The Other

De: Thomas Tryon

Narrado por: William Dufris

Holland and Niles Perry are identical thirteen-year-old twins. They are close, close enough, almost, to read each other's thoughts, but they couldn't be more different. Holland is bold and mischievous, a bad influence, while Niles is kind and eager to please, the sort of boy who makes parents proud. The Perrys live in the bucolic New England town their family settled centuries ago, and as it happens, the extended clan has gathered at its ancestral farm this summer to mourn the death of the twins' father in a most unfortunate accident. Mrs. Perry still hasn't recovered from the shock of her husband's gruesome end and stays sequestered in her room, leaving her sons to roam free. As the summer goes on, though, and Holland's pranks become increasingly sinister, Niles finds he can no longer make excuses for his brother's actions.

Thomas Tryon's best-selling novel about a homegrown monster is an eerie examination of the darkness that dwells within everyone. It is a landmark of psychological horror that is a worthy descendent of the books of James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shirley Jackson, and Patricia Highsmith.

©1971 Thomas Tryon (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Not even a chill

I was expecting a good scare with this book since it has such hype. Sadly nope, not even a chill.

The book is about two twin bothers and it's mainly told by one of the brothers, the "good" twin. There are a few twist and turns but nothing that exciting.

It's not a bad book, just not what I was expecting. It kinda dragged on.

WHAT A GREAT GREAT STORY

Would you consider the audio edition of The Other to be better than the print version?

YES, BECAUSE I READER WAS SO GOOD.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Other?

WHEN I FOUND OUT JUST WHAT WAS REALLY GOING ON HERE, I WAS SHOCKED. I SUPPOSE THIS COULD HAPPEN AS IT WAS A HORROR STORY, BUT NOT ABOUT MADE UP THINGS LIKE VAMPIRES OF SPIRITS.

What does William Dufris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A WHOLE LOT. THIS READER WAS SO PERFECT FOR THIS BOOK. I THINK THAT WILLIAM D. WOULD BE GOOD FOR ANY BOOK OF THIS TYPE. MAYBE EVEN OTHER BOOKS AS HE MITE READ THEM DIFFERENTLY. ANYWAY, HE WAS GREAT FROM BEGINNING TO END.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

LOTS OF MOMENTS. I PREFER NOT TO SAY. EACH MOMENT IS A REVELATION IN ITSELF.

Any additional comments?

I HAD READ THIS BOOK MANY TIMES. I CAN NOT SEE WELL ENOUGH TO READ ANYMORE--I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THIS BOOK ALONG WITH HARVEST HOME FROM THE TIME I JOINED. WHAT A GREAT SURPRISE TO SEE BOTH BOOKS SUDDENLY AVAILABLE WITHIN 2 DAYS!! I SNAPPED THEM UP IMMEDATELY.

PLEASE READ THESE IF YOU WANT TO BE ENGROSSED AND SURPRISED.

Boring

What would have made The Other better?

Not my taste

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointment

Any additional comments?

Requires reader to know too many European languages and history to be interesting to this contemperory reader.

Transcends the genre -- haunting and atmospheric

Where does The Other rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Definitely one of my favorites. Stephen King's "Dolores Claiborne" is hard to beat as a literary tour de force, but this one really made me *feel* something, quite apart from the horror and suspense. It caught the idyllic and unique beauty of this time, place, and the people inhabiting it -- this world -- which made you feel the loss like a physical blow when someone destroyed it all.


And, as mentioned in the Afterward, the loss resonates with the loss we all experience when we hit adulthood, and the world of our childhoods starts to be inexorably dismantled, plank by plank.I'm really glad I gave it chance, even though the premise -- oh, not the Evil Twin thing again, ho-hum -- struck me as a cliche, and one not particularly interesting to me. I thought it was going to be "The Bad Seed," Brian De Palma's "Sisters" and King's "Dark Half" all rolled up in a packet with a pretty bow.


And I'm glad I gave it a chance -- and thoroughly enjoyed the story -- even though I did see some aspects of the plot twists coming. But a friend had told me he thought I'd really like it, and I'm glad I took his advice. I look forward now to reading some of Tryon's other novels, at least "Harvest Home" and "Lady."


Also, I grew up in Connecticut, and I can also attest that Tryon captured the place perfectly, unlike, say, Rick Moody's horrid, meretricious "Ice Storm," which gets Connecticut, and specifically Fairfield County, all wrong from top to bottom. (As if it were Marin County, on the wrong coast entirely.) Parts of CT are still the same as they were in the 1934 setting of this book, while of course much of it is gone, all gone, subdivided and turned into big-box stores, McMansions and strip malls.

What did you like best about this story?

The atmosphere. The haunted feeling it left me with.

What about William Dufris’s performance did you like?

Actually, it rather irritated me in the beginning, although part of that was also due to the narrative style, which especially in the prologue and first few chapters was far too mannered for my taste, riddled as it was with asides, exclamations, direct address and a kind of breathless syntax. I also thought it was going to be very dated. But by the fourth or fifth chapter, both the narration and Dufris's performance settled down into a more transparent form of storytelling, and seemed to gain a more natural rhythm. What had seemed dated turned instead into a period piece. Then I found Dufris's performance to be just right, expressive without emoting.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I don't want to create spoilers, so I'll be vague. The scenes with the mother after an incident on the stairs were so heartbreaking they almost made me squirm with discomfort. And then there were the truly horrific parts. The bit with the wine cask. The bit with the coffin. The bit with the "changeling" doll lamp.

Any additional comments?

Stick with it! It definitely rewards the effort. One of those books that you'll keep thinking about, reinterpreting events that occurred in the beginning, and discovering multiple ways to interpret the story. It's also structurally brilliant, and shows a great deal of artistic control. A total mastery of the story. I might even read it again, just to see how he manages his sleight of hand at each step.


Also, to the reader who couldn't deal with the cruelty to animals -- come on, it's fiction! It's not even a movie; it's words on a page! It's not as if any animals were actually "hurt in the making of this book," etc. I'm about as tenderhearted as they come when it comes to animals. I "rescue" daddy long legs, lady bugs, flies and spiders that get stuck in our house; I adore my tuffy fish/red rosy minnows, which are considered (ouch!) "bait" by many. And forget about it when it comes to dogs, cats, guinea pigs, wild birds (especially hummingbirds! bluebirds! owls!) and all the wildlife in our yard and woods (beaver, skunks, foxes, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, possums, coyotes, even a bobcat). But the whole *point* of the animal cruelty was that the person inflicting it was a psychopath and a monster. The incident with the animal rather effectively, dramatically and immediately got that point across. It nailed the characterization right there. In any event, the cruelties inflicted on the humans in the story end up being far worse, or at least the suffering far more long-lasting.

A Book From My Past

Back in the ‘70’s I bought The Other in paperback. Over the years I’ve read it many times. It’s story is well written and well narrated. Definitely timeless.

Brilliant all around

This is one of the most brilliant and also one of the most under rated horror stories ever written. If you're paying attention, not a single element is superfluous. The story telling is almost poetic if not horrific. Even by today's attention spans it holds up very well. However, this is not for those used to cheap thrills. I've read it twice and listened twice. As some of the best horror does, it questions what's a play: mental illness, paranormal activity, enhanced intuition or all of the above. In that way, it's similar to Turn of the Screw, another but older classic that is terrifying if you're paying attention and have the attention span for it. Narrating the voices of children or characters with accents can go sideways very quickly. Personally I thought the narration was great, wasn't distracting or over done.

Excellent!!!

I tried reading this, but I had a hard time getting into it. The narrator did such a great job that I was pulled in and couldn't stop listening!

Awesome

What a delight to find a book just as fabulous on the second read. i first read it as a teenager, and again now as an old lady.

Reader Disappoints

Tryon’s haunting tale of twins and the mystic Russian grandmother is just as compelling as when I first read it. The reader disappointed me. His comments at the end were insightful.

A little predictable but still had surprises.

Any additional comments?

I figured out who the twins were in the beginning but not the depth of their cleverness and cruelty. There are lots of twists and turns. Some I saw coming but many were shocking!
Definitely worth the read.