DANCING WITH DEMONS. [Hardcover]

Lucy. Taylor (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Obsidian Books; First Edition edition (1998)
• ASIN: B000TVT2CC
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lucy Taylor can do a lot better than this, can't she?, May 22, 2000

By 

P. Legerski (Corona, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dancing With Demons (Hardcover)

Lucy Taylor's second novel is not one to like. I couldn't find one character that I thought was worth rooting for. They all were a little bit evil. But this is no tale of supernatural evil, oh no. This is about the evil of addiction; be it alcohol, drugs, love, sex, violence. Whatever vice you've heard of, it's in here. Jessie, a recovering alkie, hooks up with Simon, a power junkie. Match made in Hell, right? Yep. Jessie and Simon's past are ripped right from the Dysfunctional As Hell Family Handbook. Simon wants Jessie pure, so he decides to eliminate all of her previous addictions...like sex, like group sex. It all ends with Jessie trying to save her father and son from the maniac Simon...but then the question is, "Who's gonna save us from Jessie's kid?" Again, this is an unflinching look at everyday horror. Lucy's strength is that she does not pretty up the problems with these people. She wallows in it, shows us the pain and torment with an unflinching eye to detail. The art inside the book is very well done by Jamie Oberschlake. And the cover and author's picture is done by Alan M. Clark, a very nice job! I, personally, did not buy into Jessie's ongoing attraction to Simon. But as I discussed this with someone I respect, he said it's probably because I was lucky enough never to have been involved in that kind of relationship. All told, a novel that I can't say I liked, due to it's graphic nature. If you liked Jack Ketchum's THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, then this is right up your garbage-strewn alley. Recommended but with warning.

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard hitting, visceral, May 25, 2007

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dancing With Demons (Hardcover)

Dancing with Demons is not a pleasant book to read, nor is it intended to be. Lucy Taylor writes with the passion of someone obsessed by an idea. This obsession causes her great pain and confusion, emotions she transmits to her readers. She doesn't care if they are offended or, for that matter, disgusted by her graphic narrative. Her only purpose is to make them feel what she feels.

The question is simple and unanswerable: why do humans so often choose evil? The issue, as old as human existence, powers Dancing with Demons. The mere act of asking the question seems to have galvanized Taylor--although she provides no answers, she does give her readers plenty to think about.

Jessie Tauber wrestles with the twin demons of sex and alcohol addiction. Other viewpoint characters, notably Jessie's estranged father Joe and her bastard son Henry, face similar dilemmas. Taylor doesn't waste space with the common "heredity vs. environment" issues--with these genes and home lives, their problems seem inevitable.

Jessie's adolescence was shattered by her mother's grisly suicide, an episode that precipitated her entry into a sordid, dangerous world of booze, drugs and empty sex. Now a young woman in her twenties, she looks and feels much older. Attempting to reassert control over her sorry existence, Jessie joins Alcoholics Anonymous and finds a steady job as a dance instructor. Jessie realizes that this is only the beginning--she knows she must conquer all her demons, including her sex addiction, if she's ever going to lead a normal life and regain custody of Henry from her father.

This is easier said than done, as Jessie's addictions begin to feed off each other. As she struggles to remain alcohol free, her sex addiction reasserts itself. At a particularly vulnerable moment, Jessie meets Simon Lauren, one of the scariest fictional characters I've ever encountered. Simon is, simply put, a sadistic, amoral bastard, capable of horrendous acts of violence. Jessie receives ample evidence of this volatility, but ignores it out of her need. Ignoring the problem makes it worse--the violence escalates to the point where Jessie finds herself a virtual prisoner, an unwilling accomplice to the methodical murders of her former lovers. The stakes mount until Simon threatens the lives of Joe and Henry. Jessie, who has somehow managed to survive prior bad choices, may finally have made the fateful decision that will end her pain permanently.

The plot is familiar--we've seen this type of story before in books as diverse as Nancy Price's Sleeping with the Enemy and Stephen King's Rose Madder--but this is offset by Taylor's passion for her subject and her well-drawn characters. Taylor really gets into the heads of her viewpoint characters, making their actions, no matter how self destructive, seem plausible, and yes, even rational, at least from their skewed perspectives. When I read this type of story, I often wonder why any woman would stay with a man who so mistreats her. Here, however, I know exactly why--Jessie's insecurities dictate her poor decisions, then trap her in situations others might easily avoid. Significantly, Taylor provides less insight into Simon's motivations, rendering him all the more frightening and unpredictable.

Taylor's writing has many strengths, but this ability to create realistic characters is her special gift. That she does so while writing with such insight and passion makes this hard hitting, visceral novel well worth your attention.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sex mistaken for insight, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dancing With Demons (Hardcover)

Here's a prime example of an author who should not confuse sex for insight. Just being graphic does not accord you the respect of, say, a Henry Miller or an Anais Nin. This was banal at best.