4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Original, Disturbing, and Well-Written, December 2, 2002
By A Customer
This is Lorelei Shannon's first published novel, though she's had short stories in many anthologies, and a short story collection, Vermifuge, and Other Toxic Cocktails. It tells the story of Amy, a college student who is having horrifying dreams and visions. She thinks she might be going insane, but when terrible things begin happening to her friends (and enemies!), she realizes that something from her childhood is stalking her; something she had blocked from her mind. Enter Louis, a handsome young Voudun priest whose mother battled this same evil entity years before. He takes Amy and her two best friends on a dangerous journey to confront Rags, Amy's magical childhood companion and nemesis, who is now the pawn (but not exactly the INNOCENT pawn...) of a conspiracy of evil with Amy as its target.
This is the première literary offering of a truly wonderful writer. I hope to read lots more from Lorelei Shannon.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
gripping, exciting, haunting, April 3, 2011
This review is from: Rags and Old Iron (Paperback)
Wow. This book completely blew me away from start to finish and has immediately gone into my top 5.
Amy struggles with an inhuman, obsessive stalker that will stop at nothing to possess her. Amy is strong, but flawed and very human; she curses, makes bad decisions, and is sometimes naive. She grated on my nerves at times, but even when I didn't like her I respected her. Not once does Amy falter in her resolve, something most book heroines seem to struggle with.
Never has an author made me feel such conflicting emotions for one character; I loved, hated, and pitied Rags in equal amounts, and even though it's Amy's story, I really felt this is Rags' book. Two stories play out at once and both are equally compelling. 19-year-old Amy starts vomiting and hallucinating and she doesn't know why. Then she starts having flashbacks to a childhood playmate she has forgotten until now; Rags, a shape-shifting boy who proclaims his love for her and says Amy is promised to him. We see the past Amy meet and befriend Rags, and the present Amy fight desperately against him and the surfacing memories she's been blocking for years. What is he, really? Why doesn't she want to remember him? Amy's memories of Rags are heartfelt and endearing, but each memory hints at a more sinister nature while present-day Rags goes on a spree of increasingly disturbing acts. Is he truly evil, or was he made that way? Is there any chance of redemption for him? Past and present unfold in an eerie parallel as the plot climaxes and comes to a haunting finale.
The writing in this book is fantastic. The story unfolds in your mind as easily as if you're watching a movie, each line eloquent and cleverly crafted. The dialogue is especially well done and you feel as if you're listening in on a real group of college kids. They swear, they crack dirty jokes, they pick on each other. They feel like real people.
I will mention is that there is an extremely explicit sex scene toward the end of the book that spans a few pages, and this book also deals with rape and contains a lot of cursing. If any of those make you uncomfortable, this book isn't for you.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Rags and Old Iron, January 8, 2008
This review is from: Rags and Old Iron (Paperback)
Daughter finds story somewhat strange, but it isn't supposed to be the most uplifting to begin with. Happy with purchase and shipping time.
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