Ginette B. (Niteowl7) reviewed on 1/9/2008 + 242 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

The Narcissus referred to in this book, "Narcissus in Chains", is a hermaphrodite who owns an S&M Club. He/she is a nasty piece of work who loves to seriously torture people, vampires, werecreatures; anything that moves. She is called to Narcissus' club to rescue two of her friends, Nathaniel and Gregory, who are being tortured by some patrons of the club. I use the word "patrons" loosely because they're into real torture not playful sadism and they happen to be wereserpents. (Whoever heard of such a thing? I've never encountered "wereserpents" in anything I've ever read but Hamilton puts them to effective, evil use in her plot). They're a nasty bunch who pop up to give Anita and friends grief at the end of the book. Getting Nathaniel and Gregory out of the torture room proves much harder than initially thought.

The bizarre plot just moves on from there with more twists and turns. Richard's group of werewolves is falling apart mainly due to his attempts at democratic leadership. He's also announced to his group that Anita will no longer be the female leader in the near future and that he's looking for a replacement. To make matters even worse between them, the werewolves have imprisoned Gregory in a deep, dark, very smelly pit in preparation for his execution. The charge? Anita's murder. Even though they know Anita is alive, the fact that they misunderstood a previous event and voted for Gregory's death still stands. Talk about stubborn! Richard refuses to interfere though he has all the power to do so. He cites the groups' votes as more the be-all and end-all, refusing to take up any veto power. But I knew part of his refusal was his animosity towards Anita.

Then Anita finds herself under the increasing power of the ardeur and finds she needs more and more "food" as time goes by. Yep, Anita is well on her way to becoming a living succubus. Not only is Anita needing to feed the ardeur through sex with more partners but she finds herself drawn to drawing blood from her too willing victims and reveling in the sight of that blood. Is vampirism next on Anita's agenda? We must read and see. But frankly, after this book and others that came after, I think Anita has her hands full just with the ardeur. That and all the rescuing activities she gets involved in.

Oh, and I forgot she also has boyfriends. Jean-Claude is her main boyfriend and Richard has been delegated to a working relationship though most of the time it hardly works due to Richard's rage, stubborness and idealism.

So, lots of stuff is going on in this book and despite the increasingly weird subplots, I enjoyed it. There's some steamy sex here and there but if you're looking for really steamy, hot sex, read Hamilton's "Danse Macabre". "Narcissus in Chains" is stronger in plot and has such interesting characters. The only thing I didn't like is seeing Anita starting to become harder and more dominant in her actions and personality. I know characters need to grow but do they have to get worse instead of better? I also saw this negative part of Anita more prevalent in "Danse Macabre" and it was all I could do to keep myself from reaching inside the pages and smacking her.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details