Customer Reviews

The Devil's Rose

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Holy Hell Bells! Brom takes it up a notch. Brom's incredible paintings mixed with his ability to weave a tale takes you on a real ride. Page after page of amazing paintings are worth the price of admission alone, but the story is just as amazing. I found myself deeply moved by the plight of these tortured souls. Highly recommended!

Brom delivers another flawless piece of work with his follow up to Plucker, The Devil's Rose. Not only is his art as gorgeous and frightening as ever but he has really grown as a writer as well.

Really rad story, could do with a sequel, as thats how it ends.
Could of also done with a slipcover, as it's a Hardback,
I wonder if any else noticed this ?
Not a big deal, but The Plucker has one, so yeah.
Love those revolvers !

I hesitate when I see a book like this. Sure the art work might be great (and in this case it certainly is with 51 great pieces) but the story is often lame or just a clumsy attempt to link all the pieces of artwork into some type of story. This surpassed my expectations. A real plot, fascinating story and sympathetic characters. This is the type of story that I want to read over and over again.

Okay so I read Brom's first book The Plucker and where i was impressed by the art, the story itself was lacking in establishing an emotional connection with the ready. In Devil's Rose Brom proves to the reader he has corrected the mistakes of his first work, and gives us a story I can only describe as Ghost Rider by way of Dante Alleger. Its a pretty cool story, and both good guys and bad guys are presented as flawed, but human, characters- albeit undead human character. The book is by no means perfect though, and there are plenty of moments in the books story that I felt could use a little more exposition ( i.e. a girl appears in the beginning of the book, is unintentionally saved by the hero, and the author never returns to her), but this isn't something I felt made the story unlovable. So here's the short of it; if you like tales of redemption, and have a taste for something a little dark, this is the book for you. It isn't perfect, but what it lacks in a little literary meat it more then makes up for with a compelling protagonist, and gorgeous art. It may not win a Pulitzer but it won my confidence that if Brom keeps at it, we may just get a genuinely flawless story out of him next time around.

What an amazing book!The illistrations and story are great!Came across this book by accident glad I bought it.Definatly recommend it for others!

I was given a copy of The Plucker for Christmas last year and couldn't get through 2 pages of it. The art was great, but the writing and story did not engage me. Brom has improved greatly with Devil's Rose. Not only are the paintings the dark, demonic portraits which originally attracted me to Brom's art, but the story is much better. He's no Peter Straub or Stephen King (and it's clear our friend Roland the Gunslinger was a MAJOR influence on the character of Cole), but Brom's done a good job of developing Cole into an antihero we can all feel sympathy for. The story's not perfect, but I will definitely pick up the sequel as it certainly seems there will be a second installment about Cole and his search for Rose through the realms of Hell. Good job, Brom!

I've enjoyed Brom's art from the days when he was working with TSR, and his skill level continues to increase and his dark imagination to delight and amaze with each successive work. In The Devil's Rose, his second foray into the illustrated novel field, Brom contributes a great many superb paintings and pencil renderings to a story of his own devising.

Set in the modern southwest, The Devil's Rose follows a ranger in the service of Hell as he is sent on a dangerous mission - to return to the living world and retrieve a quintet of escaped souls, as well as another creature, Rath, whose power even the ranger's masters fear. If he completes this mission, he will be redeemed and released from his indenture in Hell. The ranger himself is tortured by his lost love, and a secret shame that has sent him to Hell. As he continues his quest, however, he slowly comes to realize his own agency and that he might just be able to escape Hell without playing by the devils' rules - and be reunited with the woman he loves so many years ago.

The art in this book is phenomenal. The ranger resembles what one might image Stephen King's Roland Deschain to look like - tall, thin, pale, and dressed in dark cowboy attire, massive sixguns at his side. Brom here conjures up images of frightful devils, zombies, and other images that will truly catch your breath. Brom show in this work that he is at the top of his game as an illustrator, and few pages go by that are not illuminated by his great art. The pages themselves have been colored to look like ruined parchment.

The story, unfortunately, doesn't shine quite as brightly as the art. While the ranger's character is very well developed (the chapter on his tragic backstory is the tour de force of the book), he is, essentially, the only main character, and there is no true villain against whom he struggles, making his quest against Hell a little abstract. Additionally, Brom creates his own sort of cosmology in this book, but we only glimpse it subtly - I would have liked to see it more fully developed and be a more integral part of this story. These quibbles aside, however, The Devil's Rose is a quick read and fun, with beautiful, creepy artwork to accompany it. A great scary read for adults, to be sure.

This is the second book I have read by Brom. The first was "The Plucker"; that was a great book and both the artwork and writing were awesome. This book wasn't written quite as well as "The Plucker" but the artwork was just as fantastic.

In this book Cole hunts down escape souls for Hell; he is working to get the Devil's favor so that he can rescue Rose. Only this time one of the souls he is chasing is different and it makes him start to question if the souls he hunts down really deserve what they get. In general this book really reminded me of Stephen King's Dark Tower series; it has that fantasy/gunslinger vibe going on.

The writing in the beginning of the book was a bit awkward but as the book progressed, and Brom got into the story, the writing really improved. The artwork was astonishing as always. Brom is just an excellent artist. The story itself was interesting and engaging. Overall a wonderful book; if it hadn't been for the awkward beginning I would give it 5 stars.

This book is mainly suitable for older kids and adults; it is very violent and there is some off-color language. Those of you familiar with Brom's previous work shouldn't be surprised. Just a heads up.

This book was great and I am really looking forward to reading his next book "Child Thief" which I have an ARC of.

I have seen this book in bookstores throughout my travels to different parts of Texas and wondered what it would be like. I read the premise and thought it would be interesting. Upon reading it, I found it to be dark, mysterious, and quite disturbing. Basically....this book is fantastic. Highly recommended. I am now in the process of purchasing Brom's other book "Plucker" and highly anticipating the release of "The Child Thief".