while editing out other errors. I've therefore not let them affect my rating, and rather than list them have emailed Jonathan directly, so they will probably disappear from future versions and you can ignore this comment.
All in all a satisfying read that doesn't answer every question, but does take us to a mysterious and satisfying conclusion.
July 29, 2011
This writer has incredible talent. The character development was awesome, and the details of the characters' thoughts that the reader is given is what makes this book good. However, I found the story to be too dark, edgy and coarse for my taste. Also, the plot became stale about halfway through, with no twist or significant development left to be had.
December 26, 2017
Catharsis. I struggled with this title. I finally just googled the word, and found this: purgation. AHA! That fits perfectly!
I liked this book. Like other reviewers have pointed out, it was very Stephen King-like. A little town, a crapload of perspectives, an evil lurking, creepy children....like a cross between Needful Things, Salem's Lot and IT . That said, it wasn't a King book. It didn't have the ridiculous swearing, the ending wasn't a poor King ending (yes, I said it. I love King, he's my favorite...but his endings are godawful usually), and the characters weren't as lovable. I found this book to be pretty well written and kept me at the edge of my seat. I didn't need to like the characters, I needed to dislike them because I was pretty sure they weren't going to make it. And I DID dislike the majority of them.
Also, I seem to be doing fantastically with choosing books to fit my current surroundings. I finished this in the middle of a blizzard. :D
I liked this book. Like other reviewers have pointed out, it was very Stephen King-like. A little town, a crapload of perspectives, an evil lurking, creepy children....like a cross between Needful Things, Salem's Lot and IT . That said, it wasn't a King book. It didn't have the ridiculous swearing, the ending wasn't a poor King ending (yes, I said it. I love King, he's my favorite...but his endings are godawful usually), and the characters weren't as lovable. I found this book to be pretty well written and kept me at the edge of my seat. I didn't need to like the characters, I needed to dislike them because I was pretty sure they weren't going to make it. And I DID dislike the majority of them.
Also, I seem to be doing fantastically with choosing books to fit my current surroundings. I finished this in the middle of a blizzard. :D
January 7, 2018
Is it good? Not particularly. It feels like a budget Stephen King in a lot of places, with a cast of gross characters and a vague mystical incident pushing the story along.
It's not particularly bad, either. There's enough happening at a steady enough pace to keep a reader going, and the writing is solid throughout.
Put simply, this is a middling book that kept me interested for its duration and was just the right thing for that half hour between getting in bed and going to sleep this past week. I wouldn't recommend it, but you could easily do far worse, and I feel like I got more out of it than just clearing up space on my Nook.
It's not particularly bad, either. There's enough happening at a steady enough pace to keep a reader going, and the writing is solid throughout.
Put simply, this is a middling book that kept me interested for its duration and was just the right thing for that half hour between getting in bed and going to sleep this past week. I wouldn't recommend it, but you could easily do far worse, and I feel like I got more out of it than just clearing up space on my Nook.
February 19, 2022
Meh.
It had potential. I liked the idea even but it just never really had a story arc. No real protagonist. Not even a character you could love to hate. And yes I understand that was the point - a town full of unredeemable people but rule number 1 of good writing is to have a protagonist. Just kinda felt like a bunch of unlikeable characters that got thrown into a story that never really came together.
It had potential. I liked the idea even but it just never really had a story arc. No real protagonist. Not even a character you could love to hate. And yes I understand that was the point - a town full of unredeemable people but rule number 1 of good writing is to have a protagonist. Just kinda felt like a bunch of unlikeable characters that got thrown into a story that never really came together.
July 10, 2017
The name first...
Caught my curiousity. The story
held my attention. When you are an avid reader that is high praise. His subtle humor was interesting given the often dark subject matter.
Caught my curiousity. The story
held my attention. When you are an avid reader that is high praise. His subtle humor was interesting given the often dark subject matter.
January 29, 2020
Surprised
I was not expecting this story. I stayed up all night reading until I finished. Kept my interest and curiosity like Stephen King, Robert McCammon books.
I was not expecting this story. I stayed up all night reading until I finished. Kept my interest and curiosity like Stephen King, Robert McCammon books.
April 9, 2013
I was drawn in right from the start and remained engaged and flipping pages throughout. The character development is solid. Echoing other reviews, the depth and detail are stronger in the first half of the book. However, I believe it's a great strength of the story that new characters are introduced throughout. The town has a much larger population than just the people we meet. New characters remind us that quite a lot is happening that we don't directly see. Besides, the plot creates a implicit contract—I can guess the outcome and therefore I don't need to attach to every name. I'm free to sit back and enjoy a little creative destruction. It's actually more realistic that one-off scenes don't entwine with others; the town is full of secretive isolationists after all. The short scenes build up the larger story.
The pacing is great. The doom is relentlessly approaching. We've got our main characters sufficiently rounded out, one-off scenes keep things fresh and even lighten up the mood. The author experiments with some interesting devices. The duration of current events is a single day. The Storm is almost a character, though I wish that feeling had carried though more. There is no hero or heroine. There are no bad guys. I wondered if there were even any good guys—"okay this person seems legit but what sinister things have they done, it's got to be something".
Something else I wish had been expanded is the adventurous question of "can they out-run/out-smart the storm". Not all the characters are small-town bumpkins. There are savy, worldly, well-trained operators versus this olden-days curse that mostly manifests as child ghosts dressed in bonnets and wool. For a while I wondered if some of the wiser, experienced characters would outwit their Luddite doom. This book doesn't touch on the horror-fairytale genre but that would not have been out of place either.
Another strength of the book is wondering how the main threads are going to entwine. Who is going to bump into who and—oh that's an interesting pairing—how's that going to end. Some pairings where a bit mundane while others were creative and downright fun. The character of Dottie is one of the gems. It would have been interesting to pair her off a few times and explore those interactions. She anchors the plot. She gets a great intro and the book circles around to touch on her progress, which reminds us where things are moving. Her character grounds the Storm a bit; it's not manevolent just a balancing force.
This is a horror story but to me it wasn't particularly dark or creepy. The Storm is scary sure but, in a way, is also a source of amusement. Whatever force is coming to bear induces a madness upon the town, dregging up the buried past. Somethings are over the top but the Storm lends plausability. Characters actually acknowledge weird emotions and bizarre actions. "Why'd you do that?" asks one person. "I...I don't know," comes the response and the character actually stops to ponder for a moment. Haha. The author doesn't break the fourth wall, but he certainly looks at it.
The author uses some just excellent phrasing, "the screams were more echoey residue than original material", "her eyes had changed before the motion was complete", and "a fat kid [who] looked like he had a bright future in beer consumption ahead of him". Spot on details of New Hampshire life are scattered throughout; Rock 101 is exactly the radio station that'd be playing in the gas station. The storm is a nor'easter, obviously. "Grover" Hill has got to be a hat tip to Thornton Wilder. I loved everytime a vehicle screamed down main street fishtailing through the snow. These inclusions and details are superb.
The pacing is great. The doom is relentlessly approaching. We've got our main characters sufficiently rounded out, one-off scenes keep things fresh and even lighten up the mood. The author experiments with some interesting devices. The duration of current events is a single day. The Storm is almost a character, though I wish that feeling had carried though more. There is no hero or heroine. There are no bad guys. I wondered if there were even any good guys—"okay this person seems legit but what sinister things have they done, it's got to be something".
Something else I wish had been expanded is the adventurous question of "can they out-run/out-smart the storm". Not all the characters are small-town bumpkins. There are savy, worldly, well-trained operators versus this olden-days curse that mostly manifests as child ghosts dressed in bonnets and wool. For a while I wondered if some of the wiser, experienced characters would outwit their Luddite doom. This book doesn't touch on the horror-fairytale genre but that would not have been out of place either.
Another strength of the book is wondering how the main threads are going to entwine. Who is going to bump into who and—oh that's an interesting pairing—how's that going to end. Some pairings where a bit mundane while others were creative and downright fun. The character of Dottie is one of the gems. It would have been interesting to pair her off a few times and explore those interactions. She anchors the plot. She gets a great intro and the book circles around to touch on her progress, which reminds us where things are moving. Her character grounds the Storm a bit; it's not manevolent just a balancing force.
This is a horror story but to me it wasn't particularly dark or creepy. The Storm is scary sure but, in a way, is also a source of amusement. Whatever force is coming to bear induces a madness upon the town, dregging up the buried past. Somethings are over the top but the Storm lends plausability. Characters actually acknowledge weird emotions and bizarre actions. "Why'd you do that?" asks one person. "I...I don't know," comes the response and the character actually stops to ponder for a moment. Haha. The author doesn't break the fourth wall, but he certainly looks at it.
The author uses some just excellent phrasing, "the screams were more echoey residue than original material", "her eyes had changed before the motion was complete", and "a fat kid [who] looked like he had a bright future in beer consumption ahead of him". Spot on details of New Hampshire life are scattered throughout; Rock 101 is exactly the radio station that'd be playing in the gas station. The storm is a nor'easter, obviously. "Grover" Hill has got to be a hat tip to Thornton Wilder. I loved everytime a vehicle screamed down main street fishtailing through the snow. These inclusions and details are superb.
August 18, 2011
Seriously? This book started a bit slow for me, but then it picked up and really had my blood pumping and my curiosity at full mast trying to figure out what was going on in this town and why. The characters were well written, and of course thier "darkness" made evident througout the novel, keeping my attention. I had a slight feeling of what was going on when the town librarian was musing about the history, but when the story finally unfolded, the bloodshed ceased, the fires went out, I still had major questions! I still didn't know WHY the events truly happened, since we were relating it back to the original town founder. I still didn't understand what happened to the "innocents"? It just left me wanting honestly, and not in a good way. I felt very let down at the end that I still had so many questions and that there wasn't more depth given to the history of the "storm" since that was supposed to be the main focal point for the events transpiring.
September 23, 2013
I just loved this book. I'd been searching for a story to really grab my attention and this did the trick. I find the writing to be a combination somewhere between Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.
In my opinion the atmosphere in this book is perfect. The descriptions are lush and the story lines moves along at a good pace.
Catharsis was an unexpected treat and I'm looking forward to reading it again this winter, I do have to wait for the snow after all.
I would recommend this to anyone! One of my new favorites!
In my opinion the atmosphere in this book is perfect. The descriptions are lush and the story lines moves along at a good pace.
Catharsis was an unexpected treat and I'm looking forward to reading it again this winter, I do have to wait for the snow after all.
I would recommend this to anyone! One of my new favorites!
April 23, 2014
This book started off promising. The character development was well done and the story that it seemed to be setting up seemed intriguing. Unfortunately, the story never developed and it continued jumping from character to character while they basically slaughtered each other. Hard to like a story when all the characters are evil to begin with, but even worse when you have absolutely no idea why anything in the book happened. I believe the author has promise based on his writing style, but hopefully he'll actually have a story in his next story.
July 30, 2012
Awesome read, great horror story. Or I guess I should say ghost story. This was one of those dark and creepy books that make you keep the lights on when you read it at night. However, for me it was a great read and I really enjoyed it. The characters were well thought out. The story well done and paced. The story filled with rich history and information that you knew enough, but not too much and boy what an ending. Great book.
August 7, 2013
I barely started chapter two before I had to put this down sighing in frustration over the amount of time I'd already dedicated to reading it. I'm an avid reader and there have been two or three books at the most that I've put down because it just didn't do anything or the writing was just THAT bad. This is one of those two or three.
The writing was far from creative and felt like what ever thoughts the author had he wrote them down exactly the way they happened to come across his brain.
The writing was far from creative and felt like what ever thoughts the author had he wrote them down exactly the way they happened to come across his brain.
July 26, 2011
Well written, well-developed characters. But there are alot of them, and I admit by the end I started losing track. Overall a "can't put it down" read, some ugly plot-driven violence that may not be to everyone's taste, and the ending was weak compared to the rest of the book. But I enjoyed it. I forgot I was reading a book and not watching a movie most of the time.
September 19, 2011
A decent free book for the Kindle. I love books with outstanding character development and this fit the bill. The interesting plot had me hooked shortly after starting it, but it felt like about halfway through it just kind of petered out and never regained momentum. I still enjoyed it, although "enjoyed" sounds a bit strange considering how dark and gory "Catharsis" was.
July 6, 2012
I was pleasantly surprised by this ebook. It was the first free book I read and was not sure what to expect by the, unknown to me, author. As other reviewers have mentioned it did remind somewhat of Stephen King, but I found that to be a good thing. The characters in the town were interesting, as was the story itself. I would like to read more from this author.
January 10, 2013
This book came up in my search for a Stephen King book to buy and read. The price was too good to pass up. From the front cover and throughout this book captured and held my attention. Very well written! It is too bad Johnathan Face has yet to come out with another book. I know that I wpuld enjoy seeing other books by him.
July 27, 2011
I had a hard time putting this book down! Kept reaching for my Kindle. Very readable, very enjoyable. It reminded me of some Stephen King novels (and I am a big King fan!). Kudos to the author for putting his own spin on a horror story.
October 6, 2011
I was in the mood for a thriller and came across this. Started slow, then picked up wildly, then got a little ridiculous. I enjoyed the writers description of characters, his plot needs work. Ending was very unsatisfying.
December 1, 2011
Very good psychological thriller/horror. The suspense, and the creepiness, starts to build on page one and doesn't let up, it just keeps building. Good, solid characters and storyline. The only problem is I'm left hanging wondering what happened to the children?
November 19, 2012
This book was good. Don't get me wrong but it felt a little like someone trying too hard to be Stephen King. I did read it quickly and wanted to find out what happened in the end. It was enjoyable, just too copy cat for 5 stars.
February 26, 2013
I like gory, dark stories and this fit the bill. Good character development but too many characters to keep straight and their storylines fizzled, anyway, so I was glad I didn't try too hard. I wouldn't say the author is the next Stephen King but I would probably read more by him.
July 12, 2011
This was a free book so I was not expecting much. However I really enjoyed this book...very reminiscent of Storm of the Century by Stephen King. Once I started it, I could not put it down.
February 26, 2014
This was a very strange and twisted story. A quick read with a Stephen King style of writing. Interesting....
August 5, 2011
This is an amazing writer! So happy I found the book.
Want to read
October 4, 2011Also in Nook Archive.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews