Holly Luhning

2.5 stars. I had this on my Kindle for about a year & have decided in 2013 to get some of the lingerers read & done. The best thing I can say is that my task was completed & I finished reading this book. It was well written but a true slog.

Dani annoyed me for much of the story because I was able to see that Maria was a serious problem & not a very nice person but Dani was pulled in & dismissed just about everything because she believed Maria's story about Bathory's diary. It just reached a point with the chaos ensuing that I no longer cared about Dani & her obsession. Foster was quite interesting but even that bit of the story unravelled for me. The excerpts of the diary were fairly harrowing but they didn't really anchor anything else going on with the story to feel to me as anything but a macabre sideshow. I lost the will to gawk long before Dani so it was a bit wasted on me. The epic finale/showdown fell a bit flat because of course that was going to be the outcome & the reader figured it out hundreds of pages earlier. That said, Dani does have growth as a character by story's end, so that's better than nothing.… (altro)

I will defer on the summary of the book to the previous reviewer as she gives a good assessment of the plot. I also started the book with high expectations although I had never heard of the mass murderer, Elizabeth Bathory but I also had some problems with the book. The first 80 pages I was really into it and looking forward to the rest. But then things break down for me. I have never read a main character with as little spine as the psychologist Danica. Everything her friend Maria tells her she believes and virtually everything Maria tells her to do - she does. Secondly, almost every character in the book knows about and is captivated by this obscure countess who died hundreds of years ago. - really hard to believe. Lastly, she telegraphs the ending like a slow fastball over the heart of the plate with about 150 pages to go. Readable but it sputters to its end.… (altro)