4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better Than What We've Seen, July 12 2005
By Dan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Nightmare On Elm Street #1: Suffer The Children (Mass Market Paperback)
"Suffer the Children", the first in a new series of Elm Street novels, tells the story of 6 teens and their encounter with dream stalker Freddy Krueger after testing a new anti-insomnia drug. This book is so much better than what we've gotten on the big screen with the last couple of Nightmare films (excluding New Nightmare, simply for its originality and wonderful story), and blows Freddy vs. Jason out of the water. The characters are developed wonderfully (moreso than anyone in Nightmares 4-6 and FvJ), they're given interesting backgrounds, and though they're labled with stereotypes, they're real kids with one common problem, and their social backgrounds fade away fast when they realize they need to bond together. Freddy is much more crass and morbid in this novel than he ever was on-screen, using the word "bitch" at least 40 times. Elm Street takes on a whole new atmosphere, becoming more of a real place and less of the surreal world it's been made to be in the last sequels. The dream sequences are laid out fantastically, and there are plenty of "trick" awakenings (a character "wakes up" but is still dreaming) to keep you on the edge also. The gore is fantastically described and the deaths aren't comic like they are on the big screen. The story is well planned (though you can pretty much figure out the jist of what's going on in the big picture about half-way to 3/4ths of the way through the book, if you look for the signs), and it ends teriffically, opening the door to a whole new reign of terror on Elm Street...
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A lame attempt and an insult to intelligent Elm Street fans, Aug 22 2005
By Sean Seymour - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Nightmare On Elm Street #1: Suffer The Children (Mass Market Paperback)
I am a big fan of the Nightmare on Elm St. films, so I was very excited to see that there were some new books based on the series. However, "Suffer the Children" left me extremely disappointed. It read like a checklist of every Elm Street cliche in the book. Abusive parents, cardboard cutout teenagers, nightmares within nightmares...what a bore. David Bishop totally phoned this one in. All the "surprises" were easy to see a mile away, and Freddy's vocabulary consisted of lame catch phrases with every sentence ending with "bitch". The only reason I kept reading was because I was holding on to the slim hope that it would eventually get better.
Do yourself a favor and skip this and go straight to the next book by Christa Faust. Or read Bishop's one first to see what a horrible job he did.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
awesome, Mar 18 2007
A Kid's Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Nightmare On Elm Street #1: Suffer The Children (Mass Market Paperback)
im 12 years old read that book in ten days. best book ever! if ur not an elm street fan dont read it its not for you. Its a gory book to read and freddy has some awesome lines in the book. i do plan on reading this again