Well I finished it! I was captivated by the New York socialite culture and its history that Stewart intertwined so well in this sordid tale of depravi..Show More »ty. I was particularly drawn to the character Babe Vanderwal and the mystery surrounding her coma.

The story also revolves around the most depraved sexual addictions I've ever encountered in a book. Though it's never glorified, it is revealed as a thriving subculture of NYC. It includes sex with dead people, pedophiles, rape, murder, all while being filmed. Only beastiality was missing. I wonder why? Anyway, the first wave of the HIV epidemic has begun, a detail that ties many of the different lives of the characters together.

Christian Rummel does a brilliant job narration. He has to have the widest and most accurate range of voices and accents of any narrator I've listened to. If not for his work, I might have given this experience a 2 star rating.

It's a good mystery, with some good police work and great characters. But there is also an undercurrent of self hate from most every cast member that literally drips from each scene. It's definitely not a feel good novel.



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