The Book of Shadows

Herculine is only six-years-old when she watches her mother die horribly and inexplicably. A child alone in the nineteenth-century French countryside, she makes her way to the secluded convent, where she is taken in as a foundling orphan and raised by nuns who teach the children of the privileged to fear a wrathful God. But shy, unworldly Herculine is not like the others in this cold, forebidding place. And when she is led down a dark path by a rebellious fellow student, she soon finds herself convicted of crimes unimaginable. But death at the hands of the ignorant and falsely pious is not to be Herculine's lot. Held captive in the convent library, she is visited by four unexpected saviors with timeless needs of their own: the incubus show more priest Father Louis; the tragic, damned beauty Madeleine; the demonic Asmodei; and Sebastiana d'Azur, a witch. By dawn, Herculine is free yet forever changed as she follows her liberators into a world of sensuous pleasures and great mysteries both wondrous and strange. Secreted away in Sebastiana's once-grand manor high above the Breton sands, Herculine sets out to find out why she has been "chosen" and for what purpose. Her quest - ripe with erotic discovery, dark magic, heresy, and blood - propels her headlong through the perils of the age, across borders between the living and the dead, and back through a time when hysteria and madness reigned, when noble heads were impaled and paraded through the streets of Paris. For only when her mysterious mission is completed - and the terrible, otherworldly roots of a gruesome Revolution are finally revealed - can she understand who and what she truly is. Until then, she must simply trust...and learn. show less

Like Rice's Interview with the Vampire, this is sensual and sexual and interweaves a subject of the horror genre--in this case witches--with well-crafted historical fiction. Set in the France of around 1830, this is mostly the first person narrative of Herculine--the very name was a hint of her nature given the famous French hermaphrodite Herculine Barbin. She is a man, a woman--and a witch.

I found this novel a page turner--the details are lush and vivid without being flowery or overdone, making you feel transported to another age, and in parts so suspenseful it was hard not to skip ahead to find out what was going to happen. I was particularly impressed with how the author used the lore of witches, both of the traditional kind that show more has converse with demons, graveyards and curses and the neo-pagan kind that can "draw down the moon."

The story, through telling the tale of Herculine's mentor, her "soror mystica," Sebastiana and her companions, the incubi Louis and succubi Madeleine, ranges from the "Burning Times" of the 1600s to the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution to the Bourbon Restoration. A Book of Shadows, we are told, is "a record of life's lessons" and this one makes for an unusual coming of age tale, sometimes deeply weird, but one I found engrossing. show less

I'm amazed I read this all the way through. Horror is not my usual genre, but I was seduced by both the bargain bin and Caleb Carr's blurb.

I found it to be one part page turner, one part very soft porn and one part sadistic porn masquerading as a description of historical practices of the Inquisition. I know about the Inquisition; I would say I probably know more about it than the average person. I don't need long, graphic descriptions of Inquisition torture in my fiction. If I want sadism, I'll go straight to the Marquis; his stuff is both more intriguing and more honest about why it is there. I guess that's why I don't do horror movies either. Creepy/scary is one thing; torture porn such as the Saw franchise is something else all show more together.

That said, the book got off to a somewhat slow start, then got completely bogged down (for my taste, anyway) in torture porn flashbacks. About a third of the way in, it had a long series of first person flashbacks that were quite readable. The last third had horror elements that, while gory in themselves, seemed plot-purposeful rather than gratuitous like the earlier "history lesson" had been.

If you like this sort of thing, you'll probably like the book. For me, not to my taste. show less

Mixed feeling about this one... it had potential to be several good things. In the end, however, I feel that it pretty much missed the mark on all of them.
In the "positive" column: Blasphemy! Witches! A priest-incubus! A bloody revenant! A hermaphrodite schoolgirl!
In the "negative" column... a slow-as-molasses plot that suffers from ADHD, and an inexplicable middle-of-the-road approach to the outrageous subject material.
OK, our protagonist is intersex - but this is no "Middlesex." This is not a literary fiction book at all, although the writing style isn't half bad. It's a trashy novel, at heart - but it's not nearly trashy ENOUGH. And when a trashy novel doesn't go all the way it just gets boring. It took me a ridiculously long time to show more finish this book; it just didn't keep my interest and I kept reading something else instead.

A good part of this was the plot's lack of focus. Nearly nothing actually happens in the story proper. Our protagonist, on a sort-of journey of self-discovery, meets various other characters - and then the book tangents off wildly and spends so much time talking about whichever other character's back story that you pretty much forget where you were in the original plot... which wasn't going much of anywhere, anyway.

More explicit sex with incubi, more perversion, and maybe a few orgy scenes thrown in could have elevated this book to a certain status... but the opportunity was missed. Reading this sort of felt like watching the R-rated cut of "Pirates." (There's no point, really.) show less

This was a mixed book for me. It was beautifully written - at times evocative and at times poetic. I especially liked the description of the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of the witches and other characters. I also liked the characters Herculine, Madeleine, Father Louis and Sebastiana. While there were parts that dragged, especially chapters concerning the convent and Sebastiana's first coven meeting, the crossroads scene towards the end made the read worthwhile.

Please note: I read and reviewed this book in June 2011 from a copy I purchased for myself. I'm just adding some formatting.

My response to negative reviews: I'd like to address the various negative reviews I've seen; many people have complained about the eroticism of this book. While there are indeed some sensual scenes, they are much milder than in many books I have read. I think the main problem that people have is with the bisexual aspect of it. If that will bother you, then this is obviously not a book you should read. (You should also avoid anything by Gary Jennings) Other people complained that the book was too long, too detailed, boring. This dumbfounds me - the details bring this book to life; the story flows smoothly and I was show more not ready for the book to end. True, those with the shortened attention span brought on by watching too much TV would probably have trouble with this book, but I expect more from readers.

Nevertheless, each person is entitled to his or her own opinion, so let me give you mine - it's better than yours ... ;-)

My Synopsis: "The Book of Shadows" is a voyage of discovery for young Herculine, who was orphaned at a young age (she thinks she was 5 or 6) and raised in a convent/boarding school by nuns and among the young ladies being trained there upon the wishes of their families. Herculine never felt a sense of belonging - instead, feeling like an outsider. Shy, withdrawn, and quiet, Herculine had few friends. Then the arrival of Peronette, the Mother Superior's niece, threw everything into disarray. Soon Herculine is accused of witchcraft. Locked into one of the convent's libraries overnight, Herculine is close to despair when a group of people - a succubus, an incubus, a demon and a witch - arrive and help Herculine to escape. Herculine IS a witch, and Sebastiana D'Azur - the witch who rescues Herculine - starts to instruct Herculine on some of the aspects of the Craft.

The Characters: I won't go any more into the story than that, so as to avoid any spoilers. Herculine is a very complex character and one I enjoyed getting to know. Sebastiana is a somewhat mysterious character - we learn much of her, but there is much we do not know. Father Louis and Madeline are incubus and succubus, and dis-incarnate. They can take form, but it takes energy to do so. Finally, Asmodei (who is really quite a jerk) is believed by Sebastiana to be a descendant of the demon Asmodeus.

My Review: As I stated above, the story flowed smoothly and, for me, it was a relatively quick read. I'd have been done sooner if it weren't that I've been feeling poorly and had to spend so much time sleeping. I found the details to be lush and vibrant, the story coming alive for me in a way few stories have. If you do not feel you would be offended by the few sex scenes (which, again, are pretty tame compared to, say, a romance novel - the only difference is the occasional bisexual aspects of it) and you enjoy a tale of growth and self-discovery, I think you'd like this story. show less

What to say? I almost set this one aside. It seemed hard to read about this Polyanna,this innocent who never should have been able to survive her first good scrub from the Nuns by whom she was taken in. She was on a fast path to destruction from the start. The witchcraft and the erotic stuff were fun and the histories of the other characters helped flesh (literally) out the book. I looked for this one for months after hearing of it and have yet to decide if it was good or just really juicy. I'm pretty certain, however, that my first novel would be much worse. It looks like a second book is planned; it should (ought to) be better. Mom guessed witchcraft when she saw the title; I'll hide this on the top shelf.