A Density of Souls
A novel by Christopher Rice

Growing up sucks. Anyone who's done it can tell you that. But in Christopher Rice's debut novel, A Density of Souls, adolescence is the time when four kids inflict Grievous Bodily and/or Emotional Harm on each other and their families. It is a dark novel, and not for the squeamish, but it is a triumph for the son of one of America's most famous horror novelists, Ms. Vampires-In-New Orleans herself, Anne Rice.

Rice the Younger's novel begins with an idyllic description of four thirteen-year-olds riding their bikes in the Garden District of New Orleans (where else?). It is clear to the reader right away that this will likely be one of the happiest passages in the book. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

The central characters are four children who have grown up together. Greg is the natural leader of the group, a good-natured kid who adores his younger brother. Brandon is a hothead, a younger brother himself, and just a little... off... mentally. Meredith is the token female, and she knows it; she feels the boys pulling away from her as they mature. Stephen is the sensitive, "different" child whose father committed suicide years ago, leaving him with a mother who needs him maybe too much.

Stephen quickly becomes the central character as the story revolves around the secret the boys share: their early experiments with sexuality have been with each other. This is a fact that bothers Stephen not at all, but shames and frightens Greg and Brandon to varying degrees. These two boys are on the high school football team, and they fully plan on living well-off, ordinary New Orleans lives. They don't have any place in those lives for the dangerous, seductive attraction of Stephen's willingness. And so, in the manner of homophobes everywhere, they demonize in others the thing they hate and fear in themselves. They, along with Meredith (who is dating Greg, hates herself, and is a budding alcoholic) and the rest of the student body, make high school a living hell for Stephen.

...Now is the moment of decision for the faithful reviewer. She tries to decide between spoiling the plot in the service of giving a fuller review, or keeping the book's secrets in order to not deprive the reader of its shock value. I believe I'm going to go with Option B, so...

Tragedy ensues. A lot. More tragedy, and more, as inevitable as the rising sun in a Vampire Chronicles novel. Decisions are made, lies are spoken, lives are taken, and hearts are broken. Primarily among them the reader's, as loved characters hurt and grieve and die. This book had me gasping and crying with shock and sorrow in more than one place. Rice is practically Joss Whedon-like in his ability to destroy the emotions of his readers. This is a good thing. Trust me.

As mentioned above, homosexual themes figure prominently as the core of this book: self-acceptance, tolerance and the lack thereof, internalized fear, and hatred. But, really, these are themes of the human condition in general, so they should be no obstacle to the open-minded reader. (And if you are a genre fan who can believe in the possibility of alien life forms but not in the possibility of honest love between two people of the same sex, I just don't think you're trying hard enough.) There are very few explicit scenes in this novel, but there are several sexually-charged passages that can't be ignored.

The last twist is the most shocking one, so of course I'm not going to tell you what it is here. Rest assured, however, that it is worth the dark journey that the rest of the book presents. Christopher Rice has succeeded in following in his mother's footsteps without being overshadowed by her. The New Orleans of his fiction has the same haunting, haunted air as that of his mother's best work, but he has made the Big Easy his own. And what with all the human horror stories he tells, he doesn't need a single vampire or witch to make this book troubling to the nth degree.

RE-READ FACTOR: Having read it twice, I can say with certainty that I will be reading it again, and soon. I saw hints of the upcoming tragedies on the second read that escaped me the first time through, and I'm anxious to see what I'll pick up on with successive readings.

SEQUEL FACTOR: Slim, I would say, although I wouldn't mind reading one. I'm curious if Rice will follow the example of his mother and make this the beginning of an interminable series.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Meredith Ducote is not a girl I would want to spend a lot of time around, but she asserts her true strength and vulnerability by the end of the novel. The other women in this story are mostly mothers, reeling in the wake of their children's destruction, but strong or weak in their own right.

-- Jen Hopper

A Density of Souls is currently available in hardcover from Talk Miramax Books, unabridged audio cassette from BrillianceAudio and abridged from Nova Audio Books.

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