Promising Title!
The Prologue introduces Varya in all her 13 year old maiden glory. that she now has "fur" alerts readers to the potential of human to animal immorality. But no.
Instead, the Gold family has a good father and a barely endurable mother. Led by younger brother Daniel, Varya and siblings Simon and Klara sneak away to find a woman who allegedly can predict the date of a person's death.
Readers have time to ponder whether they would also want this maybe certain knowledge. The woman tells each child one by one and they instantly change: Daniel
now steely and angry, Karla crying and sad, Simon sad, furious, and rebelling, Varya still mistrustful, but happy to have the promised 88 year life.
At this point, the plot was so mesmerizing that I went back to read the Prologue again to be sure nothing was missed. Suspense mounts as Simon nears the death date. By this time, he and Karla have secretly moved to San Francisco's Castro District of the 60s where he quickly enjoys all the gay life offered to a new young man. Unfortunately, he also shows little character as he takes unprotected chances on getting the new 'Gay Disease.' He chooses not to tell his loyal and loving partner, Robert, of his decision to take a chance on killing them both. Offering Robert a choice
would have been fair and decent. Karla seems not at all concerned that her brother turns into a passive murderer.
Readers not turned off by his actions and intrigued by magic, Las Vegas cruelty to tigers, and Karla's circus performances of The Jaws of Life will wonder about fate vs
self-fulfilling prophecy as she takes her own life on her preordained death day.
Why did she choose to punish her husband and child rather than to wait and see?
This path was way too predictable given her obsession with her grandmother's death
and Simon's knocking.
As if 3 suicides - by risk, by hand, and the truly improbable by cop - weren't enough to overflow a plot, readers are subjected to the bristling horror of an Animal Experimentation Lab and may wish that Varya had defeated the prophecy and killed herself before setting up yet another unneeded, cruel experiment which destroys
Frieda's existence. Depriving animals of their real life in a pitiful human quest for more spurious data yields nothing but more people with no character, including Luke who should have gone directly to PETA. Still more horrifying, neither he nor Varya do anything to save Frieda from more pain. Hal and the entire University of Wisconsin Primate Lab would be proud.
I obviously felt no connection or cared about the fates of any of the main characters
and only, at times, about the minor ones - Ruby, Raj, Eddie, and, of course, Robert.
Instead, the Gold family has a good father and a barely endurable mother. Led by younger brother Daniel, Varya and siblings Simon and Klara sneak away to find a woman who allegedly can predict the date of a person's death.
Readers have time to ponder whether they would also want this maybe certain knowledge. The woman tells each child one by one and they instantly change: Daniel
now steely and angry, Karla crying and sad, Simon sad, furious, and rebelling, Varya still mistrustful, but happy to have the promised 88 year life.
At this point, the plot was so mesmerizing that I went back to read the Prologue again to be sure nothing was missed. Suspense mounts as Simon nears the death date. By this time, he and Karla have secretly moved to San Francisco's Castro District of the 60s where he quickly enjoys all the gay life offered to a new young man. Unfortunately, he also shows little character as he takes unprotected chances on getting the new 'Gay Disease.' He chooses not to tell his loyal and loving partner, Robert, of his decision to take a chance on killing them both. Offering Robert a choice
would have been fair and decent. Karla seems not at all concerned that her brother turns into a passive murderer.
Readers not turned off by his actions and intrigued by magic, Las Vegas cruelty to tigers, and Karla's circus performances of The Jaws of Life will wonder about fate vs
self-fulfilling prophecy as she takes her own life on her preordained death day.
Why did she choose to punish her husband and child rather than to wait and see?
This path was way too predictable given her obsession with her grandmother's death
and Simon's knocking.
As if 3 suicides - by risk, by hand, and the truly improbable by cop - weren't enough to overflow a plot, readers are subjected to the bristling horror of an Animal Experimentation Lab and may wish that Varya had defeated the prophecy and killed herself before setting up yet another unneeded, cruel experiment which destroys
Frieda's existence. Depriving animals of their real life in a pitiful human quest for more spurious data yields nothing but more people with no character, including Luke who should have gone directly to PETA. Still more horrifying, neither he nor Varya do anything to save Frieda from more pain. Hal and the entire University of Wisconsin Primate Lab would be proud.
I obviously felt no connection or cared about the fates of any of the main characters
and only, at times, about the minor ones - Ruby, Raj, Eddie, and, of course, Robert.