Ariel

by Lawrence Block

Book Overview

Ariel Jardell, an adopted twelve-year-old girl is possessed--her mother thinks--by jealousy and by forces far more bizarre. As the reader will discover, Ariel is driven to malevolence and beyond. An... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425051692
• ISBN13: 9780425051696
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

for Block fans

Althoug different from what I am used to expect from Block's excellent novels (or short stories) and not the same taste, I think this is a must reading for Block readers. Character building and relationships in Ariel give strong hints about what came later.

bemused and befuddled over this book

ARIEL is great, and repersents Block as a novelist in rare form, and yet trying to strike out a new path as well. This, in the end, is what makes ARIEL both enjoying and frustrating. There are too many tales being told...the adolescent coming of age (which is done amazingly well between Erksine and ARIEL) the madness/occult/supernatural tease (it never is really clear what happened) and the 'grown ups story' of Roberta and David and Jeff/ Jeff's own family. All of these stories could've been made into a novel, but because they are all here it's sort of a literary mess. In this book we are told what some of the characters are thinking but not all of the time. In this sense, the narrative is at fualt because its at times omnipresent, and at others centered solely on ARIEL and her diary. It's an uneven book and yet I am so drawn to it, I have to say its a great book at the same time. Except for the electra complex scenes toward the end...I felt I was being hit over the head with that point. I think too that the book should've been fleshed out, but Block, being the amazing mystery writer that he is, is still writing with the urgency of a mystery. Still, read ARIEL and decide for yourself..it's still a great and provoking read, definitely worth it...you really can't go wrong with Block.

An understated, underrated psychological thriller.

Originally marketed as "occult horror", Ariel is neither. It's a story of the madness that lies just under the surface, and what it takes to bring it out; the need to give evil a face and a name. Who better to scapegoat for unexplainable tragedies than the one who is Different? Ariel is adopted, and looks slightly unusual. Her unstable mother never fails to assume the worst, almost deliberately misreading the girl's ordinary teenage perceptiveness and need for privacy. By the book's end, almost everyone believes that Ariel is a monster -- including Ariel herself.Great characterizations, wonderful descriptions -- I want to live in Ariel's house. I could wish for a sequel, or just for more books like it.