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When I saw "The Vines" pop up on Netgalley, which graciously provided the review copy I was excited. A quarter of the way through the book I was still excited after an interesting and scary setup. By the end? Oooof, it went completely off the rails.
I have never read Christoper Rice before and judging by his work here, I would probably avoid him in the future. Rice writes very well, unfortunately his plotting is a disaster and when you write genre fiction, your plotting needs to be dead on target.
The Vines starts off as essentially a monster book. A rich woman slits her wrist when she discovers her husband cheating on her. This wakes up some plant based monsters that eat her husband. That's when this short book begins to go off the rails. Among the plot lines that are all wrapped up in the Vines:
1.) A slave witch and her brutal owner.
2.) The rich woman (Caitlin) and her relation to the vines and her suicide attempt.
3.) The daughter of the black groundskeeper who holds major animosity towards the racist world she grew up in.
4.) Caitlin's gay friend and the homophobic murder of his lover in years past.
5.) A major conspiracy involving said murder and nearly every character in the book.
6.) Man eating bugs that target cheating men.
It's a lot and very little of it works. Rice particularly misses when it comes to writing the black characters which seem like horrendous stereotypes. Nova and her father might as well be written as "Angry Black Girl and Uncle Tom."
It's not good. However it does get a second star because at least I finished it. I might not have enjoyed it or it's preposterous ending, but I did apparently care enough to get through it. But with so many good horror books out, this is one you can easily take a pass on.
I have never read Christoper Rice before and judging by his work here, I would probably avoid him in the future. Rice writes very well, unfortunately his plotting is a disaster and when you write genre fiction, your plotting needs to be dead on target.
The Vines starts off as essentially a monster book. A rich woman slits her wrist when she discovers her husband cheating on her. This wakes up some plant based monsters that eat her husband. That's when this short book begins to go off the rails. Among the plot lines that are all wrapped up in the Vines:
1.) A slave witch and her brutal owner.
2.) The rich woman (Caitlin) and her relation to the vines and her suicide attempt.
3.) The daughter of the black groundskeeper who holds major animosity towards the racist world she grew up in.
4.) Caitlin's gay friend and the homophobic murder of his lover in years past.
5.) A major conspiracy involving said murder and nearly every character in the book.
6.) Man eating bugs that target cheating men.
It's a lot and very little of it works. Rice particularly misses when it comes to writing the black characters which seem like horrendous stereotypes. Nova and her father might as well be written as "Angry Black Girl and Uncle Tom."
It's not good. However it does get a second star because at least I finished it. I might not have enjoyed it or it's preposterous ending, but I did apparently care enough to get through it. But with so many good horror books out, this is one you can easily take a pass on.