The Heavens Rise

Starred review from August 26, 2013
Although Rice (A Density of Souls) refers to his story as a “chronicle of monsters and magic,” it would be more accurate to describe it as a masterful coming-of-age novel. Set in a present-day New Orleans beset by natural disaster and human corruption, the story focuses on four young people: Niquette Delongpre, a child of privilege; her longtime best friend from childhood, Ben; her lover, Anthem; and Marshall, the outsider who plays the serpent in the others’ adolescent Eden. Shortly after Niquette and Marshall are attacked by mysterious pool-dwelling organisms, Niquette and her family drive off the road. Marshall jumps through a 31st-story window, landing in a comatose state from which he can psychically cause acts of carnage. Chapters from different perspectives slowly reconstruct the tapestry of connections among Niquette, Anthem, and Ben, and poignantly captures the boys’ inarticulate pain over Niquette’s loss and their personal struggles. Rice’s characters are complex and real, his dialogue pitch-perfect, and his writing intelligent and strong. He builds suspense beautifully as Marshall’s malevolence reaches a crescendo of violence amid enduring philosophical questions about what it means to be human.

September 15, 2013

Son of famed horror novelist Anne Rice, this New York Times best-selling author (A Density of Souls; The Moonlit Earth) is also widely known for featuring gay characters in his works. However, this release, set in the Louisiana swamp, is not about any of his characters' sexuality but rather is Rice's first attempt at horror. As a teenager, Niquette Delongpre was exposed to a parasite when her family uncovered a well on their property. For ten years she has struggled to deal with her newfound power and, along with childhood best friends Ben and Anthem, to remember the fateful events of that evening when her parents disappeared. Nikki soon learns that the well water that infected her has a menacing otherworldly secret that could destroy the world. VERDICT Rich with New Orleans history and atmosphere, this hypnotizing supernatural work delves into dark family secrets, ancient powers, and superhuman abilities. The book is curiously, if a bit disjointedly, organized, with the third-person narrative arranged by the major characters of Ben, Anthem, and Marshall (offering those particular protagonists' viewpoints), while Nikki's journal entries supplement the story line. Despite this flaw, supernatural horror and thriller readers who enjoyed Douglas Clegg's Neverland and Robert McCammon's Boy's Life will want to pick up Rice's quick-paced coming-of-age story of a group of friends hoping to escape their haunted past.--Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Lib., Macon, GA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2013
Creepy, chilling, and almost impossible to put down all describe the new novel by New York Times best-selling author Rice. In the swampy areas of New Orleans, Niquette Delongpre's family discovers an old well on their property, whose contents have dark supernatural properties. During a clandestine meeting, Niquette and her high-school classmate, Marshall Ferriot, are immersed in the well water; within days, Niquette and her entire family are presumed dead and Marshall is in a vegetative state after throwing himself out a window in front of a hundred onlookers during a black-tie fundraising event. Years later, as Marshall sits in a coma in the hospital, things begin to die around him. Nurses first notice the dead birds and squirrels lined up outside his room; then a nurse, alone in his room, silently fillets herself with a surgical blade. This is only the start of what Marshall has planned. This is a horror novel, but in the telling of this page-turner, Rice also manages to deftly address issues of race and class in the Big Easy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)