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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful. Do NOT miss this read!, April 26, 2007
Susan Hubbard is already an award-winning short story writer, but the Society of S is my first encounter with her work. It won't be my last, though. I absolutely love this book.
Ariella Montero is an atypical 13 YO girl who desperately wants to find the secret behind her mother's disappearance immediately after her birth. Ariella is homeschooled by her impossibly handsome and equally mysterious father, who works as a scientist in the basement when he isn't schooling his daughter in literature, history, science and philosophy. When dad isn't teaching or experimenting, he sits quietly and peacefully in his conservatory reading Edgar Allan Poe and drinking Picardo.
Susan Hubbard has created a completely believable and empathetic cast of characters, characters that I hope to see much more of in the future. For anyone who loves literary mystery, vampire tales, inventive writing and a great story, this book is an absolute must read. Hubbard's experience as a short story writer has taught her how to pace her novel. Having suffered through a few over-rated and long-winded reads this year only to finish them feeling cheated, I can say for certain that there is a great deal to be said for a writer who knows how to set up a story and actually deliver the goods throughout the book at certain points.
You will not be disappointed in the time it takes to polish off this atmospheric 300-page wonder. A good story that is well told, well paced, exciting, interesting...I can't say enough good things about this book. Don't miss the Society of S.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A deviation from typical vampire lore, but just as riveting, August 3, 2007
In a surprising deviation from conventional vampire lore, Susan Hubbard has created a coming of age novel that is elegantly written and lingers long after the last page has turned. But if readers are expecting the typical tale of lusty vampires mired in melancholia, then the unraveling journey of young Ariella Montero might prove a bit tame.
The Society of S evolves meticulously to chronicle the quest of 13-year-old Ariella who endeavors to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her mother. But every clue brings her closer to discovering her own true nature-an identity that her father has strangely suppressed.
Issues begin to plague her beyond normal teenage angst-why is her mirror image always skewed? Why can't her father be photographed? Why is she always anemic? Who is watching her in the shadows? What is going on in the basement with her father's research with Seradrone? Something is churning in the depths of her that she doesn't recognize-something not entirely human. And it wants out.
As these permutations unveil in their gloomy Saratoga Springs manse, her research scientist father observes the ultimate experiment in his daughter, with a curious detached fascination-determined that nature take its course without interference. Has he begat a predator, a distinctive "other", or an ordinary mortal?
Hubbard cautiously skirts around the issue, as if not ready to let go of the secret of Ariella and her father. There is no exclamatory "a ha!" once the secret is revealed. Strangely devoid of the passion that makes vampire mythology so enticing, Hubbard engages in subtlety. There are no vampires morphing into bats, or lashing out in dramatic fights with antique Valenciennes lace at their necks.
While it may not be a "Hollywood" or "Bram Stoker" vision, or even resemble anything closely to Anne Rice, the Society of S begs to challenge the reader by analyzing what it means to be immortal through the eyes of literature. Clearly the pursuit of knowledge is the theme throughout the book and a worthy occupation for the undead.
Readers will be strangely riveted by Hubbard's take on the modern vampire, despite the apparent mundane suburban feel within the fabric of the plot. But the novel captures an indefinable something that makes it appealing as well. Worth the read to discover that the journey is just as important as the destination.Copyright(c)Nicola Mattos
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Delightful Read, May 9, 2007
Susan Hubbard's "Society of S" seamlessly combines the impeccable intellect of a free thinker with the passionate curiosity of a child and gives rise to Ariella Montero--a sheltered, but brilliant girl, home-schooled by her proper, reclusive scientist father, desperate to know about the mother who left after her birth. The voice of this 13-year-old captivated me immediately and I was soon shuddering at the sight of mutilated ghosts and laughing at the painfully old-fashioned aunt, while turning page after page to get to the bottom of her father's secret and her mother's disappearance.
The freshness of Hubbard's language and the beauty of her descriptions lends Ariella's journey a poetic quality, yet the universal nature of her search for answers and for a balance between breaking out of your shell and breaking to pieces makes (even the supernatural aspects of) this novel tangibly real and believable. This is an enchanting, memorable read, filled with secrets and scents, troubles and tastes, that just might make you want to go eat honey or oysters, and just might make you raise your glass in the company of your loved ones and say "So let us rejoice/While we are young"--regardless of your age.
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