Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Book Review: Body Surfing

He'd been shot a dozen times before. Fourteen to be exact. Boris Petrovich Alushkin remained the worst. It was really, really hard to concentrate with a big hole in your temporal lobe, but two shotgun blasts to the chest was a close second. And then falling nine stories? F*** but that hurt. Thank God there was a Town Car idling on the curb to break his fall.
---Body Surfing, pg 176
Jasper and Q are best friends. They're "typical" teenage boys that like wild parties, girls and cars. A strange and sudden change in Q's behavior leads to dangerous consequences and a fatal car crash. Though Q should be dead, he walks away unharmed. Jasper, however, wakes up afterward in a body that is not his own. Ileana Magdalen is a hunter. A demon hunter. She roams the world searching for the Mogran, demons that have existed for millenia, "surfing" from one body to the next, leaving a wake of destruction and devastation. Together Jasper, Q and Ileana must hunt and vanquish Leo, the most heinous demon of all.

Body Surfing sounded like a fascinating book and I was really looking forward to reading it. The story is good and unfolds well throughout the 400 pages with prose that is, at times, quite beautiful and engaging. Dale Peck's writing flows in such a way that it's almost easy to miss the often grisly and bloody scenes that he describes.

Because this book is gruesome. Bloody and violent and horrific.

But that wasn't why I didn't like it.

I know, after saying all those nice things, you probably expected me to sing praises for this tale of good and very, very evil.

But I really didn't like it.

I should first tell you that I have a fairly high tolerance for things that should probably make me cringe.

BUT.

This book is about sex. Not so pure and not so simple. The demons possess whichever hosts they choose and move about from one body to the next by having sex. Which is described again and again in EVERY LAST DETAIL. To the point where I actually got annoyed and BORED during an attempted-rape scene. It was ridiculous. It's basically porn. Except that most of the sexually explicit scenes involve rape and violence.

To be perfectly honest, I got to the halfway point and was so disgusted that I finally just skimmed through the second half of the book, keeping track of the plot while ignoring many scenes. And I swear, if I'd had to read one more reference to male anatomy, I was seriously contemplating putting a hole in my own temporal lobe.

I've seen a few reviews that actually praised this book and I'm sure there are many that would disagree with me. This book was quite definitely not my taste.

However, for those of you that think it might be right up your alley, Body Surfing is available today in paperback, as well as hardcover and eBook format.



Many thanks to Atria books for giving me the opportunity to review another novel. I know this review wasn't what you were hoping for, and I'm sure the next one will be better!



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Posted by Karen Peterson
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at 12:00 AM
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13 comments:

  1. I've read books with so much sex that it becomes boring. That's BAAAD.
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  2. I almost got lost in just reading about the plot...throw in the sex and I'm completely lost. That doesn't sound like my kind of book either.
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  3. Someone at work was reading this and talking about how much they liked it. I'm glad I read your review before adding it to my list. Doesn't sound like my type of book at all.
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  4. I've read books like that. Haven't finished them either. They are just gross.
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  5. like you it sounds intriguing to me, but I'm betting I'd feel the same way about it. thanks for reviewing it!
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  6. Ewwwwww....why is it that some authors think that this is what the public wants to read about? I really can't STAND explicit sex scenes----they leave a nasty taste in my....well.....mouth....ugh.

    And rape? Unless it is a true story about someone getting through something like that----I abhore that type of writing!

    thanks for the review!
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  7. Ick. Don't you wonder about the author of a book like that? Although I guess if the person gets it all out in writing that's a good thing. Not my cup of tea to read, though.
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  8. I left something for you over on my blog! Check it out:
    http://www.confessionsofafitnessinstructor.com/2010/02/awards-code.html
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  9. hope they continue to send you books to review, because I loved the honesty.
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  10. 1. Like gypsy, I applaud your honesty, since they sent you the book to read and all. I almost don't read those "sponsored posts" that some bloggers do, because I figure they aren't truthful anyway.

    2. Like Stephanie, I was also thinking, what on earth is going on in someone's head to make them write something like this? Sex scenes in books don't bother me. Violent sex scenes do.
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  11. That's a bad one when you don't feel the need to read every word (or in some cases every page).

    I think I can safely skip the demon porn.
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  12. The gruesomeness was enough to make me stay away. Excessive rape scenes? No thanks.
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  13. I terrible at reading book...blogs im good with - but i prefer watching a movie / programme than reading it...

    just stopping by to return the love !!

    Cool blog..going to look around x
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"You know what they say. If you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me."

~Clairee Belcher, Steel Magnolias

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