jody porter said:

“Four words sum up this book. Intense, gruesome, suspenseful, and revolting.

Intense. The author's prose builds up the events and puts the reader right in the middle of them. You feel what the characters feel, much to your chagrin at times. I'd rather read books like this. I don't want to be cuddled by my authors. If the character is in a nasty situation, then by all means write the scene as nasty as you can. Hayder does this, and does it well in this offering.

Gruesome. I don't want to go too in depth here in case you decide to read this one. I've read some books that could be described as gruesome, but nothing....nothing .... comes close to this one. I literally felt a queasiness in my stomach during several scenes.

Suspenseful. The plot jumps back and forth from present day (well, actually, "present day" in this book is 1990, but for the narrator it is "present day") and 1937. In the present, the "hero" is on a journey to discover if a film exists that she desperately needs to see for personal justification. She read something in a book at a very young age, something that is not revealed to the reader until late in the novel, and everybody she talks to says that she imagined it. She is hospitalized. Told she is "crazy". She learns that this film exists that might prove her correct. Her search for the film leads her to Tokyo. The past, 1937, is set in war-torn Nanking, about the time the Japanese army overruns the town and commits, perhaps, the worst war crime in the history of the world. (Seriously. Look it up on wikipedia. Terrible.) As the author jumps back and forth in time, you can sense the build-up that will link the three main characters in ways that they never imagined being linked.

Revolting. Again, without giving away too much detail from the book I can't say much about this. But know this: It takes a lot to "shock" me. I was shocked by what I read in parts of this book. I chose the word "revolting" because "disgusting" just wasn't strong enough.

So read this book if you enjoy intense, gruesome, suspenseful, revolting reads. But like I've told friends of mine: I can not be held responsible. Read at your own risk.

LOVED this book.
”

posted Thursday, April 10 2008