The Snow Garden

Son of author Anne Rice, I had high hopes for this book. But, it was a struggle to get through. This book is kind of dirty, trashy nonsense. Another reviewer said, "It's ridiculous and melodramatic, but in an unintentional sort of a way. These [mostly gay] characters are all a little too damaged-and-broken-underneath their Prada-and-sunglasses to be legitimate people, which would be totally okay if this was a satire. But it's not." That's a pretty clear depiction - set on a college campus, these 18-19 year olds are trying to find their way but as their high school secrets are slowly (much too slowly) revealed, I found I didn't care what their secrets were - drugs and sex? That's it? The gay characters seem so stereotypical and even the show more gay guy's best female friend is a cardboard cutout..... Oh yeah, there's a murder on campus that involves some of the students, but .... I didn't care about that either. show less

I have no idea why I had this. It was new and in trade paperback, & I'd never heard of the author before. Somebody must have recommended it--I'd think it was one of those free books you used to get from 1Bookstreet.com (buy $20 worth of books & you get a free book from a list of about 20 you'd never heard of before & that they obviously weren't able to sell otherwise), but they stopped doing that several years ago, & I don't think I've had this that long. But anyway, thanks whoever recommended this. Really gothic tone, a creepy murder mystery/best friend/secrets. Just sucked me right in.

I first reviewed this for my college newspaper on the National Day of Silence a couple of years ago.

It has some of the same flaws his other two books do, but I think these are just issues that will resolve themselves in the future.

I really do like that Rice is not afraid to satorize contemporary, young gay culture. There's a particularly amusing description of a teenage party that was so spot on.

He also describes college life well. So well in fact that for awhile, I sworn the fictional campus in the novel was one that's near me in real life (okay, this is also partly because the RL college is famous for looking just like something out of a book or movie). Older authors often slip up when talking about contemporary colleges or high show more schools.

I'm not really sure what purpose the on campus cult had, but maybe I need to read it again. I know he doesn't take the same view of the Cathars that I do, and that is a bit...eh.

One of my favorite things about Christopher Rice is that he can write women *really* well. There was a moment in "A Density of Souls" that had me going "only someone who's been a teenage girl could know how that feels".

His main protagonist is an extremely unreliable narrator, it turns out. I won't spoil it for you, but it's fascinating how he makes that work. show less

Not another academic gay-themed mystery-thriller that bounces back and forth in time! Why, yes, it is. It's creepy and well-done, too.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book although I think it may be more appealing to younger (20 something) readers. Since I am an older reader, I don't know if it's the usual course of events that so many damaged people can find each other so quickly on a college campus. They do in this book and this is the story of how they further damage each other, with some surviving and some not surviving. Some of the dialog becomes tedious and then we have a round of action or another twist. Creative and well written however at 500 pages, I think it could have been a good story with 100 or so fewer pages.

Randall, Kathryn and Jesse are new at Atherton University fighting their demons from their pasts they want to leave behind them. The death of a professor's wife and of another woman 20 years ago confront them with the past and the present danger.
That all sounds so very exciting but this 400 pages novel contains mainly ominous hints, unfinished conversations and weired and unconvincing confrontations. That makes this book of a good writer a very unsatisfactory read. Just skip it.

This book was definitely a page-turner, completely hooked throughout. I did find it a bit confusing in parts since Rice through in so many twists. The ending was both unexpected and a little rushed in my opinion. Honestly the best way to describe the last hundred pages or so would be as a roller coaster - a lot happens really quickly and then it's over and you're left shaking your head wishing that there had been just a little more; such as, what happened to Mitchell, Dr. Eberman, and the undercover detective? Overall a good book, though.