I loved the thought of a man who inspired Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker to write their famous books about Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dracula. That's really the very thing that made me want to read the book. It sounded so mysterious and fascinating and I love books that incorporate real authors into the story.

The Only Child is an interesting story about a woman that finds herself targeted by a man who says he is 200-years old and that he is her father. She doubts his story, but then something happens that makes her take off to Europe to find out the truth. Could this man really be who he says he is?

I found the book, at the beginning very interesting and the clues he left for Lily throughout Europe, pieces of his history, about his beginning and how he met the famous authors was interesting reading about. However, the later part of the story, with Lily finding out that that there are people out there who wants to capture the man just didn't work for me that much. I felt that storyline was not especially surprising and frankly it was a bit boring instead of thrilling to read about how they tried to catch him. I did like the ending, but at the same time was it not an especially shocking surprise that it would end the way it did. However, at least made the book end on a high note.

The Only Child is a good book, but the story was best the first half when Lily was learning more about the man who said to be her father, then when the table turned and suddenly the great organizations or whatever was after him just didn't work for me, but at least the ending was good.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review! ( )

Pyper doesn't write your standard horror. It's a little quieter, a lot more "thinking man's" horror. But, without spoiling anything, I can say, this is likely the best damn books he's written since Lost Girls.

And, while he's still firmly into more quiet horror—thinking man's horror—this time, he definitely raises the stakes. He brings the action.

Despite one of the cover blurbs' proclamation that Pyper could be the next Stephen King—of which I completely disagree, along with damn near every single other author that's been touted as the next King—I think Pyper's definitely coming into his own. He'll never be Stephen King, but he'll be Andrew Pyper.

And that ain't a bad thing. ( )

Surprisingly, I found this book a compelling read but not too scary, just creepy. It is not something I would normally pick up but the premise caught my attention. From the start, I was hooked. There was certainly a feeling of dread in the first half of the book which had me wanting to read 'just one more chapter.' I loved how Michael was the inspiration for three of the most infamous monsters in literary history - Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Michael's backstory was very atmospheric and I found his character far more interesting than Lily's, who was a fairly uninspirational character.

After a great start, which pulled me right in, "The Only Child" became more of a cat and mouse novel, especially in the final third of the book, which had me on the edge of my seat. As for the ending, it was prefect! An entertaining, physiological thriller. ( )

When Dr Lily Domick was six-years-old, her mother was killed, ripped apart possibly by a bear – except, if it was a bear, why didn’t it eat the body and why are there no tracks leading to and away from their door. Lily has had to carry the trauma and these questions ever since. It is only made worse when she is assigned to a new patient, one who is charged with a particularly violent crime and who specifically asks for her. He not only admits to the charge but also tells her he knows what really happened to her mother. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase as he leads her to Hungary and forces her to confront not only him but her past.

I’m not sure what I expected when I started The Only Child by Andrew Pyper but this definitely wasn’t it. It started out well, grabbed my attention quickly but unfortunately lost it just as quickly. For one thing, I didn’t much care for Lily or Michael or, well, pretty much anybody. Or perhaps, as others have noted, her feelings towards her ‘father’ were just a bit too creepy. Or perhaps, as Hitchcock pointed out, it’s not the bang but the anticipation of it that makes a good thriller or horror story and here the bang is revealed too early in the tale. Not only that but it just seems to ramble all over the place once it is revealed. I kept putting it down and picking it up days later hoping it would get back to the promise of the first pages. I hoped the ending would save it for me but truth be told, my willing suspension of disbelief was just not up to the challenge of this book.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )

This has to be the weirdest book I've read in a long time, although something compelled me to continue reading to the end. Was very disappointed in the ending, even though I was hoping end would save the book from being a total waste of my time. ( )