"Night Stranger" by Chris Bojalian ~ Wonderfully Wicked and Scary!

WoooHoooo! An Up-Date~Even if I had to stay up all night to get it!

The band is playing on in my trek today to read my wickedly wonderful witchie book for the read-a-thon. So far I'm lagging behind because the book I wanted to read next, "The Dark Glamour" expired from my netgalley ebook and now I can't read it. Unless!! One of you has a Kindle or ebook copy you can loan me, that is.

If, or until that time, here's a review of "Night Strangers."

What others said:

The Washington Post - Keith Donohue

Bohjalian has been a reliable bestseller of literary and historical fiction, earning praise from critics and a large audience, but The Night Strangers represents a more sinister turn. It boasts all the trappings of a classic Gothic horror story…Bohjalian turns the screw right up to the unexpected ending and an epilogue that's truly shocking. That thump thump you hear as you read is only your heart leaping from your chest.

What Can I Say!

Can I say, "Unexpected!" This is not your Chris Bojalian of "Midwives." Oh, no! This is a Stephen King-ish Chris comin' out of the New Hampshire woods on a dark, isolated winter to claim his place as a demented dreamer living in a wreck of an old house too far away from citified people.

Taking your psyche in your own hands, read this book over Halloween because it is so freaky and spooky. I loved the involvement of the main character, Chip, a pilot who's his own fearful failure for crashing his plane and killing many passengers; and his young, strange twin girls. First of all it's scary right off the bat when Bojalian describes a cellar door secured with 32ish bolts that's the size of my osteopathic granny! I knew right then and there we were in for some trouble and it wasn't going to be sweet and enchanting, either.

This is a book for vegans and those who enjoy herbal tea, maybe. :] This is also a book for those who like things that go "bump in the night."

I was held captive by this book...loved it all the way through to the shocker of an ending. The characters are fabulous and freaky. The narrating voice is nearly invisible making for a feeling of voyeurism that made the book even more haunting. And, the plot, while some of it may have not been entirely unfamiliar in parts, was very well put together--suspenseful, scary, leading and misleading, horrifying. All the good ingredients for a perfect "tincture." Pull up a big, over-stuffed chair and a cup of herbal tea for this one.

 5 stars a spectre-ing

Deb/TheFanciful and Freaky Speed-Reading Wickathoner

Keeping me company right beside me today is "Pixie"...such a sweet little thing. She's a living dead darling, just a tiny problem in that she likes to lure children away, but she really doesn't know any better. I'm going to be watching her closely so she'll be just fine...I just hope my tiny Clara (my Yorkie) is okay...

A Witchie Wonderflly Wicked Read-A-Thon this Weekend!

So, I'm once again over-reaching in my reading to join this fabulous weekend read-a-thon. I needed a boost in the bokie to get through some of the best books I've chosen to read for Halloween, anyway, and this is the perfect way to get me going.

Such a great group of blogging friends listed on the "linky" with this Wonderfully Wicked reading extravaganza. So, you may want to go there and find some new bloggers to visit at My Shelf Confessions , as well as finding all the information about joining the Read-a-thon.

So, here's my list of books for starters today:

Let the games begin! I'm working against myself so I better get crackin'...literally! By the way, I have a little companion helping me today: the darling doll of the living dead Miss Claret. I have to be careful, she loves to bite necks. :]



"Nightshade" Author Signs Huge Deal w/ Penguin for Steampunk Series! Maryann Yin posts news...

Published by:  Penguin Group

Pages: 480

Genre:  YA fiction

Released:  June 2010

Summary:

"Nightshade" ~ Calla is the alpha female of a shape-shifting wolf pack. She is destined to marry Ren Laroche, the pack's alpha male. Together, they would rule their pack, guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But then, Calla saves a beautiful human boy, who captures her heart. Calla begins to question everything - her fate, her existence, and her world and the orders the Keepers have asked her to follow. She will have to make a choice. But will she follow her heart if it means losing everything, including her own life?

NOTE from the Dame:

Media Bistro's,"Galley Cat," newsreporter Maryann Yin has released yet another scoop detailing author, Andrea Cremer's deal with Penguin for a steampunk series!  Given Cremer's success with "Nightshade," I can only grit my teeth and yearn for the release of the first book!

But, first, here's one of Yin's interviews with Ms Cremer, who's just a young adult, herself talking about "Nightshade"~

Interview with Andrea :  October 22, 2010

Andrea Cremer (pictured) did that in her debut novel, Nightshade. She used her scholarship and research to incorporate social issues about gender, power struggles, and sexuality into her book. We caught up with Andrea to find out a little bit more.

Q: Nightshade is about a werewolf. How do you stick to conventional werewolf canon and mythology and how do you deviate?

A: One of the things about Nightshade that I think is really different is that it’s described as a werewolf book, but I often tell people it’s not a werewolf book because it does break so much from werewolf convention. I grew up in the north woods of Wisconsin. I’m literally right on Lake Superior and in the middle of a national forest, so the wilderness to me was something that was really wonderful. I spent most of my days as a young girl out making up imaginary worlds and imaginary people with my brother and my best friend in the forest. That was the way we liked to spend our days.

Wolves and other wild animals to me were always fascinating; they weren’t something that were scary or monstrous, they were just cool. And so, I never pictured myself actually liking werewolves in terms of people picking teams for either vampires or werewolves. In all my reading, I had always firmly been in the vampire camp. I couldn’t figure out why it was that I didn’t like werewolves.

So when I got the idea for Nightshade and it was inspired by the main character, Calla [Tor] who is the alpha female wolf of the pack, I knew she was a girl and I knew she was a wolf. I felt just stuck because ‘Well, I don’t like werewolves so how am I going to write a book about a girl who’s a werewolf?’ And I realized what I needed to do was to create a new mythology of wolves that matched the way I felt about them.

That wasn’t wolves who were half-man/half-beast and its hideous mutations where it took an awful amount of time to change that involved the cracking of bones and lengthening of snouts and left you with something that was just awful to look at. But, was actually a creature that was fully wolf and fully human; Calla and her pack love their ability to change into wolves. That it was an instantaneous change and something they considered to be a gift; that it wasn’t a disease or a curse the way so many werewolf mythologies have been portrayed.

Q: How do you handle writing about touchy subject matters like the violence, gender issues, power struggles, and sexuality featured in Nightshade?

A: I have a “day job.” It’s definitely more than a day job; I’m a history professor. I have a PhD in early modern history and my research specialization is the history of sexuality and violence, particularly the way it ties into warfare and religion. So just in studying the history of gender politics and sexuality for the last ten years, it was what I wrote my PhD on. It’s something that I have just been aware of in all the historical research I’ve done as a major under-fitting of the construction of human society. To write a story that was largely about power and struggles for power. It’s a coming-of-age story about this girl’s sexual awakening and her struggle to maintain her identity despite external forces that are trying to limit her strength.

It was so important for me to have those issues at the forefront because I think books offer a really important safe space for people of all ages, teens especially because they really need those spaces but I think adults as well. To be able to reflect on the way society puts expectations for sexuality and gender out there and try over and over again to thwart them. Sometimes it’s in very subtle ways through media and pop culture. Other ways it’s very overt in actual forms violence for people who step out what are considered to be societal norms. I really wanted to not be afraid to touch on those issues, not just even touch on them but really explore them.

In the book, I really wanted to address sexual double standards for young men and young women. It’s such a huge, huge problem that’s infuriating. More and more women are strong and in positions of power in society, yet still we have an attitude of girls have to be responsible for their sexuality but boys will be boys. I just feel like that happens over and over again. The recent slew of stories about texting scandals and bullying in schools towards LGBT students, but also straight students, the blame is almost always put on the girls for not being sexually responsible and not acting like good girls. And for boys it’s just, ‘Oh, boys will be boys. Of course, they’re going to spread around this scandal because they’re boys.’ I feel like that is something that hurts our society so much and sends a terrible message to girls about trying to figure out who they are and what their place can be in the world. I just really wanted to hit on those issues without fear.

Q: What courses do you teach at Macalester College?

A: I teach courses on violence in early American history (colonial through the Civil War), gender and sexuality, Native American history, historical philosophy and methodology, and religion in early modern history (1500-1800).

Q: Describe your writing process.

A: My writing process is really chaotic. I don’t write chronologically. I write scenes as they come into my mind. So what I do is, the key conflicts and key points tend jump into my head as I’m thinking about the story. I just write them down as I feel them. I feel like I almost go into a trance when I write; it takes over my entire life. When I’m in the middle of writing a first draft it happens very quickly. I wrote the first draft of Nightshade between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. There’s a lot of revising that happens after that, but the initial process is just all consuming. I’ll do things like pour orange juice on my cereal, throw clothes into the trash instead of the laundry hamper, or get into the shower and get right out again having totally forgotten to wash my hair because I’m just so lost in the story. When I write, I basically create those major scenes and then it’s almost like a web of thinking about how they’re connected. I refer to myself as jigsaw puzzle-writer because I end up with all these pieces and then it’s fitting them together to make the story.

Q: What are the differences between writing academic papers and fiction novels?

A: In academic writing you make an argument and defend it using evidence that other scholars can track, vis a vis footnotes. When writing a novel I’ve found that my process is much more about being carried away by the story rather than deconstructing its content.

Q: What plans do you have for future projects?

A: Nightshade is a trilogy. The second book Wolfsbane will be published in July 2011 and book three, Bloodrose, is due out spring 2012. The fourth book is a prequel to the series that chronicles the origins of the Witches War in the 1400s. I’m working on a steampunk trilogy that I describe as historical dystopia about an alternate 19th century where the American Revolution failed. The steampunk is not as yet under contract.

Full Disclosure: This GalleyCat Correspondent has been an intern at Penguin Group (USA) in the past
Now:  Maryann Lin's Newest Article:  September 27, 2011Nightshade trilogy author Andrea Creamer has inked a deal with Penguin Group (USA)’s Philomel imprint for a new YA steampunk series.

The first book, titled The Inventor’s Secret, is slated for publication in fall 2013. Executive editor Jill Santopolo negotiated the deal with InkWell Management literary agents Richard Pine and Charlie Olsen.

Here’s more from the release: “The series is set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery…As part of the deal, Philomel has also acquired a second prequel to Nightshade entitled RISE, which is scheduled for publication in summer 2013. The first prequel to Nightshade,entitled RIFT, is scheduled for publication in fall 2012.” (Photo Credit: Gina Monroe)

In addition to the Nightshade prequels, Cremer will wrap up the trilogy with Bloodrose which will be released in January 2012. She also has a collaborative book project with Will Grayson, Will Grayson author David Levithan in the works; this project is called The Invisibility Curse and will be published in 2013.

The Dame's Final Word:My thanks to Maryann Lin and Andrea Cremer for sharing this great news with those of us who love her books!  Meanwhile, any of my readers who've missed reading "Nightshade," need to catch the wave!

I saw her final book in this series at the bookstore yesterday. The covers are going to look gorgeous on library shelves, y'all!

You really have to go to Amazon to see the book write-up

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Angels with Extraordinary Deviousness~"Angelology" a novel by Danielle Trussoni

Published by: Penguin Group

Pages: 480 Paperback

Date released in Paperback:  February 2011

Recognition:  New York Times Notable Book

Summary :

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures.
 
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5
 
Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.
 
For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.
 
Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.


The Dame's Review:

This is a book you have to find and spend your weekend reading.  I promise you it will be one of the best books you'll read this season. 

Danielle Trussoni absolutely has a golden hand.  She's an author who captures the imagination from the beginning and keeps it throughout.  I was so enamored of this book that I could hardly wait to get back to it when distractions interrupted.  It's so beautifully written:  gothic, gorgeous in description, fantastic in imagination.

I personally loved most her descriptions of characters and places.  It was a subject to fixate my mind, causing me to see with my mind's eye the beautiful angels and primary characters who interacted with them.  I could also envision the convent, gleaming high rises, homes, caverns and Nazi headquarters that Trussoni describes.  She is a master author in this area.

The mystery of why Evangeline is left at a convent by her father, why she's been so protected by the sisters there, and what her purpose may be in life is only the tip of the iceburg in this lush novel.  It's the things we learn afterwards about the angels she comes to know, their secrets, and how she'll manage her journey and responses to them that make up the most glorious and absorbing parts of the book.

I absolutely adore this book for so many reasons.  It's especially well written, its gothic details are wonderful, it bristles with magical mysteries, the angels are gorgeous and demonic, Evangeline is a perfect heroine to identify with, and the whole experience is brilliant.

Sumptuous and exciting, this book has religious and historical interest to accompany the rest as mentioned above.  Having spent half of my college education in Munich, Germany, it was a treat to read her writings about Evangeline in Nazi Germany!  What a perfect time for the fallen angels to make a stronghold for their evil plotting. Great fun to be taken back to Germany in this imaginative way.

The Nephilim will steal your hearts even though they are devious, they are magnificent!  And, who could believe she'd throw Abigail Rockefeller into the mix like that?  Awesome in so many details.

This is definitely another book for your stacks!

5 fabulous stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

PS:  I couldn't help showing that picture of the full-bodied angel cover....  :]

"Entralled: Paranormal Diversions" Anthology of 16 "Smart Chicks Kick It Tour" Authors like Melissa Marr!

Published by:  Harper Collins

Pages:  443 

Purchase price:  $9.99/ Nook & Kindle ebooks less

Contributors:  16 authors of the genre

Edited by:  Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong



Kirkus Review :

A solid collection of stories that prove that all any supernatural creature wants to do is date or eat teenage protagonists.
These short stories are loosely connected by a very openly interpreted journey motif.Psychics, genies, angels and gargoyles join fairies and vampires to terrorize and romance their fellow characters. The diversity in authors allows for the sometimes-neglected horror implied in paranormal stories to be spotlighted, as in Carrie Ryan's zombie thriller, "Scenic Route," and Jennifer Lynn Barnes's "The Third Kind," about sisters with unavoidable compulsions. Many of the authors base their stories in the existing worlds of their other novels—luckily, most of these standalones work, though not all shake off that teaser taste. Sarah Rees Brennan's "Let's Get This Undead Show on the Road" follows a vampire in a boy-band and stands out with its perfect blend of snark and sincerity. It's followed in a one-two punch by Jeri Smith-Ready's intense and earnest "Bridge." While not every story's as strong as those (some are downright forgettable), in a buffet of so many flavors readers can always skip to the next story with a good chance of finding something more to their liking.
This collection is ideal as a sampler tray for paranormal readers looking to pick up new authors to follow or to further explore the fictional worlds they already know.



Just in case you were wondering who Melissa Marr is!   



The Dame's Take :

Please click on the link for "Enthralled" on my side bar to get a very comprehensive look at this captivating new book.  Then, please come back to me!

This is a charmingly packaged anthology published by Harper Collins.  Whom, it must be said, is just outstanding in its choices of YA literature and authors.  Harper consistently publishes books of the highest quality and content, so with their novels you can almost guarantee a good read.  The cover of this (and most of Harper's books) is wonderful and appropriate for the content.  What I like about it is the nod to the sophistication of the young adult reader.  There's no scared little girl looking out at us here!

I've perused the book like a bandit.  Absolutely love the feel of paper they've used which reminds me of the old (maybe still used) paper of the short story mystery anthologies I used to get, small packaged as magazines.  Somehow, it makes me feel like this is a secret book I can hide and read in bed like a Halloween precursor; which it is in fact. Just love it for my bedside table this Fall.

After having read a couple of stories, my favorite is "Gargouille" by Mary E. Pearson.  I wasn't familiar with Ms Pearson's books or writing, so decided to try her story for that reason alone.  This is a wonderful story!  I enjoyed it from the first sentence.  Mary's descriptions are fascinating and made me smile with the anticipation I've always had when reading a fairytale.  I love her French names and hinted connections in the story.  Great writing and a really good short story.  This one makes me certain I'll be going out to find one of her novels to read very soon.

Here's one of her trailers:

"Miles Between" by Mary E. Pearson

Latest Book:  "The Adoration of Jenna Fox"

Available on Audio, as well.

The Dame is giving this darling Anthology "Entralled" an entralling 5 stars!

A must be on your shopping list for this Halloween.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Horror/Thriller That Puts You in the "Twilight Zone"~"Dead Bad Things" by Gary McMahon

Published by:  Angry Robot/Osprey

Author's website:  http://www.garymcmahon.com/ 

Release Date Scheduled:  September 27, 2011
Purchase:  Amazon - $7.79 for Kindle

Synopsis :

Thomas Usher, a reluctant psychic, has gone off the radar in London, hiding from the fall-out of a previous case involving a missing young girl and several hanged strippers. Before long, and as if to confirm that he can never truly hide from the dead, Usher starts receiving messages - a clockwork voice on the phone, a Rwandan psychic who hears voices, hellish visions in a derelict riverside warehouse. Usher slowly realises that the answers to these riddles, and perhaps to the questions he has never dared ask about his personal history, will only be revealed if he returns home to Leeds...

Sarah Doherty is a police constable in Leeds. She and her partner - who is also her lover - are drawn into a nightmare when they find the mutilated body of a young boy. Is there some kind of serial killer operating on their patch, or do these grim discoveries point to something even worse - something from Sarah's own past, and involving her emotionally damaged family?

Trevor Dove is a disgraced showman, a flamboyant theatrical medium once exposed as a fraud by Thomas Usher. But the truth is, Dove did once possess a genuine ability to talk with the dead, and when he meets the Pilgrim - a shadowy figure from Thomas Usher's tragic past - he begins to rediscover his gift and unearth secrets that will place his very soul in peril. Driven by a thirst for revenge, he is fated to bring together Usher, Doherty and the Pilgrim in a confrontation that will undermine the fabric of reality.

The Dame Reviews:

Horror fans listen up!  This book is a smash hit.  I'm not ordinarily a reader of such books; and, actually I didn't know what I was getting into when I decided to read "Dead Bad Things."  However, this book captured me from the first page, and off I went on a thrilling ride of horror and suspense unlike any I'd been on for quite some time!  This book reminded me of early Stephen King and Dean Koontz so much that I found myself grinning at the oddest times with nostalgia.  It took me by surprise...difficult to do considering the amount of books I read!

Grim and gripping from the first moments we learn that a man is lamenting over the shallow grave of a tiny boy whom he's killed, and that he's receiving a baby girl from a darkly disguised "angel;" this book never stops driving us to its final conclusion.  Gary McMahon is a horror fiction writer best known in the UK where several of his books have been previously published.  I'm glad we finally are being acquainted with his books here.  I look forward to reading more.

I found McMahon's writing style captivating and descriptive to a point of sharpness.  He made even his supernatural characters believable and horrendous.  They were well imagined and fearful...not too "out of this world," but just to the edge of it and possible enough to be plausible.  This made the story scary and charged with suspense. 

Sarah was an undoubted favorite character for me.  I always love a feisty female who can beat the worst guy at his own game.  She is a fast thinking and tough reacting police detective who walks through her fears as valiantly as any superhero we can remember.  I'd go anywhere scary with Sarah in the lead!  I'd love to hear more of her in the future.

Thomas Usher, the dead-listening/seeing "angel-like" man, who plays a huge part in this novel, is mystery-clouded and we can enjoy uncovering who he actually is and why he's come into the arena of Sarah's life.  I especially loved reading about his search in the clairvoyant area.  So much fun!

Once we meet the dark angels and torturers, it's like reading the best and worst of horror stories.  Greatly interesting, enjoyable and something that makes you want to put your hands over your eyes at the same time.  As a reader of much softer literature, I was reading with "bug eyes," believe me!  This is an adult, sophisticated horror story!

I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading horror/suspense books.  It's not, after all, a Stephen King but it is a good book for a stormy night or two. 

I really enjoyed the book for a change in pace; after all, who hasn't seen a ghost or two--I have; haven't you?  

Coming out in September, it's one to keep an eye out for...
Second in a series about Thomas Usher.

4 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Gothic, Tragic, & Gorgeous~Sisters Divided... "Prophecy of Sisters" Trilogy

 First in the trilogy: "Prophecy of the Sisters" begins the story of two sisters who have divergent paths in their souls.  Even before birth...one wants to be born, and the other doesn't.

“This is a brooding, haunting tale of an ancient struggle between living and dead, with two sisters at its heart. It's Gothic, Edwardian, and absolutely un-put-down-able!” —Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author of The Circle of Magic series. 

Second book in the series:  "Guardian of the Gate"  continues the mysterious struggles of the sisters.  I haven't read this one...I'm dying to know what happens!

    Just released!  "Circle of Fire"  the final book in the series of the Prophecy of the Sisters. 

    These gorgeous covers are amazing and the stories are beautifully written to entice and embroil you in the tightly wound spell that's entangled the sisters; one that makes them distrust eachother.  How will they save themselves and come together?



The Dame Ranks This Book:
A+  It's a series/trilogy
A+  It's about young women
A+  It's gothic
A+  It's fantasy and prophecy intense
A+  Gorgeous, collectable cover
A+  Very good reviews on all books so far


A probable good sense buy for your library.  I hope to get all three books.  I love the look of these books, even the binding cover art is beautiful.  And, I always appreciate books I can hand down to my daughter and granddaughter.  Meanwhile, the read will be awesome!


Good reading to you, as well !  Please leave us a comment if you've read any of these books...and if you have a favorite of the sisters.



Deborah/TheBookishDame

A Bookish Libraria: The Bookish Dame Reviews: Gothic, Vampirish and Old World ~ "The House on Bl...

A Bookish Libraria: The Bookish Dame Reviews: Gothic, Vampirish and Old World ~ "The House on Bl...: "The Book Summary : This is a tale of vampirism, madness, obsession and devil worship as Rose Baines, only survivor of her family’s carnage..."

Vampire Gothic Opera in Poetry~"Ordeal" by T. K. Varenko



Truly this picture does not do the cover of "Ordeal" justice!  It's a gorgeous and shocking cover..grey as death, marbled with veins of red running randomly through it...so unusual. The title is scripted in old world and ornamented as an illuminated letter, each page is topped with a gothic swirl...haunting and beautifully packaged for a fairytale story of vampirish, unrequited love.

The Cover Summary:

It is a verse-ornated story
About love, betrayal, wrath,
Royal vampires' bliss and glory
Bringing them straight to their death.
Luella, fierce, strong vampire,
Falls for a pretty human catch
Sent on her fiancé's desire
To celebrate they are engaged.
This unexpected turnabout
Is doomed to come to a dead end:
Her human sweetheart's dead to shroud;
Her fiancé's avenged for that;
And she is punished for blood treason,
Banished into a mortal child,
Whose human body is a prison
For all her powers to bind.
Her memories obliterated,
She is to find her love at last
Who proves to be too much related
To the misfortunes from her past.

A picture of the lovely T. K. Varenko.  Who now guides students in English writing skills.  Here below is her bio.:

Tatyana's birth as human being
Took place in 1982,
In June, when weather was appealing
And sparkling with the morning dew.

As she grew up, too shy by nature,
Her friends were Pushkin, Dante, Wilde
Who wrote of love and of adventure -
She dreamt of the vampire kind.

As time went by, she took to versing
When she got hardly over ten,
And life was constantly coercing
Tatyana to employ her pen.

The Foreign Languages Department
She joined in 1999
Served as a very good incitement
For her verse writing to refine.

Then the first sketches were laid out,
When she was drawing to 18,
Ordeal began to come about
To lighten up her dull routine.

Now she's working as a teacher
Training her students' English skills
That her department has to feature
And help acquire in the drills.

Plans:

I'm working on my second novel
Where new skeletons emerge
From the cupboards of the story
Told in Ordeal and on its verge.

It will be more large-scale in action
And introduce the elfin breed
Describing their interaction
With the vampire kind amid.

The two most powerful races
Will meet in fateful intercourse
Unraveling deceitful laces
Woven in love, intrigues and wars.

* * *

I'm also planning on compiling
A book of poems I've composed
That I consider most beguiling
And feel like making them exposed.

My Review:
What a darling volume of poetry cum storytelling.  Reminiscent of vampire opera described in Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat books, Tatyana Varenko's book is immanently enchanting because of its theme and innocence.  I have to confess a special adoration for such little treasures that have a shelf in my library.

As noted in her own verse above, this is the tale of unrequited love between Alice, a past-life royal vampire, and her "pretty human catch," Derek. Fraught with the struggles and angst of young love and dangerous liasons, this little tome is meant for YA audiences, positively.

As an adult reader, I can only applaud Ms Varenko's attempts to put to four meter verse her frothy story of darkness and gothic doom.  While it doesn't quite translate in all circumstances, its naivety is charming and not to be underestimated.  It has much of the impact of Sleeping Beauty and a dark Rapunzel, both caught in a witch's sinister web and tangled in unimaginable dangers.

Her story is told, the gothic nature is preserved, the characters are fleshed out and visible to the reader and its quality is very good.  What's missing is a flow of verse which causes it to be often jarring, interrupting the pace of the story. Further, I felt that Ms Varenko would have been able to give us more of her lush descriptive art had she not be constrained by verse. It took some time to look beyond this mechanical problem to enjoy her book.  A good editor could have helped with this, however.

In addition, I lament that this darling poetry was splashed about with bits of slang and slippage of language.  It distracted, sadly, from the atmosphere I believe Ms Varenko wanted to create.  Again, an editor could have led her to see this. 

I give this example:

"When you were born as a vampire,
You seemed to be designed for throne,
Cruel and cold to all desire,
But then he came -- and all went wrong.

You fell in lovey-dovey frenzy
Not seeing clearly ahead,
Your instincts and your mind got hazy--
The change was definitely sad."

To my mind, the "lovey-dovey" played childish to what was otherwise in keeping with her gothic rendering.

While "Ordeal" is not perfect in every way, it is a perfection of sorts.  Like a strawberry shortcake whose whipped cream has slipped slightly askew, it's still delicious and tasty.  You don't want to miss having a bite, and you can't help savoring every bit of it.  That's what this book is like.  It would make the perfect present for your "Twilight" loving or vampirish collecting friends.

I liked it.  I see it as primarily  a YA book that will be akin to those who love Edgar Allen Poeish poetry in their teens.  And, for those of us who remember and love Poe, it's a skip back to those nostalgic days of Annabelle and the cliffside death.

Charming and darkly gothic...  3.5 to 4 stars.

For more information, please visit the author's site at:
www.elfineness.com/author.html    I found it most intriguing!


The Bookish Dame/Deborah