I've heard that this author was one that was great in the genre, so when I saw this book on one of my Goodwill trips last year (or earlier this year, I don't remember) I picked it up. Never read him before, so I didn't have any idea what to expect. Truth be told though, it didn't scare me at all. In fact, for the first half of the story or so, I didn't even know what the heck was going on. I didn't like the main character, Don. At first I did, but then he turned out to be a whiner really, and al...

4.5 stars, rounded up!Grant is back with his usual style in his novel, THE PET. As is usually the case, his novels start out very slowly, the atmosphere and characters being gradually established. Once you get past the initial phase, however, the tension begins to tighten up so much so that I felt that if "someone or something" didn't snap soon, I was going to! This story had a very ominous, surreal feel throughout, that I really enjoyed. Once again, I felt that the ending was absolutely perfect...

An incredible novel by the Master of Quiet Horror. Grant's signature style, keen sense of atmosphere and talent for creating scenes of subtle horror that will linger with you long after you've finished reading are in fine form here. The characterization is dead on and the pacing is pitch perfect. Grant was one of the best of his generation and worthy of respect.

Ugh. AWFUL book. Usually these kinds of stories end up being nothing more than a kind of pitiful wish-fulfillment for the author (picked-on high-schooler somehow awakens a demon in the shape of a huge black horse, which proceeds to messily kill anyone it sees as a threat to the main character). But this was worse. I absolutely HATED every one of the characters. Flat, lifeless, useless people, all of them. And the main character was the worst. I'm sure I was supposed to sympathize with his outsid...

I had never heard of Charles L. Grant, and I have been reading horror for a long time. I came across this book when I googled "Top 100 Horror Books" and found a list, which I printed up with the hopes that it would introduce me to new authors. I picked this book of the list and am now questioning the author of the list's credibility.First off, this is horror decaf, no where did I read that this was a young adult novel, and with the praise from Steven King and Whitley Strieber on the cover I assu...

As usual - Goodreads reviews know NOTHING. Fabulous novel. Classic horror novel. And to all those reviewers who criticized his characterization of teenagers as being shallow and callous: HELLO? I teach them, work with them on a daily basis. There are good ones....and BAD ones. I'd Grant - as always - nailed this one perfectly...

A well-written slow-burn novel about a teen who can accidentally make a horse from a poster come to life and kill. Oops.

2.5 stars:I read several good reviews of this, about it being one of Grant's best works, and a great horror novel. So I picked it up eagerly, looking forward to his trademark nightmarish building of tension. But at the beginning of the novel it's revealed that The Howler is a werewolf, and since I usually hate werewolf tales, I put it down again. This was several years ago, which is why I haven't read any Grant in a long time despite my love of his style.Fortunately, I was wrong -- the werewolf

4.6 starsThe Pet and The Nestling are the apex of Charles L. Grant novels. One of kind horror novel. Totally different horror vibe. Excellent edition to any horror collection.

Finished this a while ago. A great atmospheric chiller from a master.

There will be minor spoilers in this review. so don't read past here, because I will give a brief synopsis of the story.....A loner (teen boy) has these posters of animals that are his friends. One day, a poster comes to life... and is the horse helping him or hurting him?A horse is an animal. with a simple brain. but when his human friend owner is distraught, the horse kills the person he's mad it. when it's a serial killer, that's cool. but not cool when a teen has an argument with his dysfunc...

Easily Grant's best novel. Perfectly captures teen angst even better than Carrie. Could have been set in Oxrun Station but it is not.

The Pet was my first venture outside of Charles L. Grants’s Oxrun Station novels, and I must say, aside from a bit of a slow start, the book was spectacular and makes me want to seek out everything Grant has written. All the elements within it just felt so real, especially the inner struggles that the teen high school students faced. Ten years have passed since my days within such hallways and classrooms, yet several times I felt myself put back into those situations, my mind able to remember wh...

I had an interesting, semi-frustrating experience with this one.I read this first around 1990-1991, when I was an early teen and just getting serious about horror fiction. I graduated from Stephen King almost immediately to Clive Barker, and from there took a deep dive into the splatterpunks. Charles L. Grant was a name I'd heard (mostly through King's praise of him), and I knew he was associated with "quiet horror," a concept with which I was wholly unfamiliar at the time. I wanted to know what...

I really enjoyed this slice of classic 80's horror.A troubled teen, misunderstood by his asshole parents and bullied by some douche-bag teachers and jocks at his high school, finds that he has a special "friend" looking out for him.Throw in a perverted serial killer on the loose and you've got THE PET. Good stuff!

I'm not convinced this book was written to be YA but it comes across that way because of the focus on the teenage protagonist, his schoolmates, parents etc. In theory, here was an interesting idea: teenage boy who feels put upon, with bullying from boys in the football team, and parents who belittle his ambition to be a veterinarian, retreats into a fantasy world which then turns into reality. His animal posters on the bedroom wall, which he views as friends and talks to, begin to take on a life...

A more or less average 1980s horror novel, but Grant's fine prose and characterization do much to elevate it.

This is a dark tale of a teenage boy whose teenage angst manifests itself in the form of a nightmarish horse that springs to life from a poster on his bedroom wall and then swiftly goes out on a killing spree.Wait, WHAT?!Yes, the premise is as daft as it sounds and the allegory is shovelled on in a less-than-subtle manner but this book isn't without entertainment value. I'd go as far as to say that, if I'd read this when I was a kid, I think I'd've loved it.Reading as a forty five year old man,

When I first started down this road of reading all of Grant's horror fiction (just two months ago now), I had initially just wanted to read what other readers determined to be his best work. The Pet was one of the books that had the highest ratings and praise, so I've been looking forward to reading this novel.The story is a good one, and it's pretty different from Grant's previous novels. For one, the protagonist of the story is hard to pin down. Don is a teenager who's being unfairly singled o...

"A modern story that fits right into the 1980s. A good book!"-Washington Post Book Worldif i ever get a blurb like that, remind me to kill myself.this book is "well-written," on a sentence level, but just plain stupid. another strangely inexplicable entry onto the jones and newman 100 best horror list.http://home.comcast.net/~netaylor1/jo...