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Summary: A Wonderful Surprise
Review: When I discovered that Tananarive had written a sequel to My Soul To Keep, I was so excited. I could not wait to get my hands on the book. I must say that she did not disappoint me. I could not put this book down. I took it to work and every chance I got, I was reading. It is great storytelling. It is romance, drama, suspense and horror. Tananarive Due has become one of my favorite authors.
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Summary: When is the next installment coming out?
Review: Ms. Due has done it again! I loved "My Soul to Keep" so I was waiting patiently for the sequel, "The Living Blood" to hit the book stores. I wasn't disappointed. Ms. Due is so good at drawing the picture. Imagine an underground world, imagine an innocent 3 year old with the power to change the world, imagine the body having the power to cure itself of all illness in a matter of hours. I consider myself a very spiritual woman. And reading about evil people stealing the blood of Christ was a difficult concept to understand. Yet Ms. Due helps the reader to understand the philosophy AND to grasp the wonderful greatness of our Lord and Saviour! In the first novel, I both loved and didn't love David/Dawit. But I appreciated his love for Jessica and their daughter Kira. Having lived for greater than 500 years, this man had seen and experienced things that the rest of us wouldn't want to. Yet, he faced difficult situations. And he had difficult decisions to make. I recommend this novel (I mean, these NOVELS) to everyone. Tananarive Due is an EXCELLENT writer. Excellent!
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Summary: The Living Blood is on the one!
Review: This novel is an outstanding sequel to Due's first novel "The Between." The religious symbolism from both Christianity and what many others classify as Paganism is intricately woven into a thriller that I was unable to put down. Thank you Ms. Due for keeping me on my toes trying to figure out much more than just whodunit.
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Summary: Hurricane Beatrice
Review: Just to compare this sequel to My Soul To Keep with the hurricane mentioned in this book. I found the Living Blood to start like a hurricane. Build up slowing somewhere near the Atlantic Ocean (Africa and Florida) and over the pages, it gains strength and momentum. Then you are sucked in and involved in an exciting and intense reading adventure. Then the storm slowly begins to dwindle down and you exhale and breathe again. There are so many twist and turns and plots to this story. It begins with the birth of "Fana", then we meet the VooDoo doctor, Lucas and his son Jared, What a touching story of a father's love and determination to save his son. We go on an adventure to the continent of Africa to see Alex, Jessica and David. We also get a glimpse inside the life colony, meet some of the Life Brothers and become reacquainted with David. We exprience the depths of "Fana" powers, the control of Khaldun. We get to see how greed can make the obtaining the Living Blood to be deadly, to those close to the source. There are too many other plots to mention all at once, but I would recommend going out and getting this book for exciting suspenseful reading.
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Summary: exciting and suspensefull !!
Review: Tannarive Due's The Living Blood has got to be one of the best novels out this year. She has showed herself to be on par with the likes of Octavia Butler. I won't go into the details of the book because the other reviews have done that, let it be enough to say that you would be doing yourself a favor by picking up both this book and all of her other ones. Well done Ms. Due! Well done.
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Summary: Superlative, excellent portrayal of subject matter.
Review: Due's expertise in storytelling is spellbinding. I could barely contain myself while reading. Usually I skip over geographical details but The Living Blood held my interest as the story bobs and weaves in and out of Florida and Africa. Some passages even made my heart beat faster, I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. several nights trying to second-guess the outcome. One example was when Due mentioned the mummy-like figure. I was moved to tears when I found out who it was. Fana exemplified all of the traits of a child responsive to psychic forces. Her child's response to these powers were unpredictable, and I was caught up in the experience in the airport. Jessica wrestled with loyalty to humanity and was tossed between making decisions relating to her child and her husband. Dawit and the Life Brothers made me think a lot about human nature in that, jealousy can be a dangerous thing. I identified with Jessica's fear with each step in the tunnel thru the Bee Colony. I saw greed and love of family mortality in this work. I had to fight the urge to turn to the conclusion at the back of the book when Due talked about the storm and how Alex, her sister and Lucas Shepard were involved. The past and present were interwoven with intricate detail and imagination. I loved the book!!! Hopefully there is a contining saga. Due's book of The Living Blood is a statement that "love does conquer all", in my opinion.
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Summary: What a story
Review: There are two types of books to read. Some books are for learning and gaining insight. Others are for pure enjoyment, to take a journey and experience a world totally unfamiliar to the reader. For this, Tananarive Due should be well rewarded. Reading The Living Blood is to take a journey to a far and distant place, both geographically and spiritually. Ms. Due allows her readers to become totally submerged in the characters lives and thier psychic. Unlike many other reviewers of this book, I have not read My Soul to Keep, therefore, reading The Living Blood was fresh and brand new for me. That is the good part, even though this book is a follow-up to My Soul to Keep, it totally stands on its own, one doesn't have to read the former in order to grap a hold of the characters in this book. The Living Blood is not scary, simply mind provoking. It makes you stop and think. Are there really people out there like this? Her characters will remain with you long after the book in finished. Tananarive Due is an author like none other, her writing style and imagination are both without limits or boundaries. I will anxiously await her next novel and would recommend her novels to any serious reader.
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Summary: Loved It
Review: This is an intriguing follow-up to My Soul to Keep. The original characters, Jessica, Dawit, and Alex are back along with some new faces that make the novel both thrilling and mysterious to read. The novel opens with the birth of Jessica and Dawit's daughter Fana. We had a hint of what Fana was like in My Soul to Keep, but we find there's much more to who and what Fana is and will become. What's more, it is Jessica's responsibility to care for Fana while trying to put the past and her past love for Dawit behind her even after the three of them are finally reunited. Due does an excellent job in taking the reader through a series of twist and turns without being confusing or neglectful of character development. I enjoyed this exploration of the unknown and what ifs, and recommend this to all readers. P.S.: For the faint of heart, the novel is not scary.
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Summary: My Best Book of 2001...great SEQUEL!
Review: First off, I have to say, I have not and probably will not read a book this year that is as gripping and thick and suspenseful and deep as Tananarive Due's sequel to "My Soul to Keep" -- THE LIVING BLOOD. For those who have read "My Soul to Keep" (and if you haven't, RUN to get it), THE LIVING BLOOD begins five years after the death of David/Dawit, Jessica's husband. Jessica has moved to Africa, along with her sister and three-year-old daughter. To aid in closing the lid of a painful past, Jessica focuses on running a clinic that miraculously assists in the curing of extremely ill children. But it's not that easy for Jessica to forget her past, for it lives within her, in her blood...and in her young daughter's, who has powers well beyond any living person ...mortal or immortal. Jessica's daughter is the first child to be born with the living blood, and this fact does not sit well with the immortals who dwell the Earth...immortals who have lived hundreds of years, and would want nothing more than to see the prodigal child terminated. Jessica's child can be the key to revealing the immortals to the real world...either sparking a union or battle that may destroy civilization. I don't think I could write a review that adequately displays my joy in reading this book. The 500 plus pages of the novel initially daunted me, but the ease in which Due writes makes for a voraciously fast-paced read. The characters jump off the page, and the descriptions of the settings are so vivid. Due writes this unique story so well, that you almost ask yourself if what she's writing about is real...that's some great fiction. I adored this novel and the breadth of which Due wrote it. It's a DEFINITE must have on every book shelf. Reviewed by Shonie
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Summary: Best read in a long time!
Review: The only thing better than Tananarive Due's new book, "The Living Blood" is part one to that story, "My Soul To Keep". This book has characters that really draw you in and make you feel. It's very intriguing. Although it's fiction, the way it is so intelligently written makes you stop and wonder... that these events could have actually taken place. It's believable! I could not put the book down. I read it in 24 hours! The writing style keeps you turning the pages with more and more interest. It's some of the very best storytelling I've ever encounted.
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