Cottam Frazer Lee Gary Fry Gary McMahon Gord Rollo Graham Masterton Guy N. Grant Christopher Fulbright Claire North Clare McNally Cliff Twemlow Conrad Williams Dan Simmons David Anne David Bernstein David Lippincott David Mitchell David Morrell David Osborn Dean Koontz Douglas Borton Douglas Clegg E.G. Talley Brian Keene Brian Lumley Brian Moreland Charles L. A novel of the eighties with a timeless sense of horror.Īdam Nevill Andrew Neiderman Anne Rivers Siddons Bentley Little Bernard Taylor Brett J. Needless to say Pin is a fantastic novel, with subject matter so original it seems both completely modern and classic at the same time. Although a piece of plastic will speak, there’s nothing supernatural here, it’s all a bit creepier and a lot more unwholesome. Why are the kids so twisted, why are Leon’s emotions so stilted? Probably because they were brought up in a weird home by unfeeling parents, and one of the kids had a touch of (probably inherited) mental illness to begin with. The subject matter might be sensational, but it’s told in a calm, detached manner befitting Pin’s mental landscape, a mindset increasingly shared by Leon the obviously unreliable narrator.

The same coolness permeates the whole novel, despite the gothic overtones ripe for excess.

Pin, meanwhile, remains cool and collected, an emotionless, slightly psychotic piece of plastic with opinions to match. And sometimes Leon wants Pin to participate.īeing the more balanced sibling, Ursula the older daughter later forms a relationship with an affable outsider, Stan, which of course triggers murderous jealousy in Leon. The kids are soon having sex left and right, and occasionally have some questionable experiences with each other as well. The same ingredients can be found here, with the doctor regaling the kids with his theories about “the Need” that needs to be fulfilled. Andrews and her gothic family sagas featuring mansions and kids having incestual sex. Neiderman is probably best known as the ghost writer for V.C. After the now teenage kids’ parents die in an accident, they’re left on their own devices and Leon’s obsession with Pin escalates. For the son, Leon, the lines of reality and imagination begin to blur and soon he’s having conversations with Pin on his own. At first it’s a bit of harmless fun, but it soon gets increasingly cringeworthy. It’s a deeply odd and gothic story and Neiderman hits it out of the park.īrought up by a well-meaning but profoundly misguided father and a remote, slightly unhinged mom, the kids get to know Pin the doll, short for Pinocchio, when their dad the doctor uses his skills for ventriloquism to make him speak at his office. Two kids form a strange bond with a partly see-through anatomical doll, discovering sex and violence in the process.

Pin by andrew neiderman