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 Book of Shadows |
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The Book of Shadows by James Reece
The story is set in early nineteenth century France, actually just after the French Revolution of 1789. The Catholic religion still holds its power, where the power of the Ancienne Regime has faded and made place for a nouveau riche to take their place in society. This setting is written about in lovely detail, be it that you should not expect any steampunk items or gothic horror “castle under the full moon” descriptions. The setting is raw and rural in the first part of the book, but later it shifts to the wealth and luxury of Parisian palaces and the households of upper class Europeans. However, sometimes the author makes the setting a little bit too much theatrical, exaggerating the luxury to end up with Kitsch. The information is not historically correct at all places. I’m not really at home in post-revolutionary France, but some parts of the story are just historically unbelievable. That is not a real flaw, because these errors are obvious good for the pace and tension in the story. An example is the journey at the end of the book, where the main character crosses France in a few days, where it should have lasted some weeks. But that would be just boring. The story is that of a poor girl, Herculine, living in a monastery. Her mother has died in strange circumstances, and there is something weird about Herculine herself - well there should be something weird about Herculine, but you might have guessed what it is sooner than that the author reveals it. In the monastery, Herculine gets in contact with, well, ghosts. Incubus, succubus, spirit or ghost, what they are never gets clear. These ghosts are responsible for many gory paragraphs, and a lot of erotica. This is where I say “this is not a gothic novel”. Because it is all written very explicit, it leaves nothing to the imagination. If you’re not shocked by the porn or the gore, there is nothing that sends shivers down your spine; there is no suspense, no surprises, nothing to set your teeth in and think about to let the cold horror creep up from your feet. The ghosts bring Herculine to a witch, who needs her. This is where Herculine gets her Book of Shadows and starts writing down what has happened since them. She also copies parts of the BOS from the witch. In this mixture of diaries and passed-on information we learn a lot about what is really happening, and of course about what has happened. There is magic in this book - like in a real BOS. Quite a lot actually. But this is never really explained. It is never told how it works, nor how it doesn’t work. There are no rules for magic in the book, and this makes the story exciting. You never know what will happen, there are no rules to give away where Herculine might fail or win. Reece has added some new ideas to the traditional witchcraft lore that haunts Herculine through the pages and give a new point of view in the sometimes what worn down witchcraft-genre. The end effect is that Book of Shadows is more a fantasy book than a gothic novel. If you don’t mind the gore, the violence and the erotic scenes, or the unhistoric parts of the plot, you have a nice book of shadows in your hands. I wonder if Reece will write a sequel to it, because neither his ideas nor Herculine's life seem to have ended at the end of this novel. © Yaghish 2005 |
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