Rating: 
Summary: A new classic
Review: A FACE WITHOUT A HEART is one of the best written and most compelling small press offerings I've seen in quite some time. If the plot is "thin" as one reviewer described it, then that would also make Wilde's "Dorian Gray" plot thin, as well, since both books have basically the same plot structure. Reed's writing is fresh, immediate and detailed. His plotting compels one to keep reading, without stopping, until the very last page. His novel is also more timely than Wilde's considering our times' fascination and obsession with youth and beauty. A stellar achievement!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: After buying this book based on the reader's reviews here, this reader was left disappointed.I found that this book was not so much a statement on the times we live in as an excuse for flashy look-at-me-I-went-to-writing-school excesses. The heaps of gratuitousness in this book did not impress me. Nor did the thin plot. I would have much rather spent the time re-reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: After buying this book based on the reader's reviews here, this reader was left disappointed. I found that this book was not so much a statement on the times we live in as an excuse for flashy look-at-me-I-went-to-writing-school excesses. The heaps of gratuitousness in this book did not impress me. Nor did the thin plot. I would have much rather spent the time re-reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
Rating:
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: After reading some of the glowing reviews here, I decided to read this book. It did not meet my expectations. I was very offended by all the violence, most of which didn't even seem necessary to carry the story along.
Rating: 
Summary: A modern-day version of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
Review: As a fiction writer, I generally like to come up with my own ideas. But a couple of years ago, I re-read Oscar Wilde's great book about a beautiful young man who stayed young while his portrait aged and the terrible price he paid for eternal youth. It struck me that Wilde's story was actually much more relevant today than it was when it was written. In contemporary times, the quest for youth and beauty and the disdain for old age has become almost an obsession. I thought an updated version could speak more explicitly to the theme of the quest for youth at almost any cost. I believe A Face Without a Heart does just that and brings out more graphically Wilde's ideas on homosexuality, the ravages of excess and the terrible cost one might pay in the pursuit of physical beauty, to the exclusion of the nourishment of the spirit and mind.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific reading!
Review: Face Without a Heart is set in modern Chicago and tells of love, aging, and a creator's uncertain destiny in a novel billed as a modern 'Picture of Dorian Gray'. The relationship between the two stories is more subtle than one would anticipate, with Reed's the darker of the two, depicting modern angst with unerring accuracy.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Read
Review: I had always been loved Oscar Wilde's story, The Picture of Dorian Gray, having read it several times throughout my life, beginning in grade school. When I learned that Rick R. Reed had updated this classic, bringing it into present day, I was intrigued. After I started reading the novel, though, I was really surprised because Reed had managed to capture the essence of Wilde's plotting and wit, while adding his own spin to things. In some ways, I feel that this version has more resonance, because of our current proclivity to worship at the alters of youth and beauty. Reed's story, too, is much more explicit than Wilde could have been in his day, but I think that the moral and physical degeneration depicted in A Face Without a Heart makes for a much more compelling read. A Face Without a Heart is peopled with fascinating characters whom Reed places squarely on the Gold Coast/party circuit milieu of urban Chicago. I literally could not put this book down until I read the very last page. A wonderful achievement!
Rating: 
Summary: Shocking Sex and Violence...yes!
Review: I've read Rick R. Reed's other two novels, OBSESSED and PENANCE. Both pushed the envelope on sex and violence while providing non-stop, page-turning suspense. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that the author was updating a classic: Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. I wasn't even sure I wanted to read the book, because I really liked Reed's first two gruesome, yet compelling novels. But Reed did it again with A FACE WITHOUT A HEART. The book is an amazingly quick read...can be gulped down easily in one sitting. Reed writes from the viewpoints of several different characters, among them a sassy drag queen who tells it like it is (modeled after Wilde's Lord Henry in the original). Reed's story, set in modern-day Chicago, is rife with drugs, sexual excess and heart-thudding violence, yet none of it is gratuitous. Reed brings out the homoerotic subtext of Wilde's original (that Wilde probably was unable to do in his day) and throws in a harrowing party scene that adds up to genuine horror. Reed's depiction of the underside of Chicago nightlife is frightening and it works, because it displays, with real accuracy, how nourishment of the physical can only result in malnutrition of the spirit. This is a solid novel and should be read by everyone who wonders what it would be like to stay young forever...hell, it should be read by anyone who appreciates a really good, keep you up at night, read.
Rating:
Summary: A gripping journey on cheating life but not one's heart
Review: Mr. Reed, I had a hard time putting "A Face" down. When I did, I couldn't wait to continue the next segment. With each page dragging me through familiar places, I found myself desiring a night with Gary. And although I figured out the plot and ending half way through, I found myself longing for your clever, descriptive verbiage as it cut into my own imagery. The ride was exciting and familiar - mostly in my darkest, hidden fantasies. I loved it! I recommend it. Thanks for the good time...
Rating:
Summary: A gripping journey on cheating life but not one's heart
Review: Mr. Reed, I had a hard time putting "A Face" down. When I did, I couldn't wait to continue the next segment. With each page dragging me through familiar places, I found myself desiring a night with Gary. And although I figured out the plot and ending half way through, I found myself longing for your clever, descriptive verbiage as it cut into my own imagery. The ride was exciting and familiar - mostly in my darkest, hidden fantasies. I loved it! I recommend it. Thanks for the good time...
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