I've finished "Quiver: A Novel" by Holly Luhning.
Product Description
A masterful debut thriller about the original female Dracula and an underground gothic cult reenacting her ritualized killings in present day London.
In sixteenth-century Hungary, Countess Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed over six hundred servant girls in order to bathe in their blood. She believed this practice would keep her skin youthful and her beauty immortal.
Quiver tells the story of Danica, a forensic psychologist who works at a former insane asylum-turned-forensic hospital. one of Danica's mental patients is Malcolm Foster, who is imprisoned for murdering a fourteen-year-old girl. Foster is a menacing but fascinating patient and Danica begins to suspect that Foster may have been the head of a gothic cabal idolizing Bathory. Her peers dismiss her discoveries, while disturbing incidents begin following her home from work.
Soon after her arrival in London, Danica receives a mysterious note from Maria, a seductive archivist with whom Danica has had an intriguing and complicated past. Maria claims she has Bathory’s diaries that chronicle her relentless torture of young women. As Maria increasingly insinuates herself into Danica’s life, soon Danica is in too deep to notice that Maria’s motivations are far from selfless; in fact, they may just cost Danica her life.
Product Details In sixteenth-century Hungary, Countess Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed over six hundred servant girls in order to bathe in their blood. She believed this practice would keep her skin youthful and her beauty immortal.
Quiver tells the story of Danica, a forensic psychologist who works at a former insane asylum-turned-forensic hospital. one of Danica's mental patients is Malcolm Foster, who is imprisoned for murdering a fourteen-year-old girl. Foster is a menacing but fascinating patient and Danica begins to suspect that Foster may have been the head of a gothic cabal idolizing Bathory. Her peers dismiss her discoveries, while disturbing incidents begin following her home from work.
Soon after her arrival in London, Danica receives a mysterious note from Maria, a seductive archivist with whom Danica has had an intriguing and complicated past. Maria claims she has Bathory’s diaries that chronicle her relentless torture of young women. As Maria increasingly insinuates herself into Danica’s life, soon Danica is in too deep to notice that Maria’s motivations are far from selfless; in fact, they may just cost Danica her life.
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Pegasus (July 15, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1605981923
ISBN-13: 978-1605981925
My Review:
Malcolm Foster was such a menacing but fascinating character because he could be well spoken and act normal at times. Other times he acted like a maniac and fanatic. He liked taunting Danica and he really enjoyed killing.
Danica at times I wondered if she was imagining bad things were happening and only in her mind. I felt sorry for her because bad things always was happening to her and not in the good way.
Maria was a very scary and terrifying seductress who was using Danica as her scrapegoat. She had a way about her that made people trust her but she was a very convincing liar.
I highly recommend this book if you like books that are truly horrifying and psychologically plays with your mind!
4/5
Thanks Shannon from HarperCollins Canada for sending me this book to review, greatly appreciated!
2 comments:
This sounds interesting but I think if I were to read this, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I'm a bit of a punk. Fantastic review :)
Hi Alexis,
It was a very interesting and different kind of read.
I agree that you should read it during the day or early evening. LOL!
Thanks for the nice compliment!
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