Customer Reviews

Prince of Darkness

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

 

 

I'm not too familiar with the gothic romance genre, which is pretty much looked down upon by snooty readers, but if they are all written like Barbara Michaels I'm all for them. This book worked for me. It is witty, well-paced, has a clever plot, and most importantly, is believable notwithstanding its batty premise of a modern-day witches' coven deep in Upper Middle-Class America. A reader looking for "horror" is bound to be disappointed, because Ms Michaels is not out to terrorise her readers or scare them silly. Which is fine with me, because I prefer stories which are moved by real human agents who face up to challenges and grasp their destinies, rather than tales popoulated by terrified pawns of the supernatural. An easy and thoroughly enjoyable read. Not too much stress on the little grey cells, but neither are we required to suspend our disbelief.

Style-wise, this is perhaps her most creative book. It is split into 3 parts: the 1st is 3rd-person omniscient, the 2nd is told through the male main-character's POV, and the 3rd is told through the female main-character's POV. The events unfold much like a movie in that the reader isn't just told what is going to happen... rather, we "see" it as it happens. It makes for a very exciting read! The characters are wonderfully 3-dimensional, and as always with this author, the conversation is witty & smart!

Peter Stewart comes to the New England town of Middleburg with impure intentions, but finds a city that makes even him nervous: beneath its sleepy, wealthy exterior, Middleburg hides a penchant for the occult and perhaps something even darker than that. Stewart's point of view is a pleasant surprise--bad guy outclassed by a worse town, and with a bit of a mouth on him too, he offers a unique view of Middleburg; his nefarious goings-on, rendered with just enough detail to make them realistic, are outright interesting, as well as a refreshing change from the sort of tentative exploration one expects in a gothic novel. Unfortunately, Stewart's point of view denies many of the traditional gothic indulgences which build atmosphere, and so while Middleburg has its moments it never quite becomes haunting. The book changes protagonists at its midway point, but does itself no favors. The second protagonist has a weaker voice and character, and the second half of the book is given over to a lengthy climax which leaves little room for character development. Nonetheless, the protracted climax is engaging: Michaels retains her eye for detail, the action is strong, and dwelling on it for half the book renders it grand instead of dull. Except that the point of view switch robs the climax of its emotional import, it's a satisfying conclusion.

And "satisfying" is an apt descriptor for Prince of Darkness. The book is by no means high art, but it is solid entertainment. Oblique to a glaring degree, the prose is a little tortured, and not in the way one would expect from a gothic novel--but it serves the same purpose, creating a style that's affected and suitably lush. The setting may not be haunting but it's still strong, and autumnal, picturesque, menacing Middleburg is a delight. There's some compelling intrigue, but this is stripped of impact with the point of view change and so it's action which sustains the book--and there's plenty of that, vivid and suspenseful. Prince of Darkness isn't quite an inversion of the gothic genre, but it's just unusual enough to stand out, and rewards reader interest with a compelling tale. To another reader, I imagine that this sort of book could be addicting; personally, I wish for something of more emotional or thematic substance to compliment the plot. Still, I moderately recommend Prince of Darkness: it's just what it sets out to be, and in this case that's enough.

The book is not as dark as I would've expected. I was looking for a lot of strange phenomena, but that didn't happen. However, the book moved me right along, and definitely contained plot twists.

Made me a believer that whether witchcraft is real or not, the people who believe in it can be pretty scary. It's one book I've reread several times.

Starting off on this book, I have to admit that I was expecting a little more from it than what I got out of it. Barbara Michaels books can sometimes be either hit or miss, depending on the reader. I suppose that perhaps I just wasn't the type of reader who would enjoy this book.

The book's basic plot is about a young man (Peter) who travels to a small town to do just one thing: to terrorize Dr. Katherine More. His reasons for this aren't made apparent at first, but he is unwavering in his mission to destroy her sanity through any means possible. Meanwhile Peter finds himself getting drawn to the lovely young Tiphanie as well as the town's interest in the occult.

While I mostly enjoyed the book, I have to say that I was rather disappointed by it. The ending lacked the big bang that I was hoping for. In truth, the ending seemed a little overly stretched out & could have been resolved much quicker than how it did. I also found the main love intrigue a little farfetched- there really wasn't any chemistry there, to be honest. I was willing to buy into it for the purpose of the story but overall I have to say that it felt like it could have been taken out & not hurt the story any at all. Other than that & the drawn out ending, this was a pretty fun read. I do have to warn any prospective readers- this is not a supernatural tale, although there are certain elements in it.

As long as you aren't expecting bells & whistles, this would make for an excellent beach read. It's not my favorite book by Michaels, but it's far from being the worst book I've ever read.

I picked this one up for free at a library giveaway and read it on vacation when all of my other books were exhausted; time that would have been better spent in virtually any other pursuit. I have not read anything else by this author, so perhaps this is her style, but I thought this was one of the most poorly-written novels I've ever read. I say that because every bit of suspense in the novel is generated by deception.

My usual review scores:

Plot: 3
Concept: 6
Writing Quality/Flow: 2/5
Characters: 3
Horror: 2
Humor: NA
Fun Factor: 2
Page Turner: 3
Re-readability: 3
Overall: 2

The book opens with a man being hired to do a job, and the events are presented in such as way that we think he's going to kill an innocent woman, or at least drive her insane in some sort of plot to get her money. The book is from his POV for the first 2/5 or so, and then just as his plan is going well he makes a huge discovery that changes his entire outlook on things -- at which point the book's POV changes to that of the woman who he was trying to drive crazy with cheap ghostly parlor tricks. The novel then proceeds from her POV, while the initial male character starts behaving completely differently than he was when he was the narrator, with no explanation given. We get the thoughts of the female lead from then on, but never enough to answer the basic mysteries of the tale. The author simply had to switch to her POV since if we'd stayed with the man's we would have learned what was going on, instead of having it drawn out for another 100 pages.

This book is not a mystery, since there aren't any clues given that would let you figure things out in advance. Rather, it's cheaply-deceptive because the suspense is generated entirely by the author withholding information from the reader and switching the POV around to keep us on the outside. On top of that, the final reveal is melodramatic and cheesy to the extreme; think of every bad twist you'd see in a soap opera, and you'll see it in this novel. Dead characters coming back to life, secret identities, hidden relationships between characters, and so on.

Great writing and characters might have redeemed this, at least partly, but there is none to be found. The main male lead is just some English guy with no particular distinguishing traits, the woman is skittish and uninteresting, and when basically every other character in the novel suddenly turns out to be a murderous demon, it's not believable and is just silly. We didn't care about the other people, nor the main characters, so why should we care when the ridiculous events of the climax begin to take place? The book also cheats on every bit of potential gore, sex, confrontation, etc. Just as something passionate is about to happen, the narrative skips to another POV, or forward in time until after the events have already taken place.

I was hoping for a good suspenseful tale with some horror, occult, or even romance, and I was disappointed to find nothing but cheap thrills and obfuscation by a mediocre novelist. I can't recommend this one at all.

When I first read the synopsis at the back, I thought it was gonna be truly dark, mysterious & suspenseful.But little did I know that it just made use of the title to attract unsuspecting readers like myself!!!!!Really not worth a read....you feel that you have been led round by the nose in a merry-go-round!!All it contains is petty tricks played by small town occultists!