Customer Reviews

Rabid: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Rabid is one of those reads that hit the ground at full speed and pick up momentum from there. Either T.K. Kenyon doesn't know where the brake pedal is or decided the hell with it, and frankly, I'd bet it was the latter. This is a full blown, balls-to-the-wall scorcher. Dual themes - out-of-control scientific research and[...]- make hot-as-the-devil premises and great platforms for the author's fascinating and often thought-provoking philosophical tirades. Whether science or religion, Rabid gives no quarter. These people are flawed, even hateful. Yet, you feel their pain, their doubt, their fear. They sear their way into your subconscious and in the end you love them and root for them because they are you. If the American priesthood is infested with [...], the underlying causes have never been explained better, made more exciting, or presented in a way that offers so much hope for the future. Get yourself a copy, strap yourself into your favorite chair, and find out what's really been going on in the places you never knew you'd need to start worrying about.

Also recommended: 'Bang BANG' by Lynn Hoffman, an inspiring read.

I bought this book on a recommendation from a well-read friend, and after recently reading "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," "Saturday," and "Never Let Me Go," this book was exactly what I needed. At first blush, with its delightfully raunchy characters and turbo-charged pace, "Rabid" seems like a here-today, forgotten-tomorrow mass-market thriller you'd pick up in the front of an airport bookstore. However, this intelligent book has some intriguing, unusual themes stuck inside its highly digestible prose. The dialogue is, in my opinion, some of the best I've seen in any novel. The conversations amongst the characters are illuminating and entertaining without being unrealistic. Furthermore, as someone who has degrees in Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, I relished Kenyon's many references to laboratory culture.

Kenyon does an impressive job of juggling the four intertwined characters, and I was happy with three of the four endings. One of the character's endings just seemed abrupt and unfinished based on everything that had happened, but this didn't make me enjoy the book any less. This is an amazing and inspiring first effort. Kenyon skillfully teeters on the edge of absurdity with several of the elements in her plot; one almost expects her to take this plunge that many first-time novelists would indulge in, but she keeps the story firmly on the rails despite navigating amongst disparate settings.

If you're weary of a lot of the overwrought and unnecessarily obscure fiction that's been on the market lately and want a read that is unashamedly enjoyable yet thought-provoking, you won't go wrong picking up "Rabid."

I love finding a new, brilliant, genius writer. Where has TK Kenyon been hiding? This is her first novel, but it's brilliant. I'm a physician, and two of the characters in this book are MDs, and Kenyon hits the notes about being a doctor perfectly. The science, and there is a scientific metaphor that runs through the book, is true. The stuff that happens in a lab is spot on. To summarize, Dante, a gorgeous Italian Jesuit priest, arrives to investigate claims of pedophilia by another priest and to counsel the victims. Bev discovers that her husband, Conroy, is having an affair and drags him to counseling with Dante. Conroy is having an affair with Leila, his student, and Kenyon gets the tone of the university lab just right. Dante tries to counsel them, but Conroy doesn't want counseling, and the four characters spin out of control. One of the characters kills one of the others about a third of the way through the book, and then the book gets more complicated and scary and involved and crazy and fantastic. There are also parts that made me laugh so hard I had to put the book down. The dialogue, especially in the lab and during the trial, is so damn funny. When I started reading it, there were such strong, separate plot threads and round, perfect, thinking, smart characters, each with their own agenda, that I thought there was no way to adhere to E.M. Forrester's advice, "Only connect." By a third of the way through, I knew this was something really special, as the plot threads braided together and the characters struggled against each other and themselves. The end, with a trial, an exorcism, and a confrontation, is too shocking to ruin for you. I cried at the end. It was so sad and beautiful at the same time, and yet perfect. Any other end would have been wrong.

Rabid, by T.K. Kenyon, was released by Kunati, Inc. in Spring, 2007. It is an amazing book!
One word for this book: riveting. No, two words: riveting, compelling...actually, Rabid would take more words than I even know to use, and I'm a wordsmyth myself. I could not put it down.
T.K. Kenyon's Rabid is an amazing story. Masterfully woven plotlines and an absolute commitment to truth and utter refusal to play the complacency game left me feeling as if I had gone on an "explore" with the author. Kenyon has the gift of pulling the reader in to the world of her characters. She manages to make an untouchable character like Leila a sympathetic one.
I look forward to Kenyon's next novel. Can't wait.

Let me tell ya something about elegance. Elegance is
a matter of refinement and quality, sure. But it's
also a matter of complexity. Elegant things just have
more going on than things that are merely excellent.
You may disagree, but I find the Beatles excellent,
Bach elegant. You get my drift?

The first layer in this book is the question of murder itself.
We know from the outset that someone's going to
die, but we don't find out who until half-way into the
book. The author hasn't so much muddied the waters as
she's added levels to them. Is the victim to be
*the annoying and ambitious medical researcher? Could
be-he's unlikeable enough and no innocent creatures-or
readers- would miss him much.
*the graduate student with whom he is conducting an affair?
Maybe-she is brutally transgressive of all the rules of
female romantic life. She's the sort of heroine who is
always dispatched in the movies to reinforce the notion
that sin doesn't pay.
*how about the researcher's milquetoasty wife?
The researcher obviously wants her dead and from the way
her character is built, it seems that the author did too.
Her husband not only has the motivation, he has access to
all sorts of yummy viruses to do the job.
*or maybe it's the impossibly refined and educated priest
who's just arrived on the scene, sent by the Vatican to
lead their parish out of the inferno of a child-abuse
scandal and into the paradiso of something better. His
name, of course is Dante and he has the combination of
faith and doubt that is sometimes resolved in pulpier
novels by a heroic death.

Then there's the question of sex. (is sex a question?)
anyway, all the main characters are simmering with
unfulfilled lusts. Some, like Leila the grad student, are
ferociously acting out. (Leila is a deliciously
good acter-outer by the way). Others are celibate or so
repressed as to be semi-celibate. Does all this sexual
stewing have anything to do with the illicit sex that
Dante has been sent to stamp out? Or isit thematically
related to the HIV research going on in Leila's lab?

The science adds another layer, an elegant hypothesis
is teased out of the authorized and underground experiments.
The conjecture relates ultimately to questions of faith
which are another layer.

There is more, much more. The roles and rules of men and
women, the politics of institutions and the tidal waves
of ambition all weave threads that recur and fascinate.
What makes the whole thing work is that the author is bigger
than any of the devices she uses. Nothing is obvious, every
thread leads to another consideration without a hint of cliché.

So let's define something else: the word thrill. A thrill
is a shiver of delight-it's physical and mental and spiritual.
Suspenseful, erotic, many-layered and intelligent, Rabid is truly
an elegant thriller.

Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG, ISBN
9781601640005

This book blew my mind! I usually don't like "heavy" books, meaning anything over 6 ounces as well as anything with more than one main point, but this book was so good that I kept reading, kept reading, kept reading! Parts of it made me laugh out loud, and the end made me cry.

There are four main characters, and each one tells their own story (though not from that annoying first person "I" point-of-view.) Leila is a brilliant young scientist who's hiding a terrible secret about her past that haunts her, still. Conroy is her PI (principal investigator, which means boss) in the lab where she's working, and they're having an affair. His wife, Bev, is so sweet, and I felt so sorry for her all the way through, but she shows us that she's got a core of steel, and she has an affair of her own. Dante, the sexy priest, struggles with staying celibate, but he doesn't succeed. This book is hot, sexy, funny, tragic, heart-rending, and ultimately, satisfying in a way that many books aren't.

My book club couldn't quit talking about it. We stayed an hour late because we couldn't agree on whether Leila was the villain or the heroine. She's both. She's tragic and funny in a way that I didn't think characters could be.

There is a metaphor in this book that deals with science. Don't let that stop you from reading it. TK Kenyon makes it simple and even beautiful. I understood everything that she was talking about, and I'm an idiot when it comes to science. I barely passed biology for non-majors and I don't remember anything about it, (except that an echinodermata is a starfish, but that's it). If I can understand it, anyone can.

The plot tears through the book. Every time I thought that it would pause and reflect, like in a lot of other books that I've read, something else shocking happened. At the end, it all exploded in a series of revelations and scenes that made me dizzy. I had to read it again because I was so shocked at what was going on!

Minna

Rabid is one of those hot novels that while you're reading it you stop reading for a moment and flip to the photo of the author and gaze at her for a moment and take in a deep breath and let it out. I kept doing that a lot. In other words, I knew I was a male human a few times while I was reading it if you know what mean. This well written story of the beaker mix of lust and science and religion is the lesson in chemistry I never got in college. Rabid just gave me a Ph.D.

Todd Sentell, author of Toonamint of Champions: How LaJuanita Mumps Got to Join Augusta National Golf Club Real Easy

This book was interesting and certainly kept one's attention and raised some interesting issues. The only objections I have are that the logic was inconsistent, the picture of university politics not realistic, and a very, very minor one - its "Columbia" not "Colombia" University.

An outstanding thriller, Rabid is based on a plausible scientific hypothesis that reflects the author's scientific education and experience. On this she builds a psychological, legal and religious drama that captures and holds the reader's attention. The main characters are well drawn, deeply flawed human beings who still have something of the heroic in them.

First of all, I must say that the reviews thus far have been far too quick to award this book with a 5-star rating! Rabid is periodically entertaining, but it is not flawless by any means.

The author has crafted a compelling narrative, but Rabid is often bogged down by superfluous scientific terminology. Unless you are a doctor or scientist, you will frequently be forced to consult your dictionary. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it quickly becomes tedious.

Also, the book could have used another edit -- several scenes could have been condensed or omitted altogether -- and the character development isn't entirely effective. I wanted to care about these fictional lives, but the character I felt was most complex was the doctor's mistress, Leila. You would never guess from the first chapter, in which housewife Bev finds a pair of underwear in her husband's suitcase (the first of countless cliches), but Leila is actually the main focus of the novel and the book really hinges on her fascinating personal struggles.

Rabid is worth a look, but don't expect an easy summer read or a literary classic. One thing is certain -- if you're reading it with a book club (which I did), it will certainly inspire some interesting discussion.