Author: Andrew Pyper

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My Review of Dan Brown’s Inferno

I reviewed Dan Brown’s latest, Inferno, over at the National Post.  Given the embargoes and secrecy and rules surrounding the release of the book, I ended up with about 24 hours to read and write about it, so the whole thing’s a bit of a blur.  Then again, I think Dan Brown books are meant to be blurs.  Puzzle-packed and jetting around and not knowing quite what the hell is going on but that’s okay, you don’t really have to.

You’ve got to hand it to him, though:  he’s found his thing, and nobody does it like he does.  And as they say of a certain beer here in Canada – the one I drink, as a matter of fact: “Those who like it, like it a lot.”

Review of Inferno – National Post

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Sunny Day News

 

It’s a sunny day here where I am, at home, just returned from a really great morning delivering back to back keynote speeches to Writers Craft high school students in Niagara.  They were very sweet and smart and it was an inspiration to spend time with them.

And then I return home to two nice bits of news.  First, The Demonologist is on The Globe and Mail Canadian Bestseller List for an 8th straight week (at #9, and #2 among hardcovers)!  And the book also gets a great notice in the Hamilton Spectator:

“The pace heats up in the first chapter and stays to the climax. This is storytelling that transcends the boundaries of genre: mystery (a vanished child), thriller (evil), a page-turner. It’s beautifully written, with layer upon layer of fear, redemption and deep feelings rarely expressed in a fiction.  The Demonologist should not be missed.” — Don Graves, Hamilton Spectator

The Demonologist – Hamilton Spectator

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The Demonologist – 8 Weeks!

It’s a sunny day here in Toronto.  That wouldn’t be such a remarkable claim except that the preceding hundred days have felt like they’ve been covered with a grey canvas tarp.  But hey, I’m not complaining, because the sun is here now…

…AND The Demonologist is on the Maclean’s Bestseller List here in Canada for an 8th straight week!  Maybe I’ll celebrate by actually going outside and feeling some of that sunshine on my face.

The Demonologist on the Canadian Bestseller List – Week #8

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Thriller of the Week in the Mail on Sunday

What a great way to push back against a gloomy Monday morning: waking to see that The Demonologist was chosen by the Mail on Sunday (UK) as its Thriller of the Week!

“[The Demonologist] is a chilling exploration of how we all have to do battle with our own demons.” – Mail on Sunday (UK)

 

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The Art of Scaring by Caring

I’ve written a column for the Review section of The Wall Street Journal, published today, about writing horror.  It’s 700 or so words, and therefore is something less than an exhaustive discussion of the topic (!), but I feel there’s truth in the gist of it.  And what’s the gist?

“The most effective horror writing turns not on the scarer but the scaree: The personal motivations of the character going down into a dark cellar makes a scene frightening and involving, not what he ends up seeing—or perhaps being devoured by—at the bottom of the stairs.”

To illustrate the point I use examples from some scare masters, namely Henry James, Ira Levin and Stephen King, along with some schmuck named Pyper.

You can check out the whole thing here:

“The Art of Scaring by Caring” – The Wall Street Journal

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Seventh Week for The Demonologist!

This is awesome:  The Demonologist is on the Maclean’s Bestseller List for a seventh straight week today!

And in other news, I spoke to students at Sir John A. Macdonald High School in downtown Hamilton this morning and they were great.  Smart and open and they made me feel so welcome.  Thank you.

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If You Need a Good Laugh Today

Here’s a link to the cover of my first “published” book, The Dream.  I was in Grade Five.  (For the biggest laugh – entirely at my own expense – note, in particular, the author’s photo on the back cover.)

Okay, I was a nerd.  Am a nerd.  When you’re born that way, you’ve got no choice but to wear it with pride.

The Dream – By Andrew Pyper, Grade Five

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The Demonologist in the Daily Mail and Sunday Telegraph

The Demonologist is out this week in the UK, and the first couple reviews I’ve seen have been very kind.  Here’s bits from the ones I’ve seen in the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail.

“A stunningly crafted, intelligent and moving horror story… There is an elegance to the storytelling and a command of what evil may mean, that lingers with you long after the end. No surprise that it is development as a major film.” — Daily Mail (UK)

“Milton’s demons pervade The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper.  Speaking through the possessed and dead, they hold a professor’s daughter hostage, wanting him to work for them. Just how emerges slowly during a road tour of America.  Gothic grotesquery. Effective, literate, nightmarish.” — Sunday Telegraph