From Publishers Weekly
Andrews (Shakkai: Woman of the Sacred Garden) here offers the 10th installment of her Medicine Woman series, a garish fable meant to advance her own brand of New Age spirituality. Why do women betray one another? This question, raised in a Seattle lecture hall, is finally answered in the jungles of the Yucatan, where the first-person narrator (named Lynn) rejoins the Sisterhood of the Shields, a secret order of women. The answer comes in the form of a parable about the downfall of the beautiful and powerful Sin Corazon, a priestess of the Sisterhood whose insatiable curiosity leads her to pick up a "male shield." When her husband betrays her, Sin Corazon embraces the dark side and embarks on a path of evil and self-destruction, seducing and tormenting men, betraying the Sisterhood and even trying to turn the author/narrator to Evil. In desperation, the Sisterhood throws a handsome curandero (or priest) in Sin Corazon's path to help her regain her equilibrium with her feminine side. The two fall in love and Sin Corazon is healed and rejoins the Sisterhood. The book reads like a journal entry, with long narrative chapters, flatly related action and trite conclusions.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
In her fourteenth book, best-selling New Age cryptonovelist Andrews tries to stretch the limitations of first-person narrative. She doesn't go cold turkey, however, and leave behind the framework of the Sisterhood of the Shield, the secret women's shamanic society in which she claims to participate. Instead, she embeds a more conventional novel within that frame--a story that, being about sex and love and betrayal, has immediate appeal. Unfortunately, Andrews has not yet learned several primary fictional techniques, for she tells rather than shows, relies on monologue rather than action, and shifts point of view wildly, which makes it almost a relief to return to the lecturing sage Agnes at book's end. Still, Andrews includes enough new material on questions of power and sexuality in sorcery to please her devoted followers. Anticipate relatively high demand.
Patricia Monaghan
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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