Item: The Devil's Labyrinth
Rating: 4.00
Author: thespookybookshelf

by John Saul

Teri McIntyre has enrolled her 15-year-old son at St Isaac's Catholic boarding school, hoping this venerable institution will have a calming influence on him. But Ryan arrives to find the school awash with rumours of violent death, mysterious disappearances, and a growing incidence of disturbing behavior within its hallowed halls.

Things begin to change after Father Sebastian joins the faculty, bent on an extraordinary mission to prove the power of exorcism. Willing or not, St. Isaac's most troubled students become pawns in Father Sebastian's one-man war against evil -- a war so surprisingly effective that Rome itself starts taking notice.

But as Ryan is drawn ever more deeply into Father Sebastian's ministrations, he witnesses with mounting dread the transformations of his fellow pupils, and his certainty grows that it is forces of darkness, not divinity, which are at work here. For evil is not being cast out . . . instead, something unholy is being summoned. Something whose hour has finally come to bring hell unto earth.

I just finished “The Devil’s Labyrinth” by John Saul. As with most of his books, it involved evil possessing a child or teenager. This time it involves a teenage boy named Ryan who got beat up at his high school and ended up being sent to the private St. Isaac’s Preparatory Academy. There he meets up with Father Sebastian Sloane, a Catholic priest who has had some “success” in helping troubled teens. This priest has been noticed by the Vatican for his successes.

The only problem is, he uses “exorcism” that isn’t really an exorcism and the Pope has noticed. He arranges for a visit to the Boston school but he’s about to get more than he bargained for. Father Sebastian isn’t all he seems. Luckily, Ryan, with a little help from his deceased father and a gift his father left for him, can help foil the plot.

The only disappointing thing was that the book’s “climax” came at the very end and frankly, wasn’t all that great. The book was great and I could hardly put it down, but it just didn’t have the same thrilling climax that John Saul’s books usually have. Now I’m not sure if it’s because he’s written 34 novels (more actually because there’s at least one more after this book) and he’s running out of steam, or if it was just a fluke. Of course, every writer has at least one book that doesn’t live up to expectations, so I guess this one was it.

The Devil's Labyrinth

by John Saul

Reviewed by Charli G. on Sep 7, 2008

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