Not as immediately pleasing as Bones of the Moon (and if you're going to read anything in this series, definitely start from the beginning: Sleeping in Flame gives a succint one-paragraph review of everything that happens in Bones of the Moon), but a really engrossing and really, really strange story full of murder, shamans, talking cats and folk tales. The ending is so perplexing that I'm still trying to make sense of it. ( )

Warm, wise and wonderful book from Jonathan Carroll, who would be classed as magic realist if he were from Latin America, but as an American living in Vienna, he is instead the love or bane (depending on your point of view, and the vehemence of your argument) of booksellers everywhere, who simply don't know where to put him. In the Waterstones i used to work in I solved this by dedicating a shelf in Staff Recomends entirely to him, importing the books from the states, since he is appallingly underpublished in the UK.

This book has the most infuriating 'What the fuck!?' ending, that somehow makes me love it all the more... it is also perfectly designed to make the reader shout out loud then force the book upon their friends to see if they react the same. ( )

Sleeping in Flame uses the classic Jonathan Carroll elements: there's Vienna, love, reincarnation, magic, a writer and so on. That should sound familiar to anybody who has read Carroll. However, despite the familiarity, I found Sleeping in Flame simply fantastic. I've read, what, nine of Carroll's books so far and of what I've read, it is probably my favourite.

Walker Easterling is screenwriter living in Vienna. She meets a fabulous woman, falls in love and then, magic starts to happen. It's not warm and fuzzy magic, but strange and apparently dangerous. Walker investigates and bumps into curious cast of people, some familiar from the other books in the same continuum Wikipedia calls the Answered Prayers sextet.

It's a lovely story and I enjoyed the way it recycled old fairy tales. The only downside about reading this book is that there's one less Carroll book left for me to read... He's one of the most constantly great authors, every book I've read from him has been good. Highly recommended, this one's a good starting place for those new to his works.

(Original review at my review blog) ( )

Possibly my favorite Jonathan Carroll book, and he's one of my favorite writers. Dark and funny and provocative--a great turn on an old fairy tale. ( )

A good book that does have its flaws, but even flawed Carroll is still worth reading. As always Carrolls characters makes appearances in his other novels. ( )