good god

[erastes]

i  bought a copy of Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice.

It's unreadable.

Gah.

Comments

[aigooism.livejournal.com]

Just reading this post alone makes me feel sick to my stomach. I mean . . . the title and Anne Rice alone just makes me want to puke.

And since I trust your judgement and my gut instincts, I am not touching that book even if I found it free somewhere.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It only cost me about 20p if i remember but that's 20p I won't get back - I gave it ten chapters, but it's a mish mash of muddle, and confusion over purple prose and historical vagueness. I couldn't care less about any of the characters and just threw it in the "never finish" bin. Sadly it won't even get reviewed on SIN, probably just as well as people will say i'm jealous of her success or something.

[aigooism.livejournal.com]

LOL. Well, I heard her writing turned rather worse over the years because she stopped using editors or something?

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

I tried once, couldn't hack the all-but-incest.

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

Review it. Anne Rice is well past her prime (and her marbles).

(I have a copy here somewhere, too... why didn't you just ASK for it?)

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's what I remember of it... the brother, right?

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

*throws cava at you*

Am back now. Going to lie down. Back screaming.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I never got that far - fraternal incest doesn't squick me, but god - the writing certainly did.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I don't like asking for stuffs. But thanks!

If I have to review it, I have to read it, and I can't do that. I have more respect for my eyes. :)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*hug*

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that one when I was about fifteen. I think it was the first book I read that described homosexual sex. (Hey, it was 1977, people. The Internet was not generally available.)

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

*hug back*

(My definition of "now" is not quite correct)

Would ring, but landline dead. Unsure why.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Impressed you finished it, well done! and poor you.

Although I don't think we are talking about the same book as this one wasn't published until 1982

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Huh, really? I thought I was younger when I read it. Oh well. Oh, well. Twenty to twenty-one, then.

I will stand by what I said about it being the first book I read that featured homosexual sex, though.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

...yeah, that was pretty much my experience. I went through a rather shameful Anne Rice stage when I was in middle school, but thankfully got over it within a few years (though that didn't stop people from getting me her books well into high school).

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tried reading that one once years ago I think when I was in college. I couldn't finish it either.

[aunty_marion]

Hmm. There appear to be a couple of errors in your post. Try it this way:

"i bought a copy of Cry to Heaven book by Anne Rice.

It's unreadable.

Gah. Not surprisingly."

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I know! *weep* I have only myself to blame!!!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I really wanted to review it, but there's no way - I bought The Bitterweed Path at the same time, I hope that's better...

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

I had the same experience with the two Rice books I attempted to read. Fortunately they were from the library.

Maybe you could get a volunteer who's already been through the trauma? Writing a review might be cathartic.

[spindriftdancer.livejournal.com]

You can't just say 'I tried to review it, but then my brain exploded?'... ;p

[antychan.livejournal.com]

I tried to read The Vampire Lestat and gave up when after all the homo/incest-y backstory he woke up present day and decided to be a rock star.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL - tempting - but no - my motto in these matters is that you can't complain about something unless you've read it. Which is why I've read just about everything that Dan Brown has written...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL - God. That does sound vile.

[spindriftdancer.livejournal.com]

Ah, morality. She can be a b**ch, no? ;p

I've never read anything by Dan Brown. I'm so not interested that you could create a field of study just to try and grasp the edges of how uninterested I am... ;p

But, I am always happy to hear other's opinions of him, though.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You don't like Cry to Heaven? I loved that book - though admittedly I read it very long ago and don't recall it well, and my phase of loving Anne Rice's faded soon afterwards. Still, I think of it as my favourite of her books - loved the setting.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You may change your mind if you tried it again,I'm sure you are a much more discerning reader now. I don't think I ever GOT to a setting, it's just been chapters of rambling.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

So you didn't get to the very emo teacher/student sex scene with NO LUBE, right?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I read a teacher/student blowjob - but i think i stopped there - if there was more to it, thank god i didn't find it. Amuses me that we m/m writers get so much stick for getting stuff wrong and.... there's this crap.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Teacher/student buttsex, emo dialogue that would get laughed out of most fanfic, no lube. I used to like it, before my standards got higher.

[beckyblack]

LOL. Dan Brown. :D I've only read The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code. It was rubbish in so many ways, but a fun roller coaster ride. Angels and Demons, well technically one could say I enjoyed that too, since it made me laugh all the way through. It's meant to be a comedy... right?

I've read a few Anne Rice books. Some are tolerable, but even they descend into self-ingulgent twaddle a lot of the time.

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

I read the novel a few years ago and really enjoyed the story and her depiction of the fascinating world of the castrati, though it frustrated me, too. I admit to liking Interview with a Vampire, Vampire Lestat and Armand. What can I say, I have a thing for purple lush prose?!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i agree - DB is definitely a page turner and although the plots were silly in the extreme i finished them all and wanted to KNOW what was going to happen. With this crap, I couldn't care less.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

did you review it, dear? I shall pop along and read if so - and maybe give it another go...

[copperbeech.livejournal.com]

She makes me want to puke. She so cashes in on every current trend in writing, first off being Miss Goth Vampyr woman, then converting Christianity when Xtianfic became big. I have liked some of her very early writing, but thanks for the warning about this one. I just can't stomach her now, even if she was brilliant.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

and this is considered one of her best, as it's one of her earliest. I'm glad i haven't read much of her later stuff. I read Lasher (which I quite enjoyed) and tried a sequel to that (can't remember the name) and it was so full of self-indulgence and stream of conciousness i couldn't bear it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A rambler? Yes, I think I generally remember that. And though I liked the rambling, I think I did wonder where - or what - the actual story was.

I tend to read for style more than story anyway, so that's probably why I remembered it as a good reading experience.

Did you read Feast of All Sainst?

[taylorbooks.livejournal.com]

I like your fish icon! Forget the book! The fish today is great!

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

I read this when it first came out, along with the one about
the Free People of Color in New Orleans -- believe me, that
was way worse. I couldn't untangle the plot to save my life,
which was sad because I kept thinking that the material (like
the castrati) was really rich. But trying to engage with the
characters was a struggle. I liked the first few Vampire books
better, but by the time she got to the witch thing, it was
crazy time!

[liebesdammerung.livejournal.com]

D:

Worst. Writer. Alive.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL - Chris Smith made it for me - nick it if you like it!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether it was a case of the JKR's and she refused to be edited but OMG it needed redpenning like mad - she referred to characters by their surname and then out of the blue by their first name and I'm going "who's this now?"

[erastes.livejournal.com]

She ought to get an award.

[cassiopaya.livejournal.com]

Was that the one about Castrato Singers in in Italy or the one about the Quadroon Balls in New Orleans?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Castratos.

[cassiopaya.livejournal.com]

I thought Anne Rice worked like Japanese Manga - with a self-lubricating penis.

[cassiopaya.livejournal.com]

I think I read that when I was 12 or 14, I thought it was AW3som3 at the time...but I was 12 or 14, what did I know? I think if I tried to reread it it would ruin my fond memories of actually getting my hands on books with butt-sex at the library.