Photo courtesy of Amazon website
This book was the book that made me a Clive Barker fan. The reason I liked this book because Barker didn't go with the usual supernatural tropes like vampires, werewolves or fairies. I usually don't go for the supernatural genre as I prefer the hardcore fantasy books but this one blew my mind out both in writing style and plot.
The story follow the lives of an immensely enigmatic and powerful Geary clan and the ancient Barbarossa family. The two clans are intertwined by a curse.
The central character, Rachel Geary, was introduced to the family secret except she fell in love with Galilee, a Barbarossa. Their intense attraction caused a disturbance in the Geary-Barbarossa arrangement and from there various secrets were revealed as they try to break away from the curse.
The unraveling of the family secrets and the back stories is where the imagination of Clive Barker ran wild. The book is just a page turner that you won't notice the time. Yeah, it's that kind of a book.
I actually just accidentally got a copy of the book because I just finished a trilogy and wanted to rest a bit from fantasy books. The copy I own (which I loaned to someone and haven't seen since then) just had a boat on the cover when I saw it, nothing really special. But then I saw the author as Clive Barker and I've been wanting to read some of his more famous stuff like Imajica and Hellraiser. But then this one is what's available so I took it home.
A few pages in and I was hooked. Truly one of the best experiences in book hunting is not expecting anything and then you're having the feeling of being slapped by Adam West Batman and seeing the words "Kapow!" "Boom!" "Pow!" as you turn the pages.
This is a 10 of 10 for me. And, yeah, this is a love story. I actually love how Barker did the love story angle. It was not cliche or teeny-boppish like. It was hot and passionate and just a really cool love story. All in all I just really like the book because the story and imagination is ethereal.
Thank you for reading my post. Have a blessed day😍