Her Haunting Debut Novel (The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris)

Member Name: Jonni_boi

Product:	The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris
Date:	28/07/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Captures you in seconds

Disadvantages: erm... can't think of any!

This is another book that I got from Bookcrossing.com, and it was in a bookring. This means I have received it free. But, when I've got the money, I shall be off to Waterstones or someplace else, where I will buy this book, as it made that sort of impression on me!

I had never ever heard of Joanne Harris. But I had noticed this book in the shops and I've been uming and aring ever since I saw it. I just wished that I had bought it then, rather than waiting, but anyhow. This was the first novel that Joanne Harris had released and she had written many other books before hand but none were getting published. Joanne Harris, finally ended up finding a publisher with this book, and after releasing quite a few books under that publisher, she decided to re-publish this book, based on the fact that there was many fans asking her to do so. And therefore she did, with minor adjustments.

My review is on the new book (the one which was re-published) and so, who ever has actually read this book but the other one, might notice in my review that certain things were added/improvements.

This book is about somebody called Alice who stumbled across a grave that said "Something inside me remembers". She is an artist and therefore she got inspiration from that grave and painted a picture. But then the phone goes, and it's her ex-boyfriend, Joe, who hasn't spoken to her for ages. After a few normalised chats, Joe ends up coming out with the real reason why he has called Alice. And that is because he has got a new Girlfriend called Ginny (short for Virginia), and Joe asks Alice if Ginny can stay at hers, considering Ginny is living in some horrible place that Joe doesn't like.

Alice decides that Ginny can stop over, but Alice is jealous, and she's repelled by Ginny - an ethereal beauty with a sinister group of friends, who Joe doesn't know about. Then Alice stumbles across an old diary hidden away in Ginny's suitcase. Alice always had her suspicions about Ginny, and therefore she is forced (mentally) to open the diary and hopefully to unlock her secrets, and to be able to prove to Joe that she isn't who she really is. Only when she starts reading, it's about a diary by Daniel Homes, and one, we readers have been reading since the beginning. It's about Daniel and his friend Robert and a mysterious woman who bewitched them both - Rosemary Virginia Ashley.

Eventually both stories intertwine; past and present are merged into one. And Alice discovers that her hatred towards Ginny is nothing to do with jealousy and she ends up tunnelling and plunging down into a darkened nightmare filled with obsession, revenge, horror, seduction - and blood.

This story captured me in seconds, and I was wrapped around it in a nightmare myself, one which I had to read otherwise I'd lose the story forever. The chapters also amazed me, because they weren't normal chapter that increase the more you read, oh no! They were in one, two, one, two, etc. and only once did I find a three which put me off balance. The chapters are done this way so that you can separate past from present. I really liked this idea, and I think Kate Long should've done the same thing with her book: "A Bad Mother's Handbook", as I could imagine this story being just as complicated as Kate Long's book was. Also there was another chapter that threw me and that was the one near the end that is entitled with "One/two". And so that messed up my head a bit, but I pulled threw it and it wasn't at all complicated.

Joanne Harris' writing style is a really good writing style. It's hard to say, but it captured me in seconds and I read a 450 paged book in 6 days, which is super-quick for me, this book would have normally taken me at least 2 weeks! This just goes to show that she is a good author, but she shall not follow the footsteps of Stephenie Meyer, and enter my top ten authors, just yet, as I want to explore more of her books before I make a rash decision. The reason for this is all about the words that the publishers have put on, and that is: "Her haunting debut novel". To me, that says, that it is her only horror book, and that the other novels are different.

In this book there is an author's note (based on the fact that this is re-published). Now I don't want to write it down, because A) it will make my review extra-ordinarily long, and B) you may not be interested, and C) it was what made me eager to read the book! Anyhow I shall point out that in this Author's note, she stated something that I would have otherwise not realised, and that is, that she included both a vampire and a ghost, without actually calling them by their names. You could say that I've put this thing down before in my Neil Gaiman "The Graveyard book" review, only this story better hides the words and you can't possibly use those words to describe those people, because they are not like the way in which they are known. If that didn't make any sense; I'm sorry.

I fully enjoyed this book and I seriously can't wait to read more novels from this fantastic author! I thank you for reading and I hope I have helped you making up your mind about this book!

Summary: /