Horror Books

This Graphic Novel is decent, but doesn't compare to The Sandman Series. It is still worth a read.

For me, as for many fans of the "Sandman" series, the best character is Death. Gaiman conceives her not as a frightening figure in a cowl and carrying a scythe, but as an exceedingly perky young woman who wears black jeans and leotards and sports rather Goth-y makeup. She likes people -- she meets everyone eventually -- and for one day per century she takes human form, just to keep in touch. This time, under the name of Didi, she hooks up with a depressed sixteen-year-old named Sexton, who is contemplating suicide. Sexton witnesses her interaction with Mad Hettie, who is 250 years old and wants her heart back, and with the Eremite, who tries to gain power over her, and with Hazel, the pregnant lesbian who appears in volume 5 of "Sandman." Sexton observes that Didi somehow never has to pay for anything, not even cab fares. Death is particularly winning in this outing, taking job in everything and pronouncing it "Neat!" At the end of the volume is a reprinting of the groundbreaking six-page comic, "Death Talks about Life," a straight-up warning about AIDS and STDs generally, with a brief lesson (using a banana) on condoms. I don't know if it won awards, but it should have.

Death is really a sweetheart. Gaiman did great portraying her in the way he did. Now, I wasn't a huge fan of this book, though I like the characters. It's not a bad story, but just didn't leap out at me the way that Gaiman's work usually does.

I decided to check out this book because I love Sandman and was intrigued to see what Gaiman would do with more of a focus on Death, and I must say I really enjoyed it. The events that happen to Death as she takes on a mortal life for a day are really interesting, at times humorous, at other times scary, and always original and fun. Sandman lovers have got to check this book out.

For all that I adore Neil Gaiman, I've never gotten into 'Sandman'. It's mostly that graphic novels have never done anything for me. I don't mind them, per se, but they've never been interesting or captivating for me. I can't get into the differences between different pencillers and letterers and artists. Aside from the big obvious things, I just don't see a difference. I started to read this only because I've enjoyed all of his novels and short stories.

It's fair to say that I enjoyed the story. It's a day-in-the-life story of Death's centennial 24-hour mortal holiday. Along the way, she meets three people who are looking for Death, but only two of them know that they are dealing with Death.

I never really got into it the story here. It was pretty light and fluffy. It's not a story that will stick with me. It won't stop me from giving 'Sandman' another go in the future, but it definitely hasn't convinced me to move it up in my to-read queue either. As far as Neil's work goes, I would recommend Stardust long before I recommended reading this.

GREAT BOOK,

The author (RIP) always does a magnificient job of telling his stories. It had a good ending that gives the reader closure that the first book did not. Then, it OPENS another door to a third book. I highly recommend this Book to readers who like to squirm a little (Clive Barker Fans).

I had gotten around to re-ordering and re-reading this book and it was pretty good. I love Laymon's stuff, and I enjoyed this. He is missed as a writer. This always struck me as weird that this book did not get optioned into a horror movie series. A lot of the set-ups and deliveries are "standard" but they are executed so well that I loved them.
His other stuff is pretty darn good. The Cellar

Recommended.

This was a good book !!! I liked it alot !! Different ! Definitely Different !!

2nd book in the beast series and I have to say, so far so good! It is funny though for everyone that has read these books~ is it me or does everyone fall in love so quickly in this town!!! Too funny!!! I really enjoyed this book, I loved picking up where the first one left off. Certain parts toatlly freaked me out!!! Richard Laymon is beginning to be one of my favorite authors... If you are easily repulsed the beast series are not for you.. Lots of sex and violence. I would definetly reccommend this book! I have the third installemnt at home~ I wonder what happens next!!!!!

After having read "The Cellar" I'll admit that I did not have high hopes for this book. Not that "the Cellar" was terrible, it just didn't live up to its potential. "The Beast House" does a little better, not much, but there is definite improvement. First of all, as readers we now know the layout of the Beast House and what is actually going on there. This makes it a little harder for him to build suspense. I actually found the most suspense in the hope that the ending wouldn't be as bad as the last book.

In comparison to the first book, Laymon has made little progress in making 3 dimensional characters. Once again everyone is ready to sleep with just about anyone within a matter of minutes after meeting them. With this being the second book of his that I have read, I am curious if Laymon has written anything that did not involve either rape or attempted rape. I would be concerned if I was his psychiatrist that he seems to think that all men are either glowing yet dumb good guys, or sick demented rapists and murderers. Then the women are all either sex obsessed idiots, or sex obsessed murdering psychos. It's a very strange world that one enters into when reading a Laymon book. I suppose the good thing is that it is easy to tell who you are supposed to root for.

The story in this on is simple enough; a horror writer with no morals comes to the tiny town of Malcasa Point to write a story on the Beast house. He is lured there by one of the survivors of the first novel, a young girl working at the only motel in the town. She has found a diary which tells the origin of the Beast House and wants a cut of the money from the novel. Also heading into town are two librarians who are apparently very good looking, because you have to read about it constantly, they are saved from a random highway rapist by two ex-military men who seem to be wandering aimlessly about. The four of them shack up together and immediately fall madly in love. They meet up with the unscrupulous horror writer and are commissioned to enter the Beast House.

The novel has a lot of winding this way and that... I suppose to build tension, but everyone knows where it will end. Who will fall in love with whom, who is going to live and who is going to die. The whole book plays out exactly like the reader expects it will. Even down to cleaning up the messy ending of "The Cellar" and giving some redemption to the characters left hanging in that novel. Unfortunately with the poor characterization, this just reads to me like the "Cellar" with a different ending. All of the women are interchangeable. Abe could be Judge, with a simple "search and replace" of the character names. The only difference between this book and the last is that the ending is exactly what the reader expects.

My opinion of this is the same as that of the Cellar; a quick read, okay for a plane trip... but not a must read. 3 of 5 stars.

With its Lovecraftian touches, F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novels superficially appear to be horror stories, which seems kind of strange. After all, horror is not really designed for series fiction. Instead, I think it's better to think of these books as fantasy novels that use the trappings of horror. However you define it, the Repairman Jack novels continue to be a pleasure to read.

The Haunted Air is the sixth novel featuring Jack, a no-last-name sort of guy who exists on the fringes of society and is a last resort for folks who can't get justice through legal means. Jack will assist - for a price - and usually has clever ways of dealing with problems. As the Haunted Air begins, Jack has been dragged to a party by his lover Gia. A normally solitary type (outside of Gia and her daughter Vicky, he has few attachments), Jack hates being in social situations, especially if they include some "artists" whose airy pretenses conflict with Jack's more pragmatic views.

During the party, Jack and Gia are dragged to the home of a pair of psychics to help retrieve a lost item. Jack sees through the psychics immediately (he's experienced with con games), but soon the pair - a couple of young men from the tough streets of Detroit - are coming to Jack for help. The two have been targeted by another so-called psychic who thinks they're invading her territory, and that's just the beginning of their problems: there's something nasty in the basement and its powers are getting stronger.

While Jack deals with the rival psychic, he is also hired to spy on a man who may become violent during the new moon. Jack's task in this case is to keep an eye on the man during the evenings and prevent him from endangering others. As it turns out, the man is completely sane but has a far more sinister agenda than mere acts of violence. And as is often the case in Repairman Jack novels, two seemingly unrelated stories will eventually tie together.

Beyond the tale itself, there are links to other stories in the series (as well as the early Wilson novel, The Keep), so a new reader is best off starting at the beginning. (I had originally started with Gateways (book seven), so I am finally caught up to where I should be.) And not everything will be resolved in the larger stories of Repairman Jack's life. Most notably, Jack and Gia are now expecting a baby, which puts Jack's lack of a legitimate identity in crisis.

Wilson is a consistently good-to-great writer, and The Haunted Air is right at that quality level too. If you've enjoyed other works by him, this one will also please you; if you are new to Wilson, you should read this eventually but start with The Tomb first.

This here's the 4th Repairman Jack novel I've read and they just seem to be getting better. Yeah there's a formula, but there's also a bit of a continuing story that moves forward in this volume. This is an awesome series, and I'm suprised it has yet to make it to film or tv.

For those new to this series, Repairman Jack is a man who doesn't officially exist. He has gone to great lengths to have no social security number, no tax records, etc. When people have a problem, he's available to fix it. For a price. In this installment, two brothers are new in town and off to a successful start conning rich people with their psychic act. It seems that one of the more established psychics is angry about losing business to the newcomers and wants to scare the brothers off, or perhaps even kill them. Jack agrees to help them find out who's behind the attacks and put a stop to it. While Jack repairs this little problem, a lot bigger issue is brewing. The same brothers are living in a house with a very checkered past and it's now the focus of a very active haunting. The twists and turns in the plot pull Jack, his girlfriend Gia, and the two brothers into a dangerous web that threatens all of their lives.

The first half of this book is suspenseful, funny, and fast moving. The haunted house story especially had me on the edge of my seat as the brothers are forced to endure increasingly creepy phenomena. The second half slowed down a bit and some of the suspense was lessened as the nature of the primary threat became clearer. Fortunately, the story starts rolling again as it builds up to the climax. This is not really a character driven novel, but the brothers are particularly well written. They're funny and show a lot of depth as they deal with their problems. Jack may not be the deepest protagonist in literary history but he's a very satisfying action hero.

I've read several of Paul Wilson's books, and this is by far the best I've seen so far. The Haunted Air is a fine mix of action, humor, and supernatural suspense. The haunted house setting helps make the story both more familiar and compelling. I'd recommend the book to anyone looking for a good supernatural thriller.

3.5 stars. The 6th novel in the Repairman Jack series for me and my husband read just a bit bloated in the beginning. But just as we expect from F. Paul Wilson, it soon intensifies into a solid and well-rouned story that we expect from this fantastic author.

We felt that some fat could have been trimmed away in this novel, and it was the longest novel thus far. But what shines here is mostly Jack's and his girlfriend Gia's new problems. Not only does Gia get pregnant, putting Jack in a time in his life to perhaps having to give up his hidden profession, but having to go legit. Whatever will he do?

And their dealing with these problems, as well as Gia just being in the adventure, as well as the Otherness getting closer and closer to Jack and his newfound family, is what saves this novel from being mediocre. It seems that Wilson is going to milk storylines until he finally gets to this 'changing of the world' that the Otherness is to wrought in the near future. We can't wait until Wilson finally gets to that!

Even though this turned out to be a good adventure, it has been the weakest overall thus far in this series that we've read. The seances at times felt dragged out. But it was handled well by Wilson, as was also the small mysterious hints he continues to leave about the overall Otherness theme. More pieces of the Otherness puzzle are given here, but the complete story has yet to be revealed.

A good plotline to keep readers coming back for more. Ingenious.

Well worth the read. We are looking forward to the next adventure - Gateways.

The reference to The Shining in the headline is no accident. This book is Wilson's haunted house novel, much like The Shining was Stephen King's haunted novel. Both books have a Jack in them, child ghosts, and of course, a haunted abode. Both novels are also suspenseful and riveting.

Long time readers of Wilson's series will devour this book, but first-timers can pick it up and enjoy the story as a self-contained single entity.

A very impressive work by F. Paul Wilson.

I really like Vampire Mountain. I have read evey book in the Cirque Du Freak series. In this book Darren gets blooded to the stone of blood through a sharp needle. Every vampire has to get blooded or they are sentenced to the Hall of Death. It is amazing he has the guts to go up to Seba, a champion fighter. This book is good for people with the thirst for blood and gor. Darren is very gutsy and never gives up somthing he believes in. Would you do what Darren does? I would not do anything like him.

The first three Cirque books were awesome! The series started out spectacular. It should have had that quality, and be great from beginning to end.
So what happened????
Darren Shans writing style and voice seem to have changed. It's been eight years, now, and Darren and Mr. Crepsley are off to vampire mountain. And, um, that's about it. Call me ignorant, but that's all I could see. Some parts on the way there were great, but the rest went way downhill. To me, the rest of the book compiled of Mr. Crepsley's friends, and how Vampire Mountain works. A plot only comes near the end, with a cliffhanger. I definately did not enjoy this as much as I did with Tunnels of Blood. I liked seeing Darren interact with the "normal" world and Evra Von. Things change, but something about this book doesnt seem right. I do hope things shape up soon.

i give this book 3 becaue itsbored and only thing that they talk about is that how do they get there.its about darren sean who goes to the vimpire mountain and he takes 2 little man and a wolf. and some part of the book is exciting because like how the wolf tried to save sean from danger andmostly its boring because it toook half of the book to just to get there

I have enjoyed this series so far, but this book was incomplete. The first three books were complete self-contained stories. This book setup the story, but then came to a cliffhanger ending. You need to buy the next book to read the complete story. Essentially, I had to pay full price for a half-book.

I love this book because I love reading about vampirers.Darren Shan is a thirteen year old boy even though he doesn't look thirteen he is the reason why he doesn't look his thirteen is because he is half vampire it doesn't let look like he is his age because he is growing slower than the normal humen would.

Long long time ago
Back in the dark ages of europa .
A dark swordsman he roamed
In that ancient land of gothica .
After revenge he sought
Against demons , for betrayal
From a man he once believed
To be a friend with no denial.

The twenty second folio :
Readers of the twenty first folio
Were shown
That knight of hawk
Upon a demo , flown .

Alas he returns not the same
With a horrid companion
A demon insane
And Upon our on eyed warrior
Attacks , a murderous cain .

And of lady farnese and her servant
You will see
Their innocent childhood
snuffed off glee .

This story certainly throws the Berserk story MUCH further. Instead of constant battle, there is a sudden confrontation. Guts and Griffith! They stand and meet face to face, and speak words with each other right in front of the now noticeably several-years aged Rickert (who still has no idea what happened during the Eclipse). Then...the second battle between Guts and Nosferatu Zodd happens! Guts vs. Zodd! Finally! Once again, we see how they clash in their built strength, and Guts is much stronger this time around.

After this, we get to see how Lady Farnese and her faithful companion Serpico are doing out in the snowy cold. Turns out: we get to see an entire flashback to how they met in the first place. Serpico was a poor boy, turns out the son of her neglectful and wealthy father, and by chance circumstance made him her page (taking all her abuse over the years without giving her the information that he is actually her half-brother), and spends the years dealing with her obnoxious, spoiled tyranny and pyromaniacal habits.

Seriously furthers the story on. A "Must Read" for all Berserk fans, like myself.

Plus...we get to treasure the introductions to Griffith's new entrants to his newly resurrected BAND OF THE HAWK. And...oh, how freaking perfect they are. Zodd is the only demon of the group, the other three are human (I'd assume) but are so advanced in their skill it's just foreboding that Guts will have quite a struggle in having to deal with these unstoppable fighters. (If you've ever seen "Spirited Away": Well, one of them is much like the weird character No Face, just to give you a clue. HOW...FREAKING...AWESOME!)

Revolution us under way in all parts of the universe and there seems to be an awful lot of players in this game that want to smack the face of God for everything that is wrong with His creation.

Christopher Rudd as the new ruler of Hell wants to smack for the sin of Hell itself. Lilith and her offspring want to smack as final revenge for being denied paradise although they built the Silver City. The Jin en Mok want to break free from their constricted existence in this creation. Fenris the wolf is destruction incarnate and just wants to finish what he started.

Again Mike Carey manages to make the same point in the stand-alone story "The Yahweh Dance". Elaine has to learn the God business and she reaches the same point when almost all of her creation wants to smack her face. The story of the impenetrable wall between two parts of her creation that once was a good thing but finally prompts people to attempt mass suicide is a reason for five stars for this volume by itself. Forget the Berlin wall. Could there be a more powerful comment on the wall recently built by the Israelis?

Finally, the pregnancy of Jill comes to term. A great story in itself, but also a nice cliffhanger to see what fate incarnate (the offspring of the Basanos) will do in the next volume.

Hooray for the return of Marc Hempel! I loved his minimalist style from "Sandman: The Kindly Ones," so it was a happy surprise to see his work for "The Eighth Sin," the first story in the "Lucifer: Crux" collection. My other rave would be for "The Yahweh Dance," where we find Elaine Belloc learning to harness her newly acquired demiurgic power under Lucifer's tutelage. In addition to being written as a smart and sassy teenager coming to terms with her semi-divinity, Elaine's appeal, to me, is that she provides a humanizing, compassionate foil to Lucifer's singleminded pursuits.

With regard to the review below, I agree that the stories collected here are setting up the series finale but I'd have to disagree on how "Crux" could have been organized any differently. Including subsequent issues would mean either breaking up the "Morningstar" story arc into two TPBs or putting out a massive TBP that contained all the stories from "Crux" as well as the "Morningstar" story arc. As much as I want to find out what happens next whenever I read "Lucifer," I don't think I could handle "Crux" AND "Morningstar" in the same volume. Likewise, I KNOW I wouldn't be able to handle "Morningstar" split into two TPBs. Can't wait until July when the "Morningstar" TPB comes out!

The Lucifer series is set to end at 75 issues and this TPB is essentially the setup for the ending. As a bunch of individual stories its ok. As an integrated whole it is lacking. The book should have included a few more issues to balance the setup with some resolution. Otherwise, why give titles to the books, just call them Issues x-x.

The art is great, feels almost animated (and i hope someone will animate it). There is humor, but it's mostly in the art rather than in the text and ideas.

However, i felt a little dissapointed for two reasons:
1. Even if this is the first volume, you should read volume 0 (Rough Stuff) first since this one makes some important references to the origins of Goon and its enemy, the Zombie Priest
2. It's too similar to Hellboy. Not VERY similar, but enough to notice it easily. Even the looks and one-liners of the Goon remind me of Hellboy. Also his absurd supernatural enemies and friends are from the same pool of ideas (zombie gangsters instead of nazis, talking fish and sea monsters, hot chicks with a noir shade of character)

The Goon volumes make for a great looking and entertaining collection and should be appreciated by Hellboy fans. But this being the first volume that i read, i expected something fresher and more genuine.

This is my first foray into The Goon. I loved it. I usually read superhero books but lately I've weanted to get into something different. First it was Hellboy and now it's The Goon. This is Hilarious but it's not just jokes there are real stories here too. These other reviewers mention these great horror writers and what-not, I have not read their stuff (but I probably should), but this is a great read for anybody.
And The Atomic Rage is hilarious.

This was a wonderful read. I do not normally laugh out loud when reading comics, but this one keeps me rolling. Despite the fact that the characters are much the antihero, you just can't help rooting for them.

After reading this I am determined to buy and read this title as long as he is publishing it. The Goon is my favorite comic out today, and I would definitely pick this product up.

I am not a huge graphic novel fanatic, not that I do not appreciate great artwork and the compelling stories that come out of a variety of fantastic stories, it is just that it has never been something I have latched onto as much as many of my friends have.
My fascination has been with zombies and that has led me to different graphic novels where zombies play a part in them. From The Walking Dead Series to Xombie to Reces Pieces, I have found plenty to entertain me with along with the strictly written word in zombie books.
I picked up a couple of Goon titles, thinking that My Murderous Childhood and Nothin' But Misery would be the first two in the series. I was mistaken but after reading these two, I will be hitting up Rough Stuff and moving forward with the rest of the series.
I love the almost schitzophrenic way that Eric Powell's brain works with this series, how he brings in totally lunatic elements with both a dark and malevolent sense of humor that had me cracking up through this entire book. The advertisements are hilarious, the different tales both big and small are intriguing, and overall I thought it was a fantastic read.
Zombies play a part in the Goon series, which is what drew me to it, but it is far more than just that. I honestly cannot wait to read the rest of the various tales of the Goon, because the art is great, the stories are rolicking, and the bottom line for me is that this was fun to read.

There are comics that have more depth and some that have more subtlety than The Goon, but few that exhibit such sheer joy of the comics medium and "low-brow" art. It's obvious that Eric Powell knows not only the value of good B-Movies and pulp tales, but of all other pop-culture discards as well. His stories, freeway collisions among gansters, monsters, Frank Capra and drive-in "sci-fi", are pure, simple, direct, and often outright funny. They invoke everything from Ed Wood to Norman Rockwell. Although Powell adopts a beautiful cartoony style in drawing Goon (with suggestions of Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and other comics greats), what makes it work is the talent of an accomplished artist capable of far more complex renderings. The Goon is a wonder and well worth your attention.

Back in 1992 I was forced to buy this little paperback for a class called Literature of Terror. The class turned out to be pretty lame, but the book remains with me to this day -- battered, dog-eared and beloved. Most college textbooks are nothing more than extortionately priced trash, but this one packs a three-punch combination: three of the Great horror novels of English literature in one binding.

For openers we get Bram Stoker's DRACULA, arguably one of the ten most famous books ever written. Despite being written in the epistolary style -- that is, as a series of letters penned by various characters in the books -- the novel is highly entertaining, especially the opening chapters, which are set in Transylvania and achieve a remarkable atmosphere of brooding intensity. We are so inundated with vampires nowadays -- the BLADE trilogy, the television shows BUFFY and ANGEL, the UNDERWORLD series, not to mention Anne Rice's seemingly endless parade of Lestat novels -- that it is sometimes difficult to remember that Stoker's book, while not the first vampire tale, singlehandedly invented the genre -- not only the immortal Dracula character, but most of the lore that surrounds vampires generally.

Next up is the book everybody knows about but nobody has read, Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN, which if it had been called FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER would have spared everyone of that name a lot of suffering as children ("Frankenstein was the scientist, you bastards, not the frickin' monster!"). Shelly's ornate, very 19th century prose is not easy on the reader, although there are passages which are so beautifully written they
resemble poetry ("I collected bones from charnel houses, and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame") and there more than a few preposterous plot developments and tedious Victorian asides; but as a moral tale about the price of hubris and the desire to play god, it hardly has an equal. In any case, readers will be interested to see that Shelly's monster is not the mute, shovel-headed zombie of the black-and-white films, but an intelligent being whose desire for revenge, rather than the manner of its creation, makes it a monster.

The closer is Robert Louis Stevenson's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, the shortest and, in my opinion, the easiest read of the three novels. Like FRANKENSTEIN, HYDE is a moral tale, rendering a harsh verdict on Victorian hypocrisy and on the human desire to have one's cake and eat it too. Poor Dr. Jekyll is handcuffed by convention; he cannot satisfy his ungentlemanly appetites without ruining the angelic public image he has worked so hard to create. So like an American politician, he spends his days kissing babies and his nights (as Mr. Hyde) chasing babes, only to discover that his nifty little potion has a nasty drawback ("Side effects may include shape-shifting and homicidal mania. Do not take the potion if you are evil, or have a tendency to become evil.") Though he lived in an ornate era, Stevenson resists the urge to gild his story in purple prose or to indulge in the long, often tedious passages which make FRANKENSTEIN so relentlessly gothic. Nor does he allow the novella to bog down as DRACULA does in mid-story. What we get is a tersely written, highly effective bit of genius.

So there you have it. Three horror classics in one softcover edition. It is truly unfortunate, and stupid, that this little gem is out of print, because anyone wanting to take a gander at the foundation stones of all modern horror should start by reading this book.

There is an introduction written by Stephen King but it adds some to the stories themselves as it places them within historical context. But if you are a first time reader of these stories be warned there are no footnotes, endnotes, or explanations of unfamiliar terms - so you could find yourself at a bit of a loss.

The book contains the third edition of "Frankenstein" originally published in 1831, I understand from other readings that Shelley made some changes in the text itself. The third, and last, edition includes the introduction she finally wrote for the novel.

For the experienced gothic reader or the novice willing to look up unfamiliar words, this book is a treasure as it has the three most famous and chilling gothic stories of the 19th century.

Enjoy them thoroughly and chillingly.

Three classics books, three classic monsters, and three classic stories that have been told and retold time and time again, all here in one great book! I'm sure you Horror Film fans like me have seen the Boris Karloff Frankenstein, the Bela Lugosi Dracula, and the Fredric March Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but if you haven't read the original novels...YOU AIN'T SEEN OR READ NOTHING YET! Buy this book now, you won't regret it!

There is not a lot to see here. This is a crossover with the witch bunch of books, and the Talamasca also features. David Talbot and friend Merrick recount some adventures in the past with supernatural entities, and yet another vamp, this time Louis, tries the sun bathing but gets rescued.

David Talbot tells the Talamasca, after Merrick has succeeding in becoming a vampire that declaring war on the vampires because of this would end very badly for them.

I brought as a gift for my sister. I personally never read it but I am giving it 5 stars because I read and saw Interview with the Vampire. Anything Anne Rice outs out is excellent!

I liked this book better than Interview with a Vampire. Not as graphic and better written. I rated it 3.5 to 3.75 stars. It's about Merrick searching out to contact the spirit of Claudia, the child. I liked the story Much Much better than Interview with a Vampire.

Although my knowlege of Anne Rice's characters are limited to Armand, Lestat (to a degree) and Marius, I found Merrick an entertaining read. You know the drill - once I started the book, I stayed up late a few nights to finish it. Well done, Ms. Rice - a good book (IMHO) is still one of life's pleasures. Get a copy and find out for yourself!

Five stars!

I hated this book. I am a fan of Rice's Mayfair Witches series and enjoyed the early works in the Vampire Chronicles, but Rice's later works are long drawn-out snores. The only one of Rice's books that was more likely to induce catatonia was The Violin. I also didn't see the point of having Merrick related to the Mayfairs since the only thing they have in common is being witches. Using dreams of Oncle Julien as a plot device was a cheat and the story would have been better if the Mayfairs had been left out of it altogether. As for Louis and his melodrama, by the middle of the book, I was more than willing to help him commit suicide if for no other reason than I was tired of his incessent whining.

As for my recommendation: if you enjoy tedious whining from someone who chose to live forever, are a masochist, or are an insomniac needing a sleep remedy, then this is the book for you. I, on the other hand, would rather slit my own wrist than read another book by Rice.