Death to Reach a Star: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Read This Book Immediately!
Review: (...because one generally wants to rubberneck before the bodies grow cold, and the afternoon is wasted.)
I am recommending this book almost solely on the basis that the word "execrable" has spent some time floating around in my vocabulary, and I have yet to have an opportunity to use it and really mean it. J. Maris Gagnon, thank you for giving me this opportunity: Death To Reach a Star is the astounding, glorious, champagne-popping Gilded Age of execrability.
What we have here, oh gentle and terrified readers, is a sweepingly true account of one woman's past life as a Russian nobleman. A girlishly-beautiful, magically-endowed, sexually-persecuted Russian nobleman. (Doujinshi, anyone?) Poor Sasha, our beleagured young protagonist, is subjected to ankle-wrenching twists of fate and trouser-ripping threats to virtue worthy of the Perils of Pauline.* Communists! Incest! White slavery! Ballet musicians! Oh, help!
Heaven forfend that I should have lost your interest by now, oh weary bangers of the back button, but for fear that such might be the case, allow me to present to you some of the highlights of this - unique - specimen:
We find a dairymaid, upon being pressed with Our Hero's unwanted affections, exclaiming: "Unhand me, ye moron!" And pelting him with a seemingly endless supply of wooden buckets. Perhaps they had hammerspace in turn-of-the-century Russia?
We witness a party scene in which, in the space of two pages, "dessert" is changed into "desert" three times, in an interesting foray into surrealism and redundancy.
We finally reach the end of this 800+-page almighty clunker.
Please, readers, do yourself a favor. Glance at the cover, say to yourselves, "Garsh, a flute and some roses. Bet this is one o' them ROHmance novels," and then find yourself a nice Nabokov in a little valley somewhere, settle down and raise a family.

*For the unenlightened (IE, those who didn't read my grandmother's Big Book of the Movies when they were kids), The Perils of Pauline is an early 20th-century film that revolves around the adventures of a young woman who travels to many exotic and poorly-researched locations and ends up in a series of ridiculously precarious situations, most of which involve her hanging from airplanes or being menaced by Darkly Smoldering men.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down!!!!!!!
Review: A fantastic book indeed!!! I really enjoyed it! The way it was written, the format, and the story itself was & is just wonderfully written. I am a very picky reader when it comes to books, & when I started to read this, WOW!!! I am still reading it, almost done,. but I just wanted to praise this book & tell ya'll out there that this is a bok that will definitely get your' interest!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down!!!!!!!
Review: Excellent, excellent, excellent!! The book gave me perspective on my own life or lives, together with hope and joy that all may not be for nothing. This story of undying love in a world of turmoil touched me deeply. Also the fact that it's set in Russia - a country I have been obsessed with for a long time. The author's rendition of music, the ballet and poetry also gave me a new respect for and joy in these forms of art. I'll read the book again and again and again - it is sanity in a world gone mad. Or at least love in a world gone mad. All I can say is thank you, Maris, and thanks to what- or whomever brought me in contact with the circumstances for finding this book. It filled a need I didn't even know was there.

Rating:
Summary: This book is thought provoking.
Review: My comments after reading Death to Reach a Star: It is difficult to put into words what this amazing book means to me. Having believed in a past few lives of my own for a very long time, I feel I can now , with firm conviction, face my critics and let them laugh or I shall tell to think whatever they want to think. I feel that is their loss not explore this wonderful world. I think we return to learn lessons for our current and future lives. Other books/articles I have explored have left me with some questions and concerns. This book I will passionately recommend to others. Thank you, Maris, where ever you are, for the opportunity to read such a masterpiece. I want to reread it again, two or three times.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: The size of the book overwhelmed me at first, but once I managed to pick it up and start reading, I couldn't put it down again! Each page is full of vivid detail and the reader soon becomes a part of the story, living each moment with the main characters. This book is a definite must! The only thing I regret is taking so long to getting around to read it!

Rating:
Summary: A matter of Love and Death--not for the weak!
Review: This is a tale of historical content, rape, war, death, the occult fringes, prostitution, loss, gain,hopeless times; and this is mostly a story about the many places in the heart, mind, body, and soul where love finds a way in. It is not a story for the weak or childish, nor to the prejudiced. I, however,highly recommend it to those with an open mind and an open soul.The story is long, yet the reader flies through this spellbinding story. Read it!