A Density of Souls

Rating:
Summary: "Souls" Survivor
Review: Good Lord, was this fun to read. Involving from page one all the way through, with enough sex, shocks and Southern-friend secrets to keep me up way past The Witching Hour. Turning on four childhood chums torn apart, initially, by some dirty doings by a trio of the gang as high school looms, the book then careens from one tragic event to the next, all colliding five years later amid the clutter of ruined families and friendships. It's at this point that Rice's storytelling, much like the novel's characters, begins to show signs of maturity. Shadowy alliances develop between former enemies, a surprisingly touching love story emerges, only to be shattered by violence and a major character arrives halfway through the book and factors into every plotline without feeling contrived. Using hate groups, old-world New Orleans alcoholics and twentysomething angst, Rice has a simmering mystery here filled with believable characters both young and old, as well as heroic ones bravely stained with flaws. Much will probably be made of the fact that the author is Anne Rice's 21-year-old son, or the book's "gay" content. And that'll be a shame, because it may distract readers from a wholly satisfying novel that not only shows promise, but fulfills some as well.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant Debut!
Review: Christopher Rice's debut novel, A DENSITY OF SOULS, proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. His work is an extraordinarily bright story with a conclusive and unexpected ending. His penmenship is well-worked through this work and it is a definite must-have. His imagine goes far into space, almost as far as his mother's, Anne Rice, goes. Save a place on the shelves between INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE and THE WITCHING HOUR. That spot is well deserved.

Rating:
Summary: A Density of Souls Heralds New Talent
Review: While it is not necessary to know the texts of Gustav Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony #2 in C Minor in order to appreciate the style and content of Christopher Rice's novel, familiarity with this masterwork of neoclassicism which recurs throughout the plot certainly helped this reader appreciate the author's skill in turning a mere story into a compelling novel. Set primarily in New Orleans, "A Density of Souls" is a well-crafted amalgam of friendship, adolescent cruelty, mental illness, dysfunctional families, infidelity, death, love, sex and hope. Chris's far from simple tale of four childhood friends who are caught up in the maelstroim of vice and temptation freely available in their world of privelidge is a gesamtkunswerk lovingly crafted in the written word. At times shocking, sexy and hilarious, this tale of Stephen, Meredith, Brandon and Greg shows humanity in its most common form - that is - trying to show how emotionally impenetrable people can act regardless of how much they desparately need to curl up in a corner and mourn the bad choices they've made. The author washes away the pretenses of his characters with the strength of a hurricane (and he throws in an actual hurricane for good measure.) leaving behind in the burgeoning sun people who are for the most part better, but all of whom are irrevocably changed. It is as if the habitues of "A Density of Souls" have finally heeded Mahlers instructions: "Tremble no more! Prepare yourself to live!" And the lucky ones can sing "With wings that I won in the passionate strivings of love, I shall mount to the light to which no sight has penetrated."

Rating:
Summary: Decent Debut with a Good Story
Review: This story is interesting and very well worked out, while the author's english and writing skill leaves something to be desired. The publisher most likely relied on Christopher's last name to sell novels (and was write in coounting on it) but there are minor fixes that needed to be made before the story was published. Christopher has proven that he has a remarkable imagination, as his mother has, and can weave a good story. While the ending may be shocking to some, I believe this is what the author was going for, to shock, make the reader think and begin a discussion.

Rating:
Summary: Great Debut Novel
Review: I read this book about 3 years ago so I am in no condition to summarize accuratly but I have to say this is one of the best written books I have read. While the subject matter is controversial and at times the author can be a bit vulguar the story is so intense and riviting I could not put it down.

How things change when we get a bit older. Friends from our younger years who we shared such fond memories become strangers to us as we grow up and enter high school. This is what happens to the characters in this book. Kids who experienced intense relationships as children become strangers, even enemies in their adolesence, as each attempts to discover who he\she is.

This author has an incredible way of bringing his characters to life, and deeply develops each character. This book deals with high school popularity, homophobia, depression, rage and family secrets. I suggest this book to an older reader with an open mind, as some of the subject matter may not be appropriate for younger teens.

Rating:
Summary: True Dreck -- if only 0 stars . . .
Review: As literature, this book could not have less merit. It has, however, taught me to be utterly skeptical of positive feedback from Amazon customers, and that talent has nothing whatsoever to do with getting published. Even if Christopher Rice ever does become a true writer (which could not be more unlikely), he could never look back and be more ashamed of writing this dreck than I am of having bought and read it.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the read but...
Review: He's got talent, there's no denying it. Parts of DENSITY have brilliance, reminiscent of Anne - and how could we expect anything less?

But go in knowing that like Anne - his editor, friends, whomever he has read pre-publication, these people did not tell him he could do without one third of the manuscript. It's over written. In parts choppy, with short jumps from scene to scene. His transisitons need work. But his prose is marvelous.

Therein lies his talent.

I loved the intricate, heavy story. It was awesome. I've been to New Orleans because of writers like him who do such a fabulous job at describing the place! I could see every setting perfectly.

And he captures the angsts of imperfections in souls well. The way they effect our lives, stay with us, touch the lives of everyone around us - great stuff.

I will probably read another book but hope Chris gets some better feedback B4 publishing his works so that his work is trim, tight and perfect.

Rating:
Summary: A Really Great Book
Review: Being tormented and frightened all through High school is something everyone has gone through, and the added fact of being gay is another thing that a teen is scared of others finding out, though many people don't/ have not been tormented you can relate to being scared of someone in high school.

One thing that Stephen Conlin didn't get to do is have friends that understand him, that wasn't a teacher. I love this book because I admire the way Christopher Rice ties every chapter together using an event in the previous chapter. After thinking about it for a long time, I have come to the conclusion that even though this book takes place in the 90's its content can be related to the Holocaust. Brandon and Greg are the [...], while Meredith is the group that neglects the Jewish and other afflicted races, and Stephen is of course the afflicted, and the homosexuals that were also killed in the Holocaust. I thought of this because Brandon and Greg torment Stephen through high school, and every waking moment of his life until graduation. After Greg dies Brandon Joins the Army of God and he and the group conspire to rid New Orleans and possibly the Country of homosexuals, [...]

Rating:
Summary: A point of view
Review: I LOVED this book. I was in a bookstore one day, browsing the Anne Rice novels. I am a HUGE fan of vampire fiction. I noticed a book called A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice, whom i knew to be her son because i'd watched a documentary on her life several months before. So i bought it on a whim, thinking it would be similar to Anne Rice's work. Boy was i wrong. I sat down, in the midst of a party going on around me, and read the entire thing in one night. I could not put it down. I was wonderfully written. It was captivating really. I truly felt for these characters, despite not being gay myself. I really love this book and own it. I recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but Horrendous Ending
Review: To be absolutely honest, this was one of the best novels I've seen outlining the hidden hell in which homosexuals are forced to live in this society of ours. Contrary to some of these reviews, I thought the characters were well rounded and complex. I'll give Rice this, you can't predict anything throughout this story. Plot twists abound, and it's done in a (dare I say methodical) way that keeps the reader intwined with the book until the end. An extra plus is that the gay men in this book are not "flamboyant," and that annoying-(to me) femininity is thankfully absent from the main and supporting homosexual characters. Unfortunately there is alot of crap that you are forced to cope with while reading this that simply wasn't necessary for the full impact of this book to be felt. To be precise, there is a horrible mistruth that "seems" to be illustrated by the author that all straight men have a chained up homosexual at their core that is kicking and screaming, trying to get out. My advice: "DON'T buy that; it's as true as the moon being made of cheese." The other nagging problem is that everybody in this book seems to have a substance abuse problem, whether it be alchohol, cigarettes or whatever. C'mon...puh-leeze. But for the positive attributes of the book, it is easy to overlook these little oversights by the author because the story and themes are so intense. But the ending is the true doosey, and that's not the worst part. The worst part is that it was ENTIRELY un-necessary for this story, and it leaves an extremely sick feeling in one's gut for hours afterwards. You know what you would have felt for hours, possibly days afterwards had this un-necessary twist been in the book? Reverence! Unfortunately, the author blows it, and you go away with more of a feeling which can best be described as eating a delicious bag of candy only to get to bottom of the bag to discover a bunch of dead bugs. However, due to the enormity and magnitude by which the rest of the book struck me, I certainly can't withold recommendation by any mile! A Density of Souls is a must for anyone who has ever pondered those lives on the "other side of the fence" or harbors homophobic feelings. It certainly illuminates that at a very fundamental and human level, homosexuals and heterosexuals have a lot more in common than they have in differences. I just wish that that relationship would have been further expanded upon, rather than erroneously presuming that all straight men are actually sexually amorphous.