Rating: 
Summary: Normal guys drink blood
Review: Nice to see a book that showcases both the essences of magik and the normalcy of vampires. Nasaw brings to the front the more palitable side of things most perceive as dark and evil. He shows that magik, love, and the thirst for blood can be as normal an existance as Leave it to Beaver. Never mind that someone is out to destroy all three! The suspenseful nature of the writing, along with the sympathetic characterizations makes this work a non-stop thrill. I loved the sense of humor, the emotion, and the richness of the story. It was definite a must read for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Will the real Wiccans please stand up?
Review: There is a reviewer below who feels grateful to this book for giving him useful information about the Wiccan culture, and so I feel obligated to write this review.Jonathan Nasaw's treatment of Wicca in this novel is nothing short of slander. He either did no research into what real Wiccans do and believe, or else he shoved his research aside in favor of sensationalism. Nasaw's Wiccans recite the Catholic Mass backward in their rites; they include an orgy in every ritual; and they perpetrate nasty revenge when they feel wronged. And to add to the inaccuracy, these are supposed to be Dianic Wiccans. Dianism is a subsect of Wicca that focuses on the female aspect of divinity and holds women-only rituals. No way would Dianic Wiccans have a ritual orgy with a bunch of men. Nasaw's view of Wicca is straight out of the Malleus Maleficarum. It would have been OK if he'd just called the women "witches"; it's a vague word that means different things to different people. But he is using the name of a specific religion, and so he has a responsibility to learn something about it before he writes about it. Why? Because people, like the reviewer below, will think he speaks the truth. If you want to read fiction about Wiccans--real Wiccans, not Nasaw's personal fantasy--try Yvonne Jocks's _Words of the Witches_ or Rosemary Edghill's _Bast Mysteries_. The people in these books are much closer to the reality. Oh, and by the way, this book is also a violent gore-fest, with scene after scene of gross-out substituted for the plot.
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