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Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran
A young woman confronts her own dark desires, and finds her match in a masked conjurer turned assassin.
Inspired by Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, Marion Grace Woolley takes us on forbidden adventures through a time that has been written out of history books.
"Those days are buried beneath the mists of time. I was the first, you see. The very first daughter. There would be many like me to come. Svelte little figures, each with saffron skin and wide, dark eyes. Every one possessing a voice like honey, able to twist the santur strings of our father’s heart."
It begins with a rumour, an exciting whisper. Anything to break the tedium of the harem for the Shah’s eldest daughter. People speak of a man with a face so vile it would make a hangman faint, but a voice as sweet as an angel’s kiss. A master of illusion and stealth. A masked performer, known only as Vachon.
For once, the truth will outshine the tales.
On her birthday the Shah gifts his eldest daughter Afsar a circus. With it comes a man who will change everything.
Note: Mature subject matter
Inspired by Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, Marion Grace Woolley takes us on forbidden adventures through a time that has been written out of history books.
"Those days are buried beneath the mists of time. I was the first, you see. The very first daughter. There would be many like me to come. Svelte little figures, each with saffron skin and wide, dark eyes. Every one possessing a voice like honey, able to twist the santur strings of our father’s heart."
It begins with a rumour, an exciting whisper. Anything to break the tedium of the harem for the Shah’s eldest daughter. People speak of a man with a face so vile it would make a hangman faint, but a voice as sweet as an angel’s kiss. A master of illusion and stealth. A masked performer, known only as Vachon.
For once, the truth will outshine the tales.
On her birthday the Shah gifts his eldest daughter Afsar a circus. With it comes a man who will change everything.
Note: Mature subject matter
288 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 2015
3 people are currently reading
617 people want to read
About the author
Marion Grace Woolley
16 books23 followersMarion works as an international development consultant and builds pianos in her spare time. She is currently trying to build the first ever piano in Rwanda through the Kigali Keys project.
She writes across different genres, but usually dark fiction. She is best known for Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran, and her debut novel, Lucid, was shortlisted for the Luke Bitmead Bursary for New Writers in 2009.
She writes across different genres, but usually dark fiction. She is best known for Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran, and her debut novel, Lucid, was shortlisted for the Luke Bitmead Bursary for New Writers in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 11, 2015
The fantasy genre wasn't always drenched in the sort of YA morally didactic fluff it's awash with now. Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran harkens back to those earlier, richer, more complex and nuanced times. When fantasy was both escapism and a murky mirror into the strangeness of the human psyche. It fits quite well into the fantasy sub-genre of alternate histories, with just a little kiss of the uncanny.
This is a dark, rich, shifting novel of love, desperation and the rage that only being reared in the crucible of male-dominated, whim-driven autocracy can forge. As the daughter of the Shah in fantastical and baroque 19th Century Persia, Afsar has been betrayed even before her birth. She is intelligent, precocious, and a magnificent flower in the corrupt, brutally abusive and seemingly ordered garden of her father's palace. What grows is a beautiful deadly nightshade of a girl.
She meets her masked and hideously disfigured soul-mate, Vachon, who arrives as a circus entertainer and stays as a brilliant architect of illusions of many kinds. Together, they feed each others curiosity, wonder, delight and darker sadistic appetites.
They also represent the clash and infatuations of the meeting of their respective cultures. East meets west in opulence, decadence and mutual cultural objectification.
Meanwhile, the pace of the novel is languid, dreamy like the title. The descriptive writing matches the colourful intricacy and immersive quality of an enormous, riotous Persian carpet. This is a very skillfully written work that straddles the task of addressing a modern reader, while paying homage to the narrative ornament of an earlier time. That being said, there are places in the second part of the novel where the pacing probably could have been a bit tighter.
This is a novel of moral ambiguity. It is rare to find writing that takes into account so many historical accuracies, so much sociological and psychological insight while pulling you into the rich honey of a fantastical storyworld. If you're looking for a morality lesson or a formulaic storyline in the tradition of Twilight and The Hunger Games, you won't find it here.
This is the stuff of darker fairytales and all the more haunting and insightful for it. And it was a delicious, fantastical ride. I highly recommend it.
This is a dark, rich, shifting novel of love, desperation and the rage that only being reared in the crucible of male-dominated, whim-driven autocracy can forge. As the daughter of the Shah in fantastical and baroque 19th Century Persia, Afsar has been betrayed even before her birth. She is intelligent, precocious, and a magnificent flower in the corrupt, brutally abusive and seemingly ordered garden of her father's palace. What grows is a beautiful deadly nightshade of a girl.
She meets her masked and hideously disfigured soul-mate, Vachon, who arrives as a circus entertainer and stays as a brilliant architect of illusions of many kinds. Together, they feed each others curiosity, wonder, delight and darker sadistic appetites.
They also represent the clash and infatuations of the meeting of their respective cultures. East meets west in opulence, decadence and mutual cultural objectification.
Meanwhile, the pace of the novel is languid, dreamy like the title. The descriptive writing matches the colourful intricacy and immersive quality of an enormous, riotous Persian carpet. This is a very skillfully written work that straddles the task of addressing a modern reader, while paying homage to the narrative ornament of an earlier time. That being said, there are places in the second part of the novel where the pacing probably could have been a bit tighter.
This is a novel of moral ambiguity. It is rare to find writing that takes into account so many historical accuracies, so much sociological and psychological insight while pulling you into the rich honey of a fantastical storyworld. If you're looking for a morality lesson or a formulaic storyline in the tradition of Twilight and The Hunger Games, you won't find it here.
This is the stuff of darker fairytales and all the more haunting and insightful for it. And it was a delicious, fantastical ride. I highly recommend it.
November 13, 2015
Violent, tragic, dark, and beautifully written. A fascinating Phantom prequel. The knocked off star is due to my own subjectivity. I had a hard time relating to the two main characters at times, because of their cruelty. Some scenes were graphic and difficult to read because I sympathized with their victims so strongly, and kept hoping the main characters would redeem themselves. But they stayed true to the characterization set for them in this story. This author is amazing talented at painting a vivid scene and setting.
May 24, 2015
In the old days when I bought my books in bookstores, I would walk up and down the aisles looking for intriguing book spines. I would usually go to parts of the store where I'd been lucky before. I would pull out anything that looked interesting and read the cover blurb.
If the blurb seemed interesting, I'd open the book and read the first page. If I liked the voice, I'd buy the book, flee the store, and go off to read. I found and devoured many books like that.
I rarely love books so much these days. It's harder to look for them on retail sites. I can't see the spine and be intrigued. There's no 'area' to look in where the good books are. Too many choices, too many genres.
So when I find a book that fits all my old criteria, I'm thrilled. This is the first book in many years that fulfilled all my requirements. The writing is lovely. The story is intricate, character driven, and there's suspense. I read the book more quickly than I usually read, holding my breath, waiting for it to fall apart, as I feel most books do for me. But this one didn't. It's brilliant all the way through.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes Gothic novels. Set in the 1850s, in Persia (Iran)it tells the story of the first-born daughter of the Shah, which is Persian for King (Shahanshah, King of Kings, or Emperor). Afsar is both strong and vulnerable. There are shocking places in the book, and yet somehow the author managed to make me feel empathy for the character. She makes mistakes and more than mistakes, but she's a likable victim/villain. There is an almost romantic feeling to the pairing of Afsar with the masked Vachon. Their shared desire to break the ultimate rules is a kind of passion between them, though this is not a romance in any traditional sense.
The main character is quite young, but this is not a YA novel. In her time, she was of marriageable age.
There is a lot of violence and some attempted sexual violence (and off-screen sexual violence with a non-protagonist character)but the women in this story fight back.
I've read it twice now. It's my favorite book right now. I think it's going to take a long while to knock it off that spot.
That's all I can say. If you like The Historian or Interview with the Vampire or ... The Shadow of the Wind. There are no vampires in it. There's nothing really like this because of the historical Persian setting. There's some fantastical content but it's all quite believable. Go and read it. Love, love, love this book.
If the blurb seemed interesting, I'd open the book and read the first page. If I liked the voice, I'd buy the book, flee the store, and go off to read. I found and devoured many books like that.
I rarely love books so much these days. It's harder to look for them on retail sites. I can't see the spine and be intrigued. There's no 'area' to look in where the good books are. Too many choices, too many genres.
So when I find a book that fits all my old criteria, I'm thrilled. This is the first book in many years that fulfilled all my requirements. The writing is lovely. The story is intricate, character driven, and there's suspense. I read the book more quickly than I usually read, holding my breath, waiting for it to fall apart, as I feel most books do for me. But this one didn't. It's brilliant all the way through.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes Gothic novels. Set in the 1850s, in Persia (Iran)it tells the story of the first-born daughter of the Shah, which is Persian for King (Shahanshah, King of Kings, or Emperor). Afsar is both strong and vulnerable. There are shocking places in the book, and yet somehow the author managed to make me feel empathy for the character. She makes mistakes and more than mistakes, but she's a likable victim/villain. There is an almost romantic feeling to the pairing of Afsar with the masked Vachon. Their shared desire to break the ultimate rules is a kind of passion between them, though this is not a romance in any traditional sense.
The main character is quite young, but this is not a YA novel. In her time, she was of marriageable age.
There is a lot of violence and some attempted sexual violence (and off-screen sexual violence with a non-protagonist character)but the women in this story fight back.
I've read it twice now. It's my favorite book right now. I think it's going to take a long while to knock it off that spot.
That's all I can say. If you like The Historian or Interview with the Vampire or ... The Shadow of the Wind. There are no vampires in it. There's nothing really like this because of the historical Persian setting. There's some fantastical content but it's all quite believable. Go and read it. Love, love, love this book.
December 4, 2018
The story begins in the Islamic year of 1268(1851 CE) in Iran amongst its royal household. Afsar, the ten year-old princess, is promised a circus for her eleventh birthday in a few months time. Little does she know then that this will determine the course of the rest of her life. For it is through this that she meets the masked man, later to be known as Eirik, with whom she forms a murderous and cruel alliance.
Woolley's writing is beautiful and flowing. After the first quarter or so, the initially rather slow (deliberately so, for she is setting things in place) pacing gradually picks up momentum and speed. It is adroitly plotted and the main characters are fully fleshed out. (Cameo parts, not so much, but that is to be expected and in line with how much notice Afsar herself takes of the people concerned.) There are a couple of anachronistic slips. For example, she refers to barbed wire at a prison in the early 1850s, when it wasn't invented until 1867. Nothing major that I spotted, however (I don't pretend to be an expert).
My main issue was that the vast majority of characters are not likeable at all. Sheyda, Selale and Shahab being, perhaps, notable exceptions. Afsar and Eirik are selfish, amoral creatures who care only for themselves and take great delight in killing whenever, it seemed to me, the fancy struck them or when it would confer even the slightest advantage upon them. They express no remorse, have no honour and are incapable of true, selfless love. They have no moral code whatsoever. Afsar feigns shock at reports of her father's drinking and dismisses them because he wouldn't go against Islam. Yet her murderous sprees apparently represent no kind of transgression.
The other thing which grated for me was the maturity of her voice. I gather that children as young as nine could marry in Iran at the time and I realise it was also a very different culture. However, the narrative read to me as if spoken by someone in their late twenties rather than the 11 or 12 year old she was supposed to be. I accept, however, that that is probably my problem since it may well be entirely historically accurate from that point of view.
With respect to how it pertains to "The Phantom of the Opera", unfortunately I am not qualified to comment because I have yet to read it. Perhaps I ought to have done so first, but I would be interested in commentary from others as to how the two compare.
In conclusion, I would say that while I personally found this a very uncomfortable read, I can see how others would appreciate it. Moreover, to have a strong and thoroughly flawed female protagonist is relatively unusual and to be welcomed. (Whether or not the freedoms she had in the novel were historically accurate I don't know - it may well have been poetic licence.) On the strength of Woolley's writing, however, I would certainly want to read more of her work. Recommended but with the above outlined caveats.
Woolley's writing is beautiful and flowing. After the first quarter or so, the initially rather slow (deliberately so, for she is setting things in place) pacing gradually picks up momentum and speed. It is adroitly plotted and the main characters are fully fleshed out. (Cameo parts, not so much, but that is to be expected and in line with how much notice Afsar herself takes of the people concerned.) There are a couple of anachronistic slips. For example, she refers to barbed wire at a prison in the early 1850s, when it wasn't invented until 1867. Nothing major that I spotted, however (I don't pretend to be an expert).
My main issue was that the vast majority of characters are not likeable at all. Sheyda, Selale and Shahab being, perhaps, notable exceptions. Afsar and Eirik are selfish, amoral creatures who care only for themselves and take great delight in killing whenever, it seemed to me, the fancy struck them or when it would confer even the slightest advantage upon them. They express no remorse, have no honour and are incapable of true, selfless love. They have no moral code whatsoever. Afsar feigns shock at reports of her father's drinking and dismisses them because he wouldn't go against Islam. Yet her murderous sprees apparently represent no kind of transgression.
The other thing which grated for me was the maturity of her voice. I gather that children as young as nine could marry in Iran at the time and I realise it was also a very different culture. However, the narrative read to me as if spoken by someone in their late twenties rather than the 11 or 12 year old she was supposed to be. I accept, however, that that is probably my problem since it may well be entirely historically accurate from that point of view.
With respect to how it pertains to "The Phantom of the Opera", unfortunately I am not qualified to comment because I have yet to read it. Perhaps I ought to have done so first, but I would be interested in commentary from others as to how the two compare.
In conclusion, I would say that while I personally found this a very uncomfortable read, I can see how others would appreciate it. Moreover, to have a strong and thoroughly flawed female protagonist is relatively unusual and to be welcomed. (Whether or not the freedoms she had in the novel were historically accurate I don't know - it may well have been poetic licence.) On the strength of Woolley's writing, however, I would certainly want to read more of her work. Recommended but with the above outlined caveats.
October 3, 2015
Wow what a great read! If you love The Phantom of the Opera as much as I do, then I strongly suggest you pick this one up!
In this Phantom-inspired tale, we meet Afsar, eldest daughter of the Shah of Iran, actually Persia at that time. It's around 1851 and Afsar is 10 years old when her father offers to bring the circus to their palace for her birthday. For within this traveling circus, there is talk of a conjurer with a face so ugly but with the voice of an angel, and the Shah decides that he simply must meet this man for himself, on the pretense of his daughter's birthday of course.
It is a year or so later when the circus finally arrives at the palace, and it seems that everything the trader has said is true. Afsar is quite taken with the conjurer—who is known by many names: the Comte de la Mort Rouge, Vachon, and eventually Eirik. Eirik makes a striking impression on both the Shah and his hauntingly beautiful daughter. As a man of many talents—quite useful, he claims, in overcoming the hideousness of his appearance—Eirik is charged with building a grand place for the Shah, opulent and lavish in design, yet full of secret rooms, passageways, and trap doors, and he also becomes the Shah's favored assassin. His extended presence at the palace allows Afsar to spend more time in Eirik's company, reveling in his darkness and trickery, all the while exploring and embracing her own dark side. For what she learns about herself and the world around her whilst in Eirik's presence is more valuable than any other life lessons she's learned at the palace thus far.
Though Afsar is only a young girl when this story begins, she grows to about 15 years old at the time of it's conclusion. Though that may seem young for everything she's experiencing, the time frame within which this novel occurs places her at a quite marriageable age, women of this time often marrying as young as twelve or thirteen years of age. And the future Opera Ghost, at only nineteen himself, is already quite cultured, having traveled extensively and this only adds to Afsar's wonderment of him.
The writing was superb, written a bit like prose, yet fully descriptive and engaging at the same time. I truly immersed myself in this book, forgetting where I was and feeling myself walking through the sumptuous palace, the streets of Sari, or wherever else the author happened to be describing. Though the the juicy bits didn't really start until about 1/4 of the way in, all the foreshadowing began much sooner, and once Eirik arrived with the traveling circus, you just knew things going to get sinister real soon. This book will definitely be classified as one of my favorite reads.
Since I'm going to see the stage production of The Phantom of the Opera in September, it was a perfect time for me to read this, and I'll probably reread The Phantom of the Opera book before then too. This will actually be my third time seeing the stage production, but I will never get tired of such a spectacular show... so beautiful and haunting! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
In this Phantom-inspired tale, we meet Afsar, eldest daughter of the Shah of Iran, actually Persia at that time. It's around 1851 and Afsar is 10 years old when her father offers to bring the circus to their palace for her birthday. For within this traveling circus, there is talk of a conjurer with a face so ugly but with the voice of an angel, and the Shah decides that he simply must meet this man for himself, on the pretense of his daughter's birthday of course.
It is a year or so later when the circus finally arrives at the palace, and it seems that everything the trader has said is true. Afsar is quite taken with the conjurer—who is known by many names: the Comte de la Mort Rouge, Vachon, and eventually Eirik. Eirik makes a striking impression on both the Shah and his hauntingly beautiful daughter. As a man of many talents—quite useful, he claims, in overcoming the hideousness of his appearance—Eirik is charged with building a grand place for the Shah, opulent and lavish in design, yet full of secret rooms, passageways, and trap doors, and he also becomes the Shah's favored assassin. His extended presence at the palace allows Afsar to spend more time in Eirik's company, reveling in his darkness and trickery, all the while exploring and embracing her own dark side. For what she learns about herself and the world around her whilst in Eirik's presence is more valuable than any other life lessons she's learned at the palace thus far.
Though Afsar is only a young girl when this story begins, she grows to about 15 years old at the time of it's conclusion. Though that may seem young for everything she's experiencing, the time frame within which this novel occurs places her at a quite marriageable age, women of this time often marrying as young as twelve or thirteen years of age. And the future Opera Ghost, at only nineteen himself, is already quite cultured, having traveled extensively and this only adds to Afsar's wonderment of him.
The writing was superb, written a bit like prose, yet fully descriptive and engaging at the same time. I truly immersed myself in this book, forgetting where I was and feeling myself walking through the sumptuous palace, the streets of Sari, or wherever else the author happened to be describing. Though the the juicy bits didn't really start until about 1/4 of the way in, all the foreshadowing began much sooner, and once Eirik arrived with the traveling circus, you just knew things going to get sinister real soon. This book will definitely be classified as one of my favorite reads.
Since I'm going to see the stage production of The Phantom of the Opera in September, it was a perfect time for me to read this, and I'll probably reread The Phantom of the Opera book before then too. This will actually be my third time seeing the stage production, but I will never get tired of such a spectacular show... so beautiful and haunting! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
November 23, 2014
From the Militant Recommender's Book Review Blog:
http://militantrecommender.blogspot.com/
From Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera: The Persian narrates Erik's time in Iran during the Rosy Hours:
"No one knows better than he how to throw the Punjab lasso, for he is the king of stranglers even as he is the prince of conjurors. When he had finished making the little sultana laugh, at the time of the "rosy hours of Mazandaran," she herself used to ask him to amuse her by giving her a thrill. It was then that he introduced the sport of the Punjab lasso.
He had lived in India and acquired an incredible skill in the art of strangulation. He would make them lock him into a courtyard to which they brought a warrior--usually, a man condemned to death-- armed with a long pike and broadsword. Erik had only his lasso; and it was always just when the warrior thought that he was going to fell Erik with a tremendous blow that we heard the lasso whistle through the air. With a turn of the wrist, Erik tightened the noose round his adversary's neck and, in this fashion, dragged him before the little sultana and her women, who sat looking from a window and applauding. The little sultana herself learned to wield the Punjab lasso and killed several of her women and even of the friends who visited her. But I prefer to drop this terrible subject of the rosy hours of Mazandaran. "
Taking this snippet of information, dark and descriptive as it is, and turning it into a full length life story of the little Sultana, or, in this case Shahzadi, and her relationship with Erik, or Eirik as he becomes known to her, is quite a daunting task and Ms. Woolley wholly succeeds in bringing this mysterious world of the Phantom's past to vivid, magical life.
The author pulls us into this world, the mid 1800s world of life and culture under the Shah and his harem and the infighting that goes on among the wives to be chosen as his favorite, and the life of the Shah's first and favorite daughter, Afsar (which means Crown), who at 10 years of age, as the story begins, is beautiful and already feared, because, as she says, "They understood me for what I was, Death disguised as Grace".
One morning she is called to her father who has her listen to tales of an incredible circus told by a traveling fur trader. In particular, he spoke of a man, a magician so skilled he could make his voice travel and could sing like the angels, and yet he was so ugly, he had to wear a mask. The Shah promises to bring the circus to Mazandaran for her birthday. When, eventually, the circus does make its way there, Afsar will find her life irrevocably changed by her meeting with the masked conjuror, who, is there any doubt? is, of course, the future Opera Ghost. Here, at 19, he has already traveled the world and acquired a variety of skills through his travels... some of them deadly.
If you are a fan of the Phantom you will see where some of that baggage he's hauled around with him came from. Don't miss this fascinating trip into his past and that of a minor character in Leroux's classic who finally has her starring role.
http://militantrecommender.blogspot.com/
From Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera: The Persian narrates Erik's time in Iran during the Rosy Hours:
"No one knows better than he how to throw the Punjab lasso, for he is the king of stranglers even as he is the prince of conjurors. When he had finished making the little sultana laugh, at the time of the "rosy hours of Mazandaran," she herself used to ask him to amuse her by giving her a thrill. It was then that he introduced the sport of the Punjab lasso.
He had lived in India and acquired an incredible skill in the art of strangulation. He would make them lock him into a courtyard to which they brought a warrior--usually, a man condemned to death-- armed with a long pike and broadsword. Erik had only his lasso; and it was always just when the warrior thought that he was going to fell Erik with a tremendous blow that we heard the lasso whistle through the air. With a turn of the wrist, Erik tightened the noose round his adversary's neck and, in this fashion, dragged him before the little sultana and her women, who sat looking from a window and applauding. The little sultana herself learned to wield the Punjab lasso and killed several of her women and even of the friends who visited her. But I prefer to drop this terrible subject of the rosy hours of Mazandaran. "
Taking this snippet of information, dark and descriptive as it is, and turning it into a full length life story of the little Sultana, or, in this case Shahzadi, and her relationship with Erik, or Eirik as he becomes known to her, is quite a daunting task and Ms. Woolley wholly succeeds in bringing this mysterious world of the Phantom's past to vivid, magical life.
The author pulls us into this world, the mid 1800s world of life and culture under the Shah and his harem and the infighting that goes on among the wives to be chosen as his favorite, and the life of the Shah's first and favorite daughter, Afsar (which means Crown), who at 10 years of age, as the story begins, is beautiful and already feared, because, as she says, "They understood me for what I was, Death disguised as Grace".
One morning she is called to her father who has her listen to tales of an incredible circus told by a traveling fur trader. In particular, he spoke of a man, a magician so skilled he could make his voice travel and could sing like the angels, and yet he was so ugly, he had to wear a mask. The Shah promises to bring the circus to Mazandaran for her birthday. When, eventually, the circus does make its way there, Afsar will find her life irrevocably changed by her meeting with the masked conjuror, who, is there any doubt? is, of course, the future Opera Ghost. Here, at 19, he has already traveled the world and acquired a variety of skills through his travels... some of them deadly.
If you are a fan of the Phantom you will see where some of that baggage he's hauled around with him came from. Don't miss this fascinating trip into his past and that of a minor character in Leroux's classic who finally has her starring role.
February 23, 2015
The thing that characterised this book for me at first was a palpable sense of ennui. Afsar was so incredibly bored with her life at her home, I keep feel it seep through the page and affect me. This book has an interesting set-up; it firmly establishes the characters and setting of the world before moving onto the plot. The setting was absolutely captivating: Iran in the period where it still had a Shah, Shahzadi, kingdoms and palaces. It was this that made me pick up the book at first. This is historical fiction at its best: speculative, enthralling and bloody. Oh so bloody. Our heroine is a strange, dark thing. We see the kernel of her darkness in the book at first, a lonely, bored little girl who sees her servants as playthings to do as she wills. The same could be said of her character in the rest of the book, except she is not so lonely anymore. Her character is very interesting as it goes against the stereotype: Our Shahzadi is not some sweet, simpering princess. She is ruthless, amoral and cold. Her father is a distant figure in her life, for all that she yearns for his attentions. Is Eirik some sort of substitute father figure? He certainly does catch her attention, as an odd relationship blooms between them. This book was fairly disturbing, but the most was perhaps some of the interactions between Afsar and Eirik. I guess their relationship was doomed from the start, whether it was friendship or an odd romance. This is most certainly a book for mature audiences, maybe for older teens who are not shocked by graphic violence, some sexual content and amoral characters. I enjoyed reading it, as it was something different from most fiction available lately.
August 31, 2023
This book is told from the perspective of Asfar, a character that is not included in the Leroux story. You do meet a couple of the characters from the original novel, but there isn't much connection between the two. I really didn't like the main character. She is petty, jealous, spoiled and sometimes downright psychotic. The version of Erik she meets is okay, but feels off for the character. The book wasn't bad overall, but I couldn't get past how much I didn't like the characters. I might recommend this if you really like works based on Phantom, or if you had an interest in this time period. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
February 10, 2015
A tale of a young girl, the daughter of the Shah, who lives a life of privilege, but realises that she has no real power. As she learns some harsh lessons about life, including an attempted rape by her uncle, she becomes more disillusioned.
Afsar is a complex character who is wise beyond her years. Her tale is well written and captivating. I would recommend this book.
Afsar is a complex character who is wise beyond her years. Her tale is well written and captivating. I would recommend this book.
December 20, 2014
*NetGalley book review*
Nope. Nothing. Zilch. I could not get into this book as the character telling it, has nothing to do with it. Weird. I tried. I got to about 40% and after putting it down for the what seemed like the 50th time. I finally gave up.
Nope. Nothing. Zilch. I could not get into this book as the character telling it, has nothing to do with it. Weird. I tried. I got to about 40% and after putting it down for the what seemed like the 50th time. I finally gave up.
February 20, 2015
Originally published at Reading Reality
This is a book that teases so many possibilities, but leaves the reader wondering which, if any, might possibly be true. Because it mixes fictional legend with snippets of history, all viewed through the lens of one girl’s brief and bloody life.
And it might be intended as a prequel for The Phantom of the Opera. Or it might all be a dream of history. You’ll still be wondering at the end.
The story is told through the eyes of Afsar, the oldest daughter of Shah Nasser-al-Din of the Persian Empire in the mid-1800’s. Or is she? For that matter, is he? One of the many mysteries is the identity of the Shah and the time period in which this story takes place. Everything is from Afsar’s point of view, what she sees, what she knows. Her perspective is very Persian-centric, court-centric, and child-centric. At the beginning of the story she is ten, and knows little of the outside world.
The way she learns is very skewed, but then, so is Afsar. She is a child of extreme privilege in a poor country, and is both indulged and restricted at the same time.
She eventually learns that little she believed is strictly true. But the truth about herself is equally obscured. While she is not herself a member of her father’s harem, she is also bound by many of its rules on female behavior, as well as rules for the family of the Shah.
When her father brings her a circus for her birthday, she discovers that the world is both wider and stranger than she has ever imagined. She befriends, or perhaps is sought by, the circus’ master juggler, a young Frenchman known only as Vachon. He has become a juggler, among other things, as a way of using his talents rather than being known for his other salient characteristic - Vachon has the damaged face of a human skeleton. He may be Erik, the Phantom of the Paris Opera, as a very young man.
We guess, when the story ends. But we never know.
Vachon teaches Afsar many things, including the art of using a thrown lasso to pluck items out of the air, and how to drop it around the throat of someone she wants to kill. Afsar discovers that she enjoys the sight of blood and the thrill of killing. She has an indulged child’s penchant for killing those who anger her, and those who she deems are too lowly to be missed. She also kills her father’s political and particularly religious enemies.
But her first kill is out of childish jealousy. Vachon has a friend, and Afsar cannot bear it. So she kills his friend and he, in turn, kills hers. The spiral of death that ensues from that one childishly destructive act binds them together for the rest of her life, as they descend into more elaborate death games, and Vachon creates even more bizarre traps and puzzle-boxes in which to carry them out.
Vachon also changes his name to match one of Afsar’s early victims. He becomes Eirik. The leap from Eirik to Erik is meant to be considered, especially after the end of the story.
Afsar’s bloody trail eventually catches up to her. In irony, it happens not because of crimes she actually committed, but out of revenge for one of her earliest victims. And because she has been so self-indulgent as to think that the rules of the court do not apply to her, and that she will not pay if she breaks them.
But then, much of what Afsar believes of herself and the world around her turns out not to quite be true. It may not even be her story. The reader is left wondering. With a slight shudder of horror.
Escape Rating B: This story is very gothically creepy. It is certainly out of the tradition of children who “go bad” and commit horrific acts without thinking of the consequences to themselves because they are too young to realize that they are not above those consequences, or that they cannot get past them.
Afsar believes she is the daughter of the Shah. She isn’t quite old enough, or informed enough, to do the math that would tell her a 22-year-old Shah could not be the father of her ten-year-old self.
Afsar is a mystery to herself and those around her. Keeping herself separate from the other women in the court, thinking herself above them, makes her enemies that eventually bring her down.
Her relationship with Vachon (later Eirik) is part of that separateness. She discovers that she loves to kill. She loves the sight of the blood pooling around her victim. Eirik, equally as lonely as Afsar, shows her both the world outside the palace, and more subtleties in the art of murder.
They come to love each other because they are both equally dark and equally empty. It is both inevitable and ultimately destructive.
The time period in which this story is set is not connected to the wider world within the story itself. Afsar’s frame of reference is completely insular. It is only through comparing events and names to the articles on Persian history in wikipedia that one is able to determine when this story is supposed to take place. I will admit that this drove me a little crazy as I read it, but it does add to the dream-like (or nightmare-like) atmosphere of the story.
Afsar does not see any of her actions as wrong. She knows that she must conceal them, because other people will, but she always feels justified. Or she simply doesn’t care. It adds to the subtle feeling of horror.
The ending, like much of the book, also carries an air of shivering tease. Who was Afsar? Was there an Afsar? How could she be narrating this story? Does Eirik later become the Erik who haunts the Paris Opera? We guess, but we never know.
This story carries an element of seeing something horrible out of the corner of your eye, just like one of Eirik’s puzzle-box palaces. Once begun, I had to see how this one ends, but it definitely creeped me out more than a bit. If that’s your cup of tea, you’ll enjoy the taste of this story. I’ll be over in the corner, shivering.
This is a book that teases so many possibilities, but leaves the reader wondering which, if any, might possibly be true. Because it mixes fictional legend with snippets of history, all viewed through the lens of one girl’s brief and bloody life.
And it might be intended as a prequel for The Phantom of the Opera. Or it might all be a dream of history. You’ll still be wondering at the end.
The story is told through the eyes of Afsar, the oldest daughter of Shah Nasser-al-Din of the Persian Empire in the mid-1800’s. Or is she? For that matter, is he? One of the many mysteries is the identity of the Shah and the time period in which this story takes place. Everything is from Afsar’s point of view, what she sees, what she knows. Her perspective is very Persian-centric, court-centric, and child-centric. At the beginning of the story she is ten, and knows little of the outside world.
The way she learns is very skewed, but then, so is Afsar. She is a child of extreme privilege in a poor country, and is both indulged and restricted at the same time.
She eventually learns that little she believed is strictly true. But the truth about herself is equally obscured. While she is not herself a member of her father’s harem, she is also bound by many of its rules on female behavior, as well as rules for the family of the Shah.
When her father brings her a circus for her birthday, she discovers that the world is both wider and stranger than she has ever imagined. She befriends, or perhaps is sought by, the circus’ master juggler, a young Frenchman known only as Vachon. He has become a juggler, among other things, as a way of using his talents rather than being known for his other salient characteristic - Vachon has the damaged face of a human skeleton. He may be Erik, the Phantom of the Paris Opera, as a very young man.
We guess, when the story ends. But we never know.
Vachon teaches Afsar many things, including the art of using a thrown lasso to pluck items out of the air, and how to drop it around the throat of someone she wants to kill. Afsar discovers that she enjoys the sight of blood and the thrill of killing. She has an indulged child’s penchant for killing those who anger her, and those who she deems are too lowly to be missed. She also kills her father’s political and particularly religious enemies.
But her first kill is out of childish jealousy. Vachon has a friend, and Afsar cannot bear it. So she kills his friend and he, in turn, kills hers. The spiral of death that ensues from that one childishly destructive act binds them together for the rest of her life, as they descend into more elaborate death games, and Vachon creates even more bizarre traps and puzzle-boxes in which to carry them out.
Vachon also changes his name to match one of Afsar’s early victims. He becomes Eirik. The leap from Eirik to Erik is meant to be considered, especially after the end of the story.
Afsar’s bloody trail eventually catches up to her. In irony, it happens not because of crimes she actually committed, but out of revenge for one of her earliest victims. And because she has been so self-indulgent as to think that the rules of the court do not apply to her, and that she will not pay if she breaks them.
But then, much of what Afsar believes of herself and the world around her turns out not to quite be true. It may not even be her story. The reader is left wondering. With a slight shudder of horror.
Escape Rating B: This story is very gothically creepy. It is certainly out of the tradition of children who “go bad” and commit horrific acts without thinking of the consequences to themselves because they are too young to realize that they are not above those consequences, or that they cannot get past them.
Afsar believes she is the daughter of the Shah. She isn’t quite old enough, or informed enough, to do the math that would tell her a 22-year-old Shah could not be the father of her ten-year-old self.
Afsar is a mystery to herself and those around her. Keeping herself separate from the other women in the court, thinking herself above them, makes her enemies that eventually bring her down.
Her relationship with Vachon (later Eirik) is part of that separateness. She discovers that she loves to kill. She loves the sight of the blood pooling around her victim. Eirik, equally as lonely as Afsar, shows her both the world outside the palace, and more subtleties in the art of murder.
They come to love each other because they are both equally dark and equally empty. It is both inevitable and ultimately destructive.
The time period in which this story is set is not connected to the wider world within the story itself. Afsar’s frame of reference is completely insular. It is only through comparing events and names to the articles on Persian history in wikipedia that one is able to determine when this story is supposed to take place. I will admit that this drove me a little crazy as I read it, but it does add to the dream-like (or nightmare-like) atmosphere of the story.
Afsar does not see any of her actions as wrong. She knows that she must conceal them, because other people will, but she always feels justified. Or she simply doesn’t care. It adds to the subtle feeling of horror.
The ending, like much of the book, also carries an air of shivering tease. Who was Afsar? Was there an Afsar? How could she be narrating this story? Does Eirik later become the Erik who haunts the Paris Opera? We guess, but we never know.
This story carries an element of seeing something horrible out of the corner of your eye, just like one of Eirik’s puzzle-box palaces. Once begun, I had to see how this one ends, but it definitely creeped me out more than a bit. If that’s your cup of tea, you’ll enjoy the taste of this story. I’ll be over in the corner, shivering.
August 31, 2018
The writing is very beautiful, however I gave only 4 stars because the subject is so dark. The heroine, a young teenager and "daughter" of the Shah of Iran, developes a taste for murder. The story, which is set around 1850, is said to be a prequel of The Phantom of the Opera, but the only connection, that I could see, was one of the main characters was horribly defigured and wore a mask. If you are not put off by murder and rape, you may like this book.
February 2, 2015
I did not know what to expect from Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran. I do know that when I chose to review it, the book came with a caveat that it contained dark themes. I was OK with that – I like to stretch my reading muscles now and then. What I got was an amazing trip into some truly dark places but I also got some character types not often – I hesitate to use this word – celebrated in literary fiction. They appear, that is for sure as there are villains galore in the pantheon of reading history but rarely have I encountered one in the 12 year old body of a Sultana of Iran.
The story takes place in 19th century Iran but it’s placement in time is not an important part of the tale. In fact, I quite often forgot that I was reading a book that had its characters in a world that took place so many years ago. Either that or I was so immersed in the world that I lost track of current time. The depictions of the palace of the Shah, Afsar’s place of exile, the city of Tehran and it’s residences were brilliant. I felt as if I was walking through the rooms or the forest or whatever village was being described.
As to the story – it’s going to be hard to review without giving too much away because it’s a tale that hides evil behind beauty and beauty behind what is most ugly. Afsar is the daughter of the Shah; his eldest child – but she is a girl so she cannot rule. She is adored, spoiled and advanced for her age. We meet her at age 11. Her father has many wives as is traditional and they care little for Afsar as her mother is dead. She is pretty much left to herself with a maid, a tutor and little other guidance. Her father hears of a circus and goes off to find it to celebrate her 12th birthday and its arrival will change her life completely because it brings a young man of outrageous talent and the ugliest face anyone has ever seen.
Afsar and Vachon, as this man is known, develop a friendship and this is where it gets difficult to continue for sharing too much of their growing relationship will spoil too much of the book. Just know that in reading this book you will go to the bottom of evil and then some BUT the author does it in a way that still makes your horror at the acts almost hopeful that enlightenment is to be found for our villains. I will not tell you if good triumphs for that would spoil an ending that surprised the heck out of me and I don’t like to ruin books.
There are many characters in this tale, some are more well developed than others but none are cardboard or throwaways. I found myself at various times enchanted, revolted, horrified, relieved, exulted and most of all thankful that I’d read a book that challenged me as much as this one did. I had a hard time both reading it and putting it down. It is inspired from Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera – which I have read – another dark work that I found to make for excellent reading.
The story takes place in 19th century Iran but it’s placement in time is not an important part of the tale. In fact, I quite often forgot that I was reading a book that had its characters in a world that took place so many years ago. Either that or I was so immersed in the world that I lost track of current time. The depictions of the palace of the Shah, Afsar’s place of exile, the city of Tehran and it’s residences were brilliant. I felt as if I was walking through the rooms or the forest or whatever village was being described.
As to the story – it’s going to be hard to review without giving too much away because it’s a tale that hides evil behind beauty and beauty behind what is most ugly. Afsar is the daughter of the Shah; his eldest child – but she is a girl so she cannot rule. She is adored, spoiled and advanced for her age. We meet her at age 11. Her father has many wives as is traditional and they care little for Afsar as her mother is dead. She is pretty much left to herself with a maid, a tutor and little other guidance. Her father hears of a circus and goes off to find it to celebrate her 12th birthday and its arrival will change her life completely because it brings a young man of outrageous talent and the ugliest face anyone has ever seen.
Afsar and Vachon, as this man is known, develop a friendship and this is where it gets difficult to continue for sharing too much of their growing relationship will spoil too much of the book. Just know that in reading this book you will go to the bottom of evil and then some BUT the author does it in a way that still makes your horror at the acts almost hopeful that enlightenment is to be found for our villains. I will not tell you if good triumphs for that would spoil an ending that surprised the heck out of me and I don’t like to ruin books.
There are many characters in this tale, some are more well developed than others but none are cardboard or throwaways. I found myself at various times enchanted, revolted, horrified, relieved, exulted and most of all thankful that I’d read a book that challenged me as much as this one did. I had a hard time both reading it and putting it down. It is inspired from Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera – which I have read – another dark work that I found to make for excellent reading.
February 24, 2015
This story is a prequel to Phantom of the Opera. It depicts the early life of Erik, the phantom ghost, during his time in Persia. Afsar, the Sultan’s daughter, is living a lonely life. She keeps to her bedchamber and has a servant looking after her. However, on her eleventh birthday, her father celebrates her reaching marriageable age by gifting her a circus. The star of the circus is a man known as Vachon, who is said to be as ugly as a monster but known to have a voice as sweet as an angel. As soon as the Vachon crosses Afsar’s path, her life begins to change and soon they both fall in love.
First, I have to say, you will not like the characters. Both Vachon, and Afsar, the narrator, are very dark. At first, it seems that Afsar seems like she is living a privileged life, with servants who can’t refuse her orders based on her status. However, in the first few pages, we see that she is cruel, manipulative, and jealous. She uses her servant as a plaything and forces her to do mean things that she will be ashamed of. Over the course of the novel, she is very sadistic and ruthless, and soon I realized that I was looking into the eyes and mind of a serial killer and a psycho. But what is worse is that she has no remorse for her actions.
However, despite the fact that the characters weren’t likeable, I found myself drawn to the novel and its story. Reading this book felt like a dark spell that refuses to let you go until you have finished the last page. The descriptions of the circus and the palace are beautiful, and I felt that I was there. Even though I did not like the Vachon, I felt he was a very interesting character. I love the forbidden romance between him and Afsar, for it was dark and twisted.
Overall, buckle your seat belts as the novel takes you through a dark and thrilling ride of Afsar’s world. This book is strange like one of The Phantom’s illusions. I like the setting of the Sultan’s court. The author really did her research, for the details for very rich and vivid. I recommend this novel to fans of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and anyone interested in dark fiction.
(Note: This book was given to me as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review.)
First, I have to say, you will not like the characters. Both Vachon, and Afsar, the narrator, are very dark. At first, it seems that Afsar seems like she is living a privileged life, with servants who can’t refuse her orders based on her status. However, in the first few pages, we see that she is cruel, manipulative, and jealous. She uses her servant as a plaything and forces her to do mean things that she will be ashamed of. Over the course of the novel, she is very sadistic and ruthless, and soon I realized that I was looking into the eyes and mind of a serial killer and a psycho. But what is worse is that she has no remorse for her actions.
However, despite the fact that the characters weren’t likeable, I found myself drawn to the novel and its story. Reading this book felt like a dark spell that refuses to let you go until you have finished the last page. The descriptions of the circus and the palace are beautiful, and I felt that I was there. Even though I did not like the Vachon, I felt he was a very interesting character. I love the forbidden romance between him and Afsar, for it was dark and twisted.
Overall, buckle your seat belts as the novel takes you through a dark and thrilling ride of Afsar’s world. This book is strange like one of The Phantom’s illusions. I like the setting of the Sultan’s court. The author really did her research, for the details for very rich and vivid. I recommend this novel to fans of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and anyone interested in dark fiction.
(Note: This book was given to me as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review.)
June 12, 2015
Review Excerpt:
Afsar is the first daughter of the Shah, raised in luxury in the palace, she is indulged and adored. Whether or not this privilege and the unapologetic violence of the times nurtures the darkness inside her, it is clear she has a very cruel and sadistic side--even at the age of eleven. When the circus performer Vachon with his masked face and clever tricks appears to perform on her birthday, those proclivities are developed even further, the violence escalates, and Afsar's life begins to change. Those Rosy Hours of Mazandaran is an absorbing if not entirely comfortable read. It's made up of a cast of characters almost impossible to like. Any sympathy for Asfar's youth, loneliness, and lack of control for her future, or Vachon's disfigurement and the life he must have led, quickly dissipates due to the disturbing pleasure they take in killing. The story is told from Asfar's viewpoint and her lack of remorse for most of her actions is chilling but hard to look away from. Coupled with the author's ability to craft a visual feast for the senses when describing their world--the sounds, the colors, the aromas, flavors, and textures are fully brought to life--it makes for an enthralling and dark story. I had to keep turning the pages to see if Asfar and Vachon's love would redeem them or ultimately destroy them and those around them. This book may not be for everyone but if you like dark, exotic novels with a gothic feel and historical leaning, you will likely find it fascinating.
You can see my full review and a recipe inspired by the book on my blog post here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
Note: A review copy of "Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.
Afsar is the first daughter of the Shah, raised in luxury in the palace, she is indulged and adored. Whether or not this privilege and the unapologetic violence of the times nurtures the darkness inside her, it is clear she has a very cruel and sadistic side--even at the age of eleven. When the circus performer Vachon with his masked face and clever tricks appears to perform on her birthday, those proclivities are developed even further, the violence escalates, and Afsar's life begins to change. Those Rosy Hours of Mazandaran is an absorbing if not entirely comfortable read. It's made up of a cast of characters almost impossible to like. Any sympathy for Asfar's youth, loneliness, and lack of control for her future, or Vachon's disfigurement and the life he must have led, quickly dissipates due to the disturbing pleasure they take in killing. The story is told from Asfar's viewpoint and her lack of remorse for most of her actions is chilling but hard to look away from. Coupled with the author's ability to craft a visual feast for the senses when describing their world--the sounds, the colors, the aromas, flavors, and textures are fully brought to life--it makes for an enthralling and dark story. I had to keep turning the pages to see if Asfar and Vachon's love would redeem them or ultimately destroy them and those around them. This book may not be for everyone but if you like dark, exotic novels with a gothic feel and historical leaning, you will likely find it fascinating.
You can see my full review and a recipe inspired by the book on my blog post here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
Note: A review copy of "Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.
February 4, 2015
As the eldest daughter of the Shah, Asfar enjoys a life of privilege and luxury. But Asfar longs for more. On her twelfth birthday, her father presents her with a circus. One of its members, a masked man whose magical feats are both breathtaking and baffling, becomes Asfar's closest friend. Together they find pleasure in cruelty and torture, but their friendship will be their undoing.
There are some books that in spite of reading synopses and promotional materials seem to defy all expectation. Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is one of those books. I honestly had no idea, even after reading up on the book, what to expect out of this one. I was intrigued, though, by the premise and the more I read about it further convinced me that I needed to see for myself what it was all about.
Inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, the tale imagines Erik Vachon's life in Persia in the years before Leroux's tale takes place. Amazingly, though Vachon is a mean spirited man who makes a living as an assassin for the Shah, young Asfar is a much more cruel character in my opinion. One could argue that Vachon's appearance is the cause of his disposition and proclivities; Asfar has no such excuse. Even when she becomes a pawn and a plaything in the hands of her grandmother and her father's favorite wife, her vengeful nature is, for the most part, drawn simply from a desire to kill rather than a need for retribution.
Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is a dark and brutal book and there really are no redeeming qualities in its heroine. Nothing that makes you sympathize with her or like her in the least bit anyway. But there's something undeniably engaging about the story and the author's talent in putting to page her own prequel of a sorts to such a well-known story is quite admirable.
There are some books that in spite of reading synopses and promotional materials seem to defy all expectation. Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is one of those books. I honestly had no idea, even after reading up on the book, what to expect out of this one. I was intrigued, though, by the premise and the more I read about it further convinced me that I needed to see for myself what it was all about.
Inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, the tale imagines Erik Vachon's life in Persia in the years before Leroux's tale takes place. Amazingly, though Vachon is a mean spirited man who makes a living as an assassin for the Shah, young Asfar is a much more cruel character in my opinion. One could argue that Vachon's appearance is the cause of his disposition and proclivities; Asfar has no such excuse. Even when she becomes a pawn and a plaything in the hands of her grandmother and her father's favorite wife, her vengeful nature is, for the most part, drawn simply from a desire to kill rather than a need for retribution.
Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is a dark and brutal book and there really are no redeeming qualities in its heroine. Nothing that makes you sympathize with her or like her in the least bit anyway. But there's something undeniably engaging about the story and the author's talent in putting to page her own prequel of a sorts to such a well-known story is quite admirable.
July 20, 2015
'Those Rosy Hours of Mazandaran' is an exquisitely written, beautiful novel. The writing has the richness and beauty of Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel's series, but set in a mediaval persian empire rather than france.
The journey for Asfar as she grows into being the mistress of her own domain, and taking control from the shadows, in a world and time that sees women only as mothers and mistresses is truly delightful. As Asfar interacts with Vachon, she grows in her curiousity and cruetly, as it is all a delightful game of someone who has always had her every desire met, but never her freedom, until she learns how to weild it herself. It was also fascinating to read of early persian culture, as it was not something I knew a lot about..
The book is beautifully written, and is a window into a different time, place and culture. It is truly captivating and while it can be violent in places, it's approached with a playful innocence as a cat plays with a mouse, rather than something to be reviled. I would highly recommend this book - it's captivating from start to finish and always entertainly.
The journey for Asfar as she grows into being the mistress of her own domain, and taking control from the shadows, in a world and time that sees women only as mothers and mistresses is truly delightful. As Asfar interacts with Vachon, she grows in her curiousity and cruetly, as it is all a delightful game of someone who has always had her every desire met, but never her freedom, until she learns how to weild it herself. It was also fascinating to read of early persian culture, as it was not something I knew a lot about..
The book is beautifully written, and is a window into a different time, place and culture. It is truly captivating and while it can be violent in places, it's approached with a playful innocence as a cat plays with a mouse, rather than something to be reviled. I would highly recommend this book - it's captivating from start to finish and always entertainly.
January 11, 2015
WOW! Be prepared to be challenged. A dark plot that takes us through Iran and embroils you in a whirlwind of murder, facial disfigurement, elicit love and a travelling circus. What's not to love about this? I accept that it will not be to some people's tastes as the characters are unapologetically complicated and challenging. If you love sweet, virtuous characters then go elsewhere! This novel is wicked; the attention to detail is so rich that you feel immersed into the world of the characters whilst reading. There is a thematic reminiscence to Leroux's classic novel The Phantom of the Opera but if anything, this is not significant and whether you've read it does not matter. Prepare to be consumed in a sickly, sweet and incense filled account of what humans are prepared to do for what they desire.
January 14, 2015
Thanks Librarything for a free book to read and review.
Uniquely told story. A lot like the phantom of the opera, but with a much more devilish approach. Afsar the Shahs eldest child becomes involved with a circus performer named Eirik whose face was disfigured. They become friends and then mutual killers. Eirik becomes her father assassin, and the story becomes deeply dark. Very nice world building, and characters were intensely interesting. However I thought the ending was rather abrupt, and it could have been a bit more fleshed. Overall entertainment is four stars.
Uniquely told story. A lot like the phantom of the opera, but with a much more devilish approach. Afsar the Shahs eldest child becomes involved with a circus performer named Eirik whose face was disfigured. They become friends and then mutual killers. Eirik becomes her father assassin, and the story becomes deeply dark. Very nice world building, and characters were intensely interesting. However I thought the ending was rather abrupt, and it could have been a bit more fleshed. Overall entertainment is four stars.
March 29, 2015
I could not stop listening to this audiobook, partially because it was narrated by Emma Newman, who is one of my favorites. But also, because this story is so dark, it was like watching a train wreck and I simply had to know how it ended.
It was horrific and suspenseful. I thought to myself that if I could get through watching TV shows about vampires, then I could stomach this book. I listened to the very end, at every chance I could. I got to work today and had five minutes left so I listened as I prepared for my day.
I highly recommend it.
It was horrific and suspenseful. I thought to myself that if I could get through watching TV shows about vampires, then I could stomach this book. I listened to the very end, at every chance I could. I got to work today and had five minutes left so I listened as I prepared for my day.
I highly recommend it.
July 21, 2017
it took about 15% of the book before i got into it, but after that i was rapt. such a blood thirsty main character. it had a Story of the Eye feel to it.
March 17, 2017
If the preview turns me off, I see no need to finish or buy the book.
Cold animal cruelty is just not my thing, so I will pass on this one.
Cold animal cruelty is just not my thing, so I will pass on this one.
October 12, 2016
Available from Ghostwoods Books February 2015
A ravishingly written book that burns ferociously long after the last page has been turned.
This book blew. Me. Away. I haven’t laid hands on something this beautiful, this sensuously dark and attractive, since Patrick Susskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Set in an 1850s that feels as modern and yet as fable-like as any fantasy or fairytale, the story follows Afsar, a young woman who is the daughter of the Shah. In the Shah’s country palace, time is something that needs to be filled. The entire royal family fills it with sadistic repasts, feasts of blood that torture and murder the sworn enemies of state. The rosy hours of the title refer to a particularly horrific days-long torment of a group of rebels, a blood-soaked orgy of violence and cruelty.
Growing up in such an environment and under the thumb of a father who is not actually her father, Afsar yearns for something more. What that something is, she isn’t sure. When a circus is brought to the palace grounds, she is captivated by a magician who wears a mask to hide his facial deformity. After she murders his friend, a girl she takes as a rival for his affections, the magician trains her in the art of murder.
It is something she takes to well. At first there is hesitation and even repulsion that she fights to quell. Underneath she finds that something she has been missing: the feeling of power, a strength that is denied her under the dictates of her brother-father, palace life, and a culture that oppresses women.
She finds freedom of a sort…a gashed and bleeding sort that wounds both her and her victims. She creates justice for other women who are wounded while also oppressing those around her—the poor, the weak, other women. She is as deformed internally as her paramour is externally.
This book grips readers in a way that defies description. While you walk with Afsar, you hold her hand as much as you are held in her thrall. You feel repulsion and yet something more, compassion and pity. This is a dark tale, yes, but one with the complexity that places it immediately in the ranks of classic literature that will live far longer than any of us reading this now. Clearly one for the ages.
An enthusiastic 5 stars!
If you enjoy dark tales that delve deep into the minds of twisted souls, check out Beloved: A Sensual Noir Thriller.
To learn more about the shocking lack of diversity in literature and what you can do about it, check out Writing While Female or Black or Gay: Diverse Voices in Publishing.
A ravishingly written book that burns ferociously long after the last page has been turned.
This book blew. Me. Away. I haven’t laid hands on something this beautiful, this sensuously dark and attractive, since Patrick Susskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Set in an 1850s that feels as modern and yet as fable-like as any fantasy or fairytale, the story follows Afsar, a young woman who is the daughter of the Shah. In the Shah’s country palace, time is something that needs to be filled. The entire royal family fills it with sadistic repasts, feasts of blood that torture and murder the sworn enemies of state. The rosy hours of the title refer to a particularly horrific days-long torment of a group of rebels, a blood-soaked orgy of violence and cruelty.
Growing up in such an environment and under the thumb of a father who is not actually her father, Afsar yearns for something more. What that something is, she isn’t sure. When a circus is brought to the palace grounds, she is captivated by a magician who wears a mask to hide his facial deformity. After she murders his friend, a girl she takes as a rival for his affections, the magician trains her in the art of murder.
It is something she takes to well. At first there is hesitation and even repulsion that she fights to quell. Underneath she finds that something she has been missing: the feeling of power, a strength that is denied her under the dictates of her brother-father, palace life, and a culture that oppresses women.
She finds freedom of a sort…a gashed and bleeding sort that wounds both her and her victims. She creates justice for other women who are wounded while also oppressing those around her—the poor, the weak, other women. She is as deformed internally as her paramour is externally.
This book grips readers in a way that defies description. While you walk with Afsar, you hold her hand as much as you are held in her thrall. You feel repulsion and yet something more, compassion and pity. This is a dark tale, yes, but one with the complexity that places it immediately in the ranks of classic literature that will live far longer than any of us reading this now. Clearly one for the ages.
An enthusiastic 5 stars!
If you enjoy dark tales that delve deep into the minds of twisted souls, check out Beloved: A Sensual Noir Thriller.
To learn more about the shocking lack of diversity in literature and what you can do about it, check out Writing While Female or Black or Gay: Diverse Voices in Publishing.
February 23, 2015
Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is listed as a Fantasy book, in addition to the general category of Adult Literature/Fiction, but it’s not Fantasy. I suppose the publisher is choosing to market it as Fantasy because it doesn’t really fit into any other genre. It’s not Historical Fiction, despite the fact that it takes place during the 19th century, and it’s not YA, even though the main character is 10 to 13 years old. It does have some fantastical elements, and even a little bit of Magical Realism; however, just because the story is set in an “exotic” locale (read: not in the western world), and there happens to be a circus, and a character that is supposed to be Erik from The Phantom of the Opera, that doesn’t mean it’s Fantasy.
Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed in this book since I was expecting Fantasy. I’m not taking away stars for that, though, since that’s not the fault of the author. I doubt she had very little, if any, say in what genre(s) the publisher chose to list the book as being. However, I hated the story, and the characters. Afsar and Vachon are psychopaths, but not “Dexter” psychopaths. No, they not only have no qualms about killing innocent people, they do it with a sick sort of pleasure, and that’s what this book is mostly about: who and how they murder. At first, I felt sorry for Afsar. I even pitied her. The first couple of chapters show her as being a young girl who has been raised to hate, forced to be wiser than her years, yet is still clearly naive about how the world works. My feelings changed as she became more and more cruel, petty, hateful, and jealous. I waited, and continued reading, in the hope that something would happen for her to change, or she would do something that would be redeeming, even if only a little bit. Unfortunately, she remains the same despicable person all the way to the end.
If you enjoy stories about psychopaths who discover each other’s love for toying with their human prey before brutally murdering them, then this book is the perfect one for you. Otherwise, you might be better off reading a different book. As much as I thought a story about Erik before he became the Phantom would be great, it just isn’t so.
Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed in this book since I was expecting Fantasy. I’m not taking away stars for that, though, since that’s not the fault of the author. I doubt she had very little, if any, say in what genre(s) the publisher chose to list the book as being. However, I hated the story, and the characters. Afsar and Vachon are psychopaths, but not “Dexter” psychopaths. No, they not only have no qualms about killing innocent people, they do it with a sick sort of pleasure, and that’s what this book is mostly about: who and how they murder. At first, I felt sorry for Afsar. I even pitied her. The first couple of chapters show her as being a young girl who has been raised to hate, forced to be wiser than her years, yet is still clearly naive about how the world works. My feelings changed as she became more and more cruel, petty, hateful, and jealous. I waited, and continued reading, in the hope that something would happen for her to change, or she would do something that would be redeeming, even if only a little bit. Unfortunately, she remains the same despicable person all the way to the end.
If you enjoy stories about psychopaths who discover each other’s love for toying with their human prey before brutally murdering them, then this book is the perfect one for you. Otherwise, you might be better off reading a different book. As much as I thought a story about Erik before he became the Phantom would be great, it just isn’t so.
March 26, 2015
As the Shah's eldest daughter, Afshar has advantages. She is granted deference and obedience from those around her. She is showered with gifts and luxurious clothes. But there are also disadvantages. The harem is full of the Shah's wives, each vying for his attention for themselves and their children, each plotting and scheming to get rid of other wives and their progeny who might be favored over their own children. Add to that the political alliances in court and Afshar's world is a delicate, dangerous one.
But she never doubts the Shah's love. After a trip, he returns with one of her greatest wishes; a circus. Everyone is enthralled with the elephants, tigers, jugglers and acrobats but no one more than Afshar. She longs for the freedom the circus performers have and the easy camaraderie that they share in their tents.
The star of the circus is the chief magician, Vachon. Vachon can create illusions that are miraculous. There is an air of mystery about him as well as he always hides behind a mask. That covers his deformity, the horrible face that he was born with and that sent him out into the world to make his own way as a child. Vachon and Afshar become secret friends as they come to realize that they share dark interests that neither can pursue alone.
Woolley has written a dark historical novel that is full of intrigue, cruelty and revenge. It poses the question about what one would do for love and whether love is possible or whether it will always be haunted by the spectre of betrayal. This book is written for readers of historical fiction, fantasy and horror.
But she never doubts the Shah's love. After a trip, he returns with one of her greatest wishes; a circus. Everyone is enthralled with the elephants, tigers, jugglers and acrobats but no one more than Afshar. She longs for the freedom the circus performers have and the easy camaraderie that they share in their tents.
The star of the circus is the chief magician, Vachon. Vachon can create illusions that are miraculous. There is an air of mystery about him as well as he always hides behind a mask. That covers his deformity, the horrible face that he was born with and that sent him out into the world to make his own way as a child. Vachon and Afshar become secret friends as they come to realize that they share dark interests that neither can pursue alone.
Woolley has written a dark historical novel that is full of intrigue, cruelty and revenge. It poses the question about what one would do for love and whether love is possible or whether it will always be haunted by the spectre of betrayal. This book is written for readers of historical fiction, fantasy and horror.
January 16, 2018
This audio book is lovely. A strange way to describe such a dark tale but the treacle feel of the dark subject is just amazing. The reader seemed a little weak to my taste at the start but as the chapter progressed I grew to love the dreamy feel to the reading.
The book itself is horribly dark. Nasty with every manner of trigger subject you could dream of, rape, murder, torture, kidnap, dungeons, the dark...just *shudder*. But strangely that just adds to the dreamlike feel of the story.
A tale wrapped around the origins of the Phantom (of the Opera) and lavishly sprinkled with the scents of the Shah's palace, draped in silks and dripping with blood, it's not a story for the faint hearted. But it is a sadly believable tale of what absolute power can do to a person who grows up with images of torture and bloody punishments as the norm. You will grow to love an pity our spoiled heroine.
The book itself is horribly dark. Nasty with every manner of trigger subject you could dream of, rape, murder, torture, kidnap, dungeons, the dark...just *shudder*. But strangely that just adds to the dreamlike feel of the story.
A tale wrapped around the origins of the Phantom (of the Opera) and lavishly sprinkled with the scents of the Shah's palace, draped in silks and dripping with blood, it's not a story for the faint hearted. But it is a sadly believable tale of what absolute power can do to a person who grows up with images of torture and bloody punishments as the norm. You will grow to love an pity our spoiled heroine.
April 27, 2015
Fascinating Look on the Phantom's Sojourn in Iran
The author took vague references to the Phantom of the Opera's time in Iran, where he perfected the architectural practices of hidden rooms and fantastical palaces. He found love with the very young daughter (really sister) of the Sultan. The reader learns about how the Darouga and Eric found their lives intertwined after fleeing Iran. And, they learn about many Persian cultural concepts. Very interesting and unique twist on the original story.
The author took vague references to the Phantom of the Opera's time in Iran, where he perfected the architectural practices of hidden rooms and fantastical palaces. He found love with the very young daughter (really sister) of the Sultan. The reader learns about how the Darouga and Eric found their lives intertwined after fleeing Iran. And, they learn about many Persian cultural concepts. Very interesting and unique twist on the original story.
May 9, 2016
A wonderful prequel to The Phantom of the Opera!!!!
Ms. Woolley's book was both entertaining and informative! It is a true gem for any phan. Be forewarned though that is a dark tale and had disturbing scenes and gore. This did not bother me but just keep that in mind. I enjoyed this book so much and I am really sad it's over. I sincerely hope that the author continues more Phantom books...this was just written with such dedication to this beloved macabre tale. Enjoy this amazing book as much as I did! This is also one of those rare books that you can pick up and read again.
Ms. Woolley's book was both entertaining and informative! It is a true gem for any phan. Be forewarned though that is a dark tale and had disturbing scenes and gore. This did not bother me but just keep that in mind. I enjoyed this book so much and I am really sad it's over. I sincerely hope that the author continues more Phantom books...this was just written with such dedication to this beloved macabre tale. Enjoy this amazing book as much as I did! This is also one of those rare books that you can pick up and read again.
October 18, 2015
Mind blowing
History of the phantom, before the phantom was known. This story opens the mind to more possibilities of the phantom. The door is wide open, walk through it
History of the phantom, before the phantom was known. This story opens the mind to more possibilities of the phantom. The door is wide open, walk through it
Read
May 20, 2015What such great read i liked fantasy genre for first time try mostly the imagination!
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