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2.97 AVERAGE
2.97 AVERAGE
Y'all know my absolute adoration for all things creepy, gory, and horrortastic. The bloodier the book, eyeballs popping out, entrails weaved into tapestry, fingernails being pulled - the gorier, the better.
Killer vines who feast on human blood? Yes, please.
Throw in some creepy crawly bugs who yearn for human flesh? HELL, yes.
Main characters that you hate, are completely boring and stereotypical, and you wish to God that your misery would end and they would all just DIE? Yes.
Wait. WUT?
You heard me. I barely got through this book. On top of the dull plot and randomness, the characters were pretty much all pieces of shit that I despised. Stereotypes up the whazoo.
By the end, I was rooting for the vines. (pun-fucking-intended)
2 ninja bunnehs planting
ARC received from NG in exchange for an honest review
Killer vines who feast on human blood? Yes, please.
Throw in some creepy crawly bugs who yearn for human flesh? HELL, yes.
Main characters that you hate, are completely boring and stereotypical, and you wish to God that your misery would end and they would all just DIE? Yes.
Wait. WUT?
You heard me. I barely got through this book. On top of the dull plot and randomness, the characters were pretty much all pieces of shit that I despised. Stereotypes up the whazoo.
By the end, I was rooting for the vines. (pun-fucking-intended)
2 ninja bunnehs planting
ARC received from NG in exchange for an honest review
This is an Advanced Reader's Copy Received From Netgalley
Christopher Rice is an author that despite reading his mother's books, I never knew he existed until his latest novel, The Heavens Rise was released. Rice is a pretty common last name, I think, so I just assumed he was another Rice, not a descendant of a famous Rice. I did my best to remove his mother's fame from him and make him his own individual bowl of Rice, he is Christopher Rice, not the son of the Anne Rice bowl. That's a great thing to do. I eat rice everyday, excuse the excess amounts of the word "rice".
Enough about rice though, the book is about green vegetation, not grains of rice.
The Vines is one of those supernatural horror stories. Where spirits of the dead seek revenge against the living, because the past had perished them into the most miserable of fates. In this novel, the vengeful spirit is a deceased African American slave named Virginie Lacroix, who has the power to control and communicate with nature, or the earth to be more specific. I mean dirt and plants. The ones who are in despair are three main characters, Caitlin, Blake and Nova. What are the tragedies? Caitlin is a woman who loathes herself due to her shallow family members, a cheater husband, and basically, she is a rich woman and riches don't make you happy, it attracts more misery than anything. Blake is an average joe, who hides his feelings, his anger, behind his muscles. That sounds really weird to say. But anyway, Blake, like Caitlin, has lost his love, his lover to be more exact, in a murder, a hate crime towards gay men, that wasn't given enough justice and had permanently scarred his faith in humanity. Then there's Nova, who is African American and has a sort of complex hatred, she hates Caitlin for being the usual stuck up, privileged, self-absorbed being, and for pretty much living in the South, where people like her, due to the still ever present racism, are viewed as nothing but maybe less than human.
This whole story is focused on misery and revenge. A sort of cautionary tale of sorts, where the Vines are what carries out this embedded hatred, a desire for revenge. I sound like a broken record when it comes to books like this. But that's basically what it is, a vicious anger awakens a curse and unleashes the pure darkness of people's souls through more darkness.
I read reviews of Christopher Rice's other books and I always feel apprehensive when I hear people talking about the writing style, in that negative way where I know, based on my own taste, that I won't like it. But it was already too late, I had this on my kindle and I've been wanting to try out his words. They aren't bad, they are enjoyable actually. I don't know what it is but they are nice and smooth. Sort of like whipping cream with a poem ripped to shreds and mixed in. But then this is his latest book and people improve over the years.
This book isn't too long and I read it in two and half days. It was quite a journey with a few lifted up eyebrows at the whole oddity of it. Killer vines? It was almost like a Stephen King movie. I didn't like some of those movies, especially the older ones. Yet, I enjoyed this novel. It was thrilling, creepy, like a guilty pleasure horror TV show you can't pull your eyes away from. Yet there was also that feeling, that I learned something from it, that it filled me. Something about it made it feel like it was more than just a thriller. I don't know how to explain it, but The Vines feels like a sort of touching story with a darker tinge to it, because fear stabs the humanity and evil in us, all at the same time.
Rating: 4/5
Christopher Rice is an author that despite reading his mother's books, I never knew he existed until his latest novel, The Heavens Rise was released. Rice is a pretty common last name, I think, so I just assumed he was another Rice, not a descendant of a famous Rice. I did my best to remove his mother's fame from him and make him his own individual bowl of Rice, he is Christopher Rice, not the son of the Anne Rice bowl. That's a great thing to do. I eat rice everyday, excuse the excess amounts of the word "rice".
Enough about rice though, the book is about green vegetation, not grains of rice.
The Vines is one of those supernatural horror stories. Where spirits of the dead seek revenge against the living, because the past had perished them into the most miserable of fates. In this novel, the vengeful spirit is a deceased African American slave named Virginie Lacroix, who has the power to control and communicate with nature, or the earth to be more specific. I mean dirt and plants. The ones who are in despair are three main characters, Caitlin, Blake and Nova. What are the tragedies? Caitlin is a woman who loathes herself due to her shallow family members, a cheater husband, and basically, she is a rich woman and riches don't make you happy, it attracts more misery than anything. Blake is an average joe, who hides his feelings, his anger, behind his muscles. That sounds really weird to say. But anyway, Blake, like Caitlin, has lost his love, his lover to be more exact, in a murder, a hate crime towards gay men, that wasn't given enough justice and had permanently scarred his faith in humanity. Then there's Nova, who is African American and has a sort of complex hatred, she hates Caitlin for being the usual stuck up, privileged, self-absorbed being, and for pretty much living in the South, where people like her, due to the still ever present racism, are viewed as nothing but maybe less than human.
This whole story is focused on misery and revenge. A sort of cautionary tale of sorts, where the Vines are what carries out this embedded hatred, a desire for revenge. I sound like a broken record when it comes to books like this. But that's basically what it is, a vicious anger awakens a curse and unleashes the pure darkness of people's souls through more darkness.
I read reviews of Christopher Rice's other books and I always feel apprehensive when I hear people talking about the writing style, in that negative way where I know, based on my own taste, that I won't like it. But it was already too late, I had this on my kindle and I've been wanting to try out his words. They aren't bad, they are enjoyable actually. I don't know what it is but they are nice and smooth. Sort of like whipping cream with a poem ripped to shreds and mixed in. But then this is his latest book and people improve over the years.
This book isn't too long and I read it in two and half days. It was quite a journey with a few lifted up eyebrows at the whole oddity of it. Killer vines? It was almost like a Stephen King movie. I didn't like some of those movies, especially the older ones. Yet, I enjoyed this novel. It was thrilling, creepy, like a guilty pleasure horror TV show you can't pull your eyes away from. Yet there was also that feeling, that I learned something from it, that it filled me. Something about it made it feel like it was more than just a thriller. I don't know how to explain it, but The Vines feels like a sort of touching story with a darker tinge to it, because fear stabs the humanity and evil in us, all at the same time.
Rating: 4/5
An interesting and well paced read that kept me up to the wee hours of the night.
I have to say-not his best novel but still entertaining. There was just something missing. But, for Rice fans it is still worth a read!
I'm a fan of B-Horror Movies. They're wonderfully cheesy and often have great characters and a decently strong plot despite their craziness. Reading the summary for The Vines, I was expecting something pretty good--maybe even something like Grabbers (which is awesome by the way; go watch it). However, I was disappointed with this story. When it comes to "horror" stories that you know aren't going to be that scary, you at least have to have good action and good characters. You have to have a solid reason behind the madness, even if it's a bit stretched. Sure, what Rice wanted us to believe about the plantation and its "evil garden" ended up decent. He gave it a base, but it wasn't strong enough for an excellent story. Plus, the characters around the vines couldn't stand up well to the reasoning. I don't know.. they were just so cardboard for me, something the author picked up from a hastily written piece of fanfiction. Blake's story was tragic enough, and Nova had the potential to be interesting, but them as a duo didn't work. Caitlin didn't work. Sure, she wanted revenge and who could blame her. But the set-up of her character we are given in the first few chapters does not match the rest of the book. And, I'm still not sure I understand why the vines (and the spirit possessing them) were even obligated to help exact anybody's revenge. An explanation was attempted through the bug ghost - yes you heard that right - but I'm not buying it. So, Meh. Thought the "acclaim" behind Christopher Rice would equal a good story. Nope. Some good imagery peppered here and there, but the rest was disappointing.
This was a decent book. I liked the premise about the slaves on the plantation and would have loved to read more about them. I could see this becoming a series though. I would have liked to read more about the history, but there really was no need. Only enough of the past was told to help with the present storyline. I would love to get my hands on more of Mr. Rice's books.
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
I'd actually chosen this book as a Halloween read, but I didn't manage to read it till late December. However I was really looking forward to it.
After Caitlin witnesses her husband's cheating on her at her Birthday party she decides to kill herself in the gazebo. But instead of dying her blood brings an old force back to life. What force? The very evil force of plants and bugs.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The story was just very thin (not that I expected deep philosophical questions to be answers) and not that original. And there were a lot of things that just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story. The ending felt weird too. Although it never became the horror story I thought it would be, it was enjoyable to read (as long as I didn't start to think about the plot holes and just kept reading).
The writing was quite good, I still have another one of his books, A Density of Souls, and I'm hoping I will enjoy that story better. When I requested The Vines, I'd no idea it was Anne Rice's son and frankly I haven't read anything by her either, so I won't be able to compare anything.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I'd actually chosen this book as a Halloween read, but I didn't manage to read it till late December. However I was really looking forward to it.
After Caitlin witnesses her husband's cheating on her at her Birthday party she decides to kill herself in the gazebo. But instead of dying her blood brings an old force back to life. What force? The very evil force of plants and bugs.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The story was just very thin (not that I expected deep philosophical questions to be answers) and not that original. And there were a lot of things that just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story. The ending felt weird too. Although it never became the horror story I thought it would be, it was enjoyable to read (as long as I didn't start to think about the plot holes and just kept reading).
The writing was quite good, I still have another one of his books, A Density of Souls, and I'm hoping I will enjoy that story better. When I requested The Vines, I'd no idea it was Anne Rice's son and frankly I haven't read anything by her either, so I won't be able to compare anything.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This was my first Christopher Rice book, and I was prepared to dislike it thinking he succeeded on his mother's coattails. I 👏 was 👏 wrong 👏!!!! This was an incredible story, weaving the scary intricacies of a ghost story with the sad lessons of our country's painful past of slaves and their horrid treatment. Christopher Rice is as fantastic and artistic a storyteller as his wonderful mother. Will definitely be reading more of his stories.
The thing I loved most about THE VINES is the fact that while creepy as all get out, there isn't a clear cut right & wrong/us vs. them vibe. Of course bad things do happen, but at the same time ... you understand them. Maybe even empathize with them a little? At one point while reading I turned to my husband and said "Go vines go! Kill the people!" I am pretty sure he just rolled his eyes at me and went on doing whatever he was doing at the time. But that was a fun and unexpected turn of events in a story that reminded me of a lot of the classic horror stories I have read.
The story opens on a southern plantation - creepy by reputation alone - where we witness a woman being wronged emotionally. From there we follow her through an emotional spiral that leads to a desperate act - which leads to her vengeance. I won't really talk about the story much past that, I really don't like to ruin things for you! I will say that at first I didn't like the expanding cast of characters ... until suddenly I did. Not sure why that changed; maybe because I got a wider view of the world, but I never felt like I was missing out when I was with one person - I knew all the gaps would be filled.
The end crept up on me, I was too involved in the story to notice the percent read getting higher and high until BAM - the book was over. While there was certainly some closure, I am not sure if I was mentally ready for the story to be over.
If you like ambiguous entities, bad people, good people, and killer plant life, then by all means pick this story up!
The story opens on a southern plantation - creepy by reputation alone - where we witness a woman being wronged emotionally. From there we follow her through an emotional spiral that leads to a desperate act - which leads to her vengeance. I won't really talk about the story much past that, I really don't like to ruin things for you! I will say that at first I didn't like the expanding cast of characters ... until suddenly I did. Not sure why that changed; maybe because I got a wider view of the world, but I never felt like I was missing out when I was with one person - I knew all the gaps would be filled.
The end crept up on me, I was too involved in the story to notice the percent read getting higher and high until BAM - the book was over. While there was certainly some closure, I am not sure if I was mentally ready for the story to be over.
If you like ambiguous entities, bad people, good people, and killer plant life, then by all means pick this story up!
This is one of the best books I have read this year. I could not put it down. It was suspenseful and terrifying. Blake was a terrific character. I would love to see him in other books.
Christopher Rice is great with all of the details; the entire book played like a movie in my mind. It was very entertaining and I highly recommend it.
Christopher Rice is great with all of the details; the entire book played like a movie in my mind. It was very entertaining and I highly recommend it.