Hide Me Among the Graves
Apr 2, 2012
Author: Tim Powers
Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
(March 13, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0061231544
Publisher's Description:
London, winter of 1862, Adelaide McKee, a former prostitute, arrives on the doorstep of veterinarian John Crawford, a man she met once seven years earlier. Their brief meeting produced a child who, until now, had been presumed dead. McKee has learned that the girl lives—but that her life and soul are in mortal peril from a vampiric ghost. But this is no ordinary spirit; the bloodthirsty wraith is none other than John Polidori, the onetime physician to the mad, bad, and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron. Both McKee and Crawford have mysterious histories with creatures like Polidori, and their child is a prize the malevolent spirit covets dearly.
Polidori is also the late uncle and supernatural muse to the poet Christina Rossetti and her brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When she was just fourteen years old, Christina unwittingly brought Polidori's curse upon her family. But the curse bestowed unexpected blessings as well, inspiring Christina's poetry and Gabriel's paintings. But when Polidori resurrects Dante's dead wife—turning her into a horrifying vampire—and threatens other family members, Christina and Dante agree that they must destroy their monstrous uncle and break the spell, even if it means the end of their creative powers.
Determined to save their daughter, McKee and Crawford join forces with the Rossettis, and soon these wildly mismatched allies are plunged into a supernatural London underworld whose existence goes beyond their wildest imaginings. Ultimately, each of these disparate individuals—the sensitive poet, the tortured painter, the straitlaced animal doctor, the reformed prostitute, and even their Artful Dodger–like young daughter—must choose between the banality and constraints of human life and the unholy immortality that Polidori offers.
Idgie Says:
The description of the book tells in full what the story is about so what I will say is that this is a fine example of Victorian Horror. The tone stays firmly in that mode the entire time... while the story line is a little more modern in it's issues and dilemmas. (Let's talk some possible ghostly incest and sadistic/masochistic clubs here.)
In the beginning of the book, it's several separate stories of individuals and how they are terrorized by one form of supernatural horror or the other, until, by various sets of circumstances they all meet up to fight together to save their souls......and the ones they love.
The book is filled with vampires, spirits, curses, resurrection... love and lust. Altogether a wild ride. The characters are well defined and easy to "get to know". A nice thick book you can sink your teeth into.
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Reviewed by Idgie. If you would like to have the Dew review a book, please contact me at dewonthekudzu@gmail.com
