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Possession
The police told Alex Hightower that her son Fabian was killed in a car crash, but she didn't believe them - she'd seen him that morning. As Alex keeps seeing Fabian, her grief turns into terror and she consults a medium. The medium is petrified - it is Fabian and he wants to come back.
290 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
169 people are currently reading
1350 people want to read
About the author
Peter James
243 books3,644 followersPeter James is a global bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. With a total of 21 Sunday Times No. 1s under his belt, he has achieved global book sales of over 23 million copies to date and has been translated into 38 languages.
Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career – which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over 40 awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter’s novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.
Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career – which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over 40 awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter’s novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews
September 24, 2007
I discovered this book on a windswept market stall in 1993. I'd never heard of Peter but the premise sounded great. I'll always remember this book, not just as the first one of his but the one that scared me witless! It was hide under the bedclothes stuff, with shocks that kept coming. I re-read it recently and while still a wonderful story, it was only dulled by the fact that I knew what was coming and when but this is highly recommended.
October 7, 2024
My Halloween choice for this year (2019) turned out to be a poor one indeed.
Peter James, who bewilderingly is compared to Michael Crichton and Stephen King, seems to have kept his place in mainstream popularity. In fact, I wouldn't say this is entirely undeserved either. He can generally spin a good thriller - nothing amazing, but usually decent enough. I enjoyed Alchemist and Denial, and even Host would have been higher in my esteem if it just wasn't so tiresomely long. This though, his third novel, was perplexingly bad. Leaving aside the hollow characters, the cliched scares and sloppy structure, the whole thing is just a lazy retread of Blatty's The Exorcist, religious contemplations and all, only without an ounce of that novel's greatness.
Written in the 1980's, much of this book's cliched content can be somewhat forgiven. But James doesn't even commit to writing a good cliched story. Filled with predictable, hardly tense happenings, a range of annoying characters, and throw-away lines with which a drinking game would kill you - it all feels much longer than a mere 300 pages. Regarding that drinking game, let me elaborate. Future readers might be in for one hellish ride of drunkenness if they try it.
I would suggest one shot of any hard liquor at each occurence of these events:
1) A character rolls, takes out, adjusts or plays with a cigarette.
2) A character smiles nervously or sadly.
3) A character obnoxiously fills their speech with pointless interjections (eg, "No, good God, no".
Trust me, you won't survive.
Peter James, who bewilderingly is compared to Michael Crichton and Stephen King, seems to have kept his place in mainstream popularity. In fact, I wouldn't say this is entirely undeserved either. He can generally spin a good thriller - nothing amazing, but usually decent enough. I enjoyed Alchemist and Denial, and even Host would have been higher in my esteem if it just wasn't so tiresomely long. This though, his third novel, was perplexingly bad. Leaving aside the hollow characters, the cliched scares and sloppy structure, the whole thing is just a lazy retread of Blatty's The Exorcist, religious contemplations and all, only without an ounce of that novel's greatness.
Written in the 1980's, much of this book's cliched content can be somewhat forgiven. But James doesn't even commit to writing a good cliched story. Filled with predictable, hardly tense happenings, a range of annoying characters, and throw-away lines with which a drinking game would kill you - it all feels much longer than a mere 300 pages. Regarding that drinking game, let me elaborate. Future readers might be in for one hellish ride of drunkenness if they try it.
I would suggest one shot of any hard liquor at each occurence of these events:
1) A character rolls, takes out, adjusts or plays with a cigarette.
2) A character smiles nervously or sadly.
3) A character obnoxiously fills their speech with pointless interjections (eg, "No, good God, no".
Trust me, you won't survive.
November 3, 2015
Time taken to read - 1 day
Pages - 290
Publisher - Orion
Blurb from Goodreads
Fabian's mother doesn't believe the police when they inform her that he died in a car crash. She keeps seeing him. Desperately she consults a medium who freezes into petrified silence because it's not her imagination. Fabian really wants to return.
My review
The tale opens with Fabian and his friends packing up the car and a fairly descriptive capture of the lead up to and the actual crash. Then the story's main character is Alex, Fabians mother who is sure the police have it wrong, her son isn't dead, she saw him that morning. But as the days go on, Alex knows that Fabian has died but he is still here. In the house, around Alex, making his presence known, Alex needs to find out how to make it stop or help her son.
This is a spooky wee book, Alex's friend is bizarre to say the least and adds to the spooky feel of the book. The mediums in the book only add to the spooky feel & the more Alexs pursues the more she realises she didn't really know her son at all.
A dark tale of one mothers loss, a haunting, possession and the occult. It is spooky and draws you in, you want to know is Fabian really haunting his mother and just how much did mum actually know her son. There are a lot of questions left hanging I thought and it ended fairly suddenly, I have read this author before and will read him again 3/5 for me.
Pages - 290
Publisher - Orion
Blurb from Goodreads
Fabian's mother doesn't believe the police when they inform her that he died in a car crash. She keeps seeing him. Desperately she consults a medium who freezes into petrified silence because it's not her imagination. Fabian really wants to return.
My review
The tale opens with Fabian and his friends packing up the car and a fairly descriptive capture of the lead up to and the actual crash. Then the story's main character is Alex, Fabians mother who is sure the police have it wrong, her son isn't dead, she saw him that morning. But as the days go on, Alex knows that Fabian has died but he is still here. In the house, around Alex, making his presence known, Alex needs to find out how to make it stop or help her son.
This is a spooky wee book, Alex's friend is bizarre to say the least and adds to the spooky feel of the book. The mediums in the book only add to the spooky feel & the more Alexs pursues the more she realises she didn't really know her son at all.
A dark tale of one mothers loss, a haunting, possession and the occult. It is spooky and draws you in, you want to know is Fabian really haunting his mother and just how much did mum actually know her son. There are a lot of questions left hanging I thought and it ended fairly suddenly, I have read this author before and will read him again 3/5 for me.
July 5, 2012
I picked up this book at the local Big W sale for only $3.00. I didn't think it would be much if it was in the sale bin, but I was pleasantly surprised. It had me hooked and creeped out, which is exactly what this kind of novel is meant to do.
June 14, 2024
La historia engancha un montón si te gustan los fenómenos paranormales. En caso contrario, este libro no es para ti.
He quedado un poco abrumada con el final porque no me lo esperaba en absoluto. Y eso me ha gustado.
.
The story is very engaging if you like paranormal phenomena. Otherwise, this book is not for you.
I was a little overwhelmed by the ending because I wasn't expecting it at all. And I liked that.
He quedado un poco abrumada con el final porque no me lo esperaba en absoluto. Y eso me ha gustado.
.
The story is very engaging if you like paranormal phenomena. Otherwise, this book is not for you.
I was a little overwhelmed by the ending because I wasn't expecting it at all. And I liked that.
September 26, 2019
I picked this up because I’ve been slowly but surely working my way through each of Peter James’ releases. It’s interesting because despite being mostly known as a crime writer these days because of his Roy Grace books, it turns out that James started by writing sort of supernatural horror thrillers.
He’s pretty good at that, and I actually think that this one was better than Sweet Heart, which he published a couple of years later. Sure, it still has a lot of the clichés that you’d expect from a haunted house story, and there are also echoes of Sweet Heart in that instead of having someone regressing into a past life, someone’s using a medium. There are also a bunch of conversations about Christianity that I didn’t particularly care for, but which I guess tie in with public opinion towards religion in the UK during the late eighties.
If you’re just looking for a pretty mindless horror/thriller novel that will help you to pass the time, this is a good one to go for. I whizzed right through it in just a couple of days, and it never felt as though it was slowing down. Considering that at the time, I was working on dropping my currently reading list to below 140, that was a massive bonus – and in fact it’s the reason why I picked it up.
This book probably isn’t for everyone, but it does have a certain amount of mainstream appeal that I think would mean that most readers would enjoy it for what it is. It’s the kind of book that’s hard to either love or to hate.
He’s pretty good at that, and I actually think that this one was better than Sweet Heart, which he published a couple of years later. Sure, it still has a lot of the clichés that you’d expect from a haunted house story, and there are also echoes of Sweet Heart in that instead of having someone regressing into a past life, someone’s using a medium. There are also a bunch of conversations about Christianity that I didn’t particularly care for, but which I guess tie in with public opinion towards religion in the UK during the late eighties.
If you’re just looking for a pretty mindless horror/thriller novel that will help you to pass the time, this is a good one to go for. I whizzed right through it in just a couple of days, and it never felt as though it was slowing down. Considering that at the time, I was working on dropping my currently reading list to below 140, that was a massive bonus – and in fact it’s the reason why I picked it up.
This book probably isn’t for everyone, but it does have a certain amount of mainstream appeal that I think would mean that most readers would enjoy it for what it is. It’s the kind of book that’s hard to either love or to hate.
January 3, 2018
Добра жанрова история, която със сигурност бих харесал доста повече през 1993 - годината на издаване на романа Possession (1988) на Питър Джеймс у нас. Уви, в началото на 2018 съм попрочел някой и друг тон литература с такъв сюжет, ха-ха. Неспокоен дух на мъртвец, бавно полудяваща майка, чийто живот се е оказал на кръстопът, "плитко заровени" зловещи тайни... Крайна оценка 3,5/5, със завишаване нагоре, тъй като все пак отчитам времевите реалии.
March 15, 2011
Wtf? Love this guy but this was appalling, written really badly, jumping all over the place, couldn't get into it whatsoever. Must have been on of his earlier ones. Totally sucked!
December 27, 2019
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
A nice easy read. Just what I needed!!
Hannah xoxo
A nice easy read. Just what I needed!!
Hannah xoxo
April 11, 2023
Nice and creepy. Kept me turning the pages for sure!
April 22, 2021
I’m a massive fan of Peter James and love his Roy Grace series and therefore bought every other book he has written too 😂
I have just finished the two House on Cold Hill (HOCH) books and have been delighted to find more with a bit of a Stephen King feel to it for me and I loved it.
This book is spooky, gripping and ghoulish! I would definitely recommend and this will be sitting on my bookshelf for sure! Slightly longer chapters than HOCH but that didn’t put me off at all. If honest I felt a little possessed reading this book as all I wanted to do was get to the end!!! It’s really made me think a lot more about the paranormal and that’s what a good book does - it makes you think and stays with you long after you’ve finished!!
I have just finished the two House on Cold Hill (HOCH) books and have been delighted to find more with a bit of a Stephen King feel to it for me and I loved it.
This book is spooky, gripping and ghoulish! I would definitely recommend and this will be sitting on my bookshelf for sure! Slightly longer chapters than HOCH but that didn’t put me off at all. If honest I felt a little possessed reading this book as all I wanted to do was get to the end!!! It’s really made me think a lot more about the paranormal and that’s what a good book does - it makes you think and stays with you long after you’ve finished!!
January 6, 2021
This read took me out of my comfort zone for more than one reason. I am not a huge fan of this genre, I am very easily scared when it comes to ghosts and the paranormal, but wanted to expand my reading material. I have reviewed this on a non-bias basis, taking these factors into consideration.
Possession follows Alex, a mother whose son Fabian has recently died in tragic circumstances, and wants to help her son's spirit move over to the other side, as he seems to be trapped between life and death. From the very beginning, this gave me goose bumps, as the author set the errie scene perfectly for the reader. It is made obvious that things with Fabian are a little "odd," and as the story unfolds, the secrets that he had been keeping from his mother are revealed, even after his death. This book totally freaked me out, meaning I had to stop and start to compose myself more than once, taking what is relatively a short book, a while for me to complete. In particular, the descriptive scenes of the exorcism and senones were especially gruelling.
Being new to this genre, I am not sure if I can say I "enjoyed" this book. Has it put me off reading anything else by this author? No. The storyline was gripping making it a page turner, and the writing style was easy to follow.
Usual readers of this genre may think this is tame after reading, but not for me - if this was a film, I would have watched behind a cushion. Maybe this is your thing? If so, I definitely recommend it, just not perhaps for a bedtime read!
Possession follows Alex, a mother whose son Fabian has recently died in tragic circumstances, and wants to help her son's spirit move over to the other side, as he seems to be trapped between life and death. From the very beginning, this gave me goose bumps, as the author set the errie scene perfectly for the reader. It is made obvious that things with Fabian are a little "odd," and as the story unfolds, the secrets that he had been keeping from his mother are revealed, even after his death. This book totally freaked me out, meaning I had to stop and start to compose myself more than once, taking what is relatively a short book, a while for me to complete. In particular, the descriptive scenes of the exorcism and senones were especially gruelling.
Being new to this genre, I am not sure if I can say I "enjoyed" this book. Has it put me off reading anything else by this author? No. The storyline was gripping making it a page turner, and the writing style was easy to follow.
Usual readers of this genre may think this is tame after reading, but not for me - if this was a film, I would have watched behind a cushion. Maybe this is your thing? If so, I definitely recommend it, just not perhaps for a bedtime read!
December 9, 2020
Средна хубост. Увлекателна история, макар и нищо нечувано. Имам малко въпросителни относно финала, който сякаш мина малко през призмата на завоалираност и така и не обясни съвсем някои елементи от историята.
Тъй де, иначе хубава история, но можеше да бъде и по-хубава.
Тъй де, иначе хубава история, но можеше да бъде и по-хубава.
April 22, 2024
acc scary but why the main character always doing nonsense things and makes the situation even worse smh
November 6, 2023
The whole book had me hooked but the ending let it down
October 3, 2021
This one took a while for me to get into. I skimmed quite a bit at the start. I found the amount of characters a little confusing at times, many of them were very similar. There was a lot of use of the words 'darling' and 'dear'.
So Alex and David have a son called Fabian. He is killed in a traffic accident. Alex and David are estranged but get on well. Alex sees Fabian on the morning that she is told he is dead and continues to experience unusual occurrences at her home. The story continues with the input of clergymen, mediums, doctors and friends.
I found it all a bit muddled in the final act. The writing didn't seem to be very clear, it was like I'd missed bits. It wasn't clear whether Alex was lucid, if what she was experiencing was actually happening. And then suddenly the ending was upon us. I would've liked to know who Otto actually was and what he and Fabian had done with John Bosley.
I did enjoy the book but it left me a little bit frustrated.
So Alex and David have a son called Fabian. He is killed in a traffic accident. Alex and David are estranged but get on well. Alex sees Fabian on the morning that she is told he is dead and continues to experience unusual occurrences at her home. The story continues with the input of clergymen, mediums, doctors and friends.
I found it all a bit muddled in the final act. The writing didn't seem to be very clear, it was like I'd missed bits. It wasn't clear whether Alex was lucid, if what she was experiencing was actually happening. And then suddenly the ending was upon us. I would've liked to know who Otto actually was and what he and Fabian had done with John Bosley.
I did enjoy the book but it left me a little bit frustrated.
August 17, 2017
Su hijo esta de marcha en otra ciudad, se levanta por la mañana pues acaba de llegar antes de tiempo: “buenos días mamá, me voy a acostar que estoy muy cansado”. Ella se sorprende de que ha llegado antes de tiempo, así que se va a trabajar sin despertarle. Mientras trabaja una visita inesperada: un policía. Este le indica que su hijo ha muerto en un accidente. Su hijo ya no está en casa, nadie le ha visto. Comenzara a investigar que pasó. El llegó a casa, lo vio, hablo, pero supuestamente murió antes.
Tras el comienzo tan bueno, se vuelve en idas y venidas vacías, el autor no supo aprovechar la idea.
Tras el comienzo tan bueno, se vuelve en idas y venidas vacías, el autor no supo aprovechar la idea.
August 22, 2024
It started off very slow and uninteresting while building background- I dredged through it until about midway- where the story started getting very interesting. It was creepy, suspenseful, and just complex enough to keep my interest. Unfortunately- the last few chapters- or dare I say the last chapter only- felt so rushed and undercooked- a poor ending to a great conflict. Doesn't bring the clues and conflicts together well, and is abrupt and non-satisfying. The end ruined the value of the story- making the character's struggle meaningless and in vain. The paranormal writing genre isn't easy to manage- while this book isn't the worst- it's not the best.
April 10, 2014
As always I have enjoyed another book by Peter James, after having read the complete Roy Grace series I didn't think his other books would be as intriguing but I was wrong. It had me on the edge of my seat and I had difficulty putting it down. Spooky, creepy and downright scary.
February 2, 2019
My absolute favourite author but certainly not one of my favourite books by him. I felt it wasn't really going anywhere and lacked story and feeling for characters. His Roy Grace series is so much better than the stand alones I've read so far!
September 9, 2017
A very well done haunting / demonic possession novel let down by the final 30 pages.
December 30, 2022
sinceramente no he entendido el final 🫥
June 20, 2022
This is a book that had me intrigued and wanting to find out what happened from the very beginning. A mother is told of her son’s death and yet she still believes he is alive. The manifestations could just be her mind playing tricks or they could be something more sinister… Alex tries to reconcile what is happening and seeks help from many sources. It’s quite a scary story and the reason it is four and not five stars is that the ending left me still not knowing what the outcome was.
April 15, 2018
A ghostly and gripping page turner from Peter James that I struggled to put down when reading it. Definitely worth a read.
May 12, 2019
Very scary.
December 17, 2023
Different to James’s usual books, but had me gripped all the way through.
October 3, 2022
This was the latest book that I borrowed from my book club's trolley. I would say it was more of a horror novel than a crime novel, but I liked it a lot. Very suspenseful and eerie. What struck me about it was the sympathy I felt towards the protagonist - I felt very emotionally involved while I was reading.
August 8, 2024
Toute l’histoire jusqu’à l’avant dernier chapitre : 4/5
La fin : 1/5
Lire plus de 400 pages d’un livre pour ne pas avoir de réponses à 90% de ses questions à la fin c’est quand même très frustrant… Le dénouement est expédié en 1 chapitre quasiment incompréhensible. Je suis pas une experte mais pour moi ce n’est pas comme ça qu’on termine un livre même si on veut se la jouer mystérieux.
Les 2 étoiles sont pour l’ambiance pesante et angoissante présente pendant tout le roman ainsi que pour l’intrigue pleine de potentiel qui a su me tenir éveillée toute la nuit. Mais vu la fin j’aurai mieux fait de dormir.
La fin : 1/5
Lire plus de 400 pages d’un livre pour ne pas avoir de réponses à 90% de ses questions à la fin c’est quand même très frustrant… Le dénouement est expédié en 1 chapitre quasiment incompréhensible. Je suis pas une experte mais pour moi ce n’est pas comme ça qu’on termine un livre même si on veut se la jouer mystérieux.
Les 2 étoiles sont pour l’ambiance pesante et angoissante présente pendant tout le roman ainsi que pour l’intrigue pleine de potentiel qui a su me tenir éveillée toute la nuit. Mais vu la fin j’aurai mieux fait de dormir.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews