Customer Reviews
Oh dear! - By: Do-not-disturb, 28 Dec 2008 
Harris's foreword states that her publisher & her fans clamoured for the re-release of this book, but for the life of me I can't understand why she allowed it! She herself admits the writing style is somewhat undeveloped - over-blown might be a better description... I haven't come across such floridly turgid prosein a long time (thank goodness). Although the plot itself was interesting enough to keep me plodding on the bitter end, it was a actually with a sigh of relief that I reached the last page! Such a total contrast to her more well-known books (which I've enjoyed),in both storyline & literary style, but notin a good way. Sorry Joanne!
Mixed feelings about this... - By: sam155, 27 Dec 2008 
I have never read any Joanne Harris before but she had been highly recommended to me by several keen readers. I bought this mistakenly thinking it was her latest, only to find it was her first effort, reissued by public demand. The author opens by emphasising it is her first effort before she found her "voice" & was written when she was only 23. And it shows.
Its not a bad book, but if it was a first effort today, it may not have had such a large print run, shall we say. Some of her prose is beautiful & evocative, showing true signs of her later successes, but there are flaws which jar quite a bit & interrupt the fluidity of the prose.
For example, our heroine, Alice, has a telephone call from her ex boyfriend who had broken her heart three years previously & whom she hadn't seen since. Not only does he ring out of the blue, but he asks if his new girlfriend can live with her for a while. To me this was odd & clumsy & stilted. Her youth as a writer really shows here as her plot devices are sometimes as clunky as this. Another example is that, after an upset, Alice goes for such a long walk that she randomly ends up out of Cambridge & not onlyin a graveyard, butin front of the exact grave that is then relevant to the rest of the story. Its so clumsy & ham fisted that I thought a teenager had written it. My other bugbear is that the pre Raphaelite metaphor is driven home with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer, again & again. Okay, so Ginny has an ethereal beauty but, must it be mentioned every other page?
On the good side however, it is beautifully written & complex & the time frame between the two stories is handled well. It is extremely menacing & the violence & gore is very explicit, so be warned. And also, as the author herself warns you "there be vampires". In fact, if you don't like vampires, you will probably, like me, read half, flick to the end & give it away to someone who does. I should imagine it would make a good TV drama though. It hasn't put me off Joanne Harris though & I am looking forward to reading her later stuff next.
Nonsense - By: Suzanne Hussein, 09 Dec 2008 I have read Joanne Harris before & have enjoyed her books. This one left me cold. As soon as the main character Alice agreed to let her ex lover's girlfriend, Ginny stayin her flat whoin turn she also found out had been treated for a mental breakdown at the nearby hospital all crediibility flew out the window. Especially as she had not seen her ex lover, Joe for years & he persuades Alicein a matter of minutes to let Ginny stay - Please!!!! Ginny just happened to be a vampire though that word is never used 'Nightwalker' I should say. This story was running parallel with another story setin the 1940's, same town, same Ginny (who was called Rosemaryin this part) same 'Nightwalker' friends. All very pretentious & technical. I never give up on a book & was relieved to come to the end. I understand that Joanne Harris wasin her 20's when she wrote this & I really think her age & inexperience let her down on this book.
"Something inside me remembers and will not forget". - By: Brida, 24 Oct 2008 Joanne Harris is perhaps better known for her novel, CHOCOLAT, than for this title, which is her debut. As explainedin her author's note to THE EVIL SEED, it was largely due to pressure from her fans which saw to the book being reissued. Her brief discussion of the book isin itself quite interesting - to hear what an established author thinks about their first attempt at literature is nearly always to be fascinating, & this is no exception. With huge honesty, Harris herself acknowledges that the book was never a masterpiece as she had not found her own voice. But what it does do is suggest at the kind of writer she would later turn into.
THE EVIL SEED is a gothic novel about vampires, although this phrase is never used within the story itself. Alice, a young woman livingin Cambridge, is devastated to discover that a man she once loved has now found someone else he loves. Alice cannot stand his new girlfriend, Ginny, but for the sake of Joe, she tries to make friends with her. But as she gets to know more & more about Ginny, Alice dislikes her even more as she seems to lie to Joe about everything.
Alice then discovers an old journal, written by a man called Daniel Holmes just after the Second World War. As she reads Daniel's journal, which describes how he & his friend Robert fell under the spell of a beautiful young woman called Rosemary, Alice fears that the past has resurfaced.
That is the basic plot. The story is told by alternating chapters going from the past to the present. The fact that this was a debut novel does show. Parts of the story are not really thought out very well, while other parts are dramatically over-written. As Harris explains at the beginning, the plot was an ambitious one - while it certainly offers some originality to the whole mythology of the vampire, it was perhaps too big for a beginning novelist.
Although this book is not a masterpiece, what it does offer the reader is a chance to see how an author began her career & then went on to develop afterwards. And it does give some hints at just how good she was to become.
A compelling read - By: Alison Mallaghan, 21 Sep 2008 
I love JH's style of writing & I certainly wasn't disappointed here! She manages to hold the threads of the story together well, though I'm not convinced that the ending worked so well. Not sure how else she could have ended it though! Highly recommended.
