An interesting read, but rather confusing with jumping around in time and dream sequences. Also left me wishing for some sort of explaination of what all happened. I read this as part of a book group, and others were confused too...so it wasn't just me! We all did enjoy reading it though.

Promised to Senorag in Oxford MS. Going to the post office today.

Released on Wednesday, June 18, 2003 at Mtn. View Post Office lobby, 211 Hope Street in Mountain View, California USA.

Book has been mailed to Senorag!

received today from reddragonlady. it's going in my TBR pile which is becoming taller than me!! I will post again after I read it and pass it on when I am finished. Thanks

Ok, I hate to say it but I just could NOT read this book. I tried and tried to get thru it, but it wouldn't grab me no matter how badly I wanted it too. I skimmed thru it instead of totally reading and enjoying it. Oh well, that's the great part of BC, we can try books we normally wouldn't read and not be out a lot of money to do that. I will release this or trade it.

Released on Monday, September 22, 2003 at Martie's HSM Bookbox in Bookbox, postal release USA.

adding to Martie's bookbox

A first novle well blurbed by some of my favorite authors - Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman. How could I resist? evidently, I could not . . . more after I read it!

Released on Friday, November 28, 2003 at SenoraG's Fiction Box in Bookbox, postal release USA.

I tried . . . I got through one quarter of this book, 100 pages, but I just can't drum up any care or concern for these gothic troubled 20-somethings that populate this book. One thing I've learned since bookcrossing, there are a lot of other books on the TBR mountain, so I am going to move on, and let this book do the same!

The book sounds interesting enough, and the blurbs look promising. I will have to give this one a try and see if I fare better than everyone else, so out of the bookbox it comes and on my shelf it goes!

Cover blurb:

They are twentysomething misfits...society's castoffs...urban strays looking for a thrill. Something cheap, anything to get them through the night. Only their music is different. Sleepwalking on caffeine, nicotine, and drugs, they wait out the dawn in death-rock clubs and shadowy back alleys.

Into their midst comes the enigmatic Spyder. A patron saint of the alienated and lost, she invites them into her mesmerizing world of ritual and ceremony, blood and fire...a realm of vengeful gods, of exiled spirits harboring the dark secrets of Hell--and the darker secrets of Heaven. Is she their guardian angel, forcing them to face their greatest fears even as she battles to save their ravaged souls? Or a much more terrifying force sent not to redeem but to destroy?

I just finished reading this, and I must say that I definitely am in the minority here. I LOVED this book! I found Kiernan's writing style to be easy and lush, loved the characterizations, and the characters were great too (perhaps it helps that I have plenty of goths in my close circle of friends). Ok, so the spiders really creeped me out and had me itching late at night, but I love a book that can give me a chill or any similar reaction. I have read quite a few reviews of this book, and it seems that everyone but me and a small handful of others had problems with the dream/flashback sequences. I had no trouble deciphering them though. I can't wait to find the sequel to this!

-**** UPDATE 05-07-2005

Sending off to Obsessivereader as a RABCK today.

This book was sent to be as a RABCK from Jare- thanks so much! I will journal it again when I've read it.

I mostly enjoyed this book. I didn't have trouble with the dream sequences and flashbacks as some other journalers did, but sometimes it seemed to me that Kiernan's writing was a bit too self-consciously evocative -- the writing style occasionally got in the way of the story for me, which kept throwing me out of the book. But then in certain sections that seemed to fall away, and the story just took off. The characters were a bit hard to keep track of for me -- they seemed almost interchangeable, and I guess I never cared all that much for most of them, so the horror of what happened to them wasn't all that strong. At the same time parts of it were definitely compelling and creepy, and I don't think I will ever forget that basement and what happened down there! I would recommend this to horror fans, but probably not to someone dipping into the genre to check it out. For someone who likes this kind of book, I would recommend books by Poppy Z. Brite.

RELEASE NOTES:

I left it on a table in the lobby.

thanks sis for the book ie:borrowed :) so far so good, i love the attentiveness to details

CAUGHT IN THOUSAND OAKS CA/91362 US