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A review by marthmuffins
Sabella, or The Blood Stone by Tanith Lee
4.0
Sabella, or the Blood Stone - 4/5
Tanith Lee has been an author I've been meaning to read for a while now, she's a part of the generation of sci-fi/fantasy/horror writers who started in the late 20th century who've just been widely forgotten about outside of a few large exceptions but at the time were huge, until the 90s killed the publishing industry they were a part of. She wrote in a lot of genres and styles and all that, but Sabella is one in the "goth horror, complex gender/sexuality" subcategories which vibes with the whole goth subculture coming around in the late 70s/early 80s.
A lot of what I would have to say about the gender/sexuality aspect, which is by far the most interesting aspect, would involve spoiling the whole book so I'm going to leave that aside for now. Let's just say there's a lot of mutual masochism: sexual and not, desired and not.
Talking about the goth horror and Sabella instead. Lee is great at realising a depressed character without leaving them inert or shut in. Everything in this book is from Sabella's perspective, locked in her head, but through how she interacts with people () she does come across, at least to me, as outwardly projecting confidence, she can use her ability to snare people to do the s e x and drink their blood and everything but is very much still locked in that internal limbo depression can leave you in. It does get a little much, especially given Sabella can come across at times like that tropey "Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette" (I mean, she is a vampire), and wangsty at times, especially in a few of the Church scenes, but overall it came across well for me.
The little much did add to a trashiness, which I liked, as did the wolves which worked in context but were quite silly. It reminded me of an exploitation film in a way, that’s a complement, which a lot of "genre" books at this time were given how disregarded 99% of them were by any sense of making them respectable or widely appealing. You can then tackle what a wider public would consider a strange subject matter through the vampire lady who makes men orgasm a lot when she bites their neck and drinks their blood.
Lee's writing itself is excellent. The styling of the prose is excellent, and you can tell a lot of care went into each sentence to make it as evocative as it could be without overstuffing them with flowery language.
So yeah, a long post to say it’s good, it’s short, and that I guess I will be looking at more of Tanith Lee’s books soon.
Tanith Lee has been an author I've been meaning to read for a while now, she's a part of the generation of sci-fi/fantasy/horror writers who started in the late 20th century who've just been widely forgotten about outside of a few large exceptions but at the time were huge, until the 90s killed the publishing industry they were a part of. She wrote in a lot of genres and styles and all that, but Sabella is one in the "goth horror, complex gender/sexuality" subcategories which vibes with the whole goth subculture coming around in the late 70s/early 80s.
A lot of what I would have to say about the gender/sexuality aspect, which is by far the most interesting aspect, would involve spoiling the whole book so I'm going to leave that aside for now. Let's just say there's a lot of mutual masochism: sexual and not, desired and not.
Talking about the goth horror and Sabella instead. Lee is great at realising a depressed character without leaving them inert or shut in. Everything in this book is from Sabella's perspective, locked in her head, but through how she interacts with people (
Spoiler
who aren't JaceThe little much did add to a trashiness, which I liked, as did the wolves which worked in context but were quite silly. It reminded me of an exploitation film in a way, that’s a complement, which a lot of "genre" books at this time were given how disregarded 99% of them were by any sense of making them respectable or widely appealing. You can then tackle what a wider public would consider a strange subject matter through the vampire lady who makes men orgasm a lot when she bites their neck and drinks their blood.
Lee's writing itself is excellent. The styling of the prose is excellent, and you can tell a lot of care went into each sentence to make it as evocative as it could be without overstuffing them with flowery language.
So yeah, a long post to say it’s good, it’s short, and that I guess I will be looking at more of Tanith Lee’s books soon.