Review and Giveaway: The Devil’s Scribe by Alma Katsu
Author: Alma Katsu
Book: The Devil’s Scribe
Release: March 13, 2012
Reviewer: Eowyn
Purchase:
In this eShort story, Lanore McIlvrae returns to America for the first time in 20 years—after decades of running from her past—to confront the source of her fear. The year is 1846 and Lanore—Lanny—has just landed in Baltimore after a long transatlantic crossing. That very night, she meets an “unattractive man with a high forehead and sunken eyes, and a tiny, pinched mouth like a parrot’s beak” who claims to write stories so dark and unsettling that he could be the Devil’s Scribe. His name? Edgar Allan Poe. Has Lanny finally met her match in this macabre man…or is it the other way around?
Alma Katsu has released a brilliant eShort story The Devil’s Scribe that gives you a little more insight into Lanore (Lanny) the heroine from The Taker. We are immediately taken back to the year 1846 when it is shocking for a young woman to be alone in a bar at night, yet Lanny sits having a drink. Why does she not care what others think about her and why has Lanny returned to Boston after 20 years? Lanny tells us “I’d been fleeing my past, trying to outrun the terrible thing I’d done all those years ago. I was learning, however, that one never really escapes from one’s sins; they will demand your attention if you try to ignore them.” We are swept along wondering what this young woman could have done that is so terrible.
It is a delightful turn of events that Katsu has decided to use Poe as the one to push along Lanny’s story. With his keen sense he recognizes a story that he must tell in Lanny. Poe introduces himself to Lanny as the Devil’s Scribe, stating that “he preferred to write tells of intense darkness”. With this admission we are taken along the journey as Lanny returns to the source of her fear. Perhaps it is because he is a stranger Lanny doesn’t feel threatened and opens up a little about this terrible transgression she has committed that keeps her up at night.
Brilliant and enchanting, in this story Katsu has given you just enough information to leave you longing for more. If you haven’t read The Taker yet, this story will draw you in and leave you with questions that can all be answered in The Taker. It is also an excellent way to acquaint you with Katsu’s writing style and get a small taste of what to expect in her books. How exciting that it is being released in Trade Paperback on March 27th! If you have already read The Taker this short story gives you just enough new information about Lanny and will have you anxiously awaiting The Reckoning. I highly recommend this enchanting eShort story.
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Want to find out more about Alma Katsu’s Taker series? Well, Eowyn and Alli not only reviewed The Taker – their review got blurbed in the new trade paperback of The Taker which is out on shelves today March 27!
Read their review Here
Read our special feature with Alma Here
Now, in honor of the launch of the trade paperback edition of the Taker,
Alma is very graciously sharing one copy with one of our lucky followers! And theres also a lovely pack of goodies!
Thanks for a great giveaway! I’ve read such wonderful reviews for this book, I’d love to read it!
Ahhhh… regrets… I gots lots and while I still burn with embarrassment just thinking of some of them, I don’t know if I would change them. I know I’ve learned and grown form the experiences so changing them would definitely change who I am now and I like that person! ;)
There are tons of things I wish I could change…but thinking about it. I don’t think I would. It builds and adds character. I wouldn’t be the same person without these mistakes.
Things I would like to change? Only some losses I’ve had to deal with. Saying goodbye sucks.
Okay, the serious things I would change are fighting with my mother when I was a teen, spending my school savings, and just not applying myself more during school.
The frivolous stuff I would change? Not dating quite a few idiots, and getting that terrible haircut! :D While I think some of these things were character building, that haircut was NOT!
Ahem you could totally take the EX back from my past.;)
I think we’ve all had exes we wish we had walked away from before it even began.
School!!!, not going as often because of the people in my class is something I regret because I missed out nobody else :(
Love the chapter and the giveaway, =)
I haven´t got anything i´d run away from in my past, but if i had a chance to do things differently, i´d spend more time with my dad who passed away a year ago, and both of my grandmothers who i lost in the last two years. You don´t really miss or appreciate people until you lose them.
best wishes, Linda xo
There are lots of things I wish I can change but in the long run I realize I am actually where I was meant to be. Everything happens for a reason. Please enter me in contest.
I think everything happens for a reason so I wouldn’t change anything. Thanks for the giveaway.
I wouldn’t change anything.