If You Could See Me Now

By: Peter Straub

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

One summer night, a boy and his beautiful cousin plunge naked into the moonlit waters of a rural quarry. Twenty years later, the boy, now grown, flees the wreckage of his life and returns to Arden, Wisconsin, in search of everything he has lost.

But for Miles Teagarden, the landscape he had known so well has turned eerie and threatening. And the love he shared has become very, very deadly . . .

Critic reviews

"ELECTRIFYING."
--STEPHEN KING

"COMPULSIVE READING . . . MARVELOUS ATMOSPHERE, SUSPENSE, AND A TRULY GRAND GUIGNOL ENDING."
--DOROTHY EDEN
Author of Sleep in the Woods

"STRAUB IS TERRIFYINGLY ACCOMPLISHED IN THE ART OF HORROR."
--Entertainment Weekly

"A FINE STORYTELLER."
--The Washington Post

DNF

nothing appealing in Miles. I do not care for story lines that require alcohol for dramatic effect. Loved the regional accents

sense of humor in horror

Straub can set up some quietly humorous situations and dialogue that doesn't derail the scare.

Doesn't make sense

I used to be a big fan in the 70s, but today I think it's a little outdated.

Twist and turns in a midwestern town

I appreciate a slow burn, but this felt very slow. it was a good story, just slow paced.

A decent Peter Straub novel ! Tell your friends !

If there is one theme in common with most Peter Straub novels is most people don't like them. Count me among them. The best I can say is I slogged my way through 'Koko' and can't tell you a single thing about it except Vietnam. Peter were you in Vietnam by any chance ? Amazing as it may seem most of us weren't and found our own understandings of that war. What I'm saying is we don't turn to our horror authors to enlighten us. Also it's not exactly relatable and what makes a scary story scary - the warping of what is familiar, relatable is important. One of the best examples of this is 'Ghost Story'. By Peter Straub. He does for upstate New York what Ramsey Campbell does for Liverpool. Reality refuses to stay still and every sentence has dark and menacing undertones.
Without giving too much away because I can't (not done yet) IYCSMN has that same atmosphere of paranoia and nothing being quite what it seems. This time the setting is rural Wisconsin and, though I've never been, Straub fills it with character and unique regional traits. It may not be 'Ghost Story' but it's clearly the same author and not the writer of those awful doorstops we all tried to read.'Mr X' 'Mystery' 'The Throat' :A Dark Place'. Ugh to them all. Yes The Talisman is great (maybe King helped a bit) but I don't hear many who'd say the same about 'Black House' which totally crushed my high expectations. So I hope Straub gets his mojo back before it's too late. Meanwhile read this from when he was good and winding up for 'Ghost Story'.