Pandora's Daughter

12 years ago, Megan Blair lost everything she held dear - her mother, the life they had built, and she almost lost her mind to the sinister whispers of pain and agony that tore through her. Now Megan has built up a successful career as a physician, and she hasn't heard the voices in a long time. But her peace is about to be shattered. Neal Grady pushes his way into her life with unbelievable claims about her mother's death and her own dormant psychic powers. Powers he intends to use to discover the whereabouts of a secret ledger - a ledger that the madman who killed her mother would do anything for. And that madman wants to kill Megan.

I like psychics. I love reading things about latent psychic powers, especially when they're involved in show more high-action thrillers. But although Johansen tries everything to raise the stakes (rape, child slavery and molestation, torture) the threat from the villain never seems immediate, and he really just seems like a caricature of evil rather than anything actually terrifying. The buttons are pushed, the plotline is there - it's just not particularly believable. The close calls with said madman's henchmen never actually seem to that close. And Megan never really seems that scared. So the stake simply wasn't high enough for me as a reader to get engrossed, engaged and fearful. So that was a bust.

The romantic angle didn't really work at all, either. The main characters supposed intimacy that came from a) the fact that he lusted after her when she was 15 despite their decade age-difference (EWWW) and b) the fact that he had lived in her head for years in order to help tamp down the voices just never seemed that intimate. Grady seemed to be acting like a selfish jerk most of the time (claiming that he allowed her to have a life, the fact that he was a controller in general, him having no problem risking her capture, rape and mutilation for a bunch of paper), and as a whole I neither felt the tension nor the 'romance'. A big whopping 'so what' to their relationship.

So really, the book failed to engage on all levels. Motivations were obscure or unbelievable. Tension was low or non-existent, and the whole psychic angle was one of the most unconvincing portrayals that I've ever encountered. Possibly because the whole thing was never explained or even experienced in any detail in the narrative. This had none of the visceral connection necessary to make a thriller thrill. Definitely not an author I'll be seeking out in the future.

Also posted at my blog. show less

Megan grew up hearing strange voices that she didn't understand. Her mother tried to protect her, but she is murdered mysteriously in Megan's fifteen year. The emotional toll drives Megan over the edge, but her mother's friend Neil Grady, takes control of her psychic ability and alters her memory. Megan grows up in blissful ignorance and becomes a doctor. She believes she's left her mysterious past behind her, but when someone starts trying to kill her, Megan's life gets turned upside down.

This book is super bad. The writing is stilted and repetitive, the characters are wooden, and the plotting is laughable. However, this novel does ask some important questions. For instance, does it still count as rape if you know the woman secretly show more wants it because you are a psychic? Just how child-molesty is it for a twenty-five year old to have graphic sexual fantasies about a fifteen year old? What if the fifteen year old has a crush on the twenty-five year old? Does that make it better or worse?

Seriously, just painfully mediocre stuff. show less

After her mother was murdered when she was 15, Megan Blair went to live with her uncle, and has almost completely silenced the voices she heard in her head as a young girl. What Megan doesn't understand is that she is a Listener, able to hear the voices of people who have died. Until someone tries to kill her.

This book was exciting and unique. It kept me guessing right up until the end.

This was my first Iris Johansen...I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll read more. The story/plot was interesting overall, conceptually, and I was engaged with the characters, but the writing itself threw me off at too many points. Too many pieces of dialogue were either awkward or unbelievable, and too many happenings in the plot were just too contrived to be believable or make sense. That said, it wasn't Badly written--it just wasn't all that well-written either. It did keep me engaged and have a good flow to it, though, so perhaps. In all, rather an enh experience for this reader--not something I regret spending time on, but nothing to recommend or ensure that I come back for more either.

This book was not good. It wasn't awful, but it certainly makes me wish I had found something better to read. The plot felt incredibly contrived, and I really found the entire psychic aspect offputting. It also came across as really rushed, so while everything moved along at a brisk pace, you never had a chance to care about anyone involved. I tried to care; I did. The characters were not unlikable, but mostly I just wanted the entire situtation resolved so that I could move on to a better book. The best part was literally the last word in the entire novel. How sad is that?

I do not think either the psychic phenomena or the characters were the problem, though. It was the writing. It was bland and unimaginative and boring. And the romance show more had exactly zero spark. I admit I was disappointed. show less

Audiobook
A melodramatic suspense with a heroine, Megan Blair, who says one thing, then immediately changes her mind (she needs to learn to think before she speaks) and a carbon-copy hero, Neal Grady, who was thrown in simply as a love interest... Oh, and the author added in some physic talents to tempt PNR fans to pick up the book...

(In the author's defence, the narrator exacerbated the melodrama...)

Megan Blair has tried to block the voices in her head all her life. She works as an emergency room daughter, and loves her job. Now she finds that her life is about to change and she's going to have to face up to her heritage and abilities. Her life is never going to be the same again.

It's interesting, sometimes it felt a little bit like the author was trying out a concept without really being sure where things were going to go. It's a series I'd love to continue.