Tuesday, February 12, 2013

eliciting Primal from Exquisite Prose

I am reading The Reckoning by Alma Katsu. I peruse some of the reviews before I am even done and am kind of glad to see that Anne Rice comes up. I've always been a big Anne Rice fan, I think I love Gothic.
I went through my own Goth phase…shaved head, doc martens, got the tattoo…frowned a lot. No new piercings though. One in each ear seems like plenty.

Katsu makes me dance. It is the best way to describe it. Her books are like a fire and I hop around them with little twirls and feints and jabs. One thing for sure, this story of hers about Lanore and Jonathan and Adair and the mild-mannered doctor, Lucas Findley, of all people, makes me think.

Yes. No. Ahh. Hmm. I tug on my bottom lip. Queen of the Underworld?

Other than one flashback--excuse me for a sec, while I have a writer's meltdown over the single flaw in an otherwise perfect book---which was repetitive even though it's a different point-of-view and almost put me to sleep…Lanore has returned because she's owning more of who she is. I like that. I don't mind my characters being dark, just OWN IT.

I have issues with Adair. My god, who wouldn't? He's such a creep. Okay, he's much worse than a creep. He's diabolical, sadistic and…a little bit stiff for someone who's such a libertine.

Jonathan and his whole plot line is kind of weirding me out, and yet…

THIS IS A GREAT effing READ!

I tell you (other than that one snoozefest of a flashback) this is like Anne Rice finally got past Religion and reached Love. Not because Katsu is getting it all right, I would quibble about some of the details of motivation, and yet, she's pulling us into that room, the one where all questions are safe to ask…and as a reader and a writer, I applaud her.

The thing is this, I don't think she's trying to sway you or me, I think she's just opening the doors and inviting us in. And that's what makes a great writer. And that's what makes a great read. And that's why I am over here dancing around the fire, shaking my rattles and beating my drum.

Katsu is eliciting Primal from Exquisite Prose.