Rating: 
Summary: I've read it twice already!
Review: This book is addictive. I've had it three weeks and read it *twice*! I don't usually do that. Great characters and an extremely spooky story. Read Silk with all the lights on (especially if your afraid of spiders!) This is a *very* original novel, full of beautiful language and unexpected twists!
Rating:
Summary: Stunning and delightful!
Review: I read SILK because a friend of mine recommended it and because I've been enjoying Caitlin Kiernan's work on THE DREAMING. I was *not* disappointed. This is one of those really rare Gothic novels that transcends the limitations of its genre (and the things we're usually willing to settle for from that genre) and delivers a stunning literary delight. The book works on many different levels. Yes, it's a very frightening novel, filled with strange goings-on and crawly things. It's also a wonderful experiment in language; it's rare to find an author who seems to take such sheer enjoyment from the act of constructing sentences. On another level, this is a fine example of the fiction of the New South, a skillfully woven Southern Gothic. It's a masterful collection of character studies, and any fledgling writer would do well to study SILK as an exercise in learning how to create *real* and believable people from words and imagination. It's hard to accept that this is a first novel, so marked is its scope and maturity. I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting this author's second!
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent horror, for a change.
Review: This is really a great book. I'm so used to horror writers who seem to have learned to write watching slasher movies, so Silk was a very pleasant surprise. A novel that is both intelligent and scary! Caitlin Kiernan's characters are extremely believable and are one of the novel's many strong points. Her use of language is amazing (if you like Kathe Koja - another author who writes intelligent horror - you'll love Caitlin Kiernan). I was so sad to reach the last page of this superb book and strongly recommend it to anyone who longs for spooky literature that's both entertaining and smart.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and tedious
Review: I bought the book on a whim. I love horror fiction and thought, "cool, goth and horror." Sounded like a good combination.Kiernan is a fine writer. She has an intense, lyrical style. But I just couldn't get into the characters. They sounded so self-absorbed and stupid. I was pretty stupid and self-destructive in my late teens and early 20's but, man, these characters are purely implausible and I got really bored with them fast. The only reason I finished the book was because I was driving from Chicago to Denver with nothing else to read. So it was better than watching TV in motel rooms. I quickly donated the book to the local used book store. Maybe there's a teenager or two that will pick up the book for $.50 and think the book is really fabulous and intense. Yay for them.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: I thought Kiernan's characterization was top notch. Everything was incredibly real, from the peyote to the music. For instance, I dont think there was one band in that book i dont have in my cd collection...it was just so real. Easy to identify with and beautifully written.
Rating:
Summary: TRY AGAIN CAITLIN...you can do it
Review: There is no story and the characters are boring losers, young freak street people involved in endless self-destruction, getting high, getting nowhere and screwing whom ever, living in garbage with garbage. The main char paints her bedroom windows black with spider webbing and only allows the lumination of candles. How retarded. How DEPRESSING. I've seen 20+ years of that kind of people walking the streets of The City(San Francisco), I personally do not need nor want to read about it! Especially without any point or direction. Where's the story? What's the point? I quess if you happen to be into rude and grude kool-aid red dreadlocks, dope smokers/slammers, mushroom eaters and acidheads, ....this is your book. If Caitlin R. Kiernan could only get a rolling story going she'd be dynamite, CUZ SHE CAN WRITE AND WRITE READABLE (you know what i mean)!
Rating:
Summary: A breakthrough novel!!!
Review: Move over Thomas Ligotti and Poppy Z. Brite (just a little)...Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Silk" is an astounding piece of surrealistic supernatural fiction. Kiernan's debut puts her right up there with the best! So far, I've read "Silk" three times and it keeps getting better. Her exquisite prose (somewhat reminiscent of Kathe Koja) and skillful characterization make this a thoughtful and satisfying novel. I bought "Silk" after reading Charles deLint's review in "Fantasy and Science Fiction." He wrote that every now and then a book comes along that restores his faith in the genre and that "Silk" was one of those rare books. I couldn't have said it better!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Horror Novel of '98!
Review: Silk was the best horror novel I read in 1998 (and I read *everything*). I became a fan of Caitlin Kiernan's work through reading The Dreaming (her comic) and her short stories. Silk is everything I would have expected from her first novel and more!
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: I thought the first half of Kiernan's novel Silk to be brilliant-- sheer poetry and a definite return to the great southern gothic style that characterized Faulkner, O'Conner, and some of Oates' recent works. But after spending so much time developing her characters, setting mood, Kiernan falters into fantasy, garbled action, and typical horror schlock. She systematically does away with her characters in typical ten-little indians style, never fully exploring the threads she sows earlier-- the war of the angels and the effects of childhood abuse. Rather than a psychological exploration, it simply becomes another in a growing list of bodiless, rootless horror. She's capable of much better.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!!!!
Review: I loved this book! It scared me *and* made me cry. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
| 
