The Hellbound Heart: A Novel

The characters are completely single-minded and one-dimensional, and devoid of depth. Their actions, save for what begins of the novel, have little to no consequence on the events that follow them-- things happen because they need to further the events of the story, and nothing plays against expectation or what the characters want. A novel can't be suspenseful if the...more

The characters are completely single-minded and one-dimensional, and devoid of depth. Their actions, save for what begins of the novel, have little to no consequence on the events that follow them-- things happen because they need to further the events of the story, and nothing plays against expectation or what the characters want. A novel can't be suspenseful if the characters are meaningless- we spend more time with the "bad guys" than the "good guys" in this novel and so it's not too surprising that when the conflict comes to a head at the end it's impossible to care who actually wins/loses/lives/dies. I barely know the good guys and the bad guys are hedonistic murderers. The cenobites are the most interesting part of the story, but because their role is so minimal and unexplored they become more of an excuse to describe horrific things and further work toward the (vastly unexplored) pleasure/pain relationship. They could be replaced by any supernatural force to similar effect. The only real strengths this book has is that it is short, and somehow still readable.   hide