Kirsten Imani Kasai

Kirsten Imani Kasai's books are so weird and unique, they stay with you for a long time. I've mentioned already that Ice Song was a very mad, visually bizarre, wild ride, but I quite liked it.

You certainly can not shove Ice Song series into any one catergory. There is a generous part of fantasy, a bit of dystopia with a sprinkle of sci-fi and even erotica present all of which confound and lure you deeper into the intricate plot. Very visual and quite dark, Tattoo just like its predecessor explores the corporate greed and the world of vice in a setting similar to Alaska during Gold Rush.

The characters feel like they just stepped out from Rocky Horror Show - vivid, dramatic and always askew:

Sorykah who is desperately trying to reject her curse and live a normal life; her selfish , impulsive and naive male counterpart - Soryk. Chen, Matuk's son, drowning his emptiness in drugs, slowly dying Sidra The Lovely, the queen of the hidden forest kingdom of mutants...

The writing is complicated and doesn't flow very well, it took me awhile to get through it. Kirsten's work is not for everyone, and you won't be able to understand the second book without reading the first (even then it's not guaranteed), but there is a certain beauty in its madness, which I found unforgettable.… (mehr)

Egalley thanks to Random House

This book reads like a mad inventor's fairy-tale. I love crazy, but sometimes it was too much even for me. That's why I think I'm having difficulties describing what I feel about this book.

You've read the synopsis, right? A mad, mad world full of genetic mutations, hard work and extreme climates.

Sorykah is a Trader, a rare mutation with genetic make-up of two people. Her other half, Soryk has been suppressed all her life and only comes out for short spurs of time when Sorykah's body goes through too much stress. Sorykah doesn't remember what happens when she is male, Soryk doesn't know he is a Trader and blames what he can't remember on memory loss.

Sorykah has baby twins, who get kidnapped by an absolutely mad monstrous Collector of rare mutations, and the poor woman has to go through numerous trials and tribulations to save her babies. It's a classic fairy tale but from a very twisted angle.

I look back and all I can see is a slew of images imprinted on my brain after I finished this book...

Sorykah's dogs get eaten by a giant seal; Dunya, the dog-faced housekeeper of Collector's house keeps the children safe in her kitchen; Soryk falls in love with mutants' Queen who hides her people in the big trees of the forest; Sorykah goes to Collector's son, a sexual deviant who lives on an island where pleasure is the only ruler; Soryk cuts his little finger to use as a key to Collector's house; merged personality, mad battles, weird hazy conversations, torture and evil experiments....

Mad enough for you?

It's an undeniably unique and interesting book, it's gripping, frustrating and exhausting with plenty of fascinating secondary characters. Will I read book #2? I guess I will when I feel brave enough.… (mehr)

For me, this is more of an interesting spin on an adult fairy tale, but not enough to slot it into that category. The frozen land of the Sigue is one that contains an Isle of Mourning, a Bay of Sorrows and even a Erun Forest - with a Wooded Beast that roams it - located at the base of the Glass Mountains. It is a world of somatics, outcasts that are part human, part creature in a world where genetic mutation has altered things and a world in which Sorykah is determined to "slay her dragon", the Collector. The story was very slow in the beginning - great detailed description but a bit too much description - to the point where, 100 pages in, I was starting to grow bored with it. I am glad I stuck with it. The story - meaning the plot - does improve. The sex orgy on the Isle of Mourning and the other various sexual innuendos could have been minimized, along with some repetition of the story, but that is just my opinion. lastly, I cannot picture Sorykah as the girl on the cover..... the cover art gives a very different impression of the story between the covers!

For a debut novel that fits into a genre I don't usually read, this ended up being an okay story for me.... a little on the long side at some 372 pages - could have easily cut 50-75 pages from it and I blame the editors for that - but overall okay.… (mehr)