Helpful Score: 3
A disappointment. Barkis had a good idea but it's not nearly as interesting as it should be. Three stars.
Helpful Score: 2
Here is a first novel like no other: a spellbinding tale that both creates its own fully realized world perspective and provides an incisive look at the ways that humans and animals resemble each other.
A group of elegand monster dogs in top hats, tails, and bustle skirts become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008. Refugees from a town whose residents had been utterly isolated for a hundred years, the dogs retain the nineteenth-century Germanic culture of the humans who created them. They are wealthy and glamorous and seem to lead charmed lives - but they find adjusting to the modern world difficult, and when a young woman, Cleo Pira, befriends them, she discovers that a strange, incurable illness threatens them all with extinction.
When the dogs construct their dream home, a fantastic castle on the Lower East Side, and barricade themselves inside, Cleo finds herself one of the few human witnesses to a mad, lavish party that may prove to be the final act in the drama of the lives of the monster dogs.
A group of elegand monster dogs in top hats, tails, and bustle skirts become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008. Refugees from a town whose residents had been utterly isolated for a hundred years, the dogs retain the nineteenth-century Germanic culture of the humans who created them. They are wealthy and glamorous and seem to lead charmed lives - but they find adjusting to the modern world difficult, and when a young woman, Cleo Pira, befriends them, she discovers that a strange, incurable illness threatens them all with extinction.
When the dogs construct their dream home, a fantastic castle on the Lower East Side, and barricade themselves inside, Cleo finds herself one of the few human witnesses to a mad, lavish party that may prove to be the final act in the drama of the lives of the monster dogs.
Helpful Score: 1
I'm going to try and start reading this book again. I found it difficult to identify with the characters and not a whole lot of suspense from the beginning to prompt me to read to the end.
Helpful Score: 1
Finally, a rating system that lets me rate this book as low as I want to: 1/2 star. This is the worst book that I have read in years.
Helpful Score: 1
Bakis creates an interesting Frankenstein-ian situation, where sentient bipedal dogs rebel against their creator and attempt to join modern American society. Lovely and bittersweet.
