Rating: 
Summary: Second Effort Clearly Establishes Christopher Rice
Review: While I found THE SNOW GARDEN much more challenging than Christopher Rice's first novel, A DENSITY OF SOULS, I did enjoy it very much. Rice does a very fine job in his second work. He is clearly a well educated and talented writer whose level of sophistication belie his young age. Rice's work reflects layers of depth, good abilities at a variety of writing techniques that endeavor to keep the reader engaged and continuing with the story. His characters are well developed and interesting. The maturity of Rice's writing is much more typical in seasoned writers in their fifth or sixth efforts. All of this reflects a most promising writer worth staying with as he develops even greater skill and maturity on his own developmental path as a writer.THE SNOW GARDEN revolves principally around four prominent characters and a number of lesser. Randall, Kathryn and Jesse are college students in their first year at an east coast Ivy League school. Eric is a professor of art who also plays an important role throughout the story. Each of the students come to college with a desire to "re-create" themselves and leave behind parts of their former selves. Rice captures the developmental transitions normal for college students quite well. Beyond this, he draws these characters into an involved story that is ultimately a thriller. While there were aspects of the novel that I found uninteresting -- the works of Hiyeronimus Bosch the fifteenth century artist who depicts his philosophy of heaven and hell through his paintings. While Rice uses Bosch quite appropriately throughout the story, I just personally couldn't relate to the discussions of Bosch's intent which are taken up at points in the story.However, this is a matter of personal taste and I enjoyed the novel despite the biases I personally brought to it. All in all, with The Snow Garden, Christopher Rice establishes his place as a prominent writer in these early years of the twenty-first centuiry. I look forward to his future work. Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
Rating:
Summary: Sophomore Effort Worth the Read
Review: Although Christopher Rice's 2nd novel isn't as good or "charged" with passion as his first, "A Density of Souls," it does still reflect Rice's excellent writing style. His ability of visual description and dropping the clues to the reader throughout the entire book is astounding. He dangles the information in front of you and you're left with always wanting more. None of the characters are especially likeable once you find out their secrets and pasts, but Rice does have you interested in each and every one of their lives as you unravel the mysteries. This reader for one can't wait until Rice's 3rd novel...whatever it may be.
Rating: 
Summary: Most Twisted Book I've ever read
Review: I've posted a previous review where I gave a higher rating, but after some thought, and rereading through some of The Snow Garden, my view of it severly changed. The book is a void- a dark, twisted piece of writing (poorly written and paced at that) that is devoid of all hope. It's a shamble of sickness, without any real art to it. I enjoyed Rice's previous book, but regret buying The Snow Garden.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read!
Review: Christopher Rice might not have a lot sympathy by book critics mainly because they are just frustrated writers. They might be upset that his association with Anne Rice (mother) has made it easier for him to be on the spotlight and get a great publisher but the Snow Garden is one of the best thrillers I have ever read. The characters are compelling and interesting and the plot is just superb. By the time you finish the book you know that the movie is coming soon. I rarely find myself submerge on the pages of a book. Very few books have accomplished that for me (Memoirs of a Geisha, Pet Cemetery, Tom Clancy Novels). A great book you can relate to if you are a College student.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for Grown-ups
Review: Although this book drew me in at the beginning, it took some effort to finish. There are several implausible twists to the plot that are nearly humorous in their audacity--which I doubt was Rice's intention. The characters are of no great interest, and I didn't especially care what happened to them, as long as it happened quickly. Rather than appreciating the detail with which Rice writes, I often wished he would get to the bloody point. This book reminds one of those trashy V. C. Andrews books from the 1980's, but not as interesting. Perhaps the target audience is still in high school. Buy it used, or borrow a library copy.
Rating: 
Summary: Does so much, yet delivers so little
Review: After reading Rice's first book and enjoying it and I thought I'd give his second one a try. Unfortunately it seems as though he's run into a sophomore jinx. His book starts off promisingly and he begins to create a plot that does capture your attention. But as you read further, you begin to wonder what exaclty Rice wants the reader to be paying attention to. He jumps so often between the characters and their thoughts that you're not sure which character is offering just opinions and which one is offering facts. Also, I think Rice had so much riding on the whole "revelation" process at the end of the story that he leaves many holes in the parts leading up to it. Rice tries to create a sense of "mystery" around his characters by leaving many parts of their past a secret, but in the end, he just creates very shallow characters that are completely unrelatable. The ending appears to have been just thrown together. A lot of the "secrets" that are explained seem to come out of nowhere. And in the end there just seemed to be too much info coming at me at once. Also, I think there were just too many characters. It's a well written book. Rice uses words well and does have a creative style. His content, on the other hand does need a little fine tuning. He needs to learn how to pace his stories better and not rely so much on the whole "revelation" process to create drama. And subtley is not his forte, either.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read!
Review: I just finished "The Snow Garden" and it was really a great read.
Christopher Rice like is Father and Mother, has incredible natural talent. The characters were very complex. The story is bizzare, interesting, scary, realistic, and really drew me in and did not let go till the last page. No doubt there will be more to come from Christopher Rice, and I can't wait.
Rating:
Summary: No one is pure, even in the snow
Review: With a Density of Souls, I highly applauded the talent and potential that Christopher Rice showed as a writer, and then lamented the fall of the final 3rd of the book into a more hackneyed movie script. This time, he's gotten it right. I found it thoroughly engrossing so that I could not put the book down. His characters, while sometimes not fleshed out as much as one might like, all carry around layers of stories as to who they are. Set in a New England college during one winter, Rice takes the concept of using college, and a new beginning as a chance to reinvent ourselves to much higher levels. The story is a mystery, where none of the characters are who they seem to be, and bounces between modern day, when an accident may have been murder, and twenty years ago, when another accident may also have really been murder. It is hard to talk about any of the characters without chancing revealing more than should be. The book looks at how we may run from what we've been through, and try to reinvent ourselves in response, we never fully recover or escape the past. It's a mystery with twists, turns, false paths and revenge, all tied up in a character study of the supposedly mundane day to day life in a college setting. A fantastic effort from Rice that has great potential both for a film adaption, and for a possible follow-up down the road. Between his two books, Christopher Rice shows that he is a young writer of enormous potential on his own, and the Snow Garden should help put to rest some of the snide comments about riding on his mother's coattails. Christopher Rice is an author to watch.
Rating:
Summary: This apple didn't fall far from the tree...
Review: The SNOW GARDEN's very young author has a famous mother (Anne
Rice of INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE fame) and a poet father. It shows!
Far from being a novel that was published merely because "someone knew someone", Christopher Rice's writing style is polished, his pacing excellent, his story imaginative, creepy and gripping.
Not for the homophobic, this novel abounds with homo- and hetero-
sexual liasons, artistic and literary influences and "first year
at college" experiences. This novel is extremely suspenseful and a quick, if disturbing,
read.
Rating:
Summary: The past intrudes on the present...
Review: As Atherton College freshmen, Kathryn Parker, Randall Stone and Jesse Lowry are having markedly different collegiate experiences. Kathryn, coming off a traumatic high school relationship, is content to pursue an intense friendship with the openly gay Randall. Randall, in turn, has embarked on a secretive affair with his middle aged art history professor, Dr. Eric Eberman. The narcissistic Jesse has already had flings with a number of partners of both sexes. As if finding their place in the world was not enough, things become further complicated when Dr. Eberman's wife Lisa is killed in a car crash, apparently driving under the influence of alcohol. Randall, having passed out after nipping some booze from the Eberman's liquor cabinet, suspects that the professor may have in fact drugged his alcoholic wife, thus insuring that she was incapable of driving. The truth, which is tied to a death that occurred some two decades prior, is far more horrible. Like the characters in Rice's surprisingly accomplished debut novel, 2000's A Density of Souls, each protagonist has terrible secrets and surplus emotional baggage. Like those characters, they also drone on endlessly about their thoughts and feelings, unaware of how tedious they might sound to somebody on the outside. Their self-absorption can become annoying, until one remembers what was like to actually be that age. Still, Rice manages to create empathy for these damaged youths, despite their shortcomings. Despite Rice's lineage (he's the son of Anne and Stan Rice), the action is grounded in the "real" world, albeit a melodramatic world rife with pain and madness, a world peopled with all too human monsters. In this setting, he makes some telling points about the masks everyone wears, about humanity's endless capacity for self-deception, and about the power of ideas, especially as they effect the naïve and inexperienced among us. One does sense, however, that Rice has said all he has to say on these particular subjects, that he'd do well to explore new territory in his next novel. After all, a third consecutive "college gothic" might be pushing it.
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