Violin

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Well unlike many of you I enjoyed the Book very much. True its different from her other Novels, but it was really well done.

Rating:
Summary: Run away!
Review: I can't believe this book made it to print. I love Anne Rice. Her gift is incredible but this book did not show it. Reading this book was kin to riding along on someone elses acid trip. It rambled on. At one point I wanted to fling the book out my window into the rain. If you have never read Anne Rice and want to pick up one of her books.....Don't choose this one.

Rating:
Summary: could not finish!
Review: I like many others here have read most, if not all of Anne's books. For the life of me I could not finish this one! I found myself skipping pages and looking at the last page of the book. This is something I haven't done since I was 11 years old.

There seemed to be no real connection between Stephan and Triana. Sentences were disjointed and bewildering to follow or understand. It's like she went on a really bad acid trip and decided to write a book about it.

Rating:
Summary: Dissonance
Review: I've read much of Rice, and enjoyed quite a bit of it, but this book astonished me in how incredibly atrocious it was. The style was purple enough to induce vomiting, tremors, and tears. I ended up throwing the novel away, and I've never done that before, but I felt I had to protect myself and others. This low quality isn't typical of her work, and is probably the result of some degenerative brain disease.

Rating:
Summary: A book that the fans will love
Review: I do think that this book was more autobiographical than many of her former ones. The daughter, Lily, that died of luekemia, (I think Rice's daughter died of Leukemia), the fact that Rice was often criticized for formulating novels with beautiful svelte heroines though she herself is (as the book describes) "Rubenesque". Rice had promised to write a novel with a "rubenesque" protagonist prior to this.Well, all that aside, this was a mediocre novel from a writer who can be truly great. No one can write with as much dimension and lushness as Rice on a good day.I guess I expected more. Rice will be remembered, her great books will stand the test of time. This one won't be one of them. Much like Stephen King, his greatests are unparalleled, but there is so much filler in between.

Rating:
Summary: Violin - it wasn't GREAT
Review: The book was okay. Not horrible. Took a long while to read, unlike others which were easy to progress through. Pandora was worse than this.

Rating:
Summary: Beatiful but lacking
Review: I found Violin to be a beatiful novel, though if I did not read it with aide of an audio book I would not have been able to complete it. The story was powerful, and sucked me in.The beginning was painfully emotional and disturbing (disturbed is all that I can feel when reading about a woman who stays in her house with her dead husband for days until she and he are discovered.) I would not recommend this book for those who must have a fast action sequence, nor to those who find emotion sappy and boring. This book is frequently criticized for it's suspected autobiographical qualities, but what book is not autobiographical of it's author in some form? I'm sorry if the thought of an author with a story about one's self worth telling disturbs you, and truly suggest you culture yourself more.

Rating:
Summary: Lacks signature spellbinding character development
Review: Simply put, Violin lacks the beautiful character development of Anne Rice's better novels. I felt no emotional connection to her characters, which made this book a difficult read.

If you've read the Witching Hour, you'll be sorely disappointed with Violin.

Rating:
Summary: One Star is TOO much
Review: I gave this book one star because zero wasn't available.

Anne Rice has always been marvelous at drawing mental pictures for me as I read her books. This one drew mental blanks.

Actually, the story line is very good. The ghost, the history, the intertwining stories of the Russian prince and the New Orleans Socialite were intriguing. But the excess of words! Rice's flowery writing has always caused her stories to soar. In this one, the prose was a boat anchor. For a while, I reread every paragraph trying to figure out what she had said, but finally gave up. I had to force myself to finish it.

Rating:
Summary: A Symphony of Words...but unlike Rice's usually pieces!
Review: This was beautiful and erratic all at once. It was written with a foreward stating that it should have been a musical and not a book. This is so true. If you are someone who needs to have the plot presented to you...don't read this book. If you are someone who hates blurrs of reality and visions that are emotional and painful...don't read this book. If you are someone who can't confront death, and the painful abuse of life...don't read this book. BUT, if you enjoy being taken on a trip to an unknown destination, with emotional burdens, and the supernatural realm (in which only Rice can present,) then embrace this book with your soul as wholehearted as you can. And don't be afraid to feel for the characters or to weep for them. After all, symphonies usually do make the sensitive strike a tear.