Dante Books

Reviewed by Vicki J. Austin

Dante's Destiny is a searing tale, a creatively woven novel by author James A. Jimason. A fast paced and intriguing page turner, that will keep the reader engaged and waiting with anticipation to see what happens next. Jimason gives a powerful look at social decline and moral decay as he creates vivid events and characters that are relevant and easy to relate to. Glimpsing into the Supernatural, this book is filled with turmoil and non-stop action from beginning to end. Jimason's eye for detail allows the reader to clearly see the story unfolding as you read.

It is a must that "the child" Dante *the books main character* be born, and no demon of the dark world could stop his coming. When futile attempts to prevent his birth are made, but are unsuccessful, it leaves the inhabitants of the dark abyss tremoring with anger and the desperate need to claim Dante's life. They should have taken him out when they had the chance, for now it will cost all parties involved dearly! Unexplained tragedies and thought provoking events cause the Simms family to stop and analyze what part they play in what seems like a curse, being placed upon their family. The Simms family whose close ties are tested to their limits each begin to wonder if buried secrets of the past have come back to haunt them? Are they paying the consequences for past sins? Not knowing, seems to be enough to set them off on a path that immobilizes them with fear, dread and hopelessness.

As a little boy who has a special gift, seen as a threat by his adversaries. Jimason skillfully pulls you into the battle of good versus evil in the realms of existence not visible by the naked eyes. Battles that rage on between dark warriors unseen and warriors of light. Dante has been set aside to fulfill a purpose, a specific destiny in his lifetime, however, if he will fulfill that calling is solely up to him as it all boils down to mans free will and the choices he makes. In this novel, "nothing is what it seems": and Dante loses more than he is willing to lose as he gets older, thus, he begins to seek answers to the questions that weigh him down. He is eventually led to and meets a man who seems to know quite a lot about him. Pastor David has been keeping a message to give to Dante that will severely alter the outcome of his fate. This book starts with a bang, chronicling Dante's life as he grows from boy to manhood, and the journey is enthralling. The Simms family surround Dante and are there to help him buffer the harsh realities he faces as all of the hard times and tribulations skewer his life. A child plagued by dreams, he frets and struggles to understand their meanings and the significance of it all. A young man who has seen the ravages of prostitution, drugs, alcohol and violence taking over his community, Dante has a desire to make his life count for something by helping others. Giving them help and hope for a better future. What will it take to make this come to pass is the question and will Dante and the warriors of light be able to withstand the attacks of their more than capable opponents of the unseen evil realm?

A truly insightful book for anyone interested in good and evil (spiritual warfare) and how evil seems to prevail........ And yet, the reader must remember," nothing is what it seems"....... or is it? This book became a favorite of mine before I even completed it and I highly recommend it to anyone. Great read and Kudos to James A. Jimason.

It's a world full of good and a world full of evil. The King has cast off the rebellious Dagon and his band of Dementors to the dark abyss. But, Dagon is full of revenge, and when the King chooses a child to be born with the light of the King, Dagon will stop at nothing to eradicate the child and his family.
Dante grows up in a world full of hate, and he is sucked right into the immoral lifestyle. Bad choices lead Dante to a life behind bars, but the King has a plan for him. And, when Dante is let out of prison on a technicality, the King puts his plan into action for bringing Dante to the light, leaving the Dementors scurrying to finally get rid of Dante.
James A. Jimson creates an interesting story of good v. evil, and the rewards and consequences that come with both. His writing is detailed, and his flow throughout the story creates fascination by jumping from one person to the other. The reader never knows what's coming next.
However, Jimason's use of names that start with "D" and "M" can be confusing. It was difficult to keep all of the characters straight. Also, the intertwining of multiple story lines could cause readers to become overwhelmed by all of the twists and turns.
Overall, Jimason's story of morality is a story that all readers could benefit from consuming.

Dante's Destiny: Nothing Is What It Seems by James A. Jimason is a cross between paranormal and spirituality. I found the story similar to the Bible where there was a king (God), the Trinians (Angels) and the Damentors (Devils). This book will have you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what is going on and if will evil prevail. Dante Simms' life is not picture perfect, but he has been put on this earth to promote good and wage a war against evil. The Trinians are to secure Dante's reign and make sure he can fulfill his destiny, but the Damentors want to conquer the earth and keep Dante from finding out what his purpose in life truly is.

Dante is forced to deal with misguidance, death, super powers and the decision to make right or wrong choices. Jimason tells a great story that will have you questioning the world as we know it. Are there really spirits that inhabit the world and whisper in our ears to make us go crazy? Or to make bad choices? Can Dante conquer the world with the help of the Trinians and find his true meaning of life? Or will he be held captive by the Damentors whose job is hell bent on taking over the world?

Jimason also has a hidden message imbedded in the story, can you decipher the code?
This story makes you look at life differently and observe your surrounding more. Are there really people like the Trinians and the Damentors? This is a hypnotic, spiritual read that I recommend to all readers of paranormal genres. It is well-written with great detail and care; the story will definitely keep you up at night.

Reviewed by: Cheryl H
APOOO BookClub

Dante Alighieri has the reputation of being one of the world's greatest poets, because of his "Divine Comedy". This book shows that Dante could also be an idiot. Or perhaps even evil. "Monarchy" reads like a message from the Ninth Circle of Hell!

"Monarchy" is divided into three parts. In the first part, Dante argues for a world dictatorship or empire, ruled single-handedly by a monarch modelled on the pagan Roman emperors. The arguments are framed in the manner of Aristotelian syllogisms, making them look quite ridiculous to modern readers. Still, most of them look vaguely familiar: just as God is the single ruler of the universe, the emperor should be the single ruler of humanity; since universal peace is good for humanity, and since two or more rulers can wage war against each other, there must be a single ruler of the whole world; there must be a final court of appeal somewhere...and guess who that is? Et cetera.

Sometimes, Dante engages in an early version of Orwellian newspeak, as when he "proves" that the world dictator can't be greedy: since he already rules the world, and therefore has everything, greed cannot enter his mind, and he is therefore perfectly just. Yeah, and war is peace, right? Or what about this one: "Therefore since the monarch is the most universal cause among mortals that men should live the good life, it follows that the good of mankind is dear to him above all else".

Occasionally, the Supreme Poet sounds more like Pravda or Völkischer Beobachter, as when he declares that humanity is truly free only if subject to an autocratic world ruler: "Thus it must be borne in mind that a thing is free which exists for its own sake and not for the sake of something else, as Aristotle states in the Metaphysics. Mankind exists for its own sake and not for the sake of something else only when it is under the rule of a monarch, for only then are perverted forms of government (i.e. democracies, oligarchies and tyrannies), which force mankind into slavery, set right. Since the monarch loves men most, as we have already noted, he wants all men to become good, and this cannot happen under perverted forms of government." Amen. Sounds like an excellent propaganda speech for Kim Il Sung or Ceausescu!

In the second part, Dante attempts to show that the pagan (!) Roman Empire ruled the whole world by the will of God, and that the best form of rule is therefore the re-establishment of said empire. In part, Dante accomplishes this by recounting the heroic deeds of various figures from the Roman Republic, as if there was a direct continuity between the Republic and the later Empire. He further states that the founder of Rome, Aeneas, was the noblest person in the world, and that the kingdom established by him therefore had the right to conquer and subdue its neighbors. Another important "proof" is that a large shield fell from heaven when the Roman king Numa sacrificed to the pagan gods. This miracle shows that Rome had divine favour!

To modern readers, these arguments are strained beyond comprehension. However, they must have seemed pretty strained even to Dante's contemporaries: Dante, after all, was a Christian, not a pagan, and yet he sees pagan miracles as proof that a world monarchy is desirable. The most stunning argument offered by Dante Alighieri in this section is that since Jesus was born under Roman rule, and was condemned to die by the Roman authorities, the divine legitimacy of the Roman Empire is proven (!).

The plot thickens in the third section, where our poet refutes arguments for *papal* world rule, put forward by people we would today call Ultramontanists. This is the only section that makes any kind of sense: indeed, Dante manages to demolish all the usual arguments for papal supremacy (the two lights, the two swords, etc). Sometimes, this section is actually quite humorous - the "Ultramontane" arguments were *very* weak. But even this section contains a rather stunning statement: Dante rejects the so-called Donation of Constantine, since he believes that Constantine acted without proper authority when he gave the popes temporal power (actually, the Donation is a forgery, but this was unknown in Dante's day). To Dante, Constantine's donation was in effect a division of the empire, something no emperor has the right to do. Thus, Dante is forced into the rather strange position, for a Christian, that the pagan emperors were better than the first Christian emperor!

What are we to make of "De Monarchia"? The safest course, perhaps, is to write it off as a zany piece of propaganda, perhaps written to appease the Holy Roman emperor Henry VII, who Dante hoped could unite Italy. Still, in an age such as ours, during which world empires have (almost) become realities, "Monarchy" sounds pretty chilling. Freedom? Goodness? Please come on.

To all intents and purposes, this work is Dante's satanic comedy.

PS. Lyndon LaRouche takes this book seriously.

Many people have read Dante's "Divine Comedy", but only some know that besides being a wonderful poet he was also a noteworthy political thinker. If you read "Monarchy", a book that he wrote in 1313, you will realize why...

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was born in Florence, Italy, and he participated actively in the political life of his city, being one of the officials in charge of the government of Florence. As such, he took some decisions that were considered by many anti-papal, but that he deemed not only adequate but essential in order to limit the influence of the Church in politics. As a result, sometime later (when the balance of power changed, and the Church had the upper hand), he was exiled from Florence and told that if he were to return he would be executed. It is rather unsurprising that this event only made him more sure of what he already thought: that the Church shouldn't be involved in politics.

The mere idea that the Church wasn't more important than the Empire was rather controversial at the time that this book was written, because some said that the Church had a right to oversee the Empire, to watch over it and direct it if necessary. Others, for example Dante, were vehemently opposed to that idea, and took upon themselves the task of increasing the power of the Emperor. In "Monarchy" he tries to explain what form of political organization is the one that allows human beings to reach their objectives more easily. Dante distinguishes two orders and two authorities (Church and Empire), and says that the basis for that distinction is the two main objectives that men have in their lives: eternal happiness and happiness in this life. He defends the importance of the Empire, and says that it doesn't need to obey the Church. Dante also points out that the authority of the secular prince is not derived from the Church, but comes directly to him from God.

On the whole, this book is quite interesting, and it introduces you to a different side of Dante: the political thinker. Moreover, it allows you to know more about the controversy regarding the Church and the Empire, a debate that was very important in the XIVth century. It is also worthwhile pointing out that "Monarchy" is quite short, so you won't lose too much of your time reading it, but you are likely to learn a lot. So, all in all, recommended...

Belén Alcat

Quite simply one of the greatest political treatises from the greatest mind of the Middle Ages/Renaissance. Dante displays his views on the need for strong Monarch in a sophisticated, yet easy to follow way. His political views also hint at future revolutions in political thought, e.g. government by consent of the governed. This would be a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in political history, or the Renaissance.

The pages fall out as soon as you open the first volumn. Sell a child and spring for the hardback editions.

Reading the Commedia in translation is always second-best to working through it in Italian; but unless you are a native speaker who also knows some Spanish and Latin, it can be tough going. That is where the three Singleton companion volumes are worth their weight in gold. They contain a canto-by-canto analysis of the multiplicity of allusions and references to all things political, philosophical and theological that make the depth of the work virtually unparalled in Western Lit.
While the Commedia isn't for everyone, the Singleton glosses are for anyone who wants to read and understand Dante on his terms. Combine these three volumes with the Grandgent Italian text, e non c'e bisogna d'altre cose per incontrar la via diritta ed esso che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity). This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical). The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Purgatorio
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom, to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem). The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere. At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are attracted by a musical performance by Casella, but are reprimanded by Cato, a pagan who has been placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain. The text gives no indication whether or not Cato's soul is destined for heaven: his symbolic significance has been much debated. (Cantos I and II).

Dante starts the ascent on Mount Purgatory. On the lower slopes (designated as "ante-Purgatory" by commentators) Dante meets first a group of excommunicates, detained for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy. Ascending higher, he encounters those too lazy to repent until shortly before death, and those who suffered violent deaths (often due to leading extremely sinful lives). These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount of time equal to their lives on earth (Cantos III through VI). Finally, Dante is shown a beautiful valley where he sees the lately-deceased monarchs of the great nations of Europe, and a number of other persons whose devotion to public and private duties hampered their faith (Cantos VII and VIII). From this valley Dante is carried (while asleep) up to the gates of Purgatory proper (Canto IX).

The gate of Purgatory is guarded by an angel who uses the point of his sword to draw the letter "P" (signifying peccatum, sin) seven times on Dante's forehead, abjuring him to "wash you those wounds within". The angel uses two keys, gold and silver, to open the gate and warns Dante not to look back, lest he should find himself outside the gate again, symbolizing Dante having to overcome and rise above the hell that he has just left and thusly leaving his sinning ways behind him. From there, Virgil guides the pilgrim Dante through the seven terraces of Purgatory. These correspond to the seven deadly sins, each terrace purging a particular sin in an appropriate manner. Those in purgatory can leave their circle whenever they like, but essentially there is an honors system where no one leaves until they have corrected the nature within themselves that caused them to commit that sin. Souls can only move upwards and never backwards, since the intent of Purgatory is for souls to ascend towards God in Heaven, and can ascend only during daylight hours, since the light of God is the only true guidance.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

This book is a waste of money It is irrelevant to the issue at hand which is SCANNO of course.

This wonderful little book contains some very interesting stories that would be of interest to the third/fourth generation Italian-Americans, Italian-Canadians or Italian-Australians. It provides brief insights to life in the Abruzzo. Naturally, some of the stories are better than others. For those Abruzzese-Americans, Abruzzese-Canadians or Abruzzese-Australians who do not read Italian and who want to understand a small part of their roots it is recommended reading and the price is reasonable.

I found this book amazingly involving. The stories made me feel at home. My roots are in Abruzzo, and everithing for me starts from there.

I am enjoying this study guide. The book came to me in great new shape. I am very pleased with my purchase.

I got this book from the library; used one source of recommended reading material from the official DANTES website, specifically the text called "Understanding Business" by Nickels and McHugh (great book; it's all you need.) I took 3 weeks to study; took the test today and scored a 64 (takes a 46 to pass.) LOTS of extraneous info in the DANTES study guide--you'll never see most of it on the test (I saw maybe 15%) but it gets the mind primed in the right direction. The Understanding Business text was perfect though. Read the summary's at the end of each chapter in the business text; take 6 to 10 tests in the DANTES study guide and go pass the test (you will.)

Esolen is neither a Dante scholar nor an Italian language/literature specialist. He is an English Teacher at Providence College, a Catholic institution. His retelling of the Divine Comedy is reasonably accurate and quite readable. The problem comes with his notes. They range from the scandalously inadequate to the downright offensive. Esolen has written a number of anti-gay articles for religious publications . This is reflected in his notes where he refers to homosexuality as something like "that most heinous of sins". This is not only offensive in a contemporary publication, but is totally out of tune with Dante himself, who took a much more sympathetic and nuanced approach c.1300 AD. And there are other personal and inappropriate comments.

There are many superior translations out there. Mandelbaum's is excellent and has very good notes. Robert and Jean Hollander's is also very fine and the notes are the most extensive and scholarly of all.

Not only is Esolen's translation superb, but his introductory comments and notes are invaluably penetrating. (Disclosure: my Italian allows me to understand only about 30-35% of this book as originally written, so I'm largely relying on others' glowing assessments of Esolen's translation quality.) Do yourself a favor and buy all three volumes (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) of Esolen's translation, if only for his excellent introductory comments and notes.

"To read Dante is a duty;
To read him again is a need;
To relish him a sign of greatness."

-N. Tommaseo

I was sorely disappointed in this book. After I read the introduction, in which Panter describes what the book is about, I almost threw it across the room.

Jimbo takes the place of Dante, author of The Divine Comedy, the robot Valise takes the place of Virgil, and all the other characters represent/symbolize characters out of The Divine Comedy. They are all traversing Mount Purgatory, which is a "...vast infotainment testing center...and all the participants strive for University degrees in literature. Each must respond with a literary fragment, a quotation, that demonstrates a knowledge of the passage and an ability to quote other works alluding to the theme of that location in the poem, and in addition, to designate, by that utterance, the story of Boccaccio's Decameron that is allied to Dante's canto and to allude to the metaphorical sum and difference of the pairing of that allusion."

If this raises you're blood pressure, you might enjoy this book. Personally, I find it pretentious. But I persevered and began reading it. Here's a sample quote from Valise, representative of all of the characters, "I have shown him guilty gloom-rockers of focky bocky enhumed in wrath and havoc." I admit, I'm taking the quote out of all context, but after four pages of this kind of dialogue, I couldn't continue. The artwork and layout of the panels is detailed and striking, perfectly produced for this over-sized book, yet the awkwardness and disproportion of the characters is jarring. And everything you can think of is referenced, from the Bible and Chaucer to Kato, Elvis, and Boy George, all acknowledged below the panels.

But what turned me off the most is the lack of feeling. This is purely an intellectual exercise. If you like that kind of thing, this might be the Holy Grail, but if you're looking to get emotionally involved in a story with realistic characters, look elsewhere.

Weeewh! I'll not use too many words to say that this book is simply amazing... so clever, so rich, so well-done, so brainy, so quirky... and full of many literary and pop references (from Milton to Tiny Tim, from Godzilla to Chaucer, from "Westworld" to Frank Zappa... and much much more). Also Beautiful packaged and with a classy gilded cover! Great work Mr. Panter, you're always one of the coolest guys around... great work man!
Buy it or die (and eventually go to the real Purgatory)!!!

If you're a budding scholar in Pre-Raphaelitism, I would avoid this book. If you've already done some research on the life of Elizabeth Siddal, this book is an interesting read. This book doesn't follow the traditional layout of a biography, starting with birth and ending with death, but acts as a historiography: a study of what has been written about the subject. Jan Marsh looks at several biographies about Lizzie, considers the sources, the scholarly intent, and the history at the time, and considers if the biography is reliable or not. For instance, Violet Hunt's popular book on Lizzie is full of inconsistancies and has been tainted by the author's own image of who Lizzie really was.

In short, this book is worth buying, only if you have another good book on Lizzie. I recommend The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, also by Jan Marsh, which is a valuable reference source.

Pat Marsh makes an admirable attempt at dispelling the myths about Dante Gabriel Rossetti's legendary wife. By examining different accounts of Siddal and comparing them to what we know is the truth, she attempts to create a kind of biography. That being said, I'm not convinced that there is enough material to warrant a whole book. Most of what we know about Siddal is a mystery. The book unfortunately reads like another book about the Pre-Raphaelite art movement. Nevertheless, if you're interested in the Pre-Raphaelites, this is worth reading.

Written in a breezy, sarcastic tone, this adult cartoon book provides a solid introduction to an ancient and easily misunderstood civilization. Cavo summarizes and simplifies modern intrepretations of Mayan historical eras, major deities, and many surprising scientific achievements. Yet Cavo doesn't shy away from the less romantic aspects of Mayan cultures like a frequent civil wars, a rigid class structure and human sacrifice that so many New Age narrators overlook in their celebration of this "spiritual" culture.

While some adults find hesistate to pick up a 109-page comic book, this casual approach helped clarify several aspects that more academic books had only deepen by specialized jargon and excessive detail. Readers should know that the text, originally written in Spanish from a cynical point of view, contains many spelling errors that are easier to overlook when dealing so many new words from Mayan culture.

Tourists to Mayan ruins, struggling students, and archaelogy buffs should find this accessible work a helpful and satsifying guide. If I were teaching a class that included a section on Mayan civilizations for middle school, high school or even college, I would assign this book as a satisfying introduction to a confusing subject.

I had climbed the pyramids at several Mayan ruin sites in Guatemala and Mexico before reading this book, and I still learned something.

You can learn a lot from tour leaders and personal guides, but often it's too much information too fast to have a really good sense of the historical context. This book provides, in cartoon form, a basic background on the history of the mysterious Maya, and would be good to read either before or after a visit to Mayan ruins.

The book was originally written in Spanish, and the translation is not great--plenty of spelling and grammatical errors. The "humor" doesn't translate that well, either--whether it was funny in the original Spanish, I cannot say.

Still, it's not bad as a place to start, to get a decent amount of information in a very short, easy-to-read format.

I love Jodi Picoult's writing and the moral dilemmas she incorporates into her books. Tenth Circle, however, was too over-the-top.

Jason, the 17-year-old purported rapist was for me the most sympathetic character. He is a high school athlete with scholarship potential who hooks up with Trixie, a young 14-year-old girl. After Jason breaks up with Trixie, she says she will do whatever it takes for them to stay together. They separately attend the same party where Trixie gets intoxicated, plays Strip Poker and observes her peers playing foolish sex games. Later the same evening, a weeping and disheaveled Trixie goes home and tells her father she was raped.

Jason is first accused of the rape and then later the more serious crime of putting a date-rape drug in Trixie's drink. The actual culprit is Trixie's friend Zephyr. Zephyr, however, can be excused because she actually got the drug from her boyfriend's brother. Zephyr thought she had recreational drugs which might get somebody high but not put them in danger of rape. The story is further convoluted because the boyfriend's brother was none other than a college kid having an affair with Trixie's mother. Trixie's parents continue to protect Trixie meanwhile committing their own heinous crimes on behalf of their self-mutilating, emotionally fragile daughter.

A female who says "No" to having sex is supposed to be respected for her choice. However, what about accountability when everything said and done leading up to an assault says, "Yes"?

The main message is children are participating in sex long before they are ready for the responsibility and maturity required of sexual partners. Meanwhile parents turn a blind eye as they deal with their own sad lives. Unfortunately, the message loses steam as we turn the pages and lose sympathy for the characters.

I've been a big fan of Picoult's for several years now, since I read Keeping Faith. Since then I've counted her among my favorite authors and enjoyed book after book, especially The Pact and My Sister's Keeper.

One thing I love about her books is that they are always so well-researched and run the gamut from light-hearted to gut-wrenching. There aren't many authors who so consistently keep me awake after a long day at work because I *have* to finish the chapter before I can go to sleep. And usually, one chapter turns into 2 and well, there have been a lot of groggy mornings due to Picoult!

Usually it takes me about a week to finish one of Picoult's novels. The Tenth Circle was an exception. It was over a year before I finally managed to get through ~400 pages. It was really only the first few chapters that seemed to drag on and on, but with such long chapters it seemed brutal. Once it started to pick up, I ended up enjoying it, and as always it seemed to end too quickly, but it definitely took awhile to get into.

I'm admittedly not a comic fan, which may have hampered my enjoyment. I am a fan of Dante's Inferno, so I did appreciate that tie-in and all of it's elements. This just seemed really different from her other works that I've enjoyed and I think it's one of the only ones so far that I'm not likely to pick up and re-read (I've read The Pact 3x).

I did enjoy the puzzle, that was certainly a treat!

I struggled with this book. Not because of the writing style mind you, but because of the main character. The writing style is excellent. On that aspect, I am impressed. The main character, however, is a fourteen year old girl that wears ultra low rise jeans and no underwear and plays strip poker and performs oral sex and then when her crush takes what she is offering, cries rape. When halfway thru the book, you discover she was having sex with the fellow all along. Please!!! Perhaps a teenager will enjoy this book, but as an adult, I am having a difficult time relating to anyone but the parents. I also do not care for the comic book stuff. I found myself skipping those pages all together.

I was really excited about reading this novel and was slightly disappointed by it. I thought it was going to delve more into Trixie being a cutter and the problems being raped brought. It didn't. Picoult could have done so much with the plot but I felt like she didn't give it her all. As one review said, the plot deserved 5 stars but when it all came together it was only worthy of 3. I was really into it until the last few chapters (about the time Trixie ran away to Alaska).

I hate how Daniel forgave Laura for cheating on him so quickly and easily. I also really (REALLY) didn't like the scene with Willie and Trixie in the steam room. A 14 year getting it on with someone she just met? Was I supposed to be happy or aroused by the scene? I felt like a pedophile reading that part. I thought the whole Alaska tie in was lame (and the comic book aspect too) and the fact that Laura was the one that murdered Jason (too predictable). It would have been more interesting to go with Trixie accidentally murdering him or it turning out that he really did commit suicide. The whole "Oh, it was mom, end of story" thing didn't work for me. I also thought it was funny how fast the cops found them in Alaska. I know there's not a lot of people that live there and it was easy for them to trace the family to Anchorage, but come on now. They knew exactly where they were? Right down to the house Daniel hadn't been to in ages? The very day they get to Alaska? Perhaps I would have bought it if it took a few days for them to find the Stones but not as soon as they got there. It was almost like Picoult lost steam and wanted to end the story as quickly as she could.

I really did enjoy the story until the end. Throughout the whole novel I was thinking it was a 4 star kind of book but the end really ruined it for me so I have to give it 3. It's not going to stop me from reading any more of Picoult's stories. I enjoyed The Pact too much to let it ruin my interest in reading more by her. However, if I had read this story first it might have changed my opinion.

I had high hopes for 'The Tenth Circle', after being blown away by 'My Sister's Keeper'. Unfortunately, while that book had all the ingredients for great fiction-likeable, sympathetic characters, heavy, yet still believable drama, and a story that leaves a deep emotional impact on the reader-'The Tenth Circle' has almost none of those.
Most of the other critics have already pinpointed the book's biggest problem: lack of focus. Picoult never quite figures out what she wants this story to be about, and who the target audience should be. Part teenage romance, part crime drama, part comic book adventure, part character study, with an extensive, but largely uninteresting travel guide to Alaska thrown in.
The Stones never really captured my sympathy. Instead, I found Daniel and Laura to be self-absorbed, while Trixie, supposedly the 'wronged girl', never really amounted to anything. The connection with Daniel's 'mysterious past' in Alaska turned out to be a waste of time, and the abrupt scene shift to the 'frozen north' late in the story just reminds us what a waste of time the first two-thirds of the story is.
Much of the teenage characterization seemed to be ripped off from old 'Afterschool Specials' or those 'young adult' novels that used to be so popular, back when Picoult herself was a teenager. As much as Picoult tried to give Trixie some depth and maturity, she just came across as a whiny, sluttish brat who was just as self-centered as her parents and her friends. The whole book had the feel of a cheesy, cheaply-made TV-movie, populated with 'B'-list soap stars.
The main characters are interesting to start, but their limited appeal wears off quickly: Daniel as the stereotypical 'moody young artist', and Laura as the 'career-oriented yuppie' who gives in to her 'adventurous nature' and settles down with 'comic book boy'. The real-life comic book references are accurate(Siegel and Shuster, Jack Kirby and his 'krackle' special effects), but gratuitous, thrown in simply to establish Picoult's comic book 'cred' with a new audience of readers she doubtless wanted to bring in for this book. The comic-strip version of the story was certainly a more interesting take on the basic premise, but it, too, was ultimately a disappointment. The current 'trendy' style of comic art is a far cry from the stuff those of us who read comics prior to the mid-90s would remember. While Picoult does have some experience in comics (having written a few issues of 'Wonder Woman'),her treatment of the genre in this book seems half-hearted and gimmicky. I can see how it would turn off anyone who's not interested in comics, but even I got tired of it once the novelty wore off. The whole 'look for the hidden message' gimmick really seemed like pandering,both to the comic fans and those who would otherwise have avoided reading the cartoons.
On the other hand, I had never read Dante's 'Inferno', so I found the descriptions in the text helped make the comic a little easier to decipher. Each of the characters definitely had his/her own 'circle of hell' to get through, but I just found all of them too flawed and 'anti-heroic' to care about. Considering how poorly Picoult did at trying to integrate the 'Alaska' subplot with the rest of the story, she might as well have just left it out completely. Another example of an author doing a lot of research on language, customs, culture, etc., and doing a clumsy job of squeezing everything in to an already-overcrowded story.
'My Sister's Keeper' was one of the best books I ever read, yet I found the ending too painful to give it the high rating I had planned on giving it. In contrast, 'Circle' is just long and tiresome, draining every bit of interest and suspense out of a story that didn't generate very much of either in the first place. I ended up finishing the book just to finish it. I cared nothing for any of the Stones, and was simply left thinking they were a miserable bunch who deserved each other.
I can imagine it would be difficult for any author to top a book like 'Keeper'...but 'Circle' doesn't even come close.
One of the few mildly entertaining scenes involves Daniel and young Trixie discussing the best super power to have. If I could turn back time, much like Superman in his first movie, so that I'd never read this book...I'd really be tempted to try it!