Dear Carole,
I have just finished it and I think it is fantastic. Much more than a
vampire novel. Really very original. I found the finale at the ZOM
laboratory utterly gripping and I also really enjoyed the Church Hall
concert, which was very well observed. I thought it was very well
written on many levels - as a mystery thriller, the suspense was very
well handled. I find Scarlet's character of central interest, as it
should be with a first person narrator, particularly her meditations
on the 'soul' that she has lost, capacity to love, and really what is
the best way to live: as a dynamic alpha or a humble, more self-
sacrificing person. I also very much appreciated the topography of
the novel: ZOM is built on the ground of her innocence, the
heathland where she played 'as a muddy teenager' which is just beyond
the failed medieval church. It seems to me to be a metaphor about
growing up on one level. It is also in many ways a very religious
book in that it's about a godless world of fallen people and about
attempts to re-form a morality which originally stems from Religion,
on pure rationality. I had some difficulty absorbing all the
evolutionary science. Also I couldn't really see that she was to
blame for all that happens because she had rejected Roman ( I loved
the Death Of The Salesman, by the way) but could see more that it
came from the tension between her being attracted to Helios and
Hunter at the same time, the contest between Altruism and
Individualism perhaps. I didn't think it was at all cliched - far too
mad and original and disturbing and not at all literary. In fact I
thought it was anti-literary in its rawness. All in all one of the
most unusual things I've ever read - on a par with Gurdjieff and
Proust. I don't know about a sequel. I think it might be good to try
something more mainstream. You have so much to say and and are so
naturally thoughtful that I think it would be a revelation. But think
this book deserves an Alpha-Plus.
Congratulations for a stunning work
Peter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Worth-Their-Weight-Blood-ebook/dp/B00702Z3IA
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