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Once
Once
Author: James Herbert
The International Bestseller — For Thom Kindred, life is nothing spectacular. A stroke victim, Thom finds himself partially incapacitated and battling daily to regain control of his life. Moved by haunting dreams of his youth, he travels back to the wooded land where he grew up to recuperate. Surrounded by the comforts of Castle Bracken, T...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780765343505
ISBN-10: 0765343509
Publication Date: 1/20/2003
Pages: 480
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 42

3.3 stars, based on 42 ratings
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Once on + 122 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book was ok. It got redundent a few times. There was a lot of sex in the book, and that got a little old. The author loved to draw everything out, from just a simple walk in the woods, to being attacked by spiders (twice). The ending was a bit anti climatic as well. The bad guy (or in this case lady) isn't beat by the good guy. He just kind of stood around and witnessed it while she did herself in. Kind of a "huh" moment. Unless your into erotica, this book isn't that great of a read.
reviewed Once on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
The story was engaging and well-written, kind of an erotic, murderous thriller with faeries.

"ONCE...A Scary Tale of Faerefolkis & Evildoers, of Lovers & Erotic Passion, of Horror & Belief. Written Only for Adults by James Herbert."
reviewed Once on + 149 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
A grown up fairy tale - I guess is what you'd call it. A house with actual fairies in the garden and other weird creatures as well. Quite a few very explicit sex scenes including one between two women. It wasn't my cup of tea but maybe it's yours.
dragonqueen avatar reviewed Once on + 80 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A decent read. Kept my interest throughout the book. Would have wished for more information on the fairy folk but all in all a solid book. Would red more of James Herbert's books.
reviewed Once on + 56 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
An excellent fantasy horror. James Herbert is the English's version of Dean Koontz.
Read All 9 Book Reviews of "Once"

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CheriePie avatar reviewed Once on + 149 more book reviews
Hmmm... how did I feel about this book? Well, I think it could've been a lot better in some regards, but I really liked the underlying story. For starters, I didn't like the author's frequent use of parenthesis and dashes, in the middle of a thought, where he'd go off on a tangent in another direction, just to return to the original thought of the sentence. For instance, dashes should be used for short thoughts inserted into the stream of thought, but when that inserted stream of thought goes on for 5 or 6 lines, before returning to finish the sentence... well, I found myself having to go back and reread the sentence without the inserted text to understand what the author was trying to say. He sometimes used parenthesis in the same way. So all that got annoying after awhile.

Secondly, speaking as a practicing Witch and Pagan, I disliked the use of the word Wiccan to refer to what Nell was. A Wiccan is a very specific denomination of Witchcraft, and what Nell practiced was definitely not Wicca. Nell was a Witch, but she was not a Wiccan. A Wiccan is a Witch, but a Witch is not necessarily a Wiccan. I think the author should spend a bit more time researching the subject of Wiccans and Witchcraft before throwing around terminology he obviously knows nothing about.

Now that all that nasty stuff is out of the way, I found the underlying story interesting and hard to put down. I particularly liked the sex scenes; they were pretty hot for a non-erotica book! :-P I also liked author's portrayal of the Faerie world, and the characters of Jennet and Rigwit. But found Hugo, Thom's longtime friend, to be particularly annoying and spineless.

Overall, a fairly decent read, though it lost points because of the points I mentioned above. I'll certainly look for and read more by this author though, particularly since others have stated this wasn't even one of his better books.


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