Review: A fairy tale for grownups
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2014
First things first. Good clean writing and well-edited. Chance's writing reminded me of two of my favorite authors--Tanith Lee, with her beautiful word choices and her decaying, yet opulent settings, and Anne Rice (pre-religious, megalomaniac stage), who is so in love with her seductive characters. Chance doesn't go as deeply as either of those authors, but their flavor runs throughout the book. She especially captures Venice, so that the reader not only sees the city in her mind, but actually feels the atmosphere evoked by the author's words. The tension ratchets up in the last few chapters, but oddly, there's a sense that the events are out of the author's control. I've never read anything that made me feel like this before. As the end drew nearer, I wasn't just afraid the story wouldn't end the way I wanted, I was afraid it wouldn't end the way Chance wanted. My one gripe was that all the historical personages held up as artists whose fame would live forever were men. And then I tried to think of a famous historical, female artist. Not many. And Chance redeems this omission near the end. The only flaw I could really find was that the characters were all so perfect, even bad guys were perfect in their evil villainy, that it was a little hard to connect with them. But that's what fairy tales are-windows looking out onto a world that doesn't exist except in our imagination. This book is definitely staying on my Kindle for re-reading. Multiple times.