Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

Jonathan Janz

Sorrows Paperback – 6 March 2012

by Jonathan Janz (Author)

42 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$41.01

$35.05

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$26.99

$23.08

—

Something is trapped in the castle, and it wants to feed! The Sorrows, an island off the coast of northern California, and its castle have been uninhabited since a series of gruesome, unexplained murders in 1925. But its owner needs money, so he allows film composers Ben and Eddie and a couple of their female friends to stay a month in Castle Blackwood. Eddie is certain an eerie and reportedly haunted castle is just the setting Ben needs to find musical inspiration for a horror film. But what they find is more horrific than any movie. For something is waiting for them in the castle. A being, once worshipped, now imprisoned, has been trapped for nearly a century. And he's ready to feed.

Special offers and product promotions

Buy this item and get 90 days Free Amazon Music Unlimited. After purchase you will receive an email with further information. Offer valid for a limited time only. Terms and Conditions apply.” Learn more here.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Chris Sorensen
159
Paperback
$26.70

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

JONATHAN JANZ
76
Paperback
$15.31
JONATHAN JANZ
13
Hardcover
$42.73
JONATHAN JANZ
27
Hardcover
$41.05
JONATHAN JANZ
50
Paperback
$20.18
Jonathan Janz
124
Paperback
$37.39
JONATHAN JANZ
44
Paperback
$22.98

Start reading The Sorrows (Fiction Without Frontiers) on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

Publisher : Samhain Publishing (6 March 2012)
Language : English
Paperback : 298 pages
ISBN-10 : 1609286723
ISBN-13 : 978-1609286729
Dimensions : 15.19 x 1.7 x 22.91 cm

Customer Reviews:
42 ratings

Product description

About the Author

Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard. In a way, that explains everything. So far, he has written two novellas (Old Order and Witching Hour Theatre), several short stories, and one novel, The Sorrows. His primary interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children, and though he realizes that every author's wife and children are wonderful and amazing, in this case the cliche happens to be true.

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Customer reviews

5 star		46%
4 star		30%
3 star		7%
2 star		12%
1 star		5%

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Alan E Chelvan

Articulate Horror

Reviewed in Australia on 22 February 2019

Verified Purchase

Monster Horror at its best. Well written and atmospheric. Can’t wait to read more from Johnathan. Deserving of all its praise and recommendations.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Justin Lewis

Hauntings, gore, and more!

Reviewed in the United States on 8 September 2020

Verified Purchase

Do you remember those remakes of William Castle movies that came out in the early 2000’s? Like House on Haunted Hill or 13 Ghosts? They were were fun, had music video visuals (in a good way), and were a little mean-spirited? That’s kind of how this book read to me- a good midnight movie and for the most part I really enjoyed it. THE SORROWS is Jonathan Janz’s first novel and also the first of his I’ve read. It won’t be the last.

Ben and Eddie are composers who specialize in film scores. They’ve just been hired to score a major new horror movie, but Ben has writer’s block. Eddie thinks that spending some time in a castle on an island off the coast of Northern California will help Ben get his groove back. But no one has lived there since a bunch of people were killed there in the 20’s. Only one way on or off the island...what could possibly go wrong? Horror, gore, and more ensue!

I found this to be a very quick read. The chapters are short which kept me speeding along until the end. Once things hit the fan, they don’t let up and that propelled me through to the conclusion- I think I read the final third on one sitting. Every several chapters, there are journal entries from someone who used to live in the island that provide some context as to why the castle isn’t necessarily where you’d want spend a month completely cut off from the world; these were my favorite part because I really wanted to know more about what haunted the castle and why.

There are a lot more characters then the two I mentioned earlier- both on and off the island, and in the past revealed through the journal entries. While I felt like characters were a little thin, I did find myself invested in the more likable ones. The unlikable ones were extremely unlikable; no redemption in sight for most of them, no middle ground. And at least one truly vile one that you hope terrible things happen to, but I’m not telling.

My only gripe is that I wish we got to find out a little more about the entity and the island’s multiple mysteries (trying to avoid spoilers) as I still had questions in the end; there’s a sequel called CASTLE OF SORROWS and maybe we find out more there. It feels like there’s more to this island and I will definitely be scheduling a return trip!

One person found this helpful

Eclectic Reader

“May Madness Here Forever Reign”

Reviewed in the United States on 25 June 2017

Verified Purchase

Some artists give credit to their creativity to a muse. Film soundtrack composer Eddie Blaze is one of those kinds of artists and when he repeatedly can’t develop any music for a new horror film nearing completion, The House of Skin because of traumatic events in his personal life, his writing partner, Ben Shadeland, decides to push Eddie toward inspiration and his self-proclaimed muse: fear. Knowing Eddie does his best work when he is “scared.” Ben takes Eddie to a cave in northern California, allegedly the site of a number of murders by “one of the most prolific serial killers in California history.” The adventure is a flop. Next stop: the Sorrows—an island left uninhabited since 1925 and Castle Blackwood—the scene of a number of inexplicable and hideous murders. Arranging for the visit isn’t easy, but Ben and movie producer Lee Stanley are desperate to motivate Eddie. Equally distressed is the current owner of the Sorrows, Chris Blackwood, in debt to a notorious bookie, so against his better judgment, Blackwood arranges for a group to be taken to and left at the Sorrows and the castle—for a hefty price. It is there that Eddie finds his muse—and so much more!

The Sorrows (2011) by Jonathan Janz was the author’s first published novel. It contains many of the trademarks readers have come to associate with his work: fast paced narration, brilliant word choices and use of simile, strong characterization (including an especially despicable, unlikable, sleazy character), suspenseful writing, an intense feeling for humanity regardless of how horrific the events, and unexpected plot twists.

Readers beginning The Sorrows initially find themselves ensconced in many of the traditions of a typical haunted house story. There is a small, diverse group of characters (many of them strangers to each other) isolated in an allegedly haunted mansion from which there is no departing until the scheduled time a month later when they will be picked up. They each have their own backstories and baggage and some of it isn’t pretty. Once in the castle, there are mysterious goings on: knocks on doors being opened upon empty corridors, shadows that seem to alter in appearance, a basement pit with a slimy floor and filled with an eye-watering stench, visions and nightmares for the people staying in the castle, and guests undergoing some rather severe personality changes. Janz pulls out all of the stops including the castle setting itself: tall, imposing, dark, and riddled with secret passages to make The Sorrows come alive in all of its menacing allure.

However, it quickly becomes apparent to the reader that Janz has more than a haunted house story up his devious sleeve. The first clue comes from excerpts from a servant’s diary written in 1911 which eerily connects music and composition to Castle Blackwood as well as Eddie’s expected muse from a most unexpected source: a strange young boy given the angelic name, Gabriel. As events from the past via Calvin Shepherd’s journal become more harrowing and more and more of the island’s more ghastly history is unveiled, modern events escalate to horrifying dimensions. Madness, murder, treachery, violence, some truly gruesome happenings, and more begins to consume the lives of the confined cast of characters as that which plagued the island in the past wreaking havoc and death again makes its pernicious and seemingly unrelenting appearance.

Frequently compared to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and the William Castle film House on Haunted Hill (1959) to which I would add Richard Matheson’s iconic Hell House (1971), The Sorrows is an ambitious first novel with the author taking some high-wire walk risks flouting reader expectations and the usual elements of a haunted house story to introduce an incredibly different type of dread. No mere ghost walks the halls and grounds of the Sorrows, but something far worse and much more vicious.

The conclusion of The Sorrows brings with it typical white-knuckled Janz action and anxiety, justice served and unserved, and a rather large body count, but also leaves the reader closing the book in wonder. Although the novel reaches a perfectly adequate, stand-alone conclusion, there are some loose ties and unanswered questions remaining, especially one in the book’s very final sentence obviously left by the author as a sadistic tease. All of this is not only perfect for the subject matter, but leaves the reader wishing for a sequel—a sequel which Janz provides in Castle of Sorrows (2014). For horror affectionados, The Sorrows is not to be missed.

[NOTE: The Sorrows is temporarily out of print. Its publisher, Samhain Publishing, went out of business at the end of February 2017. Janz has reported working on getting all of his Samhain titles back in print via other publishers. For those who cannot find a copy of The Sorrows, it will be worth the wait for a new edition.]

3 people found this helpful

Lamar Henderson

Was this a first draft?

Reviewed in the United States on 14 October 2020

Verified Purchase

Started well, interesting premise. And it got progressively more absurd as it went along. The thing is that it was still engaging enough that I've spent a lot of time imagining how it could be revised and, you know, make sense, and live up to the promise of the premise.

One person found this helpful

D3MIN19

The Sorrows is the best debut horror novel I have read since Jack Ketchum’s ...

Reviewed in the United States on 10 January 2015

Verified Purchase

The Sorrows is the best debut horror novel I have read since Jack Ketchum’s Off Season. Granted, I haven’t read every first fright book in existence, but that’s not the point. Jonathan Janz has woven a formidable introduction into the horror genre with a true tour-de-force that simultaneously pays homage to the classics while effortlessly lacing an original work with a contemporary and confident narrative.

Within these pages are rousing echoes of Matheson’s Hell House, mixed with the wanton and deathly nuances of the late Richard Laymon, with shades of superlative character work to rival that of Stephen King. I would surmise that it is the latter that truly makes this novel click. The Sorrows is a compelling and tense story that contains an ingredient that many genre writers forget to include in their fictional concoctions; characters that you actually care about. The protagonists are deftly fleshed out with real emotions, scars and all. Their collective fates resonate well past the flip of the final page and ultimately leave the reader begging for more.

4 people found this helpful

Brandon St. Pierre

An Astonishing Debut-Quintessential Horror Novel with Gore, Chills AND a heart

Reviewed in the United States on 23 December 2014

Verified Purchase

This is just must read stuff, plain and simple. I enjoyed the book so much, I bought everything Jonathan Janz put to paper directly after completing it. This is a book for all horror fans, of all different types of stories, it's really got it all. The only reason why I would recommend anyone stay away, is if you're not one for graphic sex and violence.

It's all spot-on, from pacing to characters to prose to attention to detail. I found myself waking up early for work so I could fit some reading in before hand because I was so into this book. The book just blows right by, there are no moments where you're hoping a chapter will end, which tends to happen with even the most accomplished writers for me.

One of Samhain's flagship authors, this, his inaugural offering is vital reading to any horror fan.

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Sorrows Paperback – 6 March 2012

Special offers and product promotions

Customers who bought this item also bought

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

Product description

About the Author

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries