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50books_poc2009-04-19 11:27 pm
cyphomandra.livejournal.com) wrote in 50books_poc2009-04-19 11:27 pm
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My soul to keep, Tananarive Due, 2/50
I put off reading this for ages because I thought it was about vampires (I really enjoyed Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, which I read before this challenge, but otherwise I am pretty much vampire-free after previous over-exposure), and was therefore quite pleased to discover that although one of the leads turns out to be a 400-year old Ethiopian who gained eternal life by drinking blood, he does not skulk around after dark looking for necks to bite on and going on about his immortal angst. Instead, David works from home as a translator and looks after his daughter Kira, while his wife Jessica, who is unaware of her husband's true nature, is an investigative journalist. Although everything appears to be perfect at the beginning, Jessica’s work starts to bring her into contact with David’s hidden past, and David’s actions to protect his family become increasingly problematic.
There’s a lot of good stuff in here – I like Jessica a lot, and her relationship with David (and how it alters during the book’s events) is very nicely done. Where I parted company with the book more was at the ending, and with the lack of a final confrontation between David and Jessica that resolves what’s happened between them. Some of this is possibly how much I’m supposed to feel for David by the time I get there – David/Dawit’s past, specifically the time he spends as a slave, is vivid and horrible, but David himself in the present is a bit more problematic, and his decision to murder Peter – Jessica’s secretly gay white co-worker – is one I have trouble moving on from, and I would have the same problem if he’d been successful in his attempt on Jessica’s sister Alex, in that it feels like these actions get forgotten by both characters in the final analysis. There’s also a lack of resolution on the issue of religion – Jessica is a Christian, her religion’s important to her, and the blood that gives David eternal life is meant to have been taken from Jesus. David thinks about how Jessica may feel about this, but she doesn’t find out, and again it felt as if something had been set-up and then forgotten. However, I was unaware until checking this community that there was at least one sequel, so maybe I will find at least some answers there.
Overall, I liked the book, but I didn’t feel that the horror part of the story (the I’m married to a monster! track) always ran smoothly with the hidden cult with special powers, with David/Dawit the slightly uneasy fulcrum between them. But there are a lot of really nice moments in there, especially the glimpses of different times and different worldviews - I've read Due's The Black Rose, which is historical/autobiography, and that plus the bits in here make me wish she would get back into historical fiction again at some stage.
There’s a lot of good stuff in here – I like Jessica a lot, and her relationship with David (and how it alters during the book’s events) is very nicely done. Where I parted company with the book more was at the ending, and with the lack of a final confrontation between David and Jessica that resolves what’s happened between them. Some of this is possibly how much I’m supposed to feel for David by the time I get there – David/Dawit’s past, specifically the time he spends as a slave, is vivid and horrible, but David himself in the present is a bit more problematic, and his decision to murder Peter – Jessica’s secretly gay white co-worker – is one I have trouble moving on from, and I would have the same problem if he’d been successful in his attempt on Jessica’s sister Alex, in that it feels like these actions get forgotten by both characters in the final analysis. There’s also a lack of resolution on the issue of religion – Jessica is a Christian, her religion’s important to her, and the blood that gives David eternal life is meant to have been taken from Jesus. David thinks about how Jessica may feel about this, but she doesn’t find out, and again it felt as if something had been set-up and then forgotten. However, I was unaware until checking this community that there was at least one sequel, so maybe I will find at least some answers there.
Overall, I liked the book, but I didn’t feel that the horror part of the story (the I’m married to a monster! track) always ran smoothly with the hidden cult with special powers, with David/Dawit the slightly uneasy fulcrum between them. But there are a lot of really nice moments in there, especially the glimpses of different times and different worldviews - I've read Due's The Black Rose, which is historical/autobiography, and that plus the bits in here make me wish she would get back into historical fiction again at some stage.