Customer Reviews

Rags and Old Iron

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

Daughter finds story somewhat strange, but it isn't supposed to be the most uplifting to begin with. Happy with purchase and shipping time.

College student Amy Sullivan is living a fairly normal, boring life. She spends her time attending classes and daydreaming about romance with handsome pirate captains and a dark and brooding lord of the manor. However, her life takes a turn when her nightly dreams start turning into nightmares, and hallucinations start creeping into her daily life. Amy's friends express concern as she starts unraveling both physically and mentally.

A conversation with her friend Xavier, a Yaquai mystic, brings forth the idea that maybe Amy's dreams are in fact memories that Amy repressed during her childhood. When Amy is rescued from being sexually assaulted by a familiar figure, her whole reality is thrown into turmoil. Her rescuer is Rags, a swamp demon, that Amy befriended as a six year old while visiting her grandparents in Florida. To her six-year old self, Rags was her Peter Pan. He was an elfin boy with the power to transform his flesh and control things with his thoughts. However, to Amy's nineteen-year old self, Rags is a malevolent presence. His declarations of love and intentions of possessing Amy are disturbing to her, as is the very evilness of his nature. Amy and her friends are joined by Louis, a voodoo priest, and another friend of six year old Amy. His power combined with the protective powers of Xavier can help Amy in her quest to free herself of Rags' presence. But is the power and love of her friends enough to save her from the evil thing that loves her as well?

Rags and Old Iron is a recent offering by Juno Books, a new imprint of Wildside Press specializing in paranormal romances. Rags and Old Iron takes readers on a journey from Arizona to Florida, and pulls the mystical and magical into modern life. I was impressed with how full the plot was without being overwhelming. The story resonates with magic, romance, and a sense of impossible things come to life.

Lorelei Shannon is the author of Vermifuge and Other Toxic Cocktails. A collection of dark fantasy and horror short stories published by Wildside Press. She lives outside of Seattle and spends her time when not writing being a goth mamma to her two boys and restoring her 1947 Cadillac hearse, Annabelle Lee

In Arizona, college coed Amy Sullivan suffers from vicious nightmares that are destroying her sleep and consequently her health. In classes, she struggles to remain alert as she seems to drift into sexual dreamland with hunks. Her best friend Sarah worries about her "spewpuppy" roommate, but though always there for Amy, she feels helpless as her buddy seems to slowly lose her mind especially since she claims someone is stalking her, but no one is ever there.

Amy senses danger and that a confrontation with her night stalker is imminent; one that she does not expect to survive. Another friend Xavier a Yaqui mystic tries to help her troubled soul as she too feels an evil presence persecuting Amy; he tells her she is not a lunatic as the malevolence is real and gives her a desert banded Gecko to remove her bad dreams; he also knows her nightmares are her past warning her that déjà vu is coming.

Time passes and the dreams and stalking worsen. Childhood friend Louis Bouvier knows Amy needs him because what is happening to her occurred to his mother, a Voodoo Queen. Amy concludes that voodoo offspring Louis is either her salvation or the final straw.

Fans of horror thrillers will want to read the terrific RAGS AND OLD IRON that grips the audience from the opening classroom sequence until the final dream occurs. Readers will wonder whether Amy is losing her mind and causing the terror that haunts her or is something wicked from beyond coveting her in a bizarre courtship. Lorelei Shannon provides a powerful tale that will have her audience desiring more as we wonder until the end whether this is a tense psychological thriller or a terrifying supernatural suspense.

Harriet Klausner