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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much More Than Sex and Revenge,
By A Customer
This review is from: Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge (Hardcover)
BELLADONNAI admit, I picked up this novel for the sex. I expected a light but juicy story about glamorous people and their hidden lives. What I found was much more compelling, much more provocative -- just more. Belladonna has been promoted as "A Novel of Revenge." A beautiful and innocent young American woman is kidnapped by powerful European aristocrats, then held as a helpless sex slave. Later, she gets them back, and then some. All true, but it doesn't begin to cover the depth of Karen Moline's characters, or the bitter truth in their responses to whatever life throws at them. Instead of going for cliches, she goes for gritty reality, every time. Nothing on the dust jacket mentions the rich thematic layers she weaves into a hypnotic cloth: the power dynamic that operates under the surface of all relationships; or how imprisonment of the mind can be much stronger than any physical ties that bind. Heavy stuff, but Moline serves it up skillfully in a perfect literary souffle. On a more tender note, she also explores how "family" is truly defined by unconditional acceptance and support, not by genetic connection. I love the way she takes a group of walking-wounded individuals and joins them together with more commitment to each other than you'd find in many birth families. This writer knows the meaning of style. Her narrator, Tomassino, doesn't just tell the story, he confides it to you with gossipy delight, as witty and entertaining as your favorite gay hair stylist. I actually heard the abridged book on audio tape, read by actor Tim Curry, before I read the novel. Unlike so many audio books, where the reader drones on tediously, Curry brings the story to life, acting out every part with amazingly subtle changes in accent and tone. You always know which character is speaking. The only drawback of the tapes is their abridgment...more than half of the book's text is cut out. So of course, I had to read the book, too. I'm not sure Belladonna is for everyone, but I can tell you this -- since I can't stop talking about it, several of my friends had to run out and buy it. They couldn't put it down either.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deliciously decadent, an arsenic chocolate of a book,
By
This review is from: Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)
Like a Jackie Collins novel on acid, this baroque drag queen fantasy run amok will amuse any former reader of romance. Just when you think the plot could not possibly get any more ridiculous, it does, with delightful results. There is a dark theme, but the book is so over-the-top that it is impossible to take seriously. It reads as high camp. The perfect, by-the-pool page turner. As soon as I finished reading it, I bought a dozen copies to give to my friends. I have yet to hear a bad review from them. This book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but it's so much fun you won't care. Enjoy!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Summer suprise of sweet revenge,
By A Customer
This review is from: Belladonna: A Novel of Revenge (Hardcover)
I read Belladonna as an accident and the results were a complete surprise. I picked it up as a "light" read for the summer (after a spring of slogging through dense academic text) and came away with an irresistable urge to concoct obsession-laced revenge plots, filled with beauty, deceit, and a checkered past.As I read, it reminded me of the Count of Monte Cristo(which the plot of Belladonna borrows nicely)and some sinister works of Poe. Add to that exquisite sensuality... A perfect summer read with enough depth to keep you engaged through the final pages. Once in a while you find a book that surprises you, captures you, and takes you on a trip of the imagination. Belladonna proves an excellent tour guide. Moline is a structured, sassy writer who knows how to tell a story and provides a story well told.
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