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Title: Elf Child by David M. Pierce ISBN: 1-56023-428-8 Publisher: Harrington Park Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good premise (and GREAT cover!), but falls short...
Comment: I had high hopes for this book - and not only because the cover's so pretty! The premise sounded very appealing: an immortal and ever-young man, a changeling [in the sense that he can - indeed, must - change his appearance and/or his shape every so often or he'll weaken], who falls in love with a mortal man. Dare he confess the truth about himself, or just keep quiet - and, either way, how will he bear it when his lover ages and he does not? Sounded like it might offer many of the elements of vampire love stories without the blood-letting...
Alas, while the book contains many of the elements of a really good story, it falls a little short. The characters are likeable but 2-dimensional, the writing tends towards the over-explanatory, and the plot twists are, for the most part, interesting, but are foreshadowed and then resolved rather simply.
The story starts slowly, with Russ spending a lot of time contemplating his appearance(s) and deciding what look to wear to go clubbing. [How he manages to avoid trouble when he adopts the appearance of a different model every night isn't dealt with, though one odd side effect of a too-close resemblance to a living person is mentioned.] He meets Eric and they begin a tentative romance, which seems pleasant but a bit too easy (and a wee bit boring). Things pick up when more conflicts start to kick in; there are some potentially interesting interactions involving each man's mother [one a changeling herself, one an adoptive mother with a penchant for genealogy, and both of them very much concerned with protecting their sons], but despite some mild slight-of-hand regarding who's threatening whom, the main crisis of the story - sparked by a really nasty bashing - seemed gratuitous to me... I don't know. I didn't dislike it, exactly; I wanted the characters to get together, to work things out - but I also wanted a little more depth to them, and some greater feel for exactly what the changelings were and how that affected their world-view. [There is a brief hint at the kinds of kinky fun - and troubling psychological issues - one might have dating someone who can morph into almost any appearance, sex, or species, but even that isn't explored in any depth.] As it is, it's mostly a rather fluffy romance - no explicit sex scenes, lots of gazing into eyes and worrying about what the other is thinking - disrupted by that startlingly violent bashing; there are flashbacks by various characters, and more than a few dream/fantasy/out-of-body sequences as well, and some plot twists near the end that made me think "soap opera!". (...)
In sum, I think it could have been a really marvelous story, but it fell short.
Rating: 4
Summary: A romantic supernatural thriller
Comment: Russ and his mother Lizzy are decades-old shapeshifters who have settled in San Diego for the time being. Russ uses his abilities to spice up his long string of one-night stands. When he meets Eric, Russ is immediately smitten and feels ready to risk it all to make the relationship work, including the truth about his supernatural self. Their love strains under this burden, and when Eric's mother starts piecing together the truth about Lizzy and Russ, things become more complicated. In one brutal instant, Russ and Eric's love is tested and they could lose not only their connection but also their lives. "Elf Child" is a compelling romance that embraces themes of our image-conscious culture, being an outsider, and the consequences of hiding the truth about oneself. There are some contrived elements to the novel, like the connection between their mothers, but those are but blips in a charming and fantastical supernatural thriller that earns its nomination for a Lambda Literary Award.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not a Review, But a Description (Since Amazon Lacks One)
Comment: About The Book:
Being gay in a straight world is never easy. Even immortality and magical abilities aren't much help . . .
Elf Child: Russ, a twentysomething-looking gay man, is searching for his true identity while he struggles with keeping an otherworldly secret. Russ is a changeling . . . a shape-shifter who will never age, and who, perhaps, will never die. Living a carefree beach life in San Diego, he uses his uncanny abilities to feed his desire for men of all shapes and sizes-but something important is missing. This suspenseful novel unfolds as Russ realizes that his obsession with image has become empty and that what he really needs is a relationship with another man that will encompass more than the satisfaction of his sexual needs.
Eric, who has been enjoying all that San Diego has to offer a single young gay man, is also looking for something more. Falling in love with one of Russ's many sexy incarnations, he is blissfully unaware of the supernatural direction his life story is about to take. Still, he can't help thinking that there is something odd, something "too good to be true" about his new lover.
Lizzy-Russ's mother and a changeling herself-is well over one hundred years old. Her life has been a difficult one. She's been compelled to lead a life of secrecy and hiding after witnessing the brutal murder of another of her kind, never staying in any city too long, never being able to hold onto a real relationship. Her greatest fear is that Russ's longing for true love and real trust will lead him to reveal their secret, and that once their secret is out, that she and her son will become prey for those whose ignorance, based in fear, begets hatred and, ultimately, murder.
In the spirit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other authors whose stories bring an element of magic into an otherwise very real universe, David M. Pierce uses Russ's supernatural abilities to underscore Elf Child's true-to-life themes: the search for identity, personal growth and transformation, and being the 'outsider'-which are all central to the struggles of those of us who have grown up gay in a straight world.
How do you make a relationship last-when you're immortal but your lover gets older every day?
"Russ walked over to the window and greeted the coming day. Memories of other times flooded back-this was after the point at which he would have taken his leave, or insisted that the other leave him. He wondered how many times that had happened-was it hundreds or even thousands? Always the fear of being discovered had drowned the need for connection. At least, until now it had. When Russ looked over at his lover, Eric was silently watching him, with a look of concern mixed with something else that was quite wonderful."
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