I have been a big fan of Saul's work since I was a kid and after decades of reading his work, I have to give Faces of Fear a less than stellar rating. The first half of the book feels like someone else wrote it, but towards the end it picked up considerably. The story was mild and extremely predictable, but still good enough to have you wondering who the bad guy(s) were. It seems he was in an awful big hurry with this one and much of it reads like it was just thrown together. The "OH MY" moments were far and few between but they were there. A surprise or two was thrown in. However I do feel that he achieved his point with this story. Plastic Surgery, self esteem and the overall shallowness that goes along with privileged people. Good for a quick read. Try not to base opinions of his work on this novel. He can and does much better. And not to judge a book by it's cover, but come on...a bestselling author should have the clout to do better. Very generic. ( )

Probably the worst Saul book I have read, but it was at least good enough to finish. ( )

How is it a book about plastic surgery is all about men? Fail, John Saul, fail. ( )

AUTHOR: Saul, John
TITLE: Faces of Fear
DATE READ: 10/09/14
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Horror-Suspense/2007/Random House/394 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: S/A
TIME/PLACE: Present/Southern California
CHARACTERS: Alison Shaw 15-yrs old; Risa Shaw: mother & realtor; Michael Shaw; Alison's father and newspaper journalist; Dr. Conrad Dunn; plastic surgeon & Alison's step-father
FIRST LINES: Alison Shaw felt good. Really good. She made the final turn around the smooth cinder track w/ long, easy strides.
COMMENTS: It's been awhile since I've read a John Saul book but I have read most of them over the years. Most of them involve the supernatural and are classified as horror and some are more suspenseful than horror but have elements of horror. Faces of Fear has undertones of horror -- certainly this book can instill fear & terror by what is going on. Alison is an average girl living in Santa Monica -- a nice area of S. CA, but in comparison to Beverly Hills it is low key. She has her friends here and enjoys her school but when her parents separate -- her father leaves her mother for another man, her world is changed. Her parents eventually realize they are better suited as friends and divorce. Her mother is a career woman and becomes involved w/ Dr. Dunn -- a very famous plastic surgeon to the area's celebrities. When they marry, Alison starts at a new school The Academy and moves into a mansion in Beverly Hills. She is not so sure about all of this but is soon adapting and accepting of this different lifestyle … even going as far as to want breast augmentation for her 16th birthday. Her friends from before are horrified but the current ones have all had multiple surgical enhancements. At this time there is a serial killer in the area who is honing in on one feature of each woman he kills. One murder involves the removal of the ears, another a nose and so on. There are several things very unnatural and disturbing about these killings -- in addition to the surgical removal of one body part there is also the removal of certain glands. There is no doubt that Dr. Dunn is somehow involved but the suspense and surprise lies in who his accomplice is and then even more so in the true identity of this person and also in what the intentions were to for these body parts. A good read and a reminder why I have enjoyed reading Saul over the years. ( )

Loved the book, even though it only got 3 star review on Amazon. It captured me from the beginning.  The ending was a little bit fast. It's the first book I read from John Saul and liked it so much that I will read more from him. ( )