Carroll continually enthralls and amazes me. His style reminds me of Charles DeLint, but with a noir flavor. ( )

For a Carroll novel, the message is pretty straight forward: abortion is bad, you'll pay for it in the end, you'll sacrifice something for your decision.

I'm not going to dip my toe into the pond of opinions on this subject. I'm not trying to rile anyone; I'm just commenting on the book. That's the background of the story: Cullen dreams each night about the fantasy land where her aborted son still lives. It's up to the reader to decide if the world is real, or if she's just essentially carrying on therapy for herself in her head. I'm pretty sure where Carroll stands on this and it isn't the side he usually takes.

There isn't nearly enough explained about the world; Carroll introduces all these interesting ideas and places, but it's all background. You never get to see the Wooden Mice or know where the Hot Shoes came from etc. For that matter, why on earth did he name the kid Pepsi??

Still, Carroll books are always an interesting ride because he writes like no one else. ( )

This was the first book I picked up by Carroll. A friend had read a review of Sleeping in Flame, and saw that this was the first in the so-called Answered Prayers series. From the moment I started reading it, I took every opportunity to read it, whether long stretches or spare minutes. It inhabited my mind when I wasn't reading it. And this is an odd thing to say about a book with some flaws, and yet even when reading the flaws I got the impression that Carroll had possibly left them in on purpose. There's the plot, the ending of which you can see from early on (but there's a sense that it's not the plot that you should be concentrating on), the central character and her overuse of exclamation marks, and sometimes the dream-sequences grated somewhat. Having said that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and left me wanting nothing more than devoting a weekend to reading his next book. ( )

I tried to read Bones of the Moon because of the praise that I had read about it. I managed to get through 30 pages, and then had to finish. The beginning of the book was what I think a bad Harlequin novel would be like: a lonely woman's mainly internal monologue about her life and loves.

I did not like Carroll's The Wooden Sea that much, and probably will not be spending any more time on him.

This is not my favorite Carroll novel. It was overlaid with a dream-like feel...but not a sharp, magical dream tone, more of an out-of-focus, everything-in-slow-motion tone. There is some uneven pacing to the book...overly slow in the beginning, a bit rushed at the end.

Why, then, do I give it 3 stars? Because Carroll is a very good writer and even his "off" efforts are still readable. His imagination is top-notch; the characters feel real; the story is moving.

I guess I'd sum this up as "feels like a draft of a very good novel." ( )