Dark Angel reviewed my novel

Pardon my girlish exuberance, but I'm strangely excited about this mixed review of Abduction from Dark Angel Reviews:

Devon Astor is a typical college student, except for the fact that she writes dark erotic fantasy and publishes it on the web. But, someone out there has been reading her stories and is sure that she needs to live them. Devon is abducted and held captive—at the cruel mercies of a stranger. She's able to flee, and takes refuge in a deserted cabin in the woods. She will face dangers there as well and her kidnapper is still searching for her. Will being forced to live out her dark fantasies scar her or free her?

I have to be completely honest here and admit that I am not sure whether I liked ABDUCTION, or disliked it. Ms. Krylov really pushes the envelope here and the story is very dark in some places, heartwarming in others. The plot is engrossing and as much as I didn't like some sections, the story drew me in so much, I just had to keep reading, despite, or maybe because of, the dark sensuality of the tale. The characters are complex and even the villain of the tale has redeeming qualities. I honestly didn't know who to love, or hate. ABDUCTION is very well written, but be warned, the subject matter is not for the faint of heart, I was expecting a tale of physical rape but what Ms. Krylov delivers is a tale of psychological rape and sexual awakening. The sex is extremely graphic and includes forced seduction/ménage/group sex/exhibitionism/bondage/dominance/submission and some M/M scenes. This is not a light read but I found it thought provoking and deeply sexy.

Congratulations, V! That's wonderful! You're too literary for them!

These reviewers are usually very basic. You get more complicated than the usual missionary style thing and they're in over their heads. This review acknowledges the depth of the book and should stir up interest in people looking for more than formula stuff. I think it does you proud.

I read a review of one of mine by a Ms. Giggles and she was really pissed because my sentences were too long and complicated. Well it was supposed to be in renaissance style like Boccaccio and that's how they wrote then, but I guess that went by her.

A very favorable review, I think. Who was the reviewer, Varian? Mine at Dark Angel was Frost, and, although my reviewer for Raven Possession there wasn't as conflicted as yours was, the reviewer at Alternate Reads Review, Witchgiggle, had some of the same elements in his/her review as your Dark Angel review had:

This was for me a most unusual read as it covered a much larger lifespan in greater detail than most reads. I found it intriguing, resourceful, full of incredible sex, and yet there were still instances of innocence even as she got older. I do, however, love the ending insofar as I think it reveals a great twist. This made me think, made me feel and at a couple places even kinda made me angry at the characters. To me that's the sign of a good read—when you get that involved.

I think we can decide, in both our cases, that the response meant these are taken as a sign of a good read that involves the reader and makes them think.

The tail end of my Raven Possession review at Dark Angel read as follows (and we got the similar "can't put it down" accolade.

Author habu (pseudonym for a mainstream writer) demonstrates a particular gift for winning the reader’s attention immediately while weaving a complicated plot with numerous main and secondary characters swimming in a sea of erotic stimulation and suspense buildup. Each habu novel is an exercise in rapid page turning, and RAVEN POSSESSION is quite the example. This is a novel the reader won’t wish to see end. This story is an effective juggling act of characters, but the author never loses sight of the goal nor of the individual personalities involved. A truly successful interweaving of plot, theme, and story threads makes RAVEN POSSESSION a quality novel well worth the perusal. Caution, reader: once you open the first page, you’re hooked!

A particularly skillful rendering of character is that of Ada, who is richly delineated. This woman has depths unexpected in most historical novels, and the author peels her character layer by layer while simultaneously demonstrating her personal evolution. Although Ada’s life from early young adulthood on is rampant with various premarital and extramarital excursions, and in some quarters her behavior would be labeled highly promiscuous, Ada is not revealed as a victim nor a survivor, but rather as a woman who “initiates” life. She chooses, then acts, and is not a character who needs to elicit our sympathy. Another main character, famous author J. H. Kincaid, is sympathetic as a youngster but soon grows to be a strong-willed and self-referential man, intending to possess Ada for his own need to control.

(Can't wait to see the reviews for your Hurt whenever you get around to getting that published.)

Congrats Varian! I thinks it's a great review. I mean, the reviewer couldn't put it down despite being unsure whether they liked it or not. That speaks volumes.

And on another note, has anybody else mentioned spawn's AV and your After cover?

Cool. Well done.

I've gotten the same mixed reviews on occasion for In The Dark.

dr_mabeuse said:

Congratulations, V! That's wonderful! You're too literary for them!

These reviewers are usually very basic. You get more complicated than the usual missionary style thing and they're in over their heads. This review acknowledges the depth of the book and should stir up interest in people looking for more than formula stuff. I think it does you proud.

I read a review of one of mine by a Ms. Giggles and she was really pissed because my sentences were too long and complicated. Well it was supposed to be in renaissance style like Boccaccio and that's how they wrote then, but I guess that went by her.

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I agree about the reviewers. Sometimes I think, "This is our audience? Really?" :x

Elitist and snobbish of me, I know.

I should have learned by now not to start threads moments before heading out the door to go to a remote lodge where there's not only no internet access, but no cell phone signal. (I'm also lucky I have any blood left in my veins, the way the mosquitoes were on us.)

Thanks, all, for the congratulations. Actually, Doc, I think one of the reasons I was so pleased with this review, is because it took some of the sting off Ms. Giggles' review from a month or two ago--nothing mixed about that one!

But, yeah, I thought it was rather amusing that Giggles repeated several times in her two-paragraph review that there were repetitious things in my (apparently far too lengthy) novel. She also was disappointed that all the sex was "the same" (since the sex in that tale runs the gamut from M/F vaginal, anal, oral, M/M, MMF and F/F, I'm guessing by that she means that there was a coercion/bondage element to most of the scenes), apparently missing the point of the gradual psychological wearing down of two characters by the third, which is conveyed, little by little, in those encounters. I guess she was disappointed no one got hung upside down, for a change?

Varian P said:

I guess she was disappointed no one got hung upside down, for a change?

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As long as they're hung, who cares if they are upside down or not?

sr71plt said:

A very favorable review, I think. Who was the reviewer, Varian? Mine at Dark Angel was Frost, and, although my reviewer for Raven Possession there wasn't as conflicted as yours was, the reviewer at Alternate Reads Review, Witchgiggle, had some of the same elements in his/her review as your Dark Angel review had:

This was for me a most unusual read as it covered a much larger lifespan in greater detail than most reads. I found it intriguing, resourceful, full of incredible sex, and yet there were still instances of innocence even as she got older. I do, however, love the ending insofar as I think it reveals a great twist. This made me think, made me feel and at a couple places even kinda made me angry at the characters. To me that's the sign of a good read—when you get that involved.

I think we can decide, in both our cases, that the response meant these are taken as a sign of a good read that involves the reader and makes them think.

The tail end of my Raven Possession review at Dark Angel read as follows (and we got the similar "can't put it down" accolade.

Author habu (pseudonym for a mainstream writer) demonstrates a particular gift for winning the reader’s attention immediately while weaving a complicated plot with numerous main and secondary characters swimming in a sea of erotic stimulation and suspense buildup. Each habu novel is an exercise in rapid page turning, and RAVEN POSSESSION is quite the example. This is a novel the reader won’t wish to see end. This story is an effective juggling act of characters, but the author never loses sight of the goal nor of the individual personalities involved. A truly successful interweaving of plot, theme, and story threads makes RAVEN POSSESSION a quality novel well worth the perusal. Caution, reader: once you open the first page, you’re hooked!

A particularly skillful rendering of character is that of Ada, who is richly delineated. This woman has depths unexpected in most historical novels, and the author peels her character layer by layer while simultaneously demonstrating her personal evolution. Although Ada’s life from early young adulthood on is rampant with various premarital and extramarital excursions, and in some quarters her behavior would be labeled highly promiscuous, Ada is not revealed as a victim nor a survivor, but rather as a woman who “initiates” life. She chooses, then acts, and is not a character who needs to elicit our sympathy. Another main character, famous author J. H. Kincaid, is sympathetic as a youngster but soon grows to be a strong-willed and self-referential man, intending to possess Ada for his own need to control.

(Can't wait to see the reviews for your Hurt whenever you get around to getting that published.)

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My reviewer at Dark Angel was Sandi Potterton.

Your review's great-congratulations!

Oh, and Hurt will come out next month; I asked Selena to submit it for consideration for the book club thingy at ARe.

jomar said:

Congrats Varian! I thinks it's a great review. I mean, the reviewer couldn't put it down despite being unsure whether they liked it or not. That speaks volumes.

And on another note, has anybody else mentioned spawn's AV and your After cover?

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Thanks for the congrats.

Nope, nobody's said a thing--what's this about the cover of After and spawn's AV (who's spawn?).

sr71plt said:

As long as they're hung, who cares if they are upside down or not?

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Upside down they make a better vase?

Selena_Kitt said:

I agree about the reviewers. Sometimes I think, "This is our audience? Really?" :x

Elitist and snobbish of me, I know.

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And on that note...

At Fictionwise, I see the haters are all over Lost. Meanwhile, Lord Melchior is doing pretty well in both sales and ratings.

Lord Melchior was my very first short story, and is pure stroke, while I wrote Lost within the last few months, and though it certainly has stroke material in it, is a piece of writing and a story I'm quite proud of.

I have to keep reminding myself that popularity doesn't always go with what I'm proudest of, as a writer, or where I want to go, as an author.

Varian P said:

And on that note...

At Fictionwise, I see the haters are all over Lost. Meanwhile, Lord Melchior is doing pretty well in both sales and ratings.

Lord Melchior was my very first short story, and is pure stroke, while I wrote Lost within the last few months, and though it certainly has stroke material in it, is a piece of writing and a story I'm quite proud of.

I have to keep reminding myself that popularity doesn't always go with what I'm proudest of, as a writer, or where I want to go, as an author.

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They buy it, read it, love it, hate themselves for loving an incest story, and vote you a "poor." LOL Oh the drama

Laugh all the way to the bank, luv.

And boy do they love that Lord Melchior! I think you should write a sequel!