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A review by mayhappily
Castle of Sorrows by Jonathan Janz
4.0
This was actually the third book by Jonathan Janz that I read in a streak.
The first book by Janz that I read (House of Skin) was addictive in its gruesome and gory glory and so I immediately, upon finishing it, went on to The Sorrows), which was equally good, if not better as I hadn't the slightest clue what to expect when I picked up House of Skin and therefore had some mixed feelings after finishing it.
In my opinion, Janz belongs to the same category of author as Poppy Z Brite, by whom I've read (and honestly didn't like) Lost Souls and Exsquite Corpse, with his carnal, graphical and at times completely gratuitious violence.
I've said it before; I'm not a fan of violence just for the sake of it - and there were times where I felt that Janz also used violence a tad too generously - but overall I think that the violence in all aforementioned Janz-books served a purpose and brought something to the stories.
So. Now that my praising of Janz is out of the way: on to the book at hand.
---
[A quick "FYI" before I get into the Castle of Sorrows: I had meant to review The Sorrows and had actually written about half when I, in a fugue state of the mind, closed down the browser. Without saving. As this is the sequel to The Sorrows, having had completed that review could maybe have helped any potential reader of this review. Sorry 'bout that.]
In Castle of Sorrows we're re-introduced to Ben Shadeland, one of the hottest movie music composers of the day, his (now) wife Claire and their son, Joshua. We also get to meet Julia, their newborn daughter.
After the previous Summer, Ben and Claire are happy. As happy as they can be having just barely survived the horrors of The Sorrows, a privately owned island haunted by both ghosts and gods.
But not all is bliss. Ben and Claire are the sole survivers out of ten people - including the very wealthy owner of the island, Robert Blackwood, his son, Chris, the famous movie maker Lee Stanley, Ben's ex wife and her new fiancée - who visited the island the year prior. Ben claims he doesn't remember much of what happened on the island, but the FBI agents assigned to the case don't believe him. Neither does the private investigator hired by Christina Blackwood, the widow and mother of the two deceased Blackwoods.
But it's not until the unthinkable happens, when Julia is kidnapped, that Ben is willing to face the demons of the past. He knows who took her, and he knows where she's been taken.
And so Ben agrees to return to The Sorrows with the FBI agents, to once again face the horrors of the island and its cruel master, Gabriel.
Castle of Sorrows feels very contemporary and while I usually have a higher tolerance for that when it comes to horror than I do with fantasy, I'm still not the biggest fan of a "modern tale". That being said, I was sucked in by Janz' story from the start and it didn't bother me that the setting wasn't that of the 19th century England.
There is a lot of focus on the sexual, and if you're sensitive to sexual violence, heads up! There's plenty of it. There's also plenty of graphical descriptions of violence.
I actually thought that The Sorrows was sliightly better than this sequel, but this was still a great read and I'm already off to find a fourth Janz book to devour.
The first book by Janz that I read (House of Skin) was addictive in its gruesome and gory glory and so I immediately, upon finishing it, went on to The Sorrows), which was equally good, if not better as I hadn't the slightest clue what to expect when I picked up House of Skin and therefore had some mixed feelings after finishing it.
In my opinion, Janz belongs to the same category of author as Poppy Z Brite, by whom I've read (and honestly didn't like) Lost Souls and Exsquite Corpse, with his carnal, graphical and at times completely gratuitious violence.
I've said it before; I'm not a fan of violence just for the sake of it - and there were times where I felt that Janz also used violence a tad too generously - but overall I think that the violence in all aforementioned Janz-books served a purpose and brought something to the stories.
So. Now that my praising of Janz is out of the way: on to the book at hand.
---
[A quick "FYI" before I get into the Castle of Sorrows: I had meant to review The Sorrows and had actually written about half when I, in a fugue state of the mind, closed down the browser. Without saving. As this is the sequel to The Sorrows, having had completed that review could maybe have helped any potential reader of this review. Sorry 'bout that.]
In Castle of Sorrows we're re-introduced to Ben Shadeland, one of the hottest movie music composers of the day, his (now) wife Claire and their son, Joshua. We also get to meet Julia, their newborn daughter.
After the previous Summer, Ben and Claire are happy. As happy as they can be having just barely survived the horrors of The Sorrows, a privately owned island haunted by both ghosts and gods.
But not all is bliss. Ben and Claire are the sole survivers out of ten people - including the very wealthy owner of the island, Robert Blackwood, his son, Chris, the famous movie maker Lee Stanley, Ben's ex wife and her new fiancée - who visited the island the year prior. Ben claims he doesn't remember much of what happened on the island, but the FBI agents assigned to the case don't believe him. Neither does the private investigator hired by Christina Blackwood, the widow and mother of the two deceased Blackwoods.
But it's not until the unthinkable happens, when Julia is kidnapped, that Ben is willing to face the demons of the past. He knows who took her, and he knows where she's been taken.
And so Ben agrees to return to The Sorrows with the FBI agents, to once again face the horrors of the island and its cruel master, Gabriel.
Castle of Sorrows feels very contemporary and while I usually have a higher tolerance for that when it comes to horror than I do with fantasy, I'm still not the biggest fan of a "modern tale". That being said, I was sucked in by Janz' story from the start and it didn't bother me that the setting wasn't that of the 19th century England.
There is a lot of focus on the sexual, and if you're sensitive to sexual violence, heads up! There's plenty of it. There's also plenty of graphical descriptions of violence.
I actually thought that The Sorrows was sliightly better than this sequel, but this was still a great read and I'm already off to find a fourth Janz book to devour.