Customer Reviews

Isabel Burning

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

 

 

Isabel Burning is one of the best new books I have read in years. A break from the influx of carbon copy novels to be released recently Isabel Burning is easy to read, the words are almost lyrical and flow in a way that will have you not wanting to put the book down. This book will leave you feeling intrigued, sickened and wanting more. The surprises laid throughtout the book are not thinly veild. You do not expect what is laid out before you, but once you know the secrets you can't imagine any other reality. Your sense of everything is challanged and you begin to imagine the world that Isabel calls home as your own. Its romance in its rawest form, combined with terror and uncertainty.

Fans of the book will also be able to enjoy Donnas lyrical mastery in her bands music. Order Of The Reptile

I kind of feel bad giving this such a poor review, as I have a soft spot for new writers, but I really have to say something, as I spent money on this.

Where to start? It begins interesting enough. The doctor and Isabel performing experiments to remove the soul from the body and experience a true rebirth while retaining all one's memories and most of your consciousness. Then, they're morphine junkies living in monster house. Then it becomes Rosemary's Baby meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon. All thrown at you in a way completely lacking in style or intrigue. It was only my own compulsion to finish what I start that kept me reading, and evidently the same feeling kept Ms. Lynch writing. One gets the feeling she had no idea where the story was going until she finally decided to end it. I say end it rather than finish it, due to its rushed feeling as the story finally closes.

It was rambling, nonsensical, and hackneyed. By the time the "big secret" is thrown at you, the story has reached a blathering point that you really don't care anymore, removing any shock you might feel at the fact itself. What this story really needed was a good editor to help trim down all Ms Lynch's ideas into a coherent form, maybe stick to one or two of the several half-baked story lines she shoved into 232 pages.

I was originally introduced to Donna Lynch's artistry through the band Ego Likeness, for which she provides lyrics and vocals. Lynch's storytelling ability is stellar when she only has four minutes to deliver her message, so I anxiously anticipated just what kind of a story she could tell with an entire novel. I was not disappointed. Lynch's voice as a writer is just as soaring as I could have hoped. Isabel Burning is a slinky, shivering tale of madness and monsters that you can't help but love. Lynch's writing is intensely visual and cerebral. You just can't escape her imagery. It will start the things under your skin crawling in the most wonderful ways.

The elements in "Isabel Burning" will be familiar to anyone who has read the classic gothic novels: the forces of nature, family secrets, horror, the supernatural, sensuality, and suspense. Lynch manages to use all these elements but with a modern twist, omitting overly long descriptions of irrelevant things, which has been a problem for the modern readers of gothic novels.

It is hard to put the book down, as there is always a need to know what happens next and see what secrets will be revealed. The pacing of the book is perfect, as you have just come to terms with one event or revelation when another occurs. The characters are wonderfully written; concrete without being static or unmoved by events that unfold. You can't help but loving the characters even when they are doing horrible things. This book is a pure joy to read!

Isabel Burning is a book that is intensely creepy and unsettling, in a way that is quite unusual for a horror novel. Part of this is because it deals with something that could actually happen in real life. The characters are controlled by very real and very frightening passions. The sensational secret isn't the usual dull and sordid tale. Rather, it goes quite beyond that, breaking one of society's greatest taboos. It is a novel about two peoples' very distinct and very realistic insanity and how they allow it to control them.
The narrator treats what she does as right in her eyes. There is a breaking point at which she completely forgets what she is doing is wrong, if she ever felt like it was in the first place.
The bucolic English setting is at times reminiscent of Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca," as is the writing style. This gets a bit irritating at times as the reader feels less like Donna Lynch is using her own voice so much as imitating that of her predecessors.
Nevertheless, this work holds its own as a dark, dreamlike, and very unnerving piece that provokes a lot of thought about some of the nastier and more bizarre things that real people are doing right under our noses even in this very moment.

When I ordered this book, it was so I would have something for Donna Lynch to sign at a show in Chicago, I actually had very little intention of reading it. And then I found myself stuck in a waiting room for a few hours with nothing to read but this book. So I let myself slip into the amazingly vivid world Lynch has fashioned, a world of sprawling manors and dark continents full of horrible truths about the origins of man. If you like some of Lovecraft's stuff (The Lurking Fear in particular) or have heard of Leonard Clime's The Dark Chamber, this book is a wonderful trip down that same dark road to madness. If you are looking for an engrossing trip into a beautifully gothic world that is mirrored in some of the songs of Donna Lynch's band (Ego Likeness), then look only to this book.

Grotesque. Uncomfortable. Captivating. All essential things to a gothic horror tale - at least in my opinion. This is an almost lyrical tale of the varying types of unpleasant misbehaviors by two people drawn together by terrible fate. It is a remarkable read - it was difficult to put down. At times, I felt myself so thoroughly drawn into the story, the room seemed to darken around me while I read - always a good sign with this kind of fiction. I completely loved this book and highly recommend it.

This book was very creepy and not a good creepy..Still wondering if the whole thing was in Isabel's mind and she was in an asylum.It was confusing at times and the storyline was so wrong in so many ways.
But it was well written and did keep me reading just to see what the outcome would be.Although it is not a book I will be recommending.