Buchanan Bloodbath Book

Definitely not one of John Sauls better works. But if you are a fan of 'werewolf' or creature features, this is a MUST read.

Check out my video book review of this book here from my YouTube Channel; AreYouIntoHorror here:


I originally read this back in 1990, and did not like it at all, however now that I am older and thoughts have changed about what is creepy, scary or disturbing, I gave this a 3.4 star read. Saul has always been one of if not my favorite horror / suspense horror writers and this would have been and or seemed like his homage to the old 'Wolfman' and 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' movies that we grew up on.

Silverdale Colorado is a small and PERFECT town.....so perfect that their high school football and sports teams NEVER lose a game. The Tanner family move to Silverdale from Southern California due to 16 year old Mark's father has gotten a work promotion to work at Turren Tech, the company that owns most of and literally runs the town of Silverdale. Mark was stricken with a childhood illness that left him shorter and more weakened than other kids his age, and not being an outgoing young boy, he is the perfect victim of shool bullying......and I mean to the MAX! Once they move to Silverdale, and Mark's dad starts working, he is started to get bullied by his father and hassled to 'go out for sports, why not even the Football team!!?' Nope. Mark would rather take care of his rabbits and his large dog Chivas.....his lifelong best friend.

The football season opens for the fall year, and at the first game one of Silverdales teammates goes out of control and gets into a fight and injures another team mate so badly that the boy is put upon life support, and Mark and his mother start to notice everything is not normal and Perfect in Silverdale.

This book is very well written, and disturbing in parts of gruesome murders and of the depiction of the pathetic 'Creature' of its title. It deals with the extreme consequences of the use of Anabolic Steroids and growth hormones used in high school sports, which was extremely and widely used in the 80's and 90's. But this is taken to the point of creating monsters. It moves extremely fast and the pages fly as fast as you can turn them, however dont expect a horrifyingly creepy ghost story or serial killer in the making book as Saul was so expertly and well known for, this is a very sad and disturbing look at human evil and the acceptance in today's society.