Reviews

Redenzione by William Peter Blatty

fpernett's review against another edition

3.0

I was expecting more.

jadedfox's review against another edition

2.0

Okay I guess, kinda like a murder mystery with some very light supernatural sprinkled in. Didn't grab me as hard as The Exorcist did

leucocrystal's review against another edition

4.0

I really, really love Blatty's work. This one was gripping, twisty, and lovely (maybe an odd word considering the subject matter, but that could be said of everything he's written, I suspect). Highly recommended.

terminatee's review against another edition

2.0

I was hoping for a lot more from this book, based on reviews I had read. It was not as mysterious and supernatural as I had hoped. It was a lot more confusing than I would've expected. When the details were explained in the police station near the end of the book, it only made me more confused. While I appreciate the author's gift with language, I just didn't wind up liking this as much as I expected to or wanted to.

conordugan's review against another edition

2.0

I really wanted to love this book. It wrestles with themes and questions of faith, evil, redemption, etc. Blatty, the author of The Exorcist, calls this his most personally important book of his career. The book drew me in and held my interest, but the prose was stilted at times and often turgid. Take this line: "A waiting silence almost deeper than God's was broken only by the quiet cooing of a dove in one of the apertures just about the level of the streets outside that were aglow with promises of late morning sunlight sifting down at an angel to the shadowy floor" (pp. 271-272). Examples like this abound in the book. It is too bad because Blatty obviously has the chops to do first-rate work.

Also, the plot line and characters are a bit jumbled and it can become easy to get confused with all the new characters and how they related to each other.

The book is certainly a page turner. I really wanted to like this book more. Unfortunately, I just can't say that it was great.

jodiwilldare's review against another edition

1.0

I don’t often read genre fiction (mysteries, horror, sci-fi, fantasy). It’s just not my thing. I prefer fiction where the story is moved forward by characters and character development. Genre fiction, in my experience, is often more plot-driven where characters are there to service the plot rather than the plot being driven by the characters.

So when my Rock & Roll Bookclub suggested we read Dimiter by William Peter Blatty I immediately started protesting via farty noises and gagging. Once that subsided I began working through the five stages of reading genre fiction.

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