Title: Immortal
Author: Traci L. Slatton
Pages: 528
Yearly Count b: 67
Immortal,the story of Luca, Luca Bastardo. This is not a tale for the faint of heart, as it begins after Luca's parents have disappeared, while he is living on the streets and then shortly after captured and lives in a brothel in Florence in Renaissance Europe. And it goes much darker than that. Luca is also blessed (or cursed?) with an extraordinarily LONG lifespan. He will tell you his own secrets, if you read Immortal, but he is not like the rest who age and die, when he is 30 years old he still holds the youthful look of a 13 year old!
Enjoyable as this historical fiction novel was, it seemed just too dark and too full of gloom. I did enjoy it for long segments of the book, and then the story, the writing, and the characters seemed to drag on. It seemed slow, or too long, too many words that didn't say enough. Yet I did enjoy much of it, I was interested in the concepts and Luca, who could not love Luca!?
The last 50 pages or so locked me in and kept my attention and kept me hopping. Luca, oh beautiful Luca! What a life he lived! I was mesmerized by his resiliency, and his good heart. Despite all that happened to him, he still walked on. The idea of living forever, of the "gift" of the fountain of youth or immortality is an interesting one. Would immortality be a blessing or a curse? You would live, and live and all those you knew would die, and the generation after that would die as well. You could love, marry and bare children, but you would outlast them all...still looking youthful, you could start all over. But would the pain of all that you have seen be too much to let you love anymore? What do you think, is death the curse, or would the be curse being immortal in a world of mortals?
I read this book as part of the Literate Housewives book club (THANK YOU literatehousewife!!)
Traci L. Slatton author website
Have you reviewed Immortal? Give me your link :)
Other blogger reviews of Immortal:
Dar
Medieval Bookworm
BLOG.LITERATILY.COM
Books on the Brain
Bookroom Reviews
6 comments:
I am nto sure, I want to read something like this. That's so dark and glum. :(
But I like your review :-)
I will try and get it for me and try it out :-)
Great review Bethany. I agree, the novel was quite gloomy. I was like you, there were parts I really enjoyed and others I could have done without. In answer to your question I think being immortal in a world of mortals would be really hard-watching all the people you love die over and over again-not for me. Thanks for linking my review. I'm off to link yours too. I'm so bad at remembering that.
veens- yeah, it was pretty dark and glum.
dar- I really liked your review, you did an excellent job with it.
Great review. I think I liked the parts you didn't like the best. :) I'm not sure what that says about me. After the plague, the book dragged for me and I really couldn't take Leonardo's character. I used speed reading to get through much of the last of the book, but the last few pages were amazing. Thanks for participating in the book club and please go back and nominate the next book.
Hmm--can one join the housewives book club if one is just a wife--not a housewife? :) It seems like you read some great books. This one sounds really interesting--especially the setting.
I really want to read this book, but after reading a few so-so reviews, I think I'll wait on it. I'm not put off by the dark and gloomy, though. Sounds like the book raises a lot of interesting questions.
--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
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