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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Ugh. That was my initial reaction at the end of reading this book. In fact, when reading the last 100 pages or so of the book, I actually said 'ugh!' or 'ick!' out loud at least 3 times. A pithy review would read 'A tedious overlong mix of Edgar Allen Poe and Twilight.'
The relationship between Michael and Rowan is nauseating. He says 'honey'. She starts crying. And after so much spur-of-the-moment but drawn out over 300 pages romance, and after about 900 freaking pages of history and warnings of how horrible Lasher is, Rowan falls under his spell in about 5 seconds. Just because he sexes her up, which she previously claimed repulsed her. And after spending her entire life wanting to be a neurosurgeon and wanting to use the legacy money to start a clinic, Rowan throws it away for some good sex with a bizarre spirit demon. It's unbelievable that her character would be legitimately curious about forming an abhorrent new life form, after viewing Lemle's fetus experiment. And it's even more unbelievable that after she is forced to literally give birth to this horrendous creation, after it destroys her natural child, she would then help it and want it to survive.
What's up with Michael's hand power? What was the point of him having it? And why did it leave? What did it reveal to him? And what did Lasher see in Michael? A dupable man-toy from New Orleans? How would he know that's what Rowan would like, when he appeared to Michael before Rowan was born?
I guess one legitimate question could be: who caused Michael to drown, Lasher or the Mayfairs? By the end, I accept that the deceased Mayfairs, for all their conniving and disagreements while alive, wanted Michael to persuade Rowan to not allow Lasher into her life and thereby prevent the aberration of his human form. However, did they cause him to drown, so that Rowan would find him, fall in love (since she apparently is highly suggestible to love interests), and then be so happy that she wouldn't fulfill the prophecy? If so, what assholes; that is a risky way to go about things. Or did Lasher arrange it (since he is also in tune to Rowan's romantic tastes) just to have some man sperm present at the required time? If Lasher was the one to initially cause their paths to cross, did the Mayfairs then use his convenient time when dead to give him an alternate purpose?
While I did not enjoy this book the writing did kept me reading. However, I would also be more than happy to replace this entire 1000-page novel with half an hour with a picture book of the houses, gardens, and history of New Orleans. The bizarre story did make me curious about the later installments of the series. However, reading the wikipedia articles on Lasher (the book) and Taltos was more than sufficient to convince me I do not want to invest any more time into reading the series, as it seems to delve even further into absurd erotic horror/sci-fi.
The relationship between Michael and Rowan is nauseating. He says 'honey'. She starts crying. And after so much spur-of-the-moment but drawn out over 300 pages romance, and after about 900 freaking pages of history and warnings of how horrible Lasher is, Rowan falls under his spell in about 5 seconds. Just because he sexes her up, which she previously claimed repulsed her. And after spending her entire life wanting to be a neurosurgeon and wanting to use the legacy money to start a clinic, Rowan throws it away for some good sex with a bizarre spirit demon. It's unbelievable that her character would be legitimately curious about forming an abhorrent new life form, after viewing Lemle's fetus experiment. And it's even more unbelievable that after she is forced to literally give birth to this horrendous creation, after it destroys her natural child, she would then help it and want it to survive.
What's up with Michael's hand power? What was the point of him having it? And why did it leave? What did it reveal to him? And what did Lasher see in Michael? A dupable man-toy from New Orleans? How would he know that's what Rowan would like, when he appeared to Michael before Rowan was born?
I guess one legitimate question could be: who caused Michael to drown, Lasher or the Mayfairs? By the end, I accept that the deceased Mayfairs, for all their conniving and disagreements while alive, wanted Michael to persuade Rowan to not allow Lasher into her life and thereby prevent the aberration of his human form. However, did they cause him to drown, so that Rowan would find him, fall in love (since she apparently is highly suggestible to love interests), and then be so happy that she wouldn't fulfill the prophecy? If so, what assholes; that is a risky way to go about things. Or did Lasher arrange it (since he is also in tune to Rowan's romantic tastes) just to have some man sperm present at the required time? If Lasher was the one to initially cause their paths to cross, did the Mayfairs then use his convenient time when dead to give him an alternate purpose?
While I did not enjoy this book the writing did kept me reading. However, I would also be more than happy to replace this entire 1000-page novel with half an hour with a picture book of the houses, gardens, and history of New Orleans. The bizarre story did make me curious about the later installments of the series. However, reading the wikipedia articles on Lasher (the book) and Taltos was more than sufficient to convince me I do not want to invest any more time into reading the series, as it seems to delve even further into absurd erotic horror/sci-fi.
Re-rating this at 4 stars on my second read through (down from 5) because I'm apparently old and cynical now and I don't care if there's a reason for instalove or not, I hate it goddamnit, I just do. And there's more erotica in this story than there is in a lot of actual erotica. Jesus fucking christ; calm the fuck down.
The bit when Rowan and Michael are cleaning up the mansion and just throwing around money is just self indulgent and uninteresting. An argument can be made for pacing and setting atmosphere and whatnot but no. Just no. It really just ate up a few hundred pages. *sigh*
Over all, it's an utterly fantastic ghost story. Still loved it.
The bit when Rowan and Michael are cleaning up the mansion and just throwing around money is just self indulgent and uninteresting. An argument can be made for pacing and setting atmosphere and whatnot but no. Just no. It really just ate up a few hundred pages. *sigh*
Over all, it's an utterly fantastic ghost story. Still loved it.
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a weird one for me. I was hooked by the mystery in the beginning and enjoyed the detailed explanations giving backstory for Rowan and Michael. The middle part going through the Mayfair history kept me interested although obviously got more uncomfortable as I kept going. The third part is where it lost me - it became a romance horror story where I just got more and more annoyed at Rowan before being ultimately horrified when it turned to body horror. I tried to give the sequel a chance but the first chapter just made it exponentially worse. No thank you!
This book is probably twice as long as it needs to be, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it anyways
This book took a lot of unexpected and weird turns, but very typical of Anne Rice. In moments, the characters compelled me immensely and others they disgusted me. Rice does a wonderful job with morally grey characters. 3.5 rounded up to 4
It ended with some VERY fitting quotes given the timing of this book finish which I needed to read. See below:
“Life itself must be founded upon the infinite possibility for choice and accident. And if we cannot prove that it is, we must believe that it is. We must believe that we can change, that we can control, that we can direct our own destinies.” Page 963
“And I suppose I do believe in the final analysis that a peace of mind can be obtained in the face of the worst horrors and the worst losses. It can be obtained by faith and change and in will, and in accident; and by faith in ourselves, that we will do the right thing; more often than not, in the face of adversity.” Page 964
It ended with some VERY fitting quotes given the timing of this book finish which I needed to read. See below:
“Life itself must be founded upon the infinite possibility for choice and accident. And if we cannot prove that it is, we must believe that it is. We must believe that we can change, that we can control, that we can direct our own destinies.” Page 963
“And I suppose I do believe in the final analysis that a peace of mind can be obtained in the face of the worst horrors and the worst losses. It can be obtained by faith and change and in will, and in accident; and by faith in ourselves, that we will do the right thing; more often than not, in the face of adversity.” Page 964
I really like this book set in New Orleans. No vampires, so not so gory, but pretty cool. You have to think about it, and my friend Alisse even made a family tree and passed it along to me,
First off, not here for that weird glorification of rape thing that happened, where she was asking to be.
The book was good and engaging, if you skipped the first 500 pages. A lot of info was repeated throughout the book, for like pages and pages, which was annoying.
The book was good and engaging, if you skipped the first 500 pages. A lot of info was repeated throughout the book, for like pages and pages, which was annoying.
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este libro porque al principio me gustó mucho pero el final me pareció decepcionante y me quitó las ganas de leer la segunda parte.
Como puntos a favor, Rice escribe bastante bien y la historia de la familia Mayfair es muy interesante. El libro mantiene su interés y su ritmo hasta que Michael termina de leer la historia de la familia.
A partir de ahí, poco a poco va entrando en barrena. Toda la parte de la boda es innecesaria. La cuenta con todo lujo de detalles para realmente nada, más allá del gusto de contarlo. En esa parte del libro hay una serie de capítulos innecesariamente cursis que lo único que consiguen es que el final sea aún más anticlimático. El cambio real en la personalidad y la opinión de la protagonista se produce en las dos semanas/un mes que su marido está en San Francisco, y solo motivado por las relaciones sexuales y las cuatro conversaciones chorras con el Impulsor. Le han advertido hasta la sociedad que miente, sin embargo, ella nunca le cuestiona de verdad.
¿Que puede ser un papelón y que en la segunda parte veamos que es una trama creada por Rowan para acabar con el Impulsor? Puede ser. Pero sea como sea el final es precipitado y mal construido. Sinceramente, después de mil páginas espero un final más cerrado que ese.
Como puntos a favor, Rice escribe bastante bien y la historia de la familia Mayfair es muy interesante. El libro mantiene su interés y su ritmo hasta que Michael termina de leer la historia de la familia.
A partir de ahí, poco a poco va entrando en barrena. Toda la parte de la boda es innecesaria. La cuenta con todo lujo de detalles para realmente nada, más allá del gusto de contarlo. En esa parte del libro hay una serie de capítulos innecesariamente cursis que lo único que consiguen es que el final sea aún más anticlimático. El cambio real en la personalidad y la opinión de la protagonista se produce en las dos semanas/un mes que su marido está en San Francisco, y solo motivado por las relaciones sexuales y las cuatro conversaciones chorras con el Impulsor. Le han advertido hasta la sociedad que miente, sin embargo, ella nunca le cuestiona de verdad.
¿Que puede ser un papelón y que en la segunda parte veamos que es una trama creada por Rowan para acabar con el Impulsor? Puede ser. Pero sea como sea el final es precipitado y mal construido. Sinceramente, después de mil páginas espero un final más cerrado que ese.
Unfortunately, I did not love this book. It felt like a lot of editing could’ve been done to condense things. It also seemed like there was a lot of repetition.