Rating: 
Summary: Depressingly pointless ... or ... Pointlessly depressing
Review: Anyone reading Christopher Rice's debut A Density of Souls expecting to find the grandiose, flowery, (and in my opinion) bombastic prose of his mother, Anne, will be sorely disappointed. The younger Rice has eschewed the world of the detailed undead to serve up a simplistically written, coming-on-age soap opera about mere mortals- or more precisely four friends growing up and growing apart in 1990's New Orleans.I will admit right off that I am a sucker for almost any "rite of passage" novel. Unfortunately, Rice's plot is so hackneyed, and his writing style so pedestrian it totally undermines any compelling drama this book could possibly achieve. In A Density of Souls, Rice pulls out all the stops. Suicide, alcoholism, mental illness, homophobia, and gruesome deaths all follow each other in gruelling rapid-fire succession. Even the sex scenes, although not graphic, sting of underlying violence and desperation. This bombardment of hot topic melodrama would have been enough to depress the heck out of me if I didn't care so little for all of these characters: the four friends are shallow sterotypes, their parents are dysfunctional caricatures, the secondary characters serve no purpose other than merely undeveloped plot devices. The final "dramatic" plot twists (thrown in for no other purpose than one last ditch attempt at shock value) were telegraphed in one third of the way through the novel. So blatant that even I caught them paying only half-hearted attention to the story. In the midst of all this murk and mayhem it is easy to overlook that Rice's storyline actually has potential- Stephen's relationship with his parent is at times intriquing, the depiction of adolescent struggles for acceptance and the emotional and physical battlefield of high school are painful, but unfortunately realistic, and need to be told. For the most part though, Rice's vision is so poorly executed and his writing style so stilted any redeeming, not to mention enjoyable, qualities this novel has are overshadowed by the sheer quality and quantity of titillation and shock value the author seems to relish in. If I had been able to find even a trace of some cathartic, ray of hope in all this despair I would have graded this book much higher. I wanted very much to find that ray of hope but I just couldn't. When all is said, Rice has served up nothing more than a formulaic tearjerker- a simplistic by-the-numbers slice of dysfunctional Americana ala Alice Hoffman. In honesty, I only continued reading out of a morbid curiosity to see how much more depressing and cringe-worthy this book could go. In that respect, it doesn't disappoint. Unfortunately, that is not the mark of a classic novel; that is a literary car wreck.
Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Novel
Review: This was an absoulutly amazing read. I got so involved in the great plot it only took me a few days to read. It has really great points of view & plot twists and turns. It has love, friendships, deaths, high action scenes, flashbacks, revealed secrets, and poetic thoughts that are greatly profound. I was left to guess up until the very end. I highly recommend this book. It was one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning debut
Review: Christopher Rice, son of best-selling authoress Anne Rice, creates a lavish debut novel with Density of Souls, a modern Gothic work set in his hometown of New Orleans, LA. Lacking the parapsychological overtones of his mother's work, Christopher's novel is an intense examination of revenge and the creation of the human psyche. Well-written, multi-faceted characters combine with the sultry background of the French Quarter and Garden District to create an unforgettable tale of love, betrayal, and triumph.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: I thought it was wonderful! I loved all the plot twists and turns. The only thing I Found confusing was when he make something happen and then not explain it until 2 chapters later. That leaves the whole chapter in between where you're sitting there wondering "WTH is going on!?!" But It's cool because it keeps your interests.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible First Novel
Review: Let me start by saying, I am not a reader. I would much rather sit and watch the movie. But reading helps pass the time at work, and I thought this would be a good read for a couple of weeks. So much for that theory. I have read it cover to cover in just two days, and am read to do it again. Christopher has a done an amazing job. Every time I thought I would stop and put the book down, he ended it in such a way that I had to continue. This WILL make an incredible movie, and I can only hope that some day it does. But in the meantime, I commend Christopher Rice on an outstanding job. I think I will be buying his second outing very soon.
Rating: 
Summary: like mother....
Review: C. Rice is the son of author Anne Rice. Im sure many people bought or will buy this based on that fact. The truth of it all is that Mr. Rice is a darn good scribe in his own right. This book was engaging and gripping; a page turner from start to finish. The characters have complex interactions with each other and the story is wonderful. I recommend picking this one up today.
Rating:
Summary: Not Great, but a Great start
Review: Being this is the "Son" of Anne Rice, I decided to give it a look see. I was impressed with his style of writing and the way he set up the mystery and characters. Yes! This book dealt with gay themes, but that was not it was all about. The author gave 3 dimensions to all the characters, both big and small. The dialogue was a bit hokey, but hey he's young and he'll get better. However after awhile it became tedious, with the violence and the dysfunctional family scenarios going over the top. In the end the book took on this great soap opera feel. It was at this point where I was a little disappointed. But again a good start to a blossoming career. P.S. How much do you think mommy edited and changed, to give her son the start?
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Beginning...
Review: I am only half done with this book and all i can say is that i hope this is the first of many novels by Christopher Rice...i am a writer myself and when i started reading this his vision and style just threw me back b/c i had read some pretty bitter reviews on amazon.com before i bought it...but being a long time fan of his mom i gave him a chance & bought both of his novels...he has a way of mesmerizing me with his words...much like his mother's early novels did...Christopher please keep writing i am finishing this at lightning speeds and then on to your next i hope to find another book illuminated with your incredible vision when i'm done with that one...kristen from NJ...
Rating:
Summary: The First Novel to Make Me Say WOW in a Long Time!!!
Review: I finally talked myself into buying a copy of "A Density of Souls" this morning. I was planning on it being a typical gay coming of age story with all the cliques and stereotypes--boy was I wrong. I started reading the novel at 2:30p.m. and was done later that evening. I truely could not put it down. The world that Christopher Rice created captured me and refused to let me go. His descriptions were vivid, to the point, and contained examples of witty humor which brought characters and places to life. The work was realist and believable. Topics were neither sugar-coated nor overly exploided. The novel opened us up to views that we would often overlook on our own. Character behavior
and development was explained by examples of family life and past experiances of characters. This novel brought joy, saddness, arousal, and anger too me all in a matter of hours. This may not be the book that you are expecting, but it is amazing and I would encourage everyone to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Does too much yet delivers so little
Review: After reading Rice's first book and enjoying it and I thought I'd give his second one a try. Unfortunately it seems as though he's run into a sophomore jinx. His book starts off promisingly and he begins to create a plot that does capture your attention. But as you read further, you begin to wonder what exaclty Rice wants the reader to be paying attention to. He jumps so often between the characters and their thoughts that you're not sure which character is offering just opinions and which one is offering facts. Also, I think Rice had so much riding on the whole "revelation" process at the end of the story that he leaves many holes in the parts leading up to it. Rice tries to create a sense of "mystery" around his characters by leaving many parts of their past a secret, but in the end, he just creates very shallow characters that are completely unrelatable. The ending appears to have been just thrown together. A lot of the "secrets" that are explained seem to come out of nowhere. And in the end there just seemed to be too much info coming at me at once. Also, I think there were just too many characters. It's a well written book. Rice uses words well and does have a creative style. His content, on the other hand does need a little fine tuning. He needs to learn how to pace his stories better and not rely so much on the whole "revelation" process to create drama. And subtley is not his forte, either.
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