Author: Skyler White
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-425-23234-7
Copy provided by the publisher.
Summary:
'In a dark and seedy underground of burned-out rock stars and angels-turned-vampires, a revolutionary neuroscientist and a fallen angel must pit medicine against mythology in an attempt to erase their tortured pasts . . . but at what price?
Olivia, vampire and fallen angel of desire, is hopeless . . . and damned. Since the fall from Eden, she has hungered for love, but fed only on desire. Dominic O'Shaughnessy is a neuroscientist plagued by impossible visions. When his research and her despair collide at L'Otel Mathillide -- a subterranean hell of beauty, demons, and dreams -- rationalist and angel unite in a clash of desire and damnation that threatens to destroy them both.
In this fractured Hotel of the Damned, Olivia and Dominic discover the only force consistent in their opposing realities is the deep, erotic gravity between them. Bound to each other finally in a knot of interwoven freedoms, Dominic and Olivia -- the vision-touched scientist and the earthbound angel, reborn and undead -- encounter the mystery of love and find it is both fall . . . and flight.'
I cracked open the pages of and Falling, Fly with a hint of trepidation entwined with the anticipation of intrigue. From the expectation of a world inhabited by paranormal beings and an emotional depth I could sink into, the summary stole my attention.
Mythic, drowned in damnation. Set in a modern world adjacent to our own where the setting is undeniably dark and imagination spreads like an endless vortex.
A war of modernity and desire churns, beating like a heart beneath the surface, influencing the actions and reactions revolving around the aims of the fallen angel turned vampire and Reborn scientist until desire moulds into love.
Part philosophical, part symbolic, it’s a tale devised from a quest of salvation for two, where every definition and reference made is open to interpretation. Unique, blunt, rich: it possesses a compelling storyline that hooks your attention from beginning to end.
Drawn inexorably toward one another at first sight, Olivia and Dominic partake of the position of opponents; each out to achieve desires long denied. Dominic representing modernity, Olivia: desire. They are the catalysts over the span of the book for which direction the future will take.
They contradict and contrast one another whilst complementing. The possibility of cancelling one another out as they vie for their own realities is a high one, but rather than falling flat or detracting from the plot or their budding relationship, the warring serves as an exploration for surrender and new desires.
The attraction between the two lies in the undercurrents of the granite-clad scenes, lurking in their interaction, their aims, their opposition of one another and the challenge presented. Beneath the layers of interpretation and perception, their war of modernity and desire, intertwines the raging comprehension and understanding of each other.
Natures entangle. Their vulnerabilities displayed on either side, their relationship branching and creating a new reality for both. The irony of fate unfolds. They both evolve, grow; the lines between reality and delusion bleeding together. The motivations behind actions spun from a love that binds rather than the initial longing for escape.
Dominic – led by logic and instinct, haunted by denial, lives for rationality. Olivia – accepting of the truth of her state with a need to surrender hope, is steeped in mystery. Leading to an edging closer of proximity of wants eclipsed by a search for freedom ensnared by fate.
What Olivia and Dominic have is complex but at its core – in its most basic form – it is an almost primitive essence, underlying their every interaction of one another. Demanding, raw and romantic in a way undenied, this fable of desire combusts with a steady heat beyond an ultimate sacrifice.
Secondary characters act as pivotal plot devices. Enemies have a more symbolic diversity; situations, objects or beings that take on abstract forms in one or numerous characters. Twists are a constant.
Loss, acceptance, transformation, love with an ever-present impression of destiny conquered and achieved, this book is marked by twin existences: survival and living. With an open ending to whether modernity or desire won, a twist on opening scenes, it turns full circle on the path of self-discovery.
First person and third, the novel unravels with the fusing and contrasting elements promised. Mythological, captivating, decadent -- like onyx churned with steel.
Throughout this bold Dark Fantasy, I was fully invested in both the female and male protagonist. I adored the darkness radiating from the plot and the age-old weariness that accompanied Olivia’s character. The natural, predatory-like darkness and the implications of the mechanisms of fate pounded against the contradictions and fervour of wants sustained – like liquid embers embanked on the mind long after devoured.
Deep, complex and bound by simplicity, and Falling, Fly is a double edged prong of opposites converging.
I am anticipating the hell out of In Dreams Begin....
Overall – an exotic entrance into a vast plane of darkness that possessed the shades of gray of character that any human does.
From a Victorian Ireland of magic, poetry and rebellion, Ida Jameson, an amateur occultist, reaches out for power, but captures Laura Armstrong, a modern-day graphic artist, instead. Now, for the man or demon she loves, each woman must span a bridge through Hell and across history . . . or destroy it.
“Every passionate man is linked with another age, historical or imaginary, where alone he finds images that rouse his energy.” W. B. Yeats
Anchored in fact on both sides of history, Laura and Ida, modern rationalist and fin de siècle occultist, are linked from the moment Ida channels Laura into the body of celebrated beauty and Irish freedom-fighter Maud Gonne. When Laura falls—from an ocean and a hundred years away—passionately, Victorianly in love with the young poet W. B. Yeats, their love affair entwines with Irish history and weaves through Yeats’s poetry until Ida discovers something she wants more than magic in the subterranean spaces in between.
With her Irish past threatening her orderly present and the man she loves in it, Laura and Yeats—the practical materialist and the poet magus—must find a way to make love last over time, in changing bodies, through modern damnation, and into the mythic past to link their pilgrim souls . . . or lose them forever.'
Review:
I cracked open the pages of and Falling, Fly with a hint of trepidation entwined with the anticipation of intrigue. From the expectation of a world inhabited by paranormal beings and an emotional depth I could sink into, the summary stole my attention.
Mythic, drowned in damnation. Set in a modern world adjacent to our own where the setting is undeniably dark and imagination spreads like an endless vortex.
A war of modernity and desire churns, beating like a heart beneath the surface, influencing the actions and reactions revolving around the aims of the fallen angel turned vampire and Reborn scientist until desire moulds into love.
Part philosophical, part symbolic, it’s a tale devised from a quest of salvation for two, where every definition and reference made is open to interpretation. Unique, blunt, rich: it possesses a compelling storyline that hooks your attention from beginning to end.
Drawn inexorably toward one another at first sight, Olivia and Dominic partake of the position of opponents; each out to achieve desires long denied. Dominic representing modernity, Olivia: desire. They are the catalysts over the span of the book for which direction the future will take.
They contradict and contrast one another whilst complementing. The possibility of cancelling one another out as they vie for their own realities is a high one, but rather than falling flat or detracting from the plot or their budding relationship, the warring serves as an exploration for surrender and new desires.
The attraction between the two lies in the undercurrents of the granite-clad scenes, lurking in their interaction, their aims, their opposition of one another and the challenge presented. Beneath the layers of interpretation and perception, their war of modernity and desire, intertwines the raging comprehension and understanding of each other.
Natures entangle. Their vulnerabilities displayed on either side, their relationship branching and creating a new reality for both. The irony of fate unfolds. They both evolve, grow; the lines between reality and delusion bleeding together. The motivations behind actions spun from a love that binds rather than the initial longing for escape.
Dominic – led by logic and instinct, haunted by denial, lives for rationality. Olivia – accepting of the truth of her state with a need to surrender hope, is steeped in mystery. Leading to an edging closer of proximity of wants eclipsed by a search for freedom ensnared by fate.
What Olivia and Dominic have is complex but at its core – in its most basic form – it is an almost primitive essence, underlying their every interaction of one another. Demanding, raw and romantic in a way undenied, this fable of desire combusts with a steady heat beyond an ultimate sacrifice.
Secondary characters act as pivotal plot devices. Enemies have a more symbolic diversity; situations, objects or beings that take on abstract forms in one or numerous characters. Twists are a constant.
Loss, acceptance, transformation, love with an ever-present impression of destiny conquered and achieved, this book is marked by twin existences: survival and living. With an open ending to whether modernity or desire won, a twist on opening scenes, it turns full circle on the path of self-discovery.
First person and third, the novel unravels with the fusing and contrasting elements promised. Mythological, captivating, decadent -- like onyx churned with steel.
Throughout this bold Dark Fantasy, I was fully invested in both the female and male protagonist. I adored the darkness radiating from the plot and the age-old weariness that accompanied Olivia’s character. The natural, predatory-like darkness and the implications of the mechanisms of fate pounded against the contradictions and fervour of wants sustained – like liquid embers embanked on the mind long after devoured.
Deep, complex and bound by simplicity, and Falling, Fly is a double edged prong of opposites converging.
I am anticipating the hell out of In Dreams Begin....
Overall – an exotic entrance into a vast plane of darkness that possessed the shades of gray of character that any human does.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5.
Recommended for those who are in pursuit of an intense read littered with a unique spin on perception.
'“Close your eyes tightly—tightly— and keep them closed . . .”
From a Victorian Ireland of magic, poetry and rebellion, Ida Jameson, an amateur occultist, reaches out for power, but captures Laura Armstrong, a modern-day graphic artist, instead. Now, for the man or demon she loves, each woman must span a bridge through Hell and across history . . . or destroy it.
“Every passionate man is linked with another age, historical or imaginary, where alone he finds images that rouse his energy.” W. B. Yeats
Anchored in fact on both sides of history, Laura and Ida, modern rationalist and fin de siècle occultist, are linked from the moment Ida channels Laura into the body of celebrated beauty and Irish freedom-fighter Maud Gonne. When Laura falls—from an ocean and a hundred years away—passionately, Victorianly in love with the young poet W. B. Yeats, their love affair entwines with Irish history and weaves through Yeats’s poetry until Ida discovers something she wants more than magic in the subterranean spaces in between.
With her Irish past threatening her orderly present and the man she loves in it, Laura and Yeats—the practical materialist and the poet magus—must find a way to make love last over time, in changing bodies, through modern damnation, and into the mythic past to link their pilgrim souls . . . or lose them forever.'
4 comments:
Wow Kayleigh, that was a beautiful review. I especially loved how you said that every sentence is open to interpritation. So, so true.
wow, great review hon!!!
Im still on the fence about this book... I need to get a review out on it though =/
xoxo
VampFanGirl - Thanks for the compliment and for hooking up via my followers! That open to interpretation stuff - where it'd drive some people absolutely nuts, I savoured.
Larissa - I understand where you're coming from. It isn't an easy book and definitely not for everyone. I'll keep a lookout for your review!
I've not read this book yet, but I must say, your review has made it sound both intriguing and compelling. A must for my collection.
I love the way you've expressed your thoughts and the story. One that I am now looking froward to tackling myself.
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