文章基本信息

标题：Oral Vices
作者：Nancy Jackson
期刊名称：Reviewer's Bookwatch
出版年度：2005
卷号：March 2005
出版社：Midwest Book Review

Oral Vices

Nancy Jackson

Oral Vices

Adrienne Jones

Publish America

ISBN 1413734367 $24.95 316 pp.

Oral Vices. Yes, what a title, and oh what a story! Adrienne Jones, author of many stories and a clever story titled Gypsies Stole my Tequila, has penned yet another exhilarating and adrenaline-inducing piece. Samuel Doherty, an artist looking to be discovered, winds up running into a giant selling jewelry outside a local club. With the charm of a snake and a little opium-laced tea, the giant--Garr, stirs up Samuel's curiosity with an offer too good to be true. And indeed it comes with a hefty price. For all the fame, money, fortune, women, and riches, he is to wear a pendant around his neck. Before he has a chance to decline, Garr whisks him away, far into the future within his mind, and entices him with the fantasy life he longs for. How can he possibly resist such temptations? Greedily, Samuel accepts, and the giant, quite sure this man was "chosen for success" tells him to never to take the pendant off for his very life is dependant on it.

Five years later, Samuel has enjoyed the good life and sitting in the lap of luxury, but strange visions gnaw away at him. He realizes the life he thought he wanted, wasn't really what he wanted at all. Just as there was a price for obtaining his fame, the fame itself had a price tag as well. Bothered by odd feelings or uneasiness, he wants to be rid of the pendant.

What he doesn't realize is that the pendant acts like an all seeing eye, complete with shape-shifting creatures--morphlings--that are to watch over him. Samuel makes a special trip to seek out the giant, Garr, after having learned his lesson of looking a gift horse in the mouth, and hopes his life goes back to normal, when people didn't even know his name.

Adrienne Jones writes with a whimsical wit that is full of adventure, vivid characters you want to meet someday, and a plot that takes you down one tumultuous road and up another. When you arrive at the end, you know you've been somewhere exciting and can't wait to embark on yet another journey. Oral Vices has not only a killer title (and this author knows how to pick a title), but has enough panache to keep you reading it all in one sitting. Addictive--yes, and a must read for everyone!

Nancy Jackson, Reviewer