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A review by cavalary
Belinda by Anne Rampling, Anne Rice
4.0
I have to say once again that, for me, a good book must include non-humans, be they elves, vampires, extraterrestrials or whatever else, and/or magic. Or, at least, if it needs to happen in the "real world", have the decency to be placed at least a few centuries ago. I don't want to read a book that depicts things I can see around me. Also, I want a grand scale, the final outcome affecting the entire world, or at least a significant portion of it, not just the lives of a few characters.
Still, I'll have to do what those critics in the book did with Jeremy's paintings and grudgingly say... This book is a masterpiece and I'd highly recommend it to absolutely anyone, despite only giving it four stars; that's for the reasons I explained above.
All of Anne Rice's obsessions are, naturally, present, and her idea of relationships with outrageous age gaps between the two is obviously staring you right in the face. And while I still find something like this, being with someone who could be your (grand)parent/child, utterly disgusting, in this book I didn't mind at all. Of course, I'll ask what would Belinda and Jeremy be doing now, were they to be real? 20 years after the book was written, she'd be 36 and he'd be 65.
But I just said 20 years after the book was written, didn't I? And you know what? It would be accurate to the smallest detail in depicting the general reaction to something like this even now! Disturbing, isn't it?
The only thing not depicted as bad in the book that I found (very) disturbing were the fur coats...
And the sex scenes are just... electric. I heard the ones in "The Witching Hour" were her best but, after reading this, I have to disagree.
I can understand Belinda not wanting to harm Marty, after what they had, though she could, and maybe should, have reconsidered after the attempted rape, but the others... Hit them till they grovel in dirt at your feet! They did the same to you!
Otherwise... 90% of people are rotten to the core and stink to high Heaven, if such a place would exist; "morals" do more harm than good; the legal system, the American one probably more than any other in the Western world, simply sucks; and hiding things from those who are close to you only hurts in the long run... Yeah, I knew that, didn't need a book to remind me. So we're back to my original complaint, which is actually a matter of personal taste and not a complaint about the book itself.
That's it, now I'll go back to feeling like shit... My story doesn't have a happy ending...
Still, I'll have to do what those critics in the book did with Jeremy's paintings and grudgingly say... This book is a masterpiece and I'd highly recommend it to absolutely anyone, despite only giving it four stars; that's for the reasons I explained above.
All of Anne Rice's obsessions are, naturally, present, and her idea of relationships with outrageous age gaps between the two is obviously staring you right in the face. And while I still find something like this, being with someone who could be your (grand)parent/child, utterly disgusting, in this book I didn't mind at all. Of course, I'll ask what would Belinda and Jeremy be doing now, were they to be real? 20 years after the book was written, she'd be 36 and he'd be 65.
But I just said 20 years after the book was written, didn't I? And you know what? It would be accurate to the smallest detail in depicting the general reaction to something like this even now! Disturbing, isn't it?
The only thing not depicted as bad in the book that I found (very) disturbing were the fur coats...
And the sex scenes are just... electric. I heard the ones in "The Witching Hour" were her best but, after reading this, I have to disagree.
Spoiler
But I still won't believe you can get out of such a situation by being just nice to everybody, by not hurting back the ones who tried, and managed, at least to a point, to hurt you. Such an ending did make me say "eh, it's only a book after all".I can understand Belinda not wanting to harm Marty, after what they had, though she could, and maybe should, have reconsidered after the attempted rape, but the others... Hit them till they grovel in dirt at your feet! They did the same to you!
Otherwise... 90% of people are rotten to the core and stink to high Heaven, if such a place would exist; "morals" do more harm than good; the legal system, the American one probably more than any other in the Western world, simply sucks; and hiding things from those who are close to you only hurts in the long run... Yeah, I knew that, didn't need a book to remind me. So we're back to my original complaint, which is actually a matter of personal taste and not a complaint about the book itself.
That's it, now I'll go back to feeling like shit... My story doesn't have a happy ending...