Shrine: Now a Major Film Called The Unholy – the Novel Is Even More Terrifying

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While all the world believes Alice is the reincarnation of the virgin, there are signs that she may in fact be possessed by something sinister and evil. She also started to be the source of a number of other miracles, and so people started flocking to the little village that she lived in to get a little slice of that miracle pie.

I’d certainly rate this effort above The Fog but Herbert still hasn’t really justified his popularity for me yet – he’s getting better though! At this point I want to jump in and point out however that along with many other authors, James Herbert's books developed and changed through the years - his early books where very visceral and tactile - sometimes at the expense of characterisation, but as the years went on he would mature and start to take on a more subtle and restrained approach and in some ways even more terrifying style. But all is not as it seems and there is an evil lurking underneath it all ready to exact its terrible revenge. A deaf-mute girl recovers her hearing and sight upon seeing a vision of a woman in white – a vision who proclaims herself the Immaculate Conception.

He also held off on revealing any answers until right at the end, and so you kind of have to keep on reading to satisfy your curiosity. She now seems to embrace the sudden media attention, basking in the cameras and teeming throngs of desperate believers fighting for a glimpse of the miracle girl.

I’m also a sucker for any book that has elements of religious horror, and this definitely ticked the boxes, being almost reminiscent of The Exorcist.Some of the most spectacular and haunting novels have come from reworking, redesigning and reinventing classic ideas. SPOILER) I liked the story behind the nun's revenge, though the actual revenge itself was quite a let-down regardless if it was completed or not. The girl’s village is shocked as she starts performing miracles and the site of the visitation becomes a shrine.