Customer Reviews

Fear: A Novel

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

 

 

By 1959, thirteen-year old Anna Karystinou has learned that emotions, including FEAR, are worthless. For years she has accompanied her parents across their homeland of Greece due to the constant reassignments of her military father. Anna has no permanent friends. Her parents are cold and aloof as her father wants to make a "man" out of her. This leaves the teenager with no love and a vast void where her emotions should have developed.

However, humans cannot remain emotionally bankrupt as some feelings will enter the void. In the case of Anna, she loathes her unfeeling father and quickly realizes that those who profess to mentor her are actually her enemies. She turns to a serial killer, who is terrorizing their current hometown, for some deep emotinal warmth, even if her feelings are grounded in fear.

Talk about teen angst. Irini Spanidou provides an insightful look at a troubled teen, learning to contend with difficulties in order to survive. The fast-paced story line moves to an adrenaline rush of a climax without destroying the in-depth character study. Like her previous work, GOD'S SNAKE, Ms. Spanidou provides readers with a passionate look at the past decade in Greece.

Harriet Klausner

I am going to have to leave this book on the shelf and then read it again in about a year, because I am ambivalent about it and don't want to make any absolute judgments yet. The author clearly has a talent, and maybe an important one. Her prose is lean and I like that. She creates atmospheres that seems to live and breathe and grasp the reader. At some moments the fear and dread are palpabe, and so are the almost comically absurd (dinner with Anna's parents) moments. But I have one complaint. The only character that seems to be really developed is the main protagonist. When the others are presented the reader is delighted because he/she thinks they are very interesting characters with wonderful possibilities, but the author just seems to leave them undeveloped, and that is a real disappointment. Shouldn't what happens in the novel grow out of certain features of the characters' personalities? Veronica's father is fascinating when he appears, but then he crawls into the woodwork. The same goes for her brothers the twins, but they too fade out in no time. Anna's father is a stone wall and her mother should get a life, at least an inner life. Anna herself is fleshed out nicely and the characterization of her makes the book worth it. I am not sorry I read this book, but I look forward to future work by this talented author. I know she will end up writing something wonderful.

Irini Spanidou is clearly a great writer with a defined style and a particular talent for conveying the personalities and emotions of her characters. While there is not much of a plot in the literal sense of the word (the book is on the short side, with very few "events"), Spanidou is able to bring her characters to life using minimal descriptions, dialogue, etc. If you are looking for a good "story," this won't float your boat. However, if you are more interested in exploring the psychology and emotions of people, in a setting other than the U.S., this might be just right.

FEAR kept me just as spellbound as her first novel GOD'S SNAKE. I can hardly wait for Irini Spanidou's next book! Being a young Greek woman myself, I slipped hypnotically into Anna's world, devouring each experience with heartfelt recognition- especially her relationship with her father.