The Five of Cups [Hardcover]

This isn't for the faint of heart. If you want an author to coddle you along, hold your hand and give you characters for the non-sociopathic to identify with, maybe TFoC isn't for you.

On the other hand, if you're up for a balls-to-the-wall "Kill Bill" variety of read, Caitlin delivers and HOW. (OK, it's a loose comparison- no martial arts in TFoC, or Uma Thurman either, but a similar level of bloodshed and a bit of a revenge theme.)

I'm sure the flaws she details in the intro exist. I really didn't notice. Sometimes the heart of a work can really make (debatable) flaws either meaningless or integral.

And truly it's a look at where Caitlin's current work started, which is quite interesting in and of itself. If you enjoy her other work I'd recommend it just for that aspect. Her prose is ALWAYS lovely and carefully wrought, whatever she is doing with it. Her short stories are usually my very favorite of her work, but TFoC was definitely worth buying in hardback. (And while I'm a voracious reader, there are a very few authors that I bother to buy in hardback.) And what a lovely cover!

I'm not going to go into a summary of the plot. Buy the book already!

Gin is a troublesome vampire who has very little will to live. Made into a vampire against her will, she always needs to go against the rules and laws of the dark world she lives in. She kills remorselessly and answers to no one but herself. Even her creator, a two hundred year old vampire (who is also a very rich, very cold-blooded killer), has no control over her. Because of the many mistakes Gin has made, he now wants to stop her before she uncovers the vampire world to humans. But to stop her, he much first catch her, something that is easier said than done.

There are a few very powerful scenes in this book that you will not soon forget. At one point, Gin enters a church to confess her sins. Her visit ends in a bloodbath. The whole scene plays with a very powerful mix of sorrow and rage that seems to jump right off the page. But these moments aren't enough to save the otherwise tepid narrative.

There is very little to like in these characters. It's almost as if the author is trying to turn you off. Instead of telling us what these vampires are all about, she tells us nothing about them until the very end, when it's too late for us to care for any of them (the flashback sequences, however, are some of the most amazing moments in this book). We all know that reading a Cailtin Kiernan novel isn't usually a happy experience. Her stories are dark, emotional and very depressing. But this time, she crosses the fine line between being impactful and too depressing.

The Five of Cups feels too episodic and sligthly unfinished. It's almost as if the author gave up halfway through writing the book and finished it in a hurry. Caitlin Kiernan has written some great fiction, but this is far from presenting what she's really capable of. The Five of Cups isn't a bad book, it's just not a very good one.