** Should be "The Evil Joe" *** (The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris)

Member Name: malibu_jenny

Product:	The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris
Date:	05/07/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good read and interesting subject matter.

Disadvantages: A few stereotypes and not her best work.

I picked this out when I was choosing my Christmas presents, mistakenly believing it to be a new Joanne Harris novel. In fact, this was her first book and for me, it reads quite unlike others such as Holy Fools, Coastliners or Five Quarters of The Orange. Written in 1989, it was republished late in 2008 after nearly 20 years.

Alice Farrell is a former Cambridge student, still living in the city with her cats and making a living as a painter. A painful split from her former boyfriend Joe has left her feeling alone and you can sense that life has stood still while other generations of students move past. When she unexpectedly receives a phone call asking her to meet with Joe and his new girlfriend, she seizes upon the chance to at least rekindle friendship for the sake of their shared history.

Joe's new girlfriend, Ginny, is young enough that their relationship seems almost creepy to begin with. She is a decade younger than him, only a teenager, with a background of mental health issues and a hard luck story. It swiftly emerges that he is a self-centred Peter Pan whose primary interest is his 'band' and my immediate thoughts were that Alice was well rid of this pathetic king of the kids. Even Alice's lovelorn description of him is somewhat unfavourable; pasty and pudgy, with watery eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses, it seems as though he was punching above his weight with mousy Alice, let alone the beautiful Ginny. Unbelievably, she is pushed into letting Ginny stay with her, while he makes preparations for the new love nest.

Back in 1948, Daniel Holmes is another clinging and lonely academic whose dull and sheltered life takes an unexpected turn. He is forced by circumstance to become everything he ever dreamed of; an admirer, a spurned lover, a hero. Writing it all in a journal from the safety of the past, he leaves this for another generation, for Alice.

Although she makes every effort to understand Ginny, Alice quickly has doubt put in her mind about Ginny's intentions towards the vain and stupid Joe - rather than Joe being the predator, he may well be the prey. It's hard to say whether it's her protective instinct towards Joe or her own curiosity, but once Alice starts to take an interest in Ginny, a horrifying story from the past emerges and she realises the danger they are in.

I'm not normally a fan of horror; (once you step away from classics such as Conan-Doyle or Edgar Allen Poe) so many modern horror books are little more than trashy gore, screaming at you from wire and plastic stands in airport newsagents. I have no love of hefty but dull tales where a solitary crusading man fights the unexplained or just unbelievable. This was different for me, a well-written and descriptive book with fleshed out characters and every effort to find a plausible and educated explanation before the supernatural possibilities could creep in.

I found The Evil Seed to be perfectly paced and every bit as atmospheric as the Joanne Harris's other books. Sleepy graveyards and moonlit back streets were perfectly described and the blood-fuelled anticipation was offset by emotion. There was none of that cheap cardboardy feel and despite a fair few scenes of violence, the reader is neither sickened nor bored.

The flicking between past and present makes this as much thriller as horror and through Alice and Daniel, the reader can easily piece together the story and enjoy the contemporary slant and morals each character applies to the situation I can see the similarities between geeky Dan and lonely Alice, lost in a horrible twisted fairground ride of fear and black magic.

It is though, for all the good points, a vampire novel and there are places where a stereotypical 'Lost Boys' approach creeps in. The thread goes a little as Harris dresses the evil dead like they've just been to a Placebo gig and then confuses them with gypsies by linking them to the fair. It might lose some originality in this, but it does at least escape the clichés of windswept moors and stakes through the heart, while still giving a feeling of gothic horror.

There is a sense that she draws heavily on her personal experience as a student, which is to be expected given that this is her debut novel and she was only twenty-three at the time of writing it. Both the main protagonists are academics, as are those who surround them. The vampires themselves generally hang around in dishevelled houses smoking cigarettes and drinking wine as though they themselves are just studying the occult. If you prefer stories about down to earth characters with gritty reality, this is not for you.

Overall, I prefer this to airy but shallow novels such as Chocolat. Harris's style of writing has no doubt improved hugely since writing this, but it's a shame to me that she didn't stick with themes as dark and interesting. If you don't like this, don't let it put you off her other books - it's completely different.

After finishing the book I felt a sense that it was incomplete and that the ending had somehow disappointed. Who is Ginny? How did she come to being? If Alice dumped Joe, why does she even care? I'm still curious, as though I didn't get all the answers. It's not a deep or demanding read, but fairly compelling and worth a look.

Summary: I couldn't work out why Alice wanted to save Joe. Let him rot, I say.