Heartsick
by Chelsea Cain
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Book Reviews of Heartsick
Book Review: Kaleidoscope of pain
Summary: 4 Stars
I simply had to read this book after hearing all the buzz surrounding it, and at first I didn't like it as much as wanted to, but I kept on reading out of sheer curiosity and once I got past page 120 I was hooked. The tale is dark and twisted but I didn't find it gory as some people said, maybe it's because I read much gorier things by Laymon and Ketchum but I did find it to be a pretty sick psychological thriller, the book really wraps the brain and bends it against all norms and morals.
The story is about Archie Sheridan, a police detective and his strange relationship with Gretchen Lowell, a woman that has murdered one hundred and ninety nine people, trying to make Archie her number two hundred. For unknown reasons Archie doesn't die and Gretchen is in jail where she belongs but two years later gristly crimes are starting up and everyone is shooken up enough to bring Archie back into the spotlight as the detective. He's still mentally and physically weak from the torture and abuse he suffered, not to mention tormented and damaged by the stunningly beautiful Gretchen, whom he can't seem to stay away from but he's back to work. Along with Susan Ward, a young pink haired reporter from the Herald, he decides to question Gretchen and see if she can give them any insight on the new murders, but he's in for a rude awakening, not only does Gretchen feel jealous of Susan but the murder's aren't stopping, in face something has shifted and people are more scared than before.
There are some good twists and turns in here, and plenty of guilty suspects but what really makes this such an intense read is Gretchen herself. The cold blooded sociopath with a smile on her face and absolutely no pity or mercy was a great villain. Most of the time we get bad guys who are, well guys, so it was a bit of a shocker to have the role played so well by a woman, apparently we're capable of hating more than men are. The relationship between Archie and Gretchen is disturbing but not quite clear, perhaps people can choose more than one side. I'm really curious to read the next installment, especially since this was quite enjoyable.
- Kasia S.
Book Review: If you're going to rip off Hannibal Lecter, this is how you do it
Summary: 4 Stars
"Heartsick" is my first Chelsea Cain novel, although I have read her columns in the local paper, the Oregonian. It's hard to square the author of those columns - replete with funny tales of young tykes - with this twisted Thomas Harris-inspired thriller set in Portland.
This is a tough novel to review. "Heartsick" is either directly inspired by or a complete rip-off of Harris's Hannibal Lecter series (the choice is up to you, depending on your level of cynicism). I try to fall down on the side of "inspired by," thanks to the utterly sympathetic character of Archie Sheridan and the horrors his nemesis, Gretchen Lowell, puts him through.
"Heartsick" has two intertwined plots. The first is a very conventional murder mystery - someone is murdering Portland high school girls and leaving their bodies to be found with nary a clue left behind. While it's fun for a Portlander to see dead bodies discovered at places I frequent, it must be said that this aspect of the novel is in the been-there, done that category: "Portland police detective Archie Sheridan must track this murderer down before he kills again."
Where "Heartsick" takes gruesome flight is the other track - gorgeous serial killer Gretchen Lowell has trapped and drugged Archie. She was a shrink helping Archie track down a serial killer who just happened to be her(!), and during the ten-year chase she developed a bond with Archie. She is now so close to him that she wants to kill him in the most agonzing way possible . . . and to have him ask her to do it. Cain truly has a dark side to her soul - I had to put the book down a couple of times as Gretchen worked her dark arts on Archie. The torturers at Abu Grahib have nothing in this girl.
It must be said that Gretchen, the beautiful, brilliant shrink who has an evil hold over Archie, is just too close to Hannibal Lecter. Cain acknowledges this in one scene, but it's a tough hurdle to overcome. I can't quite say this is a Great Book, but it's definitely good enough that I'm going to read the rest of the series as soon as I can.
Book Review: Why do women murder men?
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, actually, they don't. At least, not very often. If you watch Law and Order or CSI, you might be under the impression that beautiful women murder people all the time. But statistically speaking, according to the Department of Justice's Statistics department, only about 8% of convicted violent offenders are female. And female serial killers make up a miniscule portion of that already small group.
So it's interesting to consider, why might a female serial killer murder men? Would it be somehow similar to the ways the creepiest and most violent sexual predators usually kill women? Or would it be somehow different?
Chelsea Cain has come up with a fascinating psychological portrait of a female serial killer that is unlike anything you have ever read. It's scary, it's totally original, it's entertaining, it's bizarre, and yet it never stretches credibility.
Gretchen is not the only interesting character in the book, or even the most interesting one in my opinion. You also get to meet Archie -- the cop who was also Gretchen's victim, and a very entertaining, intrepid Portland news reporter who is following a new serial killer and who has her own demons to exorcise. The characters in this book are wonderfully drawn and intelligent and it is a pleasure to read about what motivates them.
Cain's writing is spectacular. The book poses some very thought-provoking questions about the nature of violence. It's gruesome, but that in itself is a statement --- we've become so used to reading stories of men grossly torturing women that it's almost not shocking anymore. But something about a woman doing the torturing is completely terrifying.
So - why do women kill men? A better question might be, why do so many more men kill women? And why are we all so used to this? Heartsick will leave you with all kinds of things like this to ponder, but it will also entertain you and scare you half to death. Cain is the best new author I've found since Jason Starr. I can't wait to read her next book.
Book Review: pink hair and rainwear
Summary: 5 Stars
Chelsea Cain has created three of the most riveting characters in contemporary fiction in Heartsick and its sequel, Sweetheart. Everyone is fascinated by Gretchen the serial killer, but Susan Ward gets under your skin in less spectacular but more lasting ways. Susan is the child of a wacked-out hippie mom; the burn-marks from her childhood are clearly visible and she does little to hide them. But her instincts as a writer/reporter are golden. That's not to say that she doesn't screw up. She does. But super-heroes aren't interesting for more than 10 minutes.
Archie Sheridan is nobody's idea of a super-hero. He's addicted to pain meds and smart enough to know he's doomed, but Cain makes him sick without being sickening. Generally I flee from substance-abusing protagonists, but Archie's self-awareness makes him actually sympathetic, while his friends and family members make him almost lovable, albeit by proxy.
Gretchen is one sick puppy. In Heartsick Cain makes us wait to see her, a clichéd device that nevertheless works. No matter how bad you think she's going to be, brace yourself: she's worse. Michelle Phieffer will be great in the film.
Portland may be a somewhat unlikely venue for a thriller - although Thomas Perry's wonderful NightlifeNightlife: A Novel is set there, featuring another female serial killer, now that I think of it. And Cain works the climate brilliantly: we need the rain for the plots. (As in Untraceable, the movie. OK, I take it back: Portland is the perfect setting for a thriller.) Cain's settings are as viscerally delineated as her action. Everything works relentlessly together.
Both Heartsick and Sweetheart have tight plots and a cast of characters so vivid that it's unfair to call them secondary. Cain can catch a personality with a gesture and a pair of shoes. I bought Heartsick in London and it made a long plane ride seem brief. Cain's work is outstanding.
Book Review: Fizzles Out
Summary: 2 Stars
There are a few interesting parts and many derivative pieces in "Heartsick," but they didn't quite come together to form a suspenseful whole.
Even the wink to Clarice Starling seems to say, "you will probably recognize much of what you will read on these pages."
The three main characters--newspaper reporter Susan Ward, troubled detective Archie Sheridan, imprisoned serial killer Gretchen Lowell--are each, in their own way , a stretch. They live outside the real world. They are overdrawn. Had one or two provided an anchor in the real world, "Heartsick" might have carried more zing.
Pink hair and motorcycle boots on a big-city, major daily newspaper reporter? It's true that Susan used to interview big stars at rock concerts, but now she's embedded with cops. Pink hair? Unlikely.
Lowell's incredibly lengthy string of murders? You have to swallow hard, particularly to think she would ever be allowed a regular visit in prison with one of her near-victims, Sheridan, and the embedded reporter, Susan.
Lowell's "pretty, demure" body and overall apparent beauty--after inflicting so much pain on others, taking out so much anger? Maybe in the movies.
Sheridan's pill-popping grew weary enough but the biggest stretch was how he had endured torture at the hands of Lowell.
Even little things, like a school giving away a student's attendance (or not) in school to someone on the telephone (again, Susan) pretending to be the student's mother? Maybe in the 1960's. Not likely today.
The surgery scene flashbacks are over-the-top and, as others have pointed out, grisly. They also felt gratuitous. The big climax requires outside interference to free Susan; I was hoping she might at least come up with something to save herself. No such luck.
The overall feeling of reading "Heartsick" is hope that it will get better and let-down when it fizzles into cliché.