Seed

A mixed bag for me. I think the dialogue and some of the observations were great, they rang true. But the parents, in particular, were all over the map in terms of thoughts and motivations. Scenes that were great in isolation made no sense in context – the story had moved beyond the characters' reactions. They seemed to forget things they knew. There's are reasons that Jack, the father character, behaves different than you'd expect, but even beyond that he seemed to be just doing things to service the plot.

But the author seems to have an innate ability to identify what's scary. And that strong, realistic dialogue goes a long way.

Nearly every character had a name that appears in Stephen King stories, and I wonder if that was deliberate, or King is just so prolific and has had so many characters, that it would be hard not to “match” him.

As a horror fan, and an animal fan, I am sick of the animals always dying. Look, I know it's horror, and all bets are off, but the only suspense created by a dog or cat appearing in horror is when exactly it will die, and how brutal the death will be. This takes away some of the enjoyment and surprise, because I can never relax when the animal is in a scene, always completely on guard, so there is no shock, just a sense of inevitability. Pets rarely serve any other purpose in these movies or novels, unlike real life. So, here is the book for me: Wonder how long the dog will live. Oh, look, flashbacks with a cat. Wonder how long the cat will last. Goodbye, kitty. Goodbye, dog. I get that this shows the horrific force aint screwing around, but it's now cliche. Not mad at the author, mad at the cliche.