Review: A Rare Feat
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2013
"The Dark Collector" by Vanessa North (my first read by this author) is one of those fabled, rare and exciting stories that hits every note perfectly (Dialogue, diction, characterization, plot, etc.? Check, check, check and check.).It's a fairly short story at about fifty pages but it doesn't feel under developed at all.Sir and Boy/Muse/Oliver are nothing less than human: Muse's crippling grief is palpable; his anguish, his loneliness, his skewed self-perception has forged, worked and cast pain into a nearly tangible manifestation. North's depiction is heart rendering, darkly exquisite and beautifully excruciating (Is it weird that I find his suffering to possess a twisted kind of loveliness?). Sir, through his empathy, desire and affection embodies the catalytic force that offers the safe place for Boy to grieve. However, it doesn't diminish his veracity as a person.There isn't any villain (besides the pain of loss, I suppose...and perhaps, the neglect of one's self) or grand plot twists, but this story doesn't need those things; it's superfluous when the characters have scorching sex throughout, and still, somehow find a way to touch your heart.This is a HFN m/m book with more than a little hint of a HEA (although I wouldn't begrudge a sequel). It is heartbreaking and hopeful, thoughtfully revealing and gloriously intimate. It's a love-maybe-someday-soon story that reminds me of all the frightening wonder of living and loving. What a book!