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The Other
Entranced and terrified, the reader of The Other is swept up in the life of a Connecticut country town in the thirties—and in the fearful mysteries that slowly darken and overwhelm it.
Originally published in 1971, The Other is one of the most influential horror novels ever written. Its impeccable recreation of small-town life and its skillful handling of the theme of personality transference between thirteen-year-old twins led to widespread critical acclaim for the novel, which was successfully filmed from Thomas Tryon's own screenplay.
This edition features original artwork by surrealist artist Harry O. Morris.
Originally published in 1971, The Other is one of the most influential horror novels ever written. Its impeccable recreation of small-town life and its skillful handling of the theme of personality transference between thirteen-year-old twins led to widespread critical acclaim for the novel, which was successfully filmed from Thomas Tryon's own screenplay.
This edition features original artwork by surrealist artist Harry O. Morris.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
807 people are currently reading
30332 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Tryon
36 books292 followersIt was Noel Coward’s partner, Gertrude Lawrence, who encouraged Tom to try acting. He made his Broadway debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Wish You Were Here. He also worked in television at the time, but as a production assistant. In 1955, he moved to California to try his hand at the movies, and the next year made his film debut in The Scarlet Hour (1956). Tom was cast in the title role of the Disney TV series Texas John Slaughter (1958) that made him something of a household name. He appeared in several horror and science fiction films: I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) and Moon Pilot (1962) and in westerns: Three Violent People (1956) and Winchester '73 (1967). He was part of the all-star cast in The Longest Day (1962), a film of the World War II generation, credited with saving 20th Century Fox Studios, after the disaster of Cleopatra. He considered his best role to be in In Harm's Way (1965), which is also regarded as one of the better films about World War II.
While filming the title role in The Cardinal (1962), Tom suffered from Otto Preminger's Teutonic directing style and became physically ill. Nevertheless, Tom was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1963. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe in her final film, Something's Got to Give (1962), but the studio fired Monroe after three weeks, and the film was never finished. That experience, along with the Cardinal ordeal, left Tom wary of studio games and weary at waiting around for the phone to ring.
After viewing the film Rosemary's Baby (1968), Tom was inspired to write his own horror novel, and in 1971 Alfred Knopf published The Other. It became an instant bestseller and was turned into a movie in 1972, which Tom wrote and produced. Thereafter, despite occasional film and TV offers, Tom gave up acting to write fiction full-time. This he did eight to ten hours a day, with pencil, on legal-sized yellow tablets. Years later, he graduated to an IBM Selectric.
The Other was followed by Lady (1975), which concerns the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a mysterious widow in 1930s New England. His book Crowned Heads became an inspiration for the Billy Wilder film Fedora (1978), and a miniseries with Bette Davis was made from his novel Harvest Home (1978). All That Glitters (1986), a quintette of stories about thinly disguised Hollywood greats and near-greats followed. Night of the Moonbow (1989), tells of a boy driven to violence by the constant harassment he endures at a summer camp. Night Magic, about an urban street magician with wondrous powers, written shortly before his death in 1991, was posthumously published in 1995. The dust jackets and end papers of Tom's books, about which he took unusual care, are excellent examples of his gifts as an artist and graphic designer, further testimony to the breadth of his talents.
While filming the title role in The Cardinal (1962), Tom suffered from Otto Preminger's Teutonic directing style and became physically ill. Nevertheless, Tom was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1963. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe in her final film, Something's Got to Give (1962), but the studio fired Monroe after three weeks, and the film was never finished. That experience, along with the Cardinal ordeal, left Tom wary of studio games and weary at waiting around for the phone to ring.
After viewing the film Rosemary's Baby (1968), Tom was inspired to write his own horror novel, and in 1971 Alfred Knopf published The Other. It became an instant bestseller and was turned into a movie in 1972, which Tom wrote and produced. Thereafter, despite occasional film and TV offers, Tom gave up acting to write fiction full-time. This he did eight to ten hours a day, with pencil, on legal-sized yellow tablets. Years later, he graduated to an IBM Selectric.
The Other was followed by Lady (1975), which concerns the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a mysterious widow in 1930s New England. His book Crowned Heads became an inspiration for the Billy Wilder film Fedora (1978), and a miniseries with Bette Davis was made from his novel Harvest Home (1978). All That Glitters (1986), a quintette of stories about thinly disguised Hollywood greats and near-greats followed. Night of the Moonbow (1989), tells of a boy driven to violence by the constant harassment he endures at a summer camp. Night Magic, about an urban street magician with wondrous powers, written shortly before his death in 1991, was posthumously published in 1995. The dust jackets and end papers of Tom's books, about which he took unusual care, are excellent examples of his gifts as an artist and graphic designer, further testimony to the breadth of his talents.
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July 27, 2018
”Twins? With different birthdays? How unusual. Indeed for identical twins, very. Oh yes, there were the mixed signs, on the cusp, as one says--they should have been more alike; nevertheless, the difference. Holland a Pisces, fish-slippery, now one thing, now another. Niles an Aries, a ram blithely butting at obstacles. Growing side by side, but somehow not together. Strange. Time and again Holland would retreat, Niles pursue, Holland withdraw again, reticent, taciturn, a snail in its shell.”
The Udvarnoky twins play Holland and Niles in the 1972 movie version of the book.
This is yet another entry in my ongoing SALUTE to horror books from the 1970s. For those of you that have traveled these nail biting, shadow ridden, teeth chattering, knee knocking trails with me you are in for a real treat if you DARE to read this book. I’m not going to be able to discuss plot very much because this is a book that the pleasure resides in the building of tension and the twists and turns that slowly reveal the true horror happening at Pequod Landing. I certainly do not want to give away anything that will take away that growing sense of unease you will experience reading this book. The other very pleasant surprise is how well written the book is. It is certainly on par with The Shining and maybe because it has a more gothic bend to the tale the literary value just naturally rises in my eyes. Let me share with you Thomas Tryon’s description of a storm.
”It held off till shortly before eleven. The first-appearing lightning was no more than a snap. Clouds like blue-black ink had spilled out of the west, spreading before the hot wind, now doing violence to the orchard. It hurled apples to the ground like bombs, cracked limbs, scattered leaves in a panic, bowed the long grass as it swept up through the meadow past the barn, shook the tops of the firs, rattled the horse-chestnut tree in a frenzy, punished the grapes in the arbor.
Another flash.
More flashes.
The sound of a shingle splitting, ending with an enormous crack, followed by a low booming roll. Now a lurid light washed the black shapes outside; they glowed eerily. Niles shut his eyes, waiting for the clap to follow. Before it died, the rain came; long shafts like arrows arching down the sky, stinging wet and cold in his face.”
I love the imagery that Tyron conveys here. It brought back memories of Kansas storms from when I was a kid that used to appear on the horizon as black, boiling, menacing, living creatures that would swoop down on us like wraiths hurling hailstones, battering us with rain, and making us shiver with deep booming thunder that would rattle glass and bone.
Movie poster from 1972
So the twins are very different from one another, but their actions allow the adults to tell them apart. Holland is more aggressive, more likely to cause trouble, and Niles is more thoughtful and a constant counter-balance to Holland’s more devious plans.
Holland has a blue-black dot on his ring finger that will prove to be an interesting clue in the novel’s plot. He had been stabbed by his cousin Russell with a pencil and some of the graphite had nestled under the skin creating a tattoo, a dot that will never go away. I too have a blue black graphite dot on my wrist. I was stabbed by Dean P. in fifth grade.
My offense?
My Graphite tattoo from Fifth Grade.
I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dean was a child of varying mood which ranged from just generally pissed off to downright nasty. He came over and sat down beside me and then with one swift motion plunged his pencil into my wrist. I shoved him open handed in the jaw that knocked him off his chair. We came within a whisker of going to see the principal which would have been my second trip that year. There was an earlier incident involving an errantly thrown snowball that I had, with what eloquence I possessed then, to explain. Interesting part of the story is that both Dean and I made the varsity basketball team our junior year in high school and we both started every game together our senior year as well. It was an uneasy alliance, but one that worked born out of a mutual desire to win.
Niles spends a lot of time in reflection, building his imagination, and honing his view of the world. Water and muck are just what they seem to most people, but to Niles....
”He dropped the cattails in a heap and lay on his belly beside them, head hanging over the platform edge, eyes staring meditatively down a the water. It was pleasant there in the shadows. It smelled of coolness, like a fern garden; like the well once had before they sealed it up. From upside down, one piling, gloved with green algae and slime, and larger than the rest, seemed to rear back as though resisting the gray mud that mired it. He squinted, looked hard, saw: primordial ooze, spawning strange beings down below, a race of quasi-lunged, half-legged creatures dragging themselves along the bottom; a world sunless, gloomy, nocturnal, where sunken logs lay, sodden and heavy, poor dead drowned things, and with them, hidden in the murk, savage bloated creatures, mouths wide as shovels, thick lips nuzzling threads of water-whitened ganglia, picking clean of flesh skeletons through whose empty eye-sockets coldly glowing eels wound like night trains, while overhead through the ruined roof, pterodactyls soared the vacant sky.
He drifted,
dreamed;
and dreamed some more.”
Tryon here reminds me think of the bits of Meryvn Peake I’ve read and certainly I can feel Robert Louis Stevenson lurking in the deepest shadows. The book is so much more than I expected.
The Twins have an addiction to Doc Savage books and comics. I remember when I first found a cache of Kenneth Robeson titles with this bronze skinned hero on the cover always with a tattered shirt and lurid graphics to spur the imagination. I read through scads of them and wish I still had those books. I doubt they would hold up well reading them today, but then they were perfect for a boy who wanted to explore the magic of science and the pure pleasure of rooting for Doc Savage to outsmart a myriad of diabolical villains.
A sampling of Doc Savage covers
So you may be able to tell that this book worked on many levels for me. Certainly I am encouraged to read more Tryon and can only hope his other work casts the same spell on me as this one. Highly recommended.
”Things cannot ever be the same again. Not for any of us. Not any more. We sometimes reach a point in our lives where we can’t ever go back again, we have to go on from there. All that was before is past now. It went too far. Everything has gone too far. It must stop, do you see? Now--it must--stop.
No more game?
No. No more game.”
The Udvarnoky twins play Holland and Niles in the 1972 movie version of the book.
This is yet another entry in my ongoing SALUTE to horror books from the 1970s. For those of you that have traveled these nail biting, shadow ridden, teeth chattering, knee knocking trails with me you are in for a real treat if you DARE to read this book. I’m not going to be able to discuss plot very much because this is a book that the pleasure resides in the building of tension and the twists and turns that slowly reveal the true horror happening at Pequod Landing. I certainly do not want to give away anything that will take away that growing sense of unease you will experience reading this book. The other very pleasant surprise is how well written the book is. It is certainly on par with The Shining and maybe because it has a more gothic bend to the tale the literary value just naturally rises in my eyes. Let me share with you Thomas Tryon’s description of a storm.
”It held off till shortly before eleven. The first-appearing lightning was no more than a snap. Clouds like blue-black ink had spilled out of the west, spreading before the hot wind, now doing violence to the orchard. It hurled apples to the ground like bombs, cracked limbs, scattered leaves in a panic, bowed the long grass as it swept up through the meadow past the barn, shook the tops of the firs, rattled the horse-chestnut tree in a frenzy, punished the grapes in the arbor.
Another flash.
More flashes.
The sound of a shingle splitting, ending with an enormous crack, followed by a low booming roll. Now a lurid light washed the black shapes outside; they glowed eerily. Niles shut his eyes, waiting for the clap to follow. Before it died, the rain came; long shafts like arrows arching down the sky, stinging wet and cold in his face.”
I love the imagery that Tyron conveys here. It brought back memories of Kansas storms from when I was a kid that used to appear on the horizon as black, boiling, menacing, living creatures that would swoop down on us like wraiths hurling hailstones, battering us with rain, and making us shiver with deep booming thunder that would rattle glass and bone.
Movie poster from 1972
So the twins are very different from one another, but their actions allow the adults to tell them apart. Holland is more aggressive, more likely to cause trouble, and Niles is more thoughtful and a constant counter-balance to Holland’s more devious plans.
Holland has a blue-black dot on his ring finger that will prove to be an interesting clue in the novel’s plot. He had been stabbed by his cousin Russell with a pencil and some of the graphite had nestled under the skin creating a tattoo, a dot that will never go away. I too have a blue black graphite dot on my wrist. I was stabbed by Dean P. in fifth grade.
My offense?
My Graphite tattoo from Fifth Grade.
I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dean was a child of varying mood which ranged from just generally pissed off to downright nasty. He came over and sat down beside me and then with one swift motion plunged his pencil into my wrist. I shoved him open handed in the jaw that knocked him off his chair. We came within a whisker of going to see the principal which would have been my second trip that year. There was an earlier incident involving an errantly thrown snowball that I had, with what eloquence I possessed then, to explain. Interesting part of the story is that both Dean and I made the varsity basketball team our junior year in high school and we both started every game together our senior year as well. It was an uneasy alliance, but one that worked born out of a mutual desire to win.
Niles spends a lot of time in reflection, building his imagination, and honing his view of the world. Water and muck are just what they seem to most people, but to Niles....
”He dropped the cattails in a heap and lay on his belly beside them, head hanging over the platform edge, eyes staring meditatively down a the water. It was pleasant there in the shadows. It smelled of coolness, like a fern garden; like the well once had before they sealed it up. From upside down, one piling, gloved with green algae and slime, and larger than the rest, seemed to rear back as though resisting the gray mud that mired it. He squinted, looked hard, saw: primordial ooze, spawning strange beings down below, a race of quasi-lunged, half-legged creatures dragging themselves along the bottom; a world sunless, gloomy, nocturnal, where sunken logs lay, sodden and heavy, poor dead drowned things, and with them, hidden in the murk, savage bloated creatures, mouths wide as shovels, thick lips nuzzling threads of water-whitened ganglia, picking clean of flesh skeletons through whose empty eye-sockets coldly glowing eels wound like night trains, while overhead through the ruined roof, pterodactyls soared the vacant sky.
He drifted,
dreamed;
and dreamed some more.”
Tryon here reminds me think of the bits of Meryvn Peake I’ve read and certainly I can feel Robert Louis Stevenson lurking in the deepest shadows. The book is so much more than I expected.
The Twins have an addiction to Doc Savage books and comics. I remember when I first found a cache of Kenneth Robeson titles with this bronze skinned hero on the cover always with a tattered shirt and lurid graphics to spur the imagination. I read through scads of them and wish I still had those books. I doubt they would hold up well reading them today, but then they were perfect for a boy who wanted to explore the magic of science and the pure pleasure of rooting for Doc Savage to outsmart a myriad of diabolical villains.
A sampling of Doc Savage covers
So you may be able to tell that this book worked on many levels for me. Certainly I am encouraged to read more Tryon and can only hope his other work casts the same spell on me as this one. Highly recommended.
”Things cannot ever be the same again. Not for any of us. Not any more. We sometimes reach a point in our lives where we can’t ever go back again, we have to go on from there. All that was before is past now. It went too far. Everything has gone too far. It must stop, do you see? Now--it must--stop.
No more game?
No. No more game.”
October 22, 2018
The Other by Thomas Tryon is a 2012 NYRB Classics publication. (Originally published in 1972)
For several years I’ve added this book to the pile of novels I plan to read for Halloween, but every year it missed the final cut. This year I was determined to read it and boy am I glad did!!
Holland and Niles are twin boys growing up during the thirties. As with most twins, they seem to have a certain telepathy between them. However, they have very different dispositions. Holland is the instigator, while Niles dutifully follows his lead. Unfortunately, they lost their father in a tragic accident which has left their mother in a state of mental shock. Under these circumstances they are pretty much left to their own devices. As a result, the boys seem to have drifted further apart, especially after Holland's disturbing tendencies escalate. Not only that, their family has been plagued by more and more tragedy.
The boys, while directly affected by these sad occurrences often cope by playing a game with their grandmother in which they pretend to be animals or even plants or flowers, literally transferring themselves onto these objects with their minds and imaginations.
But, as our narrator relates these events, we are uncertain if all is as we have presumed it to be, if we can even trust the storyteller, but worse still, we are held helplessly spellbound as we imagine what emotional punch will be served up next and by whom-
While everyone says this is a fantastic horror novel, perfect for Halloween reading, it is yet another one of those stories devoid of traditional supernatural elements. In fact, this one could just as easily fall into the psychological thriller category. However, it has some truly stunning twist that no psychological thriller written today has the capacity to challenge. Remember, this book was published in 1972- and without any prior knowledge of the contents or context of the story, I literally gasped out loud on a couple of occasions, and physically experienced goosebumps!
The story is very, very disturbing and is a reminder of how one’s imagination can stray into dangerous territory. Although the fantasy of immersing oneself into a role- the game the boys played with their grandmother, but which expanded much, much further, was contained within the era in which the book was set- but it seemed like an eerie premonition of immersive video game play, when the projection of oneself onto a fantasy character occasionally went horribly awry, where the person was no longer able to separate fantasy from reality. Or it could just be another evil child or a Jekyll and Hyde spin, or a chameleon style tale.
I’m rambling- thinking out loud. The long and short of it is- this is a really twisted tale. It’s slow, with a Gothic flavor, and will certainly play tricks with your mind. For its time, it is a thought provoking, smart thriller, and I can see why it has remained to popular all these years.
Interesting trivia- a movie was made, based on this book. It was shown frequently on television in the seventies, but while the author helped write the screenplay, he was not happy with the movie adaptation. I haven’t seen it, but I’m going to see if I can find it somehow.
4 stars
For several years I’ve added this book to the pile of novels I plan to read for Halloween, but every year it missed the final cut. This year I was determined to read it and boy am I glad did!!
Holland and Niles are twin boys growing up during the thirties. As with most twins, they seem to have a certain telepathy between them. However, they have very different dispositions. Holland is the instigator, while Niles dutifully follows his lead. Unfortunately, they lost their father in a tragic accident which has left their mother in a state of mental shock. Under these circumstances they are pretty much left to their own devices. As a result, the boys seem to have drifted further apart, especially after Holland's disturbing tendencies escalate. Not only that, their family has been plagued by more and more tragedy.
The boys, while directly affected by these sad occurrences often cope by playing a game with their grandmother in which they pretend to be animals or even plants or flowers, literally transferring themselves onto these objects with their minds and imaginations.
But, as our narrator relates these events, we are uncertain if all is as we have presumed it to be, if we can even trust the storyteller, but worse still, we are held helplessly spellbound as we imagine what emotional punch will be served up next and by whom-
While everyone says this is a fantastic horror novel, perfect for Halloween reading, it is yet another one of those stories devoid of traditional supernatural elements. In fact, this one could just as easily fall into the psychological thriller category. However, it has some truly stunning twist that no psychological thriller written today has the capacity to challenge. Remember, this book was published in 1972- and without any prior knowledge of the contents or context of the story, I literally gasped out loud on a couple of occasions, and physically experienced goosebumps!
The story is very, very disturbing and is a reminder of how one’s imagination can stray into dangerous territory. Although the fantasy of immersing oneself into a role- the game the boys played with their grandmother, but which expanded much, much further, was contained within the era in which the book was set- but it seemed like an eerie premonition of immersive video game play, when the projection of oneself onto a fantasy character occasionally went horribly awry, where the person was no longer able to separate fantasy from reality. Or it could just be another evil child or a Jekyll and Hyde spin, or a chameleon style tale.
I’m rambling- thinking out loud. The long and short of it is- this is a really twisted tale. It’s slow, with a Gothic flavor, and will certainly play tricks with your mind. For its time, it is a thought provoking, smart thriller, and I can see why it has remained to popular all these years.
Interesting trivia- a movie was made, based on this book. It was shown frequently on television in the seventies, but while the author helped write the screenplay, he was not happy with the movie adaptation. I haven’t seen it, but I’m going to see if I can find it somehow.
4 stars
February 6, 2017
I'm very impressed by this classic horror! I know I've been told it is one of those novels that spawned a bunch of lookalikes during the seventies, but rather than being a simple bestseller that everyone and their little fat dog emulated, I personally think that it has a ton of depth and staying power.
I think it's a toss up whether the best feature is the narrator's voice or whether it's in the plot twists. Both are superb and fascinating and lulling and it's extremely easy to fall into the idea that the author wanted us to believe.
Truly, despite a few disturbing images at the beginning of the telling, I was truly entertained by a relatively pastoral childhood that gradually became darker with all of those accidental mishaps. You can guess that things go downhill, of course, and with every new revelation, it becomes increasingly more interesting until it pretty much blew me away. I'm not saying that it wasn't predictable at a certain point, of course, but what really surprised me was how subtle and well that realization was handled. The resolution was completely top-notch.
You know the story about the evil twin? Yeah. This is the biggest granddaddy of them all and easily the best one of its kind. :) Totally recommended for all you fans of horror. :)
I think it's a toss up whether the best feature is the narrator's voice or whether it's in the plot twists. Both are superb and fascinating and lulling and it's extremely easy to fall into the idea that the author wanted us to believe.
Truly, despite a few disturbing images at the beginning of the telling, I was truly entertained by a relatively pastoral childhood that gradually became darker with all of those accidental mishaps. You can guess that things go downhill, of course, and with every new revelation, it becomes increasingly more interesting until it pretty much blew me away. I'm not saying that it wasn't predictable at a certain point, of course, but what really surprised me was how subtle and well that realization was handled. The resolution was completely top-notch.
You know the story about the evil twin? Yeah. This is the biggest granddaddy of them all and easily the best one of its kind. :) Totally recommended for all you fans of horror. :)
January 23, 2022
The first time I read The Other was when the paperback was first released. I was either 12 or 13, and I have never forgotten how much I enjoyed the creepy madness that snuck up on me when I was so young. I was darkly enchanted. I have always wanted to read the book again, and recently picked up a Kindle copy and eagerly got started. I finished the last page today, and thoroughly enjoyed the book once again. The detailed descriptions, time and sense of place are meticulous. Even though I already knew the eerie and disturbing plot twists, I still felt the shock of discovery and the characters' deep mental distress. I imagine I will read the book again and will still give it five stars. It is an indelible reminder of childhood and the tricks that life can cruelly play on us.
January 8, 2009
If you plan on reading this novel prepare to plow through the first 90% without much enthusiasm. But beware, this novel is like a deadly spider that is slowly lowering itself down from the ceiling toward the back of your neck. By the time you notice it, it's too late, and the scariest part, (other than the fact that it's just bitten you), is that it has been hanging there ALL ALONG, and you had no idea.
June 30, 2019
Wow that story!!! I would never have thought to remain glued to the pages in this way, I must say that the plot is very particular...a somewhat cryptic and with a not fluent writing that collides with many inserts of small events and sub-stories...
The Perry family is truly to be kept away, crushed by a series of cursed misfortunes and kind of demonic acts..... but who brings these tragic events into the house? why do they happen?
And here come the Niles/Holland brothers...
and so on until this creepy and weird final, Damien (the boy from The Omen book) is a beginner in comparison!!
Caspita che storia!!! non avrei mai pensato di rimanere incollata alle pagine cosi, devo dire che la narrazione è molto particolare...una scrittura un pò criptica e poco scorrevole che si scontra con molti inserti di piccoli avvenimenti e sottostorie...
La famiglia Perry è veramente da tenere lontana, schiacciata da una serie di disgrazie e presagi maledetti... ma chi porta queste malvagità in casa? perchè avvengono??
ed ecco che fanno la loro comparsa i fratelli Niles/Holland....
e avanti così sino ad un finale strambo ed aghiacciante, Damien è un principante al confronto!!
November 2, 2024
2.5 ⭐'s
With this being the month of October 2024, I'm reading nothing but nonstop horror. It's a tradition in my house. If you live here, that's what you're reading. Unless you can't read and then you can make do with watching the scary stuff while you learn to read.
But this year I thought I would try something different. I started by reading Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix , a fascinating read about the horror boom in the 70s and 80s. Then I followed this up with books that were mentioned in it. Great idea hey? I thought so anyway.
Anyway, to cut a long story short. In Paperbacks from Hell, Hendrix lists three books as responsible for the boom in horror paperbacks. Those were The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, The Omen by David Pzeltzer and this one right here, The Other by Thomas Tryon. Having of course seen the movie adaptations of the first two (and read the novelisation of The Omen), I decided to have a look at the latter first.
Thomas Tryon is one of those authors that has slipped from public consciousness since his hayday in the 70s. But when his debut novel, The Other, hit the stands it became a best seller! So maybe he requires more of our attention. Let's find out!
It's set during the summer in the fictional town of Pequot Landing in the 1930s, it starts out like a coming-of-age drama, described in some sumptuously elegant prose. But it soon turns into a much darker tale as we spend time with twins Niles and Holland.
See, the twins are identical in looks only and when it comes to morality they couldn't be more different. Niles is kind and attentive, whereas Holland is wicked and spiteful, proving somewhat of a bad influence over the other. What begins as pranks soon become more and more sinister and poor Niles can't keep making excuses for Holland's behaviour.
The premise in this one is a good one, but what caused a problem for me was that gorgeous writing of Tryon's. It's not written like a normal horror story, with beautiful descriptions of absolutely everything. But it became too much, and reading it started to become a chore. And it really started to mess with the novels flow.
To sum things up, it's a great concept. The evil twin causing havoc. But I honestly couldn't wait to finish it so I could move on to something else. I had a similar problem with Harvest Home but it wasn't as bad as this. Looks like Tryon isn't the author for me. Which is a shame because he has without doubt got talent.
All I can say is I'm glad I read Harvest Home first as if I hadn't I'd have probably give it a miss. Not a great start to Halloween Horror month 2024. But we regroup and move on.
Thanks for reading and...cheers!
June 26, 2021
Wow! I lost my whole review on this book that I did a few days ago. What the heck?!
Somehow this book & the review have been completely deleted from my account and reading challenge. So here goes with a much shorter version.
I think I'm blaming the twins, Niles and Holland on this and not Goodreads. 😉🤣
The Other is a classic in the horror genre that I've wanted to read for years.
It was great, twisted and I'm glad to finally get to this one! It has shocking moments in the book that I will remember for years to come.
Thomas Tryon is a master at plot twists and I didn't see any of them. Bravo Mr. Tryon!!
If you love classic horror, don't wait on this one.
This book and others during the 70s influenced the whole horror genre.
Because of that and also being a great read, I think it's worth getting too!
Somehow this book & the review have been completely deleted from my account and reading challenge. So here goes with a much shorter version.
I think I'm blaming the twins, Niles and Holland on this and not Goodreads. 😉🤣
The Other is a classic in the horror genre that I've wanted to read for years.
It was great, twisted and I'm glad to finally get to this one! It has shocking moments in the book that I will remember for years to come.
Thomas Tryon is a master at plot twists and I didn't see any of them. Bravo Mr. Tryon!!
If you love classic horror, don't wait on this one.
This book and others during the 70s influenced the whole horror genre.
Because of that and also being a great read, I think it's worth getting too!
February 9, 2017
Like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, Tryon’s book is about an evil child, in this case Holland Perry, a literal evil twin living on a remote farm in the summery New England countryside that is coated in sunlight and honey, a rural paradise right out of Ray Bradbury. His twin, Niles, is the good boy, constantly apologizing for Perry’s pranks that turn darker, and darker, and then become murderous. Page 196 contains the novel’s “you must read this” twist, which has been worn smooth to modern eyes by a million M. Night Shyamalans and doesn’t quite carry the punch it used to, and that’s not entirely bad. Without the twist to blow our minds, modern readers can submerge themselves in the prose and, despite being self-consciously literary, it’s worth the submersion.
Tryon was an actor who had tried to become a movie producer, but his treatment for a movie about evil twins called The Other wasn’t getting any traction so he borrowed money from his family, locked himself away for 18 months and turned it into a novel. The Other was instantly heralded as a classic and probably nobody thought it was a masterpiece more than Tryon himself. This is a book that is trying very, very hard to prove that it is a capital “b” Book, written in a style that would be called “Creative Writing Workshop Standard” these days, full of epic-poetic descriptions of nature, elliptical dialogue, a focus on sensory description, and naturalistic scenes that sprawl and meander without seeming to arrive at any particular point.
Read the rest of this review
Tryon was an actor who had tried to become a movie producer, but his treatment for a movie about evil twins called The Other wasn’t getting any traction so he borrowed money from his family, locked himself away for 18 months and turned it into a novel. The Other was instantly heralded as a classic and probably nobody thought it was a masterpiece more than Tryon himself. This is a book that is trying very, very hard to prove that it is a capital “b” Book, written in a style that would be called “Creative Writing Workshop Standard” these days, full of epic-poetic descriptions of nature, elliptical dialogue, a focus on sensory description, and naturalistic scenes that sprawl and meander without seeming to arrive at any particular point.
Read the rest of this review
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2023
Pues ha sido un tanto decepcionante, yo creo que ha sido por las altas expectativas creadas por mí.
Me explico, el ritmo ha sido bajo mi punto de vista, demasiado lento, ha habido partes muy lentas y si bien es cierto que en la 3ª parte van explicando las distintas muertes para mí ya ha sido demasiado tarde.
El final, al principio pensé... se veía venir pero y ese giro del final...?? pues eso no lo vi venir y por eso le subo 0.5 más, una pena, esperaba más.
Valoración: 6.5/10
Sinopsis: Verano de 1935. En un pueblo de Nueva Inglaterra, la gente no para de hablar sobre la epidemia de muertes que está asolando el hogar de los Perry. Vining y Russell Perry, padre e hijo, han sido misteriosamente asesinados. Otro de los miembros de la familia se ha ahogado mientras patinaba. La viuda de Vining se cae por las escaleras… ¿Se trata de simples accidentes? Los hijos gemelos de los Vining son de lo más peculiar: cada uno podría leer los pensamientos del otro, pero no podrían ser más diferentes. Holland es sarcástico e introvertido, y todo el mundo le considera una mala influencia, mientras que su gemelo, Niles, es agradable y generoso, adorado por todos. Ambos están inmersos en un extraño juego telepático con su abuela rusa. Y puede que el juego se les esté yendo de las manos...
# 1- Un libro que querías leer en 2022. Reto Popsugar 2023.
Me explico, el ritmo ha sido bajo mi punto de vista, demasiado lento, ha habido partes muy lentas y si bien es cierto que en la 3ª parte van explicando las distintas muertes para mí ya ha sido demasiado tarde.
El final, al principio pensé... se veía venir pero y ese giro del final...?? pues eso no lo vi venir y por eso le subo 0.5 más, una pena, esperaba más.
Valoración: 6.5/10
Sinopsis: Verano de 1935. En un pueblo de Nueva Inglaterra, la gente no para de hablar sobre la epidemia de muertes que está asolando el hogar de los Perry. Vining y Russell Perry, padre e hijo, han sido misteriosamente asesinados. Otro de los miembros de la familia se ha ahogado mientras patinaba. La viuda de Vining se cae por las escaleras… ¿Se trata de simples accidentes? Los hijos gemelos de los Vining son de lo más peculiar: cada uno podría leer los pensamientos del otro, pero no podrían ser más diferentes. Holland es sarcástico e introvertido, y todo el mundo le considera una mala influencia, mientras que su gemelo, Niles, es agradable y generoso, adorado por todos. Ambos están inmersos en un extraño juego telepático con su abuela rusa. Y puede que el juego se les esté yendo de las manos...
# 1- Un libro que querías leer en 2022. Reto Popsugar 2023.
September 22, 2020
Un ejercicio de terror psicológico MAGISTRAL, así, con todas las letras y en mayúsculas. Absolutamente espeluznante. Absolutamente bien escrito y ambientado.
Todo empieza en el seno de una familia marcada por las desgracias, en una granja de Connecticut, en el verano de 1935.
Allí viven los gemelos Niles y Holland Perry con su madre, Alexandra Perry, su abuela rusa; Ada (una señora con la que se traen su famoso "juego", rodeada de misterio y supersticiones), los sirvientes Winnie y el señor Angelini, y otros parientes de los alrededores que con bastante frecuencia van de visita.
Todo ello en un supuesto paisaje idílico en el que se nos van desvelando extraños hechos y desapariciones.
Los personajes están perfectamente retratados y casi puedes sentir lo mismo que ellos, sus calamidades, sus penas y sus desgracias. Todo ello aderezado con una prosa en ocasiones casi poética y con un final que me ha dejado absolutamente impactada. Hay una escena que jamás olvidaré. Y sólo por eso, por todo lo que me ha hecho sentir, se lleva, sin ninguna duda, las cinco estrellas.
La verdad es que me esperaba mucho menos de ésta obra, absolutamente imperdible para los amantes del género. Una novela sobre la maldad, la niñez y mucho más que no desvelaré. Cargada de dramatismo y tensión que no hay que dejar de leer.
https://lalocadeloslibrosdemisterio.b...
Todo empieza en el seno de una familia marcada por las desgracias, en una granja de Connecticut, en el verano de 1935.
Allí viven los gemelos Niles y Holland Perry con su madre, Alexandra Perry, su abuela rusa; Ada (una señora con la que se traen su famoso "juego", rodeada de misterio y supersticiones), los sirvientes Winnie y el señor Angelini, y otros parientes de los alrededores que con bastante frecuencia van de visita.
Todo ello en un supuesto paisaje idílico en el que se nos van desvelando extraños hechos y desapariciones.
Los personajes están perfectamente retratados y casi puedes sentir lo mismo que ellos, sus calamidades, sus penas y sus desgracias. Todo ello aderezado con una prosa en ocasiones casi poética y con un final que me ha dejado absolutamente impactada. Hay una escena que jamás olvidaré. Y sólo por eso, por todo lo que me ha hecho sentir, se lleva, sin ninguna duda, las cinco estrellas.
La verdad es que me esperaba mucho menos de ésta obra, absolutamente imperdible para los amantes del género. Una novela sobre la maldad, la niñez y mucho más que no desvelaré. Cargada de dramatismo y tensión que no hay que dejar de leer.
https://lalocadeloslibrosdemisterio.b...
July 22, 2013
I'll likely expand this review someday, but for now I'll just say that this is one of those books that truly deserves the status of "horror classic." Tryon's prose has a way of keeping the reader at arm's length. I don't mean that in a bad way at all because Tryon is a fantastic writer. I mean that he keeps us just far enough outside the mysteries of his story for their reveals to be as stunning as any in horror fiction. As far as great twists go, I'd say The Other is one of the twistiest, most surprising novels I've ever read. At least twice and perhaps as many as three times I audibly gasped during this book and sat there thunderstruck at what I'd just read. In that respect, I'd compare this one to Ira Levin's A Kiss before Dying, which also contains some powerhouse shocks.
So read The Other. It's one of the top twenty or thirty horror novels I've ever read. Both this one and (to a slightly lesser degree) Harvest Home are must-haves for any horror fan's library.
So read The Other. It's one of the top twenty or thirty horror novels I've ever read. Both this one and (to a slightly lesser degree) Harvest Home are must-haves for any horror fan's library.
November 13, 2015
A stranger on the Internet instructed me to review this book, so I guess I’ll do as I’m told.
This book is okay. Actually, the second half of this book is great, but still not great enough to resurrect the full work to anywhere beyond its three-star label of mediocrity.
Often with mystery novels there is a slow but steady build of intensity, a momentum that gathers in a such a way that the reader remains riveted to the end. That occurs here, as well, so I don’t ascribe my disappointment with the first half of the book to any lack of momentum on its part. Instead, I think I was turned off by the writing. In fact, I’d say that the plot drive in the second half was so well executed that it overcame what I would otherwise have to describe as naïve, whimsical writing. But in the author’s defense, he was (at the time of this book’s initial publication, anyway) a naïve writer. The Other was Thomas Tryon’s first novel, written after having spent much of his early adulthood as a Hollywood film actor.
The Other is a frame story, but the identity of the narrator is unknown until the book’s denouement. The story involves two twin boys, one of whom is a vicious evildoer while the other acts as his doe-eyed apostle. Of course, every evil deed performed is accompanied by telling amounts of circumstantial ambiguity so one could probably see “The Big Reveal” coming a mile away, especially if he’s seen enough M. Night Shyamalan films. Still, the reveal (and the events which occur after it) are well executed, as I stated earlier, which makes this book—all being said—ok.
This book is okay. Actually, the second half of this book is great, but still not great enough to resurrect the full work to anywhere beyond its three-star label of mediocrity.
Often with mystery novels there is a slow but steady build of intensity, a momentum that gathers in a such a way that the reader remains riveted to the end. That occurs here, as well, so I don’t ascribe my disappointment with the first half of the book to any lack of momentum on its part. Instead, I think I was turned off by the writing. In fact, I’d say that the plot drive in the second half was so well executed that it overcame what I would otherwise have to describe as naïve, whimsical writing. But in the author’s defense, he was (at the time of this book’s initial publication, anyway) a naïve writer. The Other was Thomas Tryon’s first novel, written after having spent much of his early adulthood as a Hollywood film actor.
The Other is a frame story, but the identity of the narrator is unknown until the book’s denouement. The story involves two twin boys, one of whom is a vicious evildoer while the other acts as his doe-eyed apostle. Of course, every evil deed performed is accompanied by telling amounts of circumstantial ambiguity so one could probably see “The Big Reveal” coming a mile away, especially if he’s seen enough M. Night Shyamalan films. Still, the reveal (and the events which occur after it) are well executed, as I stated earlier, which makes this book—all being said—ok.
February 1, 2023
One of the best. And scariest.
I will say..nothing scares like creepy children.
I am amazed sometimes when I bring this book up that so many have never heard of it. A Horror classic! I mean..the movie version scared me so much I could not watch it again for years.
No gore..pure psychological horror.
This book is about two twin boys. Niles and Holland. They are children. It takes place in the country in New England.
If you have not read this and are a horror fan, I'd recommend adding it to your TBR list.
I read it and saw the film as a kid. Nothing back then..absolutely nothing.. scared me more then this story. While somehow managing not to be gory in the slightest, this book will suck you in.
My mom and I were huge fans of the film. We wound up watching it again to see if it scared us as much and while it did not, man..it is still a creeper of a movie.
OK..So I am reviewing the book not the movie. They are very much alike although there are some small differences. The book is so hauntingly atmospheric. I mean it really is. And the story is so fascinating and the ..stop reading now if you have not read!
What a mindfuck. Such a sucker punch. I have never read or seen anything like The other.
Great read for fans of old school horror.
I will say..nothing scares like creepy children.
I am amazed sometimes when I bring this book up that so many have never heard of it. A Horror classic! I mean..the movie version scared me so much I could not watch it again for years.
No gore..pure psychological horror.
This book is about two twin boys. Niles and Holland. They are children. It takes place in the country in New England.
If you have not read this and are a horror fan, I'd recommend adding it to your TBR list.
I read it and saw the film as a kid. Nothing back then..absolutely nothing.. scared me more then this story. While somehow managing not to be gory in the slightest, this book will suck you in.
My mom and I were huge fans of the film. We wound up watching it again to see if it scared us as much and while it did not, man..it is still a creeper of a movie.
OK..So I am reviewing the book not the movie. They are very much alike although there are some small differences. The book is so hauntingly atmospheric. I mean it really is. And the story is so fascinating and the ..stop reading now if you have not read!
What a mindfuck. Such a sucker punch. I have never read or seen anything like The other.
Great read for fans of old school horror.
August 28, 2021
3,5
Siento que las primeras 100 páginas fueron eternas. Lamento mucho eso, porque la segunda parte de este libro, y sobre todo llegando al final, se pone buenísimo. Me costó darle continuidad, pero me siento contenta de haberlo leído completo, ya que el final realmente me gustó muchísimo, y creo que valió la pena tenerle paciencia.
Siento que las primeras 100 páginas fueron eternas. Lamento mucho eso, porque la segunda parte de este libro, y sobre todo llegando al final, se pone buenísimo. Me costó darle continuidad, pero me siento contenta de haberlo leído completo, ya que el final realmente me gustó muchísimo, y creo que valió la pena tenerle paciencia.
December 16, 2024
So, it's 100% because NYRB re-published The Other that I picked this up. Otherwise, it simply wouldn't have been on my radar. Published in 1971 by Thomas Tryon (hunky actor-turned-writer), this looked to me like a pretty pulpy read. It sold millions of copies (and, as we know, that doesn't always bode well) and while all the covers I saw online were kind of awesome, they didn't exactly scream "literary".
When I saw that in 2012, NYRB put out an edition, I was pretty jazzed. I sometimes dip my toe into the horror genre, only to be disappointed because there's something too trope-y or the writing isn't there, or whatever.
Hmmm, what I can say is that this was pretty good... but it wasn't a love connection. I'm not 100% sure what made this a stand-out for NYRB. In Dan Chaon's afterword, he praised the structure of the book, and the ambiguity, and how it keeps us guessing. And I think yes, yes, those were the best parts. I'll explain a bit, and don't worry, no spoilers here.
So, the structure. There's a first person narrator who addresses the reader directly in the first chapter of each of the book's three sections, which has an interesting effect. On one hand, it sort of pulls the reader out and makes the reader stop and analyze what's happening, breaks the spell a bit. On the other hand, it provides company for the ride, a bit of guidance, maybe some reassurance. The rest of the book is from a limited 3rd point of view. One that seems clear enough at the beginning, but which is increasingly less clear as the pages turn.
It's a creepy twin story. Creepy identical twin boys, one who seems good and one who seems bad. As I started reading, I hoped that the book was going to be more complex than a story about a good twin and a bad twin, and I wasn't disappointed in that regard. There's definitely a murkiness here, and the reader is left in a position to guess or interpret, kind of like at the end of The Turn of the Screw. Which boy is bad? Which boy is good? Is one of them a ghost? Is one of them possessed? Who is killing all these people? And, how stupid is the family, leaving an infant alone in a house where people are being hurt or killed every couple of days?
It's a gothic story, too. They're in the old family house. The mother is mentally disturbed, beautiful and fragile. The grandmother is a wise crone with gypsy blood. There are unexplained happenings. There is magic, trickery, secrets, incantation, a severed finger, and a stolen ring.
There's a lot of lush description. The gothic elements felt a bit trope-y, if I'm being honest. And let me just say I ADORE gothic writing when it's really good. I am a huge fan of Flannery O'Connor, William Gay, Daphne du Maurier, and Shirley Jackson, to name a few. I'm not convinced that Tryon is quite up to their snuff.
So, this was good, and entertaining, and Dan Chaon is right, it doesn't offer up easy answers, which gives it a few points in my book. But I'm just not sure it's NYRB material.
When I saw that in 2012, NYRB put out an edition, I was pretty jazzed. I sometimes dip my toe into the horror genre, only to be disappointed because there's something too trope-y or the writing isn't there, or whatever.
Hmmm, what I can say is that this was pretty good... but it wasn't a love connection. I'm not 100% sure what made this a stand-out for NYRB. In Dan Chaon's afterword, he praised the structure of the book, and the ambiguity, and how it keeps us guessing. And I think yes, yes, those were the best parts. I'll explain a bit, and don't worry, no spoilers here.
So, the structure. There's a first person narrator who addresses the reader directly in the first chapter of each of the book's three sections, which has an interesting effect. On one hand, it sort of pulls the reader out and makes the reader stop and analyze what's happening, breaks the spell a bit. On the other hand, it provides company for the ride, a bit of guidance, maybe some reassurance. The rest of the book is from a limited 3rd point of view. One that seems clear enough at the beginning, but which is increasingly less clear as the pages turn.
It's a creepy twin story. Creepy identical twin boys, one who seems good and one who seems bad. As I started reading, I hoped that the book was going to be more complex than a story about a good twin and a bad twin, and I wasn't disappointed in that regard. There's definitely a murkiness here, and the reader is left in a position to guess or interpret, kind of like at the end of The Turn of the Screw. Which boy is bad? Which boy is good? Is one of them a ghost? Is one of them possessed? Who is killing all these people? And, how stupid is the family, leaving an infant alone in a house where people are being hurt or killed every couple of days?
It's a gothic story, too. They're in the old family house. The mother is mentally disturbed, beautiful and fragile. The grandmother is a wise crone with gypsy blood. There are unexplained happenings. There is magic, trickery, secrets, incantation, a severed finger, and a stolen ring.
There's a lot of lush description. The gothic elements felt a bit trope-y, if I'm being honest. And let me just say I ADORE gothic writing when it's really good. I am a huge fan of Flannery O'Connor, William Gay, Daphne du Maurier, and Shirley Jackson, to name a few. I'm not convinced that Tryon is quite up to their snuff.
So, this was good, and entertaining, and Dan Chaon is right, it doesn't offer up easy answers, which gives it a few points in my book. But I'm just not sure it's NYRB material.
December 22, 2023
Nope. Haven't read these books of Tryons for decades. I've read 3 of his and hated them all.
November 1, 2021
The Other by Thomas Tryon (Dell 1971) (Fiction - Horror).
I do not read horror novels. This is the book that taught me that I do not read horror novels or watch horror movies. This book, and the movie made from the book, scared me so badly as a teenager in the late 1970's that I haven't watched a single horror movie since, nor have I read a single horror novel (with the exception of Anne Rice's work, which I dearly love and don't consider to be scary).
I watched the movie adaptation of The Other one night when I was about sixteen. I had never heard of The Other, but I somehow started watching it on TV one night when no one else happened to be at home. This was in the dark ages before cable TV; we had three channels and no remote control for the TV set. I must have tuned in the "movie of the week" or something. Anyway, how bad could it be?
It turned out that it could be BAD, with a capital B. By the time I realized that I was watching a horror story, night had fallen. I was in a dark room in an empty house, and I was too scared to get up off the couch to walk across the room to turn off the television! I sat through the whole film, and it taught me a valuable lesson: I have no tolerance for horror.
To this day, I wouldn't reread or re-watch The Other for a hundred dollar bill! (Dave shudders at the memory).
My rating: 7.5/10, finished 1974. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
March 16, 2013
I first made my acquaintance with THE OTHER 42 years ago, and have just finished my 3rd or 4th re-read. If you're looking for King/Koontz-style horror, you'd best look elsewhere, as THE OTHER harks back instead to Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson and even Henry James. Although there is "horror" here, it is merely one element in an exquisite, evocative tale. To read this book is to be transported to a small Connecticut town in the '30s. You can practically FEEL the thick summer heat, the musty air of a storage room, the sleazy atmosphere of a traveling carnival. You can almost HEAR the programs on the radio, the far-off notes played on a harmonica, the strangled gasps of fear. And you can very nearly SMELL the cool dankness of the apple cellar, the grassiness of new-mown hay, the frothy scent of fresh-spilled blood. Calling THE OTHER a classic horror novel is far too limiting. It is nothing less than a classic of American Literature, and one of my Favorite Books of All Time.
June 18, 2019
Supongo que en el momento que se escribió resultaría aterrador pero, actualmente, aunque tiene momentos muy desagradables y angustiosos, no da miedo, es más bien un thriller psicológico muy predecible.
March 8, 2021
In an article on this book, Grady Hendrix discusses how it is on par with "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist", all three being written in the same era but “The Other” never quite making it despite its brilliance. Now, I have only watched the movies and not read the books of the former two, so I can’t really compare them on a textual level. But having just finished listening to the audiobook of the latter, I am still wondering how that could be?
"The Other" is the quintessential evil kid story. And I'm no horror historian, but I understand it might be the creator of a very specific and fascinatingly creepy subgenre within that trope that has been used as the pointe or twisty ending to many movies and books ever since. So, it is today seen as a little washed out and doesn't really surprise anymore. I think it is this work’s strength that, even though it must have been shocking for its time, it doesn't rely on the mere revelation of a twist to be a great book - the psychological tension that permeates throughout the story, the interaction between the characters living in a Connecticut small town in the 30s, family relations are all themes that are treated so masterly here that they alone are worth a read. Notwithstanding the beautiful prose.
I have to add that I listened to the audiobook and I can't praise the late narrator William Dufris high enough. His reading voice was so gripping yet sooo creepy, so wonderful that it added infinitely to my enjoyment of this book!
"The Other" is the quintessential evil kid story. And I'm no horror historian, but I understand it might be the creator of a very specific and fascinatingly creepy subgenre within that trope that has been used as the pointe or twisty ending to many movies and books ever since. So, it is today seen as a little washed out and doesn't really surprise anymore. I think it is this work’s strength that, even though it must have been shocking for its time, it doesn't rely on the mere revelation of a twist to be a great book - the psychological tension that permeates throughout the story, the interaction between the characters living in a Connecticut small town in the 30s, family relations are all themes that are treated so masterly here that they alone are worth a read. Notwithstanding the beautiful prose.
I have to add that I listened to the audiobook and I can't praise the late narrator William Dufris high enough. His reading voice was so gripping yet sooo creepy, so wonderful that it added infinitely to my enjoyment of this book!
July 27, 2017
Deliciously horrifying and thoroughly entertaining short read. Tryon was good at painting scenes with vivid descriptions and setting atmospheres with his words. The story took place in summer at a small town, and I could almost feel the humid, pressing heat, the distant screams of children, the grass tickling my thighs. He has a way of characterising the people in the story too - Niles and Holland, their unwelcome cousin and his family, their mother wilting away in her room in grief, their feisty Russian grandmother. I love the sense of foreboding in the background that pervades the main story, it creeps up on you and slams home rather quickly at the end with one reveal after another. I really enjoyed this.
February 28, 2018
3.5
while this one was certainly predictable now a days, I don't think it would've been for the time it was published. I did enjoy the story, the journey and the reveal of who is narrating the story to us and I certainly liked it more then Lady. However, I just don't think Thomas Tryon is right for me.
while this one was certainly predictable now a days, I don't think it would've been for the time it was published. I did enjoy the story, the journey and the reveal of who is narrating the story to us and I certainly liked it more then Lady. However, I just don't think Thomas Tryon is right for me.
August 26, 2021
For those that participate in the Reading Challenge here on Goodreads, do you ever look at your tally and see the infamous 'You're (insert number here) books behind'? Does it ever make you a little anxious? This challenge sometimes forces me to read smaller books that are perhaps on the periphery just to reach that immaculate number. This was the case when it came to Thomas Tryon's 'The Other'.
I am a lover of most things NYRB, regardless if collecting and reading or picking up from the local library, so the premise of the book intrigued me considering I had a vague recollection of hearing about the 1970's horror movie of the same name.
Identical twins, by nature are a bit creepy if you think about it. Procreation occurs and not only one is conceived, but two, if identical, are created with the same physical genetic makeup as the other. Many animals do this for an evolutionary reason, but humans for the most part do not, which in my opinion is a damn good reason: we destroy everything around us.
One quarter through 'The Other', I was getting used to the writing style. Sometimes dreamy, at times overwritten. Don't get me wrong, I'm like many that enjoy a good literary fiction novel. I like words that ebb and flow to a point of satisfaction, but at this point they were more tedious than not. The story and characters were being brought forth and many seemed derivative and unappealing.
As I was halfway done, I was thinking that I wanted to put it down, yet the challenge was weighing heavily on me. I have to catch up, I have to catch up.
I'm glad I did. Once the halfway mark hit and I got over a couple bumps, this turned into a page turner that I couldn't put down. I rarely find books like that. I had my own opinions and theories reading the first half, but then it suddenly changed.
I knew that this was a horror book when I picked it up, but was finding it harder and harder to locate the horror aspect. In a time where 'The Exorcist' and 'Rosemary's Baby' was released, I expected more. There wasn't this underlying creepiness at first, yet did have an overall weird atmosphere, so perhaps that is what kept me going.
I have a bad habit of discussing a book in my head as I'm reading it. I tend to think 'Yeah, I'll give this a 3 or 4 right now' and maybe that skews my point of view on a book at the end. What did I think while I was reading it from the beginning? Why did I think that then? It's a distraction that I need to stop myself from doing.
So, in summation, the last half made up for the first half so much that I had to give this a 5. The writing eventually captivated me and the characters weren't as one-dimensional as they were as before. Horror finally kicked in and it was brutal and without contrition, I'll say I enjoyed it.
August 4, 2024
“The shocked gloomy aftermath of death pressed a heavy hand upon the house.”
Tryon retired from a relatively successful acting career upon becoming disillusioned with Hollywood and turned to writing; in 24 years he published a handful of novels, the first two of which have come to be regarded as classics of the Horror genre. His debut novel, The Other, takes us to a Depression-era small town where we find adolescent twin boys whose father has recently died, just one of many mishaps that begin to occur around the family home. The story - with an obvious gothic influence - rewards the patient reader by exploring themes of identity and duality, with meandering yet lyrical prose and a level of ambiguity and suspense that is not often found in modern Horror novels.
“We help one another by understanding one another: that is the only help there is.”
Tryon retired from a relatively successful acting career upon becoming disillusioned with Hollywood and turned to writing; in 24 years he published a handful of novels, the first two of which have come to be regarded as classics of the Horror genre. His debut novel, The Other, takes us to a Depression-era small town where we find adolescent twin boys whose father has recently died, just one of many mishaps that begin to occur around the family home. The story - with an obvious gothic influence - rewards the patient reader by exploring themes of identity and duality, with meandering yet lyrical prose and a level of ambiguity and suspense that is not often found in modern Horror novels.
“We help one another by understanding one another: that is the only help there is.”
February 4, 2017
Oh my, now that was just full of creepy greatness! Although I knew the premise of the book and sensed that something just didn't feel right from the beginning, I did not see the big reveal coming. Of course, I look back now and can see all the clues nicely sprinkled throughout and wonder why I didn't put two-and-two together sooner. And then with ~30% of the book remaining after the big reveal, I wondered at how much was there left to keep me interested in the book. Oh, there was plenty remaining to give me the heebie jeebies! The shivers just kept coming and coming right to the very end. And I'm still thinking about certain scenes...
Also, the audio narration by William Dufris was fantastic.
Also, the audio narration by William Dufris was fantastic.
March 29, 2022
The lesser known entry in the “holy trinity” of novels released in the late 60s/early 70s that brought horror out of its gothic trappings, the other two being Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. Where those two used Satan to drive their stories home, The Other uses the Good and Evil set of twins for the first time in modern horror. This set the stage for all the Dr Jeckyll/Mr Hyde-type twin tales to come. For a debut, Tryon does a masterful job setting up a slow burn with shadowy reveals to tease the reader. The middle third can be a bit of a slog to get through, but I recommend that you push on. The twist ending is worth the price of admission, and the kill scene in the first act will make you swear you saw more than what was described on the page in a Hitchcockian way.
4 out of 5 Falcons
4 out of 5 Falcons
November 3, 2021
Da quella porta, quel giorno di novembre dell'autunno precedente, era entrato il babbo, portando i cesti di mele da conservare di sotto. Una giornata buia e cupa, si ricordava, non luminosa come oggi, anche se tutto il resto era come avrebbe dovuto essere. Niles era andato giù in cantina con la lanterna e guardava lo squarcio di luce in alto attraverso la botola.
L’Altro di Thomas Tryon, è un perfettamente riuscito gioco di prestigio in cui ogni cosa non è mai del tutto ciò che sembra, un romanzo che inganna ripetutamente il lettore in una lunga serie di eventi agghiaccianti e ricchi di colpi di scena, uniti ad una splendida e gotica rappresentazione della campagna e della famiglia americana, raccontati da più punti di vista tra cui spiccano un narratore in terza persona limitata, la maggior parte delle volte il tredicenne Niles Perry, ed una voce narrante in prima persona, meschina, cinica e piena di rancore, che apre ognuno dei tre atti in cui si suddivide il racconto.
La nascita stessa di Holland... il suo corpo che si dimenava, lacerando l'utero, uscendo morto. Rianimato a furia di schiaffi dal medico. Venti minuti dopo, quando la mezzanotte era scoccata e passata, apparve Niles con facilità miracolosa. Il parto più tranquillo che abbia mai visto, aveva detto il dottor Brainard, togliendo delicatamente la membrana amniotica. Figurarsi, nato con la camicia.
Un gioco di prestigio crudele e ben costruito, che spiazza il lettore giocando con le sue aspettative, imprigionandolo in un caleidoscopio di immagini dove alla magia dell’infanzia ed ai suoi tesori, giochi ed innocenti filastrocche per bambini, si sostituiscono orrore e morte come in uno dei lugubri spettacoli di magia che ai due protagonisti, gemelli inseparabili nati prima e dopo la mezzanotte, piace inscenare in cantina.
Passando davanti alla finestra, aveva guardato il
fiume. Povero Billy, con la sua gamba zoppa poteva soltanto arrancare, ma quando il ghiaccio aveva ceduto sotto di lui, si trovava piuttosto vicino alla riva, tanto che Holland, impegnato ad attizzare il fuoco, avrebbe potuto salvarlo. E invece era scappato di corsa, lasciando Billy a dibattersi, a morire assiderato nell'acqua gelida.
Che cosa stiamo leggendo? I cruenti fatti di sangue che coinvolgono le persone vicine a Niles ed Holland sono una serie di tragiche fatalità o attorno alla loro fattoria nel New England si aggira un assassino psicopatico? Stiamo leggendo una storia gotica di fantasmi, un racconto di possessioni demoniache, oppure tutta la storia è solo il terribile delirio di una mente malata?
Al lettore l’ardua, ma non troppo, sentenza.
«Oh», mormorò laconicamente, in tono sorpreso, quasi di scusa, accorgendosi che cadeva. E lui, fermo lì, impietrito, le braccia rigidamente distese, guardandola cadere, ancor prima che il buio le offuscasse il viso smorto e lei giacesse in un ammasso frantumato ai piedi della scala, sentì che in qualche modo, in quell'istante, tutte le sue domande avevano finalmente trovato risposta.
Per quanto mi riguarda, questo L’Altro di Thomas Tryon, nonostante la sorpresa finale alla base possa del libro possa risultare banale oggi rispetto all’epoca in cui fu scritto, mi è entrato davvero sottopelle, semplicemente uno dei migliori e più crudeli libri che abbia mai letto in vita mia, con le sue raccapriccianti atmosfere a metà tra L’Incubo di Hill House di Shirley Jackson e L’Esorcista di William Peter Blatty, un vero e proprio classico del genere.
E dopo aver letto quella certa scena verso la fine, posso giurarvi che non toccherò probabilmente mai più un bicchiere di vino in vita mia.
Un gran bel gioco di prestigio.
November 27, 2020
If you want to get a master class in how to write a book that has a big shift in the narrative around halfway through, this is a great place to go. Especially because I noticed on this reread, when I remembered the details going in, that it is all laid out for you in the first half. Tryon never tries to hide it, he just relies on your assumptions. To me on a second read I felt silly that I hadn't caught on my first time around, but I could see just how he got me to.
This is one of the more "literary" horror novels I've read, but it has absolutely no problem going big with the horror elements, from the gothic to the gory.
Note this is much more violent than you might expect, and includes some racial slurs.
This is one of the more "literary" horror novels I've read, but it has absolutely no problem going big with the horror elements, from the gothic to the gory.
Note this is much more violent than you might expect, and includes some racial slurs.
August 21, 2010
Personally, I don't get it. This was supposed to be a great book, one of the classics of horror literature. I'll vote it to be one of the boring books of horror literature. I couldn't finish it. I got halfway and had to dump it. Long prose, no atmosphere, little suspense. Read it if you like but I wouldn't recommend it.
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