My original THE AMULET audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.After being wounded in a military training exercise, Dean Howell returns home to his wife and mother in a vegetative state, his face hidden behind layers of bandages. While Sarah administers to his treatment, in addition to working full-time at the local munitions factory (the same factory that built the rifle that exploded in Dean’s face), his bitter, resentful, and domineering mother, Jo, plots revenge.

Horror done right!!!! Michael McDowell, it’s a damn shame you had to leave this world sooo soon!! Thank you for sharing your stories with us. They are absolutely EXCEPTIONAL!!! Such a talent!! It will be a sad day when I don’t have any more McDowell books to read….BUT… at least I can always reread them!!

Amulet opens with an accomplished sequence of chapters that introduces the reader to Pine Cone, Alabama and its impoverished denizens with all the grace for storytelling that McDowell would later flaunt in Blackwater. Too bad the promise of these early pages dissipates as the tone turns dreary and the narrative grows repetitive. The novel follows two plot threads: One stars poor Sarah who spends her days doing drone work in the local rifle factory and her nights as the personal slave to mummifie...

Once again, thanks to my friend Char for acquainting me with Valancourt Books and authors like Michael McDowell. I love his southern Gothic style, and his characters and stories are marvelous. THE AMULET is a very fine read.

Jo stared at Sarah uncomprehendingly. She was not sure whether to believe her or not. It sounded like a story that Sarah was making up as she went along. “Then how come—” Sarah smiled then.Oh, I think what we have here is a first - a pulp slasher story that I actually enjoyed!This is not one of McDowell's best: there were large parts that I found repetitive but I know that they were necessary to show the extent to which the amulet's evil has spread throughout the small town of Pine Cone. Or has

Well this was disappointing. When you buckle down to read a 1979 horror pulp paperback you’re probably not expecting an intro (actually, a good-sized portion of the book) with descriptions of a small Alabama town and some of the families in it and their recent history. And you would certainly not expect it to be the best part of the book! When the simple but effective story finally kicked off, I thought I was in for a treat. Unfortunately, the proceedings are repeated time after another with ver...

This book was a good time! It contained all the good over-the-top-ness of 80's horror. (Technically this book was originally published in 1979, but I'm calling it 80's horror anyway. So sue me.)This is another book by Mr. McDowell that was allowed to go out of print, but was brought back by Valancourt Books. (Another being the phenomenal book, The Elementals. ) With an introduction by Poppy Z. Brite (which I recommend you read AFTER you've finished the book), this novel was a tasty treat that I

I could kick myself for getting rid of my copy of this book decades ago. McDowell's books are sometimes hard to find because most are out of out of print. I used to get a thrill any time I found one of his books in a second hand book store. This is a book set in Alabama about the terrible things that befall a small southern town when the townsfolk are in possession of an amulet. If you've read "The Monkey's Paw," you'll get the gist of what this story is about.

The Amulet starts off a little slow but then kicks up into high gear. A rifle accident has left Dean Howell in a corpse like state. Dean's wife Sarah, must take care of him and her useless mother in law. Jo Howell will not get off her lazy butt to help Sarah at all. Jo is very demanding and ruthless to Sarah! After a full day of work, Sarah must come home and make dinner and do any other chores that need to be done. The rifle that put Dean in this corpse like state, was made in his home of Pine

4.5 Stars!I listened to this one on audio and I loved it. I could see the death a comin' and yet I could not look away. I wanted to see what would happen next. I knew it was going to be bloody. Real bloody. I still wanted it to come. And come it did. Raining down in spades.

Almost 4.5/5.0 stars, not quite enough to round up to 5, but still very good 80's horror (well, 1979 is close enough in my book...). I've read multiple of Michael McDowell's books now, and I continue to enjoy his writing style. The Southern Gothic feel to all of his stories (Ok, this one is almost all Southern and very little Gothic..) is so strong and so different than anything else I normally read that it lends a fascination to the story that keeps me enthralled. This book did have its slow mo...

The Amulet was a wilder ride than I expected, and I was fully engaged from cover to cover. I couldn't help but think of the Final Destination movies as I read this, but Michael McDowell pulls of scenarios in a much classier way without getting silly. There was a fully developed sense of dread and foreshadowing that stayed fresh throughout despite the repetition of certain events. The writing was top notch with vivid descriptions and believable characters. I was slightly disappointed that some th...

This was a really fun listen! I loved the narrator--her voice for the evil old witch who was creating all the mayhem was so creepy and authentic. I'm Southern born and raised, and have lots of relatives from small rural towns who have very pronounced drawls. The narrator's rendition of these characters was spot-on. The tale itself was suspenseful, gory, with a healthy dose of black humor thrown in for good measure. People died--LOTS of people died--and their deaths ranged from the mundane (gunsh...

THIS BOOK WAS GREAT! Sarah's husband, Dean, has been drafted and is currently in training when there's a terrible accident. A riffle that just happened to be made at the plant Sarah works at, explodes in his face. He is sent home after a brief stay in the hospital. he is in a vegetative state. His mother, Jo (which i'm convinced is a relative of Delores Umbridge cause she's that awful) is a constant nag to Sarah. One of his friends comes to visit and all hell is unleashed. Jo blames this man

4.5 stars

I finished this book in August, but couldn't find my rating up here.THE AMULET was a superb, mysteriously supernatural novel by Michael McDowell. Both his characterization and atmosphere of this small town were wonderfully descriptive. While the title alone gives knowledge of what this book is about, it's the everyday occurrences, and interactions between the characters that fully bring the story to life. Captivating from first to last page, with an ending that will have you thinking for some ti...

Most horror fans may not know of this prolific author, who penned some of the most memorable paperback originals in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, before his untimely death. McDowell even enjoyed Hollywood acclaim as a screenwriter, most notably writing Nightmare Before Christmas.In his debut novel, THE AMULET, starts off slow, but much of this is McDowell's intent to completely set the scene and setting: late 60s Alabama, the town of Pine Cone, and how many of the townspeople work in the munition...

If ever there was an author you wished had been more prolific in there work I think for me, Michael McDowell would certainly be at the top of the list. I love the Blackwater series and regularly re-read it. So when it comes to his other works (which as you no doubt have realised are painfully few) I relish them all and the Amulet is no exception.This for me is what horror is all about, don't me wrong I am not squeamish and a little blood and guts in the right place really do have an impact but i...

Even after 42 years...this book is STILL one of my favorites in the Horror genre! It was just as great as the first time I read it.....McDowell NEVER lets you down. Get ready to to experience the horror of a piece of 'Killer Jewelry'! I LOVED it; AGAIN. I have read this now 4 times, and I am sure I will read it again before something kills me. Michael McDowell has always been one of my all time favorite horror authors, and always will be. I sometimes wonder if he would not have died as young and...

Sometimes you’re just wrong. Michael McDowell probably figured that his books would be his legacy. After all, Stephen King called him “the finest writer of paperback originals in America” and said he was “a writer for the ages.” Surely literary immortality was assured by his two screenplays for Tim Burton, Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Collecting funerary ephemera was just a hobby. By now McDowell been dead for 15 years and his books are long forgotten while his massive “Death