The Book of Shadows [Mass Market Paperback]

James Reese (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 2002

Alone among the young girls taught by nuns at a convent school in nineteenth-century France, orphaned Herculine has neither wealth nor social connections. When she's accused of being a witch, the shy student is locked up with no hope of escape ... until her rescue by a real witch, the beautiful, mysterious Sebastiana. Swept away to the witch's manor, Herculine will enter a fantastic, erotic world to discover her true nature -- and her destiny -- in this breathtaking, darkly sensual first novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A sinuous plot studded with uncanny surprises snakes through this nontraditional period gothic. Its first-person narrator, Herculine, seems cut from the same cloth as the heroines of classic sensationalist fiction: vulnerable, tragically orphaned and, at the tale's outset, immured in the tedious routines of early 19th-century French convent life. But Herculine's self-consciousness about unnamed physical endowments suggests an unusual heritage whose dimensions become known when a schoolgirl prank leads to shocking revelations of the "unnatural" and accusations of witchcraft. Before she can be tried, she is spirited to safety by witch Sebastiana d'Azur, a "Soror Mystica" who tutors her in the enchantments necessary for Herculine to fulfill her destiny: to liberate Father Louis and his lover, Madeleine de la Mettrie, two elemental spirits chained to earth. Herculine's instruction proves a pretext for relating elaborate 18th-century chronicles of Louis's trumped-up trial for witchcraft and Sebastiana's tutelage in the mysteries of the Craft, and it is through these tales that the novel comes into its own. Reese loosens restraints, making the novel more than a mere historical pastiche and jarring the reader with vivid accounts of Louis's cruel torture, the passion of Sebastiana's education and the revolting inhumanity of the French Revolution's reign of terror. Overlong and distractingly plotless, these interludes nevertheless impress, levering out in deceptively simple language the eroticism and violence smoldering beneath traditional gothic fustian. Though loosely episodic, the novel achieves a historical sweep that distinguishes Reese as a star pupil in the Anne Rice school of dark sensuality.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this debut novel, Reese explores the dark world of obsession and magic in 18th-century Brittany. Orphaned Herculine has grown up in the narrow confines of a French convent. She knows that she is different and is both ashamed and afraid of these differences. Shocking events at the convent cause her to reevaluate her identity, as she is drawn into a web of sorcery and betrayal. Befriended by witches, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures, Herculine struggles to find a place for herself in the world. Should she help these new friends or run away as fast as she can? This novel shows potential that is, alas, unrealized. A confusing setting and plot are complicated by Reese's insistence on developing minor characters at the expense of his protagonist. Lengthy tangential chapters serve only to muddy the waters further. Not recommended.
- Laurel Bliss, Yale Arts Lib.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (December 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061031844
• ISBN-13: 978-0061031847
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,083,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining yet strange historical horror novel, November 26, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Shadows: A Novel (Hardcover)

In France, six year old Herculine watches her mother die a horrible weird death leaving the child to fend for herself. Herculine arrives at the "stone", the holy house at C--- where the nuns take her in as the only scholarship student praying she one day will see God like they do. Years later, unable to resist, Herculine commits sins that require severe punishment as fears of evil and witchcraft are whispered among the residents of C----.

While being incarcerated, four demons visit Herculine. The demon priest Father Louis, the damned Madeleine, the demonic Asmodei, and the evil witch Sebastiana come to open her mind to the full realm of pleasure. Herculine escapes with her rescuers to set on a quest to learn why she is the chosen. Her mission is filled with erotic dark magic and death as a revolution fueled by otherworldly madness leads to mass insanity and murder.

Though well written in a weird meandering way filled with surprising shockers, BOOK OF SHADOWS is not for everyone as the story line contains graphic scenes of cruelty, abuse, and terror. The story line takes the traditional elements of a gothic novel (innocent vulnerable female, dark menacing males and a remote foreboding abode), but turns them upside down with a spin away from the genre due to the self-discovery of the dark side by the heroine. Herculine, who narrates the tale, keeps the center from imploding into a sea of uncontrollable weirdness so that the audience has an entertaining yet strange historical horror novel.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully written, historical gothic fiction novel, July 3, 2004

By 

Andi (Daly City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Shadows (Mass Market Paperback)

Most books on Witchcraft today (be they fiction or non) tend to stick to either the actual Wiccan/Pagan religions, or rely on the most characteristic 'Hollywood Witch'- the beautiful woman with a broomstick who flies, is instantly powerful, etc. This book surprised me in many ways- most of all the main character's...interesting state. That and the authors' identification of a 'true Witch' by a certain mark in the eyes. This book is written with a very historical idea of Witches in mind- the wild sex of a Sabbat (which Reese terms an esbat, but I'm not complaining, fiction has a certain amount of allowance for poetic changes), the accompaniment of an incubus and succubus, the shape changing familiar, and most of all, the superstitions and spells/charms that were passed between the sisters were all of historical note. =) Take this from a modern day, real Witch- this is an excellent fictional read, and may educate you into France's, and some of Witchcraft's more bloody side of history. My hat's off to James Reese. I want a sequel, now, please....

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I really, really wanted to like it, Mr. Reese ..., January 24, 2007

By 

A reader (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Shadows (Mass Market Paperback)

It's interesting how a few reviewers have mentioned that they stopped at page 400. I stopped at 398, just a few pages after the "Greek Supper" section.

Every book has good points and bad points. I just wish that this one had more good points.

Good points: Character description - I had a very good idea of what each character looked like. Suspense scenes (when they managed to appear) - the scene with Herculine hiding in the lesser library while attempting to escape had me right there with her, cheering her on.

Bad points: Rambling narrative - far too many words to describe too little plot. This was the main problem. This book could have been condensed into at least half its size. Did we really need to know the endless, inane details of how Madeleine and Father Louis wound up as ghosts? Tangential characters - did we really need to know about the grandfather of Sebastiana's servant? Did we really need to know about the deformed Sabine? Sebastiana's B.O.S. - Good heavens, she's as wordy as Herculine (if not more!).

The other thing that bothered me (and I have no idea as to why the author did this) was the whole naming of cities and places as C__________ or Q _________ or X __________ or D___________. It's like someone spilled a few pieces of alphabet soup onto a map of France.

And yes, some Wiccan readers have gotten upset about the depiction of witches in the book (I'm Wiccan myself), but you have to bear in mind that this is fiction and he's not depicting Wiccans.

The bottom line is that this story had a LOT of potential. I liked Herculine, but her verbose description almost killed me. I really wanted to learn more about Asmodei - Lestat-like? Yeah, you could say that. Sexy? Very. Smarmy? Absolutely! - all the makings of an interesting character. I liked the setting of the book. But it just didn't all gel together.

The worst part is, I got this book and the next two in the series as gifts, which made me want to like this book even more. Sorry, Mr. Reese, but I have to give this one a thumbs-down.