Customer Reviews

Garden of Darkness

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Oh no, this was not what I expected. Pale Immortal was reasonably believable, but this was way off the grid. For some reason, I expected something totally different, I don't know, maybe I wanted a townsperson to be up to somethig a bit shady, but noooo. I think this may be the last Anne Frasier book I read until she gets back to the days of Sleep Tight and Hush. I've read all of her books and this one would definitely be at the bottom of the heap.

I've read and loved all of Frasier's works written as Theresa Weir and liked well enough the first two or three as Anne Frasier: Hush, Sleep Tight, Before I Wake. I liked Pale Immortal less and Garden of Darkness less than that, mainly because of the subject matter, but also partly because of the writing.

As Theresa Weir, Frasier turned out very well written edgy romance/mystery character studies, with humor, wit and intriguing storylines. Her male characters had depth and were believable; her female characters had hangups but were sympathetic; you cared what happened to them. I find that to be less true in her novels as Anne Frasier. I was interested enough in Evan Stroud from Pale Immortal to buy GofD, but had I known where Frasier was going (and apparently intends to go) with these characters, I probably would have given it a miss, since I have no interest in the vampire genre. In Garden of Darkness, I liked the teenage Graham and cared a bit about poor suffering Evan himself (though I think his future must remain a mystery to me), but was less interested in the other characters, including Rachel, and cared least of all about the dismal and depressingly dark town of Tuonela, Wis. Too, the quality of the writing is not as good in this book. Pale Immortal didn't have much life (no pun intended) and sometimes plodded along, but Garden of Darkness plods, occasionally feels disjointed and uneven, and suffers from awkward transitions. Also, the mysterious deaths in this novel are never explained. Perhaps we are supposed to assume we know the answer but I like a little Perry Mason closure with my mysteries, even in tales where the supernatural may be at work!

Garden of Darkness was not terrible, in my opinion, but not good enough to tempt me back to Tuonela and its spooky citizenry.

My normal review for a solid, well-written book is four stars (I reserve five stars for truly outstanding books). But I had several problems with this book.

First of all, it took a veer into supernatural territory that I wasn't expecting (since the book to which it is a sequel - 'Pale Immortal' - was not supernatural). But I can accept that this might be a matter of taste.

More importantly, the formatting was the worst I've ever seen. Sentences that go halfway across the screen and then split in the middle of a word are bad enough. It's awkward but at least I can still follow the story. But to have no line breaks or some way to indicate a scene change within a chapter is unforgivable. I'd be reading along and all of a sudden realize that it doesn't make sense, then have to back up and figure out where the scene changed. It really ruined the book.

One final thing - I'm assuming that the 'bad guy' committed the two murders. But that's never actually clarified and no reason is given. Didn't make sense to me.

But I totally did! I was able to follow the changes in voice/character rather easily. Characters were introduced in a way that I was able to discern who was who without issue. It was creepy as all get out! That said, I picked this one up not realizing it was a sequel...but it was good on it's own. I'll be going back and reading Pale Immortal now!

after reading the first book i just thought it would be an interesting mystery. it turns out it was a supernatural thriller. very interesting. i loved it

I thouroughly enjoyed this book. There was good character development and a pleasing three diminsional quality that is sadly lacking in many fictional works.

In this sequel, Anne Frasier takes readers back to the haunting of Old Tuonela as the town's forgotten dead are awakened by the museum display of the evil vampire and murderer, the Pale Immortal, igniting a series of shocking and gruesome deaths. Frasier once again brings life to unique, dark characters and uses her expert level of storytelling to add realism to this tale of ghostly possession. Readers will discover Old Tuonela as a place where lost souls, both dead and alive, fight for dominance as secrets of the past and present collide.

A mixture of Amityville Horror with a historical twist of revenge, this novel is dark, chilling, and down right terrifying. If you need a strong fix of supernatural scary, Garden of Darkness, is where you'll find it.

Pinning down the protagonist of this fast-paced tale of horror, proved difficult. It seemed a shared effort among video journalist, Kristin Blackmoore; father and son residents of Tuonela, Evan and Graham Stroud; and local coroner, Rachael Burton. But that didn't stop this story of awakened evil, troubling the small town of Tuonela Wisconsin, from immediately pulling me in and holding my interest all the way to the somewhat anti-climactic ending. All things considered, I found the book well written and worth the read.

- Bob Avey, author of Beneath a Buried House

I have read all of Anne Frasier books. I love Pale Immortal. This was nothing like her other books too far fetched.

Usually I am positive about reviews, but reasonable with it. For a book I would shelve and read again in the future (i.e REALLY GOOD!) I would give 5 stars. Few and far between, so a good read will usually get 4 stars from me.

Why only 2 stars for this? Well, it is hard to read due to formatting. I am so open to ignoring or overlooking the odd error here and there. They do not affect my reading enjoyment, so would not downmark for them. However this is beyond frustrating. Lines end half way through a word or sentence, and you are left looking at a blank space before realising in order to finish the word you start a new line. My brain does not like doing that too often, but this happens on a very regular basis. In addition, a different character is the subject matter at times, but it takes a couple of lines for that to register, as there is no paragraph break for you to subconsciously move on to a new scene or time etc. Again - is happening way too often. The author must have read these reviews, and I would hope would have made moves to correct this issue, or find someone to help in that area.

Otherwise, the story was okay. Maybe worth 3 stars. Not one that really did grip and it is hard to explain why. It is certainly a case of being aware - this is a sequel, and as such it would be advantageous to read the Pale Immortal to have a good background to what ensues. Although, some reviewers have done just that, and found this not as good.

Will leave it at that. Recommended?? Not really. Maybe if you enjoyed the first you would like this follow up, but to be honest Amazon is awash with Vampire themed books (haven't we got Twilight to thank or blame for that eh)and it would be worth looking around for one that has better reviews and is better priced.