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Peter Straub
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If You Could See Me Now Kindle Edition

by Peter Straub (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 440 ratings
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story—the terrifying, “electrifying” novel (Stephen King) about a man who flees the wreckage of his life to face the ghosts of his past, only to encounter a sinister force, ready to kill. 
One summer night in 1955, a boy and his cousin plunge naked into the moonlit waters of a rural quarry. Only one of them emerges.
 
Just as he had promised he would on that fateful night two decades earlier, Miles Teagarden—now divorced and a struggling writer—returns to his family home in Arden, Wisconsin. But the landscape he once knew so well has turned eerie and threatening. In the small town, his erstwhile friends and rivals, even his blood relatives, view him with suspicion. Their paranoia seems justified when another beautiful blonde teenage girl goes missing—much as his cousin Alison did all those years ago. Miles feels a dark force is at work, gathering strength. As the anniversary of the tragic night approaches, he begins to fear that Alison will find a way to make their date . . .
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  1. Print length
    360 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Anchor
  5. Publication date
    May 19, 2015
  6. File size
    1357 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Suspenseful.” —The New York Times

“An electrifying finish: During the last forty pages my hands were as good as nailed to the book.” —Stephen King
 
“Straub is terrifyingly accomplished in the art of horror.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Peter Straub is a national treasure.” —Lawrence Block 

 “You expect the horrifying in the fiction of Peter Straub . . . and you get it.” —The New York Times 

“More than a good storyteller with a talent for scaring readers. He’s a writer who transcends his genre.” —USA Today

“[Straub] is a master at blurring the supernatural, the real-world-scary, and the monsters in your psyche.” —The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

 “Not since Edgar Allan Poe has an author taken such liberties with his readers’ nerves.” —Cosmopolitan

“Straub’s literary specialty . . . is not dreams but nightmares. . . . He’s particularly adept at the kind of creepy psychological yarn pioneered by Henry James and modernized by Shirley Jackson.” —Salon

“Straub is the master of subtle, smoldering dread.” —People

 “Peter Straub is one of his generation’s best storytellers. . . . [Stephen] King goes for your jugular; Straub goes for your brain.” —Tor.com

From the Inside Flap

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

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

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00N6PEND6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor; Reprint edition (May 19, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 19, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1357 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 440 ratings

About the author

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Peter Straub

Peter Straub

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Peter Straub is the author of seventeen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. They include Ghost Story, Koko, Mr. X, In the Night Room, and two collaborations with Stephen King, The Talisman and Black House. He has written two volumes of poetry and two collections of short fiction, and he edited the Library of America’s edition of H. P. Lovecraft’s Tales and the forthcoming Library of America’s 2-volume anthology, American Fantastic Tales. He has won the British Fantasy Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, two International Horror Guild Awards, and three World Fantasy Awards. In 1998, he was named Grand Master at the World Horror Convention. In 2006, he was given the HWA’s Life Achievement Award. In 2008, he was given the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award by Poets & Writers. At the World Fantasy Convention in 2010, he was given the WFC’s Life Achievement Award.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
440 global ratings
Strange combination of mystery and horror
4 Stars
Strange combination of mystery and horror
This is a very unusual early effort from Peter Straub. It reminds me of the film STRAY DOGS combined with a murdery mystery and a ghost story. The novel takes us into the troubled life of the not-entirely-sympathetic (or unsympathetic) Miles Teagarden, who had a very unusual late-night swim with his beautiful, seductive cousin Alison in 1955, and he lived to regret it. Twenty years later, he returns from his troubled adult life for a rendezvous, sworn to that fateful night in '55. But people in the nearby town hate Miles and treat him with the most atrocious hostility. Tempers flare into horrible violence, all the while teenage girls are murdered around town, and poor Miles is viewed as the most likely suspect. However, there are other possible suspects whom obnoxious and drunken Miles considers (and is the only one to consider them). The novel winds towards fateful events in which both a very non-supernatural murder spree must be solved along with a possible supernatural meeting with long-dead Alison. This is a nasty, thrilling read, proving that Mr. Straub has excelled at horror and mystery for over 30 years of his impressive career.
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Top reviews from the United States

LillianG
5.0 out of 5 stars What suspence
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2023
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Wow this story took you thru a wringer and still made you sweat. I thought the main character was going Looney but the ghost was there. Terrifying, tense but couldn't stop reading. Good scare
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Tasha Parrish
3.0 out of 5 stars Alrighty Then
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2023
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Wow, that’s an awful lot of dysfunctional for me. That protagonist lives inside his head way too much.

So, I’m not sure what I can say without plot spoiling so take this as an official alert.

The writing was good, I liked how the author played around with phrasing and expressions. It definitely helped with the atmosphere. Because of this, I’ll try another Straub book.

The protagonist was not at all likeable - that’s intentional to keep you guessing. To be fair, I’m not sure I liked a single person in this book. Rinn was OK and that’s the best I can do. She kept chickens and was old school.

And what in the world is Miles’s DEAL, anyway? I don’t get how he functioned well enough in society to actually maintain a marriage and professorial career as long as he did. Plus, cousins. 2 of them. I just can’t even.

Here’s the SPOILER: The ending. I kept going along, hoping he was blanking out and not realizing what he was up to. Runner up option was that he was being possessed by whatever but still the culprit. Nope, neither. If “Alison” was otherworldly and didn’t carry human emotions anymore, what in the world was “she” up to, even bothering to come back for revenge AND petty killings? Senseless. And the rapings? That, too? Nope, not working for me.

So, 3 stars from me.
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Charlie Martin III
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good shape
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2015
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I really like the way Straub weaves his story and keeps the suspense going up to the end, I do believe the ending could have been a little more in-depth, I won't throw any spoilers in here, read the book and you'll understand what I mean! LoL
4 people found this helpful
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Peaty Girl 👧
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful condition for a collector
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2022
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I am trying to complete my Peter Straub collection and this one is rare. I am very happy with my purchase. It is pre-owned but it looks new.
One person found this helpful
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Daffy
3.0 out of 5 stars No likeable characters
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2022
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I just couldn't connect with any of the characters or the story. And to me it was strange, weird not like any of the other strange and weird books by
Straub, which always sucked me in immediately.

This is the only book by Straub that I didn't care for.
5 people found this helpful
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Kissy
4.0 out of 5 stars Great story but....
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2015
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Great story, intense characters....but a very lame ending. I was highly disappointed by the way it turned out, and wonder if the author just got tired?
5 people found this helpful
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Patricia Tobergte
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2021
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This book kept me up a few nights because I couldn't put it down. It literally had me on the edge of my seat at times. One of the scariest books I've ever read. Thank you Peter Straub!
4 people found this helpful
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Bob Flisser
2.0 out of 5 stars Was Peter Straub abducted? Who wrote this boring thing?
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2016
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Peter Straub usually writes books I can't put down: Shadowland, In the Night Room, Lost Boy Lost Girl and A Dark Matter were gripping. But this one? I think he got inspiration from his to-do list of errands.

The prologue started out interesting, then little happened in the first 80% of the book except for one shocking revelation about halfway through. You can easily skip most of this book and not miss anything. The real action starts in the last 20% of the book, and even that was mostly predictable. And one of the main characters was absent from all that. Not written out; just not mentioned.

I had to struggle to finish this book, and didn't get much reward for it.
11 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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usbeck
5.0 out of 5 stars Straub ist mindestens sogut wie Stephen King.
Reviewed in Germany on January 9, 2020
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Das Buch ist schon älter, aber toll geschrieben, mit einem faszinierenden Plot. Eine gelungene Mischung aus Horror und Phantasie.
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Steve B
5.0 out of 5 stars HUGELY ENJOYABLE
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2015
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I thought I had read everything Peter Straub ever wrote but somehow I missed this one. I'm glad I discovered it though because it was a hugely enjoyable read. In this early novel, the author has not quite found his distinctive "voice" so it's not immediately obvious you are reading something by Peter Straub. Having said this, there is still something a bit off-kilter about the atmosphere (a speciality of Straub), probably because the main character clearly has a few "issues"- he is still easy to identify with however.

I found the ending a bit implausible!
2 people found this helpful
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