 Review by L.B. Goddard Mephestopheles. Mephestopheles. Mephestopheles. Say that five times fast! I’d rather take my chances with “toy boat.” The name Mephestopheles is most commonly associated with a demon, who deceives mortal men into signing away their souls, with only a contract and a pen. In Isabella Medici’s book, we get a very different spin on things… The story begins with a young Robert Garamond, a college student with a passion for the Black Death and Danse Macabre. While working in the school’s library one strange afternoon, he becomes lost in the attic while searching for a room. He only knows that the door reads “Staff Only.” It seems there is no one in the attic to help him out, until he stumbles upon a lone girl… a girl who never turns her face to meet his eyes. With her nose in a book, she tells him exactly where to go. The atmosphere in this scene reminded me of the attic in The Never Ending Story, or the beginning of Alice In Wonderland… right before she falls down the hole. Medici creates a dream-like reality, which will leave you guessing “Is Robert still in reality at all?” After finding the room, Robert works late into the day, sorting box after box of old books. Until he finds a peculiar book… a book that is filled with blank pages. Only the first page is complete. And I should warn you, Mephestopheles is not for the die-hard Christian. You must keep an open mind while reading this tale. You will run into ideas like these: “Evil” comes in two forms. The first is its representation in Christianity. The second is what “evil” truly is. “Evil” is only executed upon those who deserve it. Those would be the bastards who have tainted the writings of Mephestopheles and disfigured them into religious scriptures, which have enslaved countless minds. Christianity is nothing more than intertwined and complicated lies, contorted and misinterpreted from previous literature. It was created to scare people into believing it. Robert’s world is forever changed by the book he finds that day. He is haunted by a song, of the most macabre nature… To bones we turn. To ash we turn, o’ the day be long as death. As Robert grows older, his obsession with the book does not die. In fact, it grows stronger, as he becomes more desperate to find its origin, to discover the meaning of its words, and to understand why only one page was written. A strange girl approaches him one day, 31 years after he finds the treasured book. She’s got quite a story to tell. Robert is about to find out that everything he’s learned and has taught as a college professor has been wrong. Everything about the Black Death, that is. In her tales, this peculiar girl will take us to Asilem, a place just beyond the world of the living. Isabella Medici’s descriptions spill across the page like poetry, a truly Oscar-Wilde-like quality. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a sentence fragment in her thickly descriptive prose, and yet she does not allow her elaborate descriptions to slow down the pace of her story. The tale is constantly unfolding, revealing more and more pieces of an ancient puzzle. You will find yourself piecing these tidbits together, treating this morbid fairy tale like a murder mystery… eager to discover the truth. Yet I do have a complaint. In the beginning pages of the book, you’ll notice this statement: “PublishAmerica has allowed this work to remain exactly as the author intended, verbatim, without editorial input.” The lack of an editor was noticeable, and a few times I found it distracting. A professional, trained to edit fiction, may have prevented these distractions from reaching print. There’s an overuse of the word “had”, as you will see in this example: “He had asked her what she had meant when she had said…” An editor would’ve corrected little slips like the following: “They grunted and huffed as the he readjusted the reigns.” “His expected his new friend to return…” Little booboos like these happen quite often, but it's a magical tale none-the-less. It is a fairy tale the way the Grimm Brothers intended, before Disney omitted the moral in exchange for a happy ending. While reading this book, you will hear frantic and melancholy violins playing in your mind! Or perhaps, I’m too crazy for my own good. The turning point in this story, for me, happens in the year 1321, when a young Tom Girnwood is baffled and frightened by his sister’s unruly behavior: She was crouched next to the bed, with her back to him, mumbling inaudible words. She turned to look at her brother and with the candlelight reflecting off of her eyes, she looked sinister. A platter of food sat beside her, half eaten. “Ardella?” he asked, standing no more than a foot away from the open door. “Yes, dear brother,” she replied coldly. Her face remained lost in an evil void. Her eyes were evil. She was wearing a twisted snarl. She went back to mumbling her nonsense as she had been. He could see her lips moving, but could not read them. “Ardella?” he asked again. “Do you feel well?” What was the point of asking? She had gone beyond crazy. If she had been a wild animal, he would have killed her. She pursed her pink lips, then curled the corners into a smile, just barely showing her top teeth. The candlelight flickered violently in her black pupils. She literally had fire in her eyes. “To bones we turn,” she began. “To ash we turn, o’ the day be long as death.” After reaching this part of the book, prepare to be flooded with fantastic ideas, immortal creatures, and an impending war in the unearthly world of Asilem. Overall: I recommend this book. It will take you back to that attic in The Never Ending story, back to the idea that a book is sometimes more than words on paper, and your fate can be sealed by just a page. Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Back To Main Page TMND MySpace Profile |