Onegin, the main protagonist, travels to the country where he meets the idealistic poet Lensky, who introduces him to the sisters Olga (whith whom Len...moreOnegin, the main protagonist, travels to the country where he meets the idealistic poet Lensky, who introduces him to the sisters Olga (whith whom Lensky is in love) and Tatiana (who falls in love with Onegin). So starts this story of love, life, innocence and jaded young dandies who can only love what they cannot have.
This is one of my favourite books of all time. I have read it countless times and I am sure I will continue coming back to it again and again.
It is so simple yet so beautiful and the poetry is incomparable (in original at least, I am not sure what the translation is like).
We had to learn certain passages off by heart at school and, astonishingly, this was one of the very few books that we had to read as part of the curriculum, when I did not mind, in fact, was eager to do so. Tatiana and Onegin were more real to me than many of the people I know today. I remember reciting bits over and over again aloud to myself pretending that I was Tatiana. I WAS Tatiana. Restless and drunk on love, staying up half the night and writing poetry to my first crush (alas, never sent) and crying with her over Onegin's letter at the end.
Tatiana to me is one of the best written female characters in all of literature. She has depth, intelligence, passion but, most of all, integrity. Whereas Onegin is charmingly decadent and devoid of morals and gets his come-uppance well and truly in the end.
If I had to sum up this book in one word, that word would be fun. This is not a message book or a portrayal of anything. It is just an exceptionally e...moreIf I had to sum up this book in one word, that word would be fun. This is not a message book or a portrayal of anything. It is just an exceptionally entertaining urban fantasy with a feisty queen of witty come backs heroine and a dark mysterious sex god of a hero with tortured past, no thinking required. It was precisely what I was looking for.
The heroine, Charley Davidson ("There's a certain responsibility that comes with having a name like Charley Davidson. It brooks no opposition. It takes shit from no one. And it lends a sense of familiarity when I meet clients. They feel like they know me already. Sort of like if my name was Martha Washington or Ted Bundy.") is a grim reaper. Or rather, she is the grim reaper. She sees the dead, the dead see her (apparently, she is very bright) and she helps them to cross to the other side by passing through her:
"...my job was to lead people into the light. Aka, the portal. Aka, me. But it didn't always go smoothly. Kind of like leading a horse to water and whatnot."
Charley works as a private investigator and also helps the police (namely, her Uncle Bob and her dad before him) to solve crimes (it is much easier to do that if you can ask the deceased who killed them) and every night for the past month she has been having wet dreams featuring a dark stranger who materialized out of smoke and shadows.
At the start of the book, Charley is woken up from one of those dreams and is thrust directly into a murder mystery which will lead her to several near death experiences, some discoveries about the world and her purpose in it and Reyes Farrow, a man she has only met once before but who has left quite an impression.
Charley's character is what made this book for me. She posesses that rare gift of which I am eternally jealous and appreciative. And that is humour. Charley is a hoot. And while Darynda Jones does go too far at times (Charley telling Garrett Swopes, aka Mr. tall, dark and skeptic, the names of her breasts was funny, until you realise that she is actually serious and she has named her own breasts and refers to them by their names during sex) but overall, I loved Charley and her witticisms. And I am totally looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.(less)
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