Title: The VinesAuthor: Christopher Rice
First Published: October 21, 2014
Publisher: 47North
Pages: 228
Genre: Horror, LGBTQ, Paranormal, Suspense
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Rating:
Synopsis:
The dark history of Spring House, a beautifully restored plantation mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans, has long been forgotten. But something sinister lurks beneath the soil of the old estate.
After heiress and current owner Caitlin Chaisson is witness to her husband’s stunning betrayal at her birthday party, she tries to take her own life in the mansion’s cherished gazebo. Instead, the blood she spills awakens dark forces in the ground below. Chaos ensues and by morning her husband has vanished without a trace and his mistress has gone mad.
Nova, daughter to Spring House’s groundskeeper, has always suspected that something malevolent haunts the old place, and in the aftermath of the birthday party she enlists Caitlin’s estranged best friend, Blake, to help her get to the bottom of it. The pair soon realizes that the vengeance enacted by this sinister and otherworldly force comes at a terrible price.
Review
The Vines is a paranormal mystery about an heiress who unintentionally awakens something buried deep in the soil of her restored plantation house. I binged this book, it’s fast-paced and the first quarter of the book is easy to fly through, but when I finished I found that I didn’t feel all that strongly about the book. While there are some decently thrilling scenes and an intriguing mystery surrounding Spring House, I found the characters and the execution flat.
Despite the synopsis highlighting three characters, two felt underdeveloped and barely relevant to the plot. It becomes obvious that there is only really one main character that matters, and how he faces up to the past that has been haunting him for years. While this is good, it made the other characters feel like filler that dragged down the pacing. The ending also didn’t provide any kind of payoff and I found it cheesy. Overall the book was decent, Rice has a gift for description and it was entertaining for a while. I just didn’t find this one to be all that memorable.
Quote
“And he wonders if he has a space in his brain or in his soul for monsters and demons, or if he will, like most people, choose insanity when confronted with a fearsome reality.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Christopher Rice
Christopher Travis Rice is an American author. Rice has written novels including A Density of Souls, The Snow Garden, Light Before Day, Blind Fall, The Moonlit Earth, The Heavens Rise, The Vines as well as the novels in his Burning Girl series. He is the son of writer Anne Rice.
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