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Title: The Shore (Leisure Fiction)
Score:
Author: Robert Dunbar
Rating: Not available
Hits: 78

Review of The Shore (Leisure Fiction)

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Comments for The Shore (Leisure Fiction)

• Posted on 2009-10-27
  An Excellently Written Horror Novel
  
  I saw elsewhere here where someone wrote that this story was poorly written, and I feel so differently that I felt compelled to add my thoughts. All I can say is that if a reader desires flowery prose while reading horror they should be reading novels by Anne River Siddons or Deborah Leblanc (both fine writers by the way). But if you want your horror written with deliberation, with impact, and to provoke intellectual stimulation, you can't do any better than reading Rob Dunbar's work.
  
  Dunbar prefers to entertain his readers with horror that nestles uncomfortably in the wrinkles of our grey matter. He makes us think about what lies beneath the surface of our terror, and as a result, the horrors become personal. Dunbar does this to great effect in The Shore, a more than worthy follow up to his earlier novel The Pines. The author takes great care in building characterization and plot execution in the first half of The Shore, to the point where we feel as if these characters were part of our own lives. And in the second half of the novel, Dunbar's story explodes with action and vivid scenes of terror. The hurricane that hits near the end of the second half is written so realistically, that you will find yourself readings these scenes all over again just to experience a second hit of adrenaline.
  
  Though I understand that opinions are neither right nor wrong, I would ask that if you are thinking of picking up The Shore, go with the majority of the reviews here and purchase it, I think you will enjoy it immensely.
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-23
  Riveting Horror
  
  Water, water everywhere in Robert Dunbar's fiction, and in his newest novel, THE SHORE, a surging winter hurricane is bearing down upon the dilapidated coastal community of Edgeharbor, New Jersey, where an economic depression has brought about a profound malaise and unease. Businesses have failed and tourists have moved on, leaving behind a crumbling shell of a town where a thriving seaside community once boomed. As the winds begin to howl across the nearly deserted town, a woman's mutilated body washes ashore and her car is discovered ripped by what appear to be huge talon-slashes. Edgeharbor is surrounded by the Jersey Pine Barrens, a dark tangle of forest where a predatory creature is rumored to stalk and kill unlucky campers and travelers. During her investigation and routine queries regarding the murdered woman, Officer Kit Lonigan questions a stranger who has recently come to town. Barry Hobbes claims to be an Atlantic City developer who has arrived in Edgeharbor for an on-site inspection, but he seems suspiciously nervous to Kit, and well he should be. Barry has secrets, and he's something of a predator himself. But he's not the only one. Someone...or something...is stalking Barry, too. As the body count and terror quotient escalates, the hurricane intensifies. Everyone is suspect and no one is safe. "The wildness creeps in", as the author astutely observes. Robert Dunbar serves up a howling slab of the dark stuff with this grand sequel to his celebrated first novel, THE PINES, which featured the legendary Pine Barrens monster, the Jersey Devil.
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-22
  Great Literary Horror
  
  With his latest novel, The Shore, dark suspense master Robert Dunbar transports us from the sweltering New Jersey Pine Barrens, setting of his horror classic, The Pines, to the frigid oceanfront village of Edgeharbor, a dying tourist town caught in the grip of terror. A series of brutal unsolved murders bring a mysterious stranger into town in search of a boy who may be a monster or whose kind may be the hope of the future.
  
  As a devastating storm breaks its wrath upon this isolated community, the elements themselves become an opponent as the stranger and a lone policewoman struggle to find a hostage girl who may well become the next victim.
  
  Dunbar, a noted authority on folklore and legend, creates an intense and all too believable canvas on which to paint this tale of mounting terror and desperation. Here nothing is what it seems, and as revelations link the evil taking hold of Edgeharbor to murders from the past, the chilling connection to the Pine Barrens' murders becomes apparent. While not a sequel in the truest sense of the word, The Shore enriches the story introduced in Dunbar's previous novel, and sheds new light on the centuries old legend of the infamous Jersey Devil.
  
  Impeccably crafted, with precise and elegant prose, meticulous attention to detail and pacing, this intense and wholly original novel is one of the best to come out of the genre in years. The Shore sets a new standard in literary horror.
  
  A masterpiece!
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-20
  Praises For Dunbar
  
  Romantic vampire novels are in now. Characters who slash and cut without reason or rhyme seem to be in style as well. However, if you want to read fiction that rises above fads and cheap thrills then you've got to read THE SHORE. Robert Dunbar's writing is a delicious and rare treat. His fiction leaves you wanting more. One is reminded of classic authors such as Poe, Shelley and Hawthorne. He is a true and masterful artist and an author who will be longed remembered.
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-03
  Pines Sequel
  
  This book was OK. I think The Pines was scarier. I hate to say this, but it was a little boring at times. I definitely preferred the Pines.
  
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