See No Evil

by Patricia Wallace, David Mann (Cover Artist)

Caryn Dearborn and Todd Reynolds, two children who have received cornea transplants, become troubled when they are suddenly able to foresee the deaths of other children

Genres: Horror

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fine old Zebra 1980s horror novel, with the obligatory crazed & raised cover that Grady Hendrix famously brought back into popularity a few years back. It's a story about children receiving corneal transplants and taking on the powers of the demonic donor. It's kind of silly in spots, but the characters are quite well drawn and it's a fast, captivating read. I'm not sure if it lives up to the cover, but it takes a creepy stab at it.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy read by Wallace and Zebra gave it an astounding cover for sure. Our main protagonist, little Caryn Dearborn, is just nine, but has been blind since the age of two, after a serious car wreck that killed her mom. She loves her father, but a year or so ago, he remarried (after a two day courtship!) and basically spends all his time and money (largely from the insurance from his last wife) on his new wife. She lives in the small California town of Mercy and the story starts off with the upcoming visit by an eye specialist to the local hospital to see about the possibility of a cornea transplant to give Caryn's sight back. Turns out she is a great candidate, now all they need is a donor. Word gets out and a lady with her blind son who just happens to be stranded in Mercy as her car broke down beseeches the doctor about her son. Luckly, or perhaps not so lucky, a donor suddenly pops up-- a young girl who seems to have been ran over and is dying. Now, this young girl opened the novel by basically spying, along with her 'guardian', upon little Caryn, and stating 'she's the one'. Turns out, as the donor had two eyes, each one of the kids got an eye that actually worked!

So, we know something hinky is going to come about from the eye transplant, and Wallace builds the story nicely with good pacing, stringing you along regarding just how hinky. See No Evil will not win any literary awards, but a fun, fast read when you are in the mood for some 80s pulp horror. The best part was the ending, but I will say no more to avoid spoilers; it did, however, made me round my 3.5 stars up to 4.

[Melanie Bouthillette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a few Zebra books to go through and I found this one fell short. It started off very promising, then the story took a weird and way too long of a detour to get to a mediocre, kind of pointless no answers given ending. Hopefully it's just a miss from this author as I have others to read but I will def give her another go.

[Stacy Meireles · Rating 4 out of 5]

You are true children of Darkness. You are entitled.

So this is a little gem from my collection of 1980's horror novels.
This is a story about a little girl named Caryn and a boy named Todd. They are both blind. Caryn was blinded at the age of two when she was in a car accident that killed her mother. Now she lives with her father and new evil stepmother. Todd lives on the run (which is explained later, and was a surprise twist) with his mother. They both recieve a corneal transplant from a dead girl Anna Lee (whose body goes missing from the morgue). Soon after the transplant, crazy and gruesome things start to happen when the children are around to all the "bad" people.
One of the things I love about these stories is that there is no questioning why a child is just wandering around without an adult present, how weird things happen and people are like "whelp okay" and how a body can go missing from a mourge and there is literally one nurse whos like jeez, I should find that so I dont get in trouble. The 80's! Its a wonder any of us made it through.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that is decent, not great by any standards, not terrible either. This was a book I read within three days (and only that long because I had to go to work and get some rest in between) because it's written in the sort of way that makes it easy to keep turning the pages.

Nothing is difficulty the plot is straight out of the eighties horror era with no real surprises. Blind children regain their eyesight via corneal replacement but Oh WOW! the donor is some kind of supernatural entity (a ghost? demon? some kind of spirit? It's not entirely clear but it doesn't really need to be). The kids develop a little something more advanced than just basic eyesight.

This was an easy read.

There's not better way for me to put that. This isn't the kind of book I would recommend to my friends to go out and buy but I would lend it out if somebody has a short trip and they need a distraction.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this paperback horror novel as a kid and really enjoyed it. I probably bought it at the grocery store but possibly the drugstore. The part about the cornea transplants giving children evil powers didn't scare me, but IIRC, there was a part about an elevator that absolutely terrified me, and I think about it almost every time I'm in an elevator.