The Visitors by Catherine Burns is a psychological thriller that has a good start, stumbles in between, and collapses by the end. The storyline is good, but the climax was so illogical that it spoiled everything. Marion's character was good, and while reading, you are going to feel pity for her. But, in the later half, her character was so annoying. Actually, the whole plot is just about Marion. I could not see much about other characters, which would have boosted interest. And the climax ruined the last hope I had. The book deserves 2 stars, and I definitely would not recommend it to anyone. ( )

A great, weird read for a cold and rainy Saturday ( )

Lots of suspense and it’s a very hard book to put down once you start reading. Very well written and I really enjoyed it .
I will be keeping my eye out for other Catherine Burns's novels now. ( )

Marion and her brother John live together in their childhood home, in a seaside tourist town in Northern England. Their parents died decades ago, but stupid, dependent Marion never left home, never experienced life, and is now regretting it. John had been a teacher but was fired and came home with his reputation ruined.
He's an angry, manipulative man who Marion both loves and fears, just as she feared everyone in her family. She is also frightened every time she hears those screams that come from the cellar, where John spends his time teaching math and science to the Eastern European women he tricks into coming to their house.
This story is told by Marion in her own memories and viewpoint, of her childhood with her cold parents who preferred their intelligent, deviant son over spineless Marion, and her shame over having nothing to love but stuffed animals. Marion takes the reader from pity to horror, and we see that she's more like her brother than she will admit. Highly recommended. ( )

It is October and we are getting closer to Halloween. Like most readers, I begin to get into the mood for creepy, scary horror stories. My focus is more the creepy than the gory, so I look for the thrillers and the tense books. When I read the description of The Visitors, I knew this was the right October book.

There is something happening in Marion’s basement. She has heard cries for “Help,” babies crying, and other noises that occur throughout the day. Her brother John is the only other occupant in the house though. He goes downstairs each night and doesn’t tend to return until morning. Marion relies on John because she is not the brightest person, so she ignores the noises she hears.

Marion and John have lived in the house for their entire lives. Their parents had high hopes for John, but not many hopes for Marion. They would travel together and be a family together. Their father would often be with John, while Marion sat with her mother. Marion has seen her father do strange things too, but chose to ignore them, just like her mother did.

As the novel progresses, John has a minor accident which causes him to go to the hospital. Marion must now care for John’s projects in the basement. What will Marion see and what will she do?

This book has creep factor written all through it. There is no guessing what John is up to at all, but the story is the lead up to how we got to this situation. While John is the outright psychopath, the fun of the book is figuring out Marion. She is not an innocent, even though she believes she is. It is this tense line that keeps the book going well.

The entire book is told from Marion’s perspective. She is a pretty unreliable narrator in that she constantly convinces herself that she is innocent in everything and is just a simple woman. It is her unraveling and her leaps to make herself innocent while she justifies her and John’s evil deeds that keeps the book moving. She is not an innocent though and glimpses of that begin to appear in her story too with the thought- are you evil too, when your brother is more evil? Comparative evilness.

This book will not be for everyone. Marion is not treated well by her family or John. She is often verbally abused by her parents and sibling, but she doesn’t always see it that way. We also journey into the basement and see up close what John has in there. This is not an easy scene. It is good solid October horror though and just right for the season.

I gave this one 3.5 stars. ( )