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The Notch
Joe Arachro pulled to a halt on a small hillock, looking across the expanse as it rose up into a sudden flat top butte. There was another jagged butte tilting at an angle next to the mesa, not as wide or long. It was like they just appeared from nowhere, dropped down here in the middle of the desert. And in the shimmering glare in the notch between these two buttes, a ten-year-old boy walked out of the sun, surrounded by the blazing rays. The boy doesn't speak, but he has startling powers: he heals a young girl's torn cuticle, and later erases all damage to a man's badly burnt hand, and it seems there's no limit to the miracles he can perform. After a dog gets run over by a car, the boy apparently brings the animal back to life, and a video of the event goes viral. Suddenly everybody has an idea of who the boy is, and what he might do for them -- and it's a race against time to see who can get to the boy first and gain control over him.
In the wrong hands, the boy's powers could be c
In the wrong hands, the boy's powers could be c
478 pages, Hardcover
Published May 26, 2020
About the author
Tom Holland
8 books24 followersTom Holland is an American director and screenwriter of horror and thriller films. His early writing projects include Class of 1984 (1982) and the Robert Bloch-inspired Psycho II (1983), the latter starring Anthony Perkins as the menacing psychopath, Norman Bates, which spawned the Psycho franchise.
His directorial debut was the popular 1980s Vampire film, Fright Night (1985). The film was a box office hit and garnered three Saturn Awards and one Dario Argento Award. Last year, Tom produced a documentary of the film called You’re So Cool Brewster: The Story of Fright Night.
His next project, Child's Play (1988), was a number one box-office hit in America and a worldwide success, despite controversy over its thematic content. Tom then went onto direct two films based upon adaptations of Stephen King's novels: The Langoliers (1995) for TV and the feature film Thinner (1996). He also took a cameo role in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand (1994). He recently completed production on the thriller Rock, Paper, Dead starring Michael Madsen.
Tom's other projects have included The Incredible Hulk episode "Another Path," Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (1985), three episodes of Tales from the Crypt (1989), and the prestigious Masters of Horror (2005) anthology. He starred in A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) with Ingrid Bergman.
In 2009, Tom took a starring role in Hatchet II alongside Kane Hodder and Tony Todd.
The Notch is his first novel.
His directorial debut was the popular 1980s Vampire film, Fright Night (1985). The film was a box office hit and garnered three Saturn Awards and one Dario Argento Award. Last year, Tom produced a documentary of the film called You’re So Cool Brewster: The Story of Fright Night.
His next project, Child's Play (1988), was a number one box-office hit in America and a worldwide success, despite controversy over its thematic content. Tom then went onto direct two films based upon adaptations of Stephen King's novels: The Langoliers (1995) for TV and the feature film Thinner (1996). He also took a cameo role in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand (1994). He recently completed production on the thriller Rock, Paper, Dead starring Michael Madsen.
Tom's other projects have included The Incredible Hulk episode "Another Path," Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (1985), three episodes of Tales from the Crypt (1989), and the prestigious Masters of Horror (2005) anthology. He starred in A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) with Ingrid Bergman.
In 2009, Tom took a starring role in Hatchet II alongside Kane Hodder and Tony Todd.
The Notch is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 16, 2022
The Notch was originally published back in 2020 by Cemetery Dance as a limited edition and has recently been re-released by Encyclopocalypse Publications, who specialise in breathing new life into older or out-of-print novels. It is well worth having a good look at their website, as they have an impressive range of film novelisations, reprints, audiobooks and obscurities I never knew existed.
Tom Holland is significantly better known as a film director and screenwriter, with a career dating back to the early eighties. His directorial debut was the cult classic Fright Night (1985), which he followed with Child’s Play (1988) and a host of other noteworthy flicks. Some of these other films and TV shows include Class of 1984 (1982), Psycho II (1983), Thinner (1996), The Langoliers (1995) as well as scriptwriting and acting credits. After four decades bouncing around Hollywood in various guises, The Notch is Tom’s first novel.
You can read Tony's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
Tom Holland is significantly better known as a film director and screenwriter, with a career dating back to the early eighties. His directorial debut was the cult classic Fright Night (1985), which he followed with Child’s Play (1988) and a host of other noteworthy flicks. Some of these other films and TV shows include Class of 1984 (1982), Psycho II (1983), Thinner (1996), The Langoliers (1995) as well as scriptwriting and acting credits. After four decades bouncing around Hollywood in various guises, The Notch is Tom’s first novel.
You can read Tony's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
May 28, 2020
Five Stars – Timely and Timeless!
When novels meaningfully portray current events, like the novels of Charles Dickens set in then contemporary London, we call them timely. When they communicate topics of universal importance and portray characters we never want to forget, like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or The Plague by Albert Camus, we call them timeless. When a novel is written well before the disturbing or catastrophic events it predicts, such as 1984 by George Orwell, we call it prescient. And when a prescient novel is published during such events but was written before them, we call its timeliness prescient and its prescience timeless.
The Notch is a recently published debut novel by the acclaimed screenwriter, director, and filmmaker Tom Holland. It was obviously written well before the COVID-19 pandemic as there is a waiting time of at least eighteen months from the time an author submits his manuscript to his publisher and when it is eventually offered for sale. Was Tom Holland prescient when writing The Notch, a story of moral and human-caused crises in the time of a pandemic? The timeliness of this novel, published as the world is beset by COVID-19, is compelling evidence that he was. The Notch is timely and will be timeless.
The story is propulsive: Its plot is propelled by a race against a pandemic that at the time of the appearance of its protagonist, an ethereal boy with palliative powers, has been striking suddenly and randomly, wiping out alarming portions of the populations of major cities. As governments worldwide, ominously including our own, confront, investigate, and struggle to understand the inexplicable flareups of this ineffable deadly pestilence, the boy appears, walking out of a cloud of glare and dust from a notch separating two mountains in the American southwest.
As the boy goes about his mission, the characters he encounters discover that he can make the lame walk, he can cure cancer, he can raise the dead. But at great cost to his strength, health, and perhaps to his existence. Strong evidence suggests he can defeat the pandemic and the United States government is determined to capture him and do whatever it takes to find out if and how he can. Even if it costs the boy his life.
After reaching his destination, perhaps completing his mission, the boy must return to the notch in a race against an inexorably setting sun. Should he not return to the notch before sunset, he will likely perish. But bad hombres, as well as ruthless government agents, discover his powers and wanting them for their own nefarious purposes, also threaten to impede his return.
Tom Holland is best known for his work creating horror films. His powerful writing, prose and prosody, in The Notch is a testament to a creativity that extends well beyond the genre that brought him fame. This action-adventure is deeply thought provoking. In a world beset by an unstoppable and seemingly undefeatable pestilence, the principal characters must examine their actions, beliefs, desires, lust, fate, and faith. The essence of Christianity in this story, forgiveness and self-sacrifice, cannot be ignored just as the essence of soulfulness is evident in the novels of Graham Greene, Robert Stone, or Walker Percy or the stories of Flannery O’Conner.
The writing, in short chapters, is astonishing with sparkling dialog, sudden and surprising action that continuously propels the story, enhancing its enjoyment. The Notch is, in the truest sense, a page turner. Don’t make the mistake of beginning it just after dinner as you may find yourself turning the last page near dawn. Within the pages of The Notch, the reader is in the hands of a wise author who knows his characters and the world they and we inhabit. Tom Holland is a novelist who knows where hope is strong and where spirituality is still possible in our beating, restless, striving hearts.
Tom Holland’s oeuvre of classic films have a literary and humorous bent. They include, among many others, Child’s Play, Fright Night, Psycho II and the adaptation of Stephen King’s Thinner and The Langoliers. He is a Saturn Award recipient for writing and for directing Fright Night. And he is the author of four published very enjoyable short stories that I recommend: “Glitter,” “Shrunk,” “The Boy,” and (the wonderfully hilarious) “Suzie-69.”
I purchased a hardcover first edition version of The Notch directly from the publisher. It will grace one of my bookshelves as I will eagerly hope for and await the next novel to be published by the talented Tom Holland.
James Victor Jordan
When novels meaningfully portray current events, like the novels of Charles Dickens set in then contemporary London, we call them timely. When they communicate topics of universal importance and portray characters we never want to forget, like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or The Plague by Albert Camus, we call them timeless. When a novel is written well before the disturbing or catastrophic events it predicts, such as 1984 by George Orwell, we call it prescient. And when a prescient novel is published during such events but was written before them, we call its timeliness prescient and its prescience timeless.
The Notch is a recently published debut novel by the acclaimed screenwriter, director, and filmmaker Tom Holland. It was obviously written well before the COVID-19 pandemic as there is a waiting time of at least eighteen months from the time an author submits his manuscript to his publisher and when it is eventually offered for sale. Was Tom Holland prescient when writing The Notch, a story of moral and human-caused crises in the time of a pandemic? The timeliness of this novel, published as the world is beset by COVID-19, is compelling evidence that he was. The Notch is timely and will be timeless.
The story is propulsive: Its plot is propelled by a race against a pandemic that at the time of the appearance of its protagonist, an ethereal boy with palliative powers, has been striking suddenly and randomly, wiping out alarming portions of the populations of major cities. As governments worldwide, ominously including our own, confront, investigate, and struggle to understand the inexplicable flareups of this ineffable deadly pestilence, the boy appears, walking out of a cloud of glare and dust from a notch separating two mountains in the American southwest.
As the boy goes about his mission, the characters he encounters discover that he can make the lame walk, he can cure cancer, he can raise the dead. But at great cost to his strength, health, and perhaps to his existence. Strong evidence suggests he can defeat the pandemic and the United States government is determined to capture him and do whatever it takes to find out if and how he can. Even if it costs the boy his life.
After reaching his destination, perhaps completing his mission, the boy must return to the notch in a race against an inexorably setting sun. Should he not return to the notch before sunset, he will likely perish. But bad hombres, as well as ruthless government agents, discover his powers and wanting them for their own nefarious purposes, also threaten to impede his return.
Tom Holland is best known for his work creating horror films. His powerful writing, prose and prosody, in The Notch is a testament to a creativity that extends well beyond the genre that brought him fame. This action-adventure is deeply thought provoking. In a world beset by an unstoppable and seemingly undefeatable pestilence, the principal characters must examine their actions, beliefs, desires, lust, fate, and faith. The essence of Christianity in this story, forgiveness and self-sacrifice, cannot be ignored just as the essence of soulfulness is evident in the novels of Graham Greene, Robert Stone, or Walker Percy or the stories of Flannery O’Conner.
The writing, in short chapters, is astonishing with sparkling dialog, sudden and surprising action that continuously propels the story, enhancing its enjoyment. The Notch is, in the truest sense, a page turner. Don’t make the mistake of beginning it just after dinner as you may find yourself turning the last page near dawn. Within the pages of The Notch, the reader is in the hands of a wise author who knows his characters and the world they and we inhabit. Tom Holland is a novelist who knows where hope is strong and where spirituality is still possible in our beating, restless, striving hearts.
Tom Holland’s oeuvre of classic films have a literary and humorous bent. They include, among many others, Child’s Play, Fright Night, Psycho II and the adaptation of Stephen King’s Thinner and The Langoliers. He is a Saturn Award recipient for writing and for directing Fright Night. And he is the author of four published very enjoyable short stories that I recommend: “Glitter,” “Shrunk,” “The Boy,” and (the wonderfully hilarious) “Suzie-69.”
I purchased a hardcover first edition version of The Notch directly from the publisher. It will grace one of my bookshelves as I will eagerly hope for and await the next novel to be published by the talented Tom Holland.
James Victor Jordan
Did Not Finish
July 16, 2020DNF after 100 pages. It just isn’t working for me and not everything has to for every reader. I like Holland’s movies (Fright Night and Childs Play) but the novel isn’t going to do it for me. Some things are over explained that don’t need to be and the writing is choppy and stilted at times. Maybe that’s a hold over from the screenplay writing, I don’t know. There’s an intriguing premise and I bet some readers might enjoy this.
July 2, 2020
I would have given this book 3.5 stars if I could. The ideas in the book are marvellous, it is perhaps a difficult read at the current time, with Covid still haunting us, I will not say anymore than that for fear of spoiling the book for others. The writing style is not hard to read and you can certainly tell that the author is a screenwriter. The style is very staccato, very short sentences and chapters but the whole whizzes along at a good click and keeps you engaged right to the end but that very style is what for me makes the book 3.5 stars and not more, somehow the book lacks depth, but all in all, a highly readable book.
May 28, 2020
Tom Holland's The Notch had me hooked from the start. Holland weaves together the lives of many characters, all of whom have in some way been touched by a mysterious boy with strange powers. The book has everything one could ask for: romance, action, terror, humor - not to mention a global pandemic (timing is everything). I don't want to give anything away, as this is an adventure one needs to seek out alone. I truly hope we get to see more fiction from this brilliant director.
June 29, 2020
Decent first novel from film director Tom Holland. Most of the chapters were only 1-2 pages, and while the characters and dialogue were well written, there was no real resolution. Almost every major character died by the end and no reason was given for the the boys appearance or the worldwide pandemic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2022
The book started well and developed nicely to about the half way point. From there to a very disappointing end it dragged on and on for no real reason I could discern. I think it needs a better ending and the last 250 pages need to fit in about 25.
I would try another of his books as I believe this was his first.
I would try another of his books as I believe this was his first.
January 30, 2026
the characters are what made this so great
the 4 star is only for the ending being less than i wanted after all that action and loss
felt too similar to the world we live in
i could picture it all playing out as it did
human greed and selfishness take away from so many
being kind and giving go so far
really a book about how we move through life and treat others
the 4 star is only for the ending being less than i wanted after all that action and loss
felt too similar to the world we live in
i could picture it all playing out as it did
human greed and selfishness take away from so many
being kind and giving go so far
really a book about how we move through life and treat others
September 3, 2020
interesting story. reads like a screen play; quick paced and short chapters, but action filled. It left me with more than a few questions, but that didn't take away from the cinematic feel of the story, which I enjoyed. 4/5
Read
July 6, 2020A bot of a trudge
August 14, 2020
I'd read more books from this author.
February 5, 2021
I thought this was a terrific read. Congrats to Tim Holland on turning out a great book with his 1st novel. I'm looking forward to more.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews