Personal Darkness: Book Two of The Blood Opera Sequence

Blood Opera Sequence #2

by Tanith Lee, Freda Warrington (Introduction)

The Scarabae, a mysterious family, who are not entirely human, have been forced to leave the burned ruins of their reclusive home in a remote part of England. Most are dead at the hands of Ruth, a child created through incest with the purpose of repopulating this ageing branch of the family. Scarabae must breed with Scarabae, but Ruth was a tragically misjudged experiment.

Rachaela, Ruth’s mother, trails listlessly with the survivors of the Scarabae. She is one of them but still can’t feel that she is. Yet where else does she belong? The Scarabae relocate to London, and roost within a baroque old mansion. Here, they lick their wounds, but bizarrely appear to be growing younger…

Ruth has also come to London. The people she seeks shelter with are often cruel or warped. Ruth cold-bloodedly removes them from the world. She has already learned how to kill, but not how to cover her tracks. When the Scarabae see news stories of a murderous black-haired girl, they know who’s responsible. And they must call upon another strand of the family to help them trap and control this threat to their invisibility within the world.

Malach and Althene arrive at the Scarabae mansion; beautiful and merciless beings. While Malach initiates the process of finding and containing Ruth, Rachaela struggles to resist the ambiguous allure of Althene, who is far more than she seems.

First published in 1993, and long out of print, Immanion Press is proud to release this new edition, which includes seven illustrations and an introductory essay by Freda Warrington, author of The Blood Wine series.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Fantasy, Fiction, Gothic, Dark Fantasy, LGBT

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.

Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.

Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.

Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.

Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.

Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.

Reviews

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't find this quite as breathlessly addictive as Dark Dance, but it was good anyway. I enjoyed it a lot more once I stopped comparing the two. It was very different from the first book—more development to the Scarabae, more viewpoints, more HOLY SHIT IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING???? Tanith Lee has quite a talent for shock without even seeming like she's trying.

Example 1: Althene in that Crying Game moment, wow. And yet for a second I had no idea what was happening. Apparently I'm not so knowledgable about penis euphemisms.

Example 2: Badass Malach getting some kind of vampire migraine and then sleeping with thirteen-year-old Ruth. It's all right because they're both Scarabae and she was never really a child. What the HELL, dude. But in Lee's hands, kind of amazing.

The Scarabae still have the maddening tendency to not answer Rachaela's questions, though she herself talks around the topic from time to time. I guess it's in their blood to be elusive. It can't be helped.

Camillo is awesome.

And now I must track down the third book, and other stuff she's written. Tanith Lee books—GIVE THEM TO ME.

[Meredith is a hot mess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just want praise Tanith Lee's writing style. The prose is wonderfully descriptive, yet also sparse and understated at times. I highlighted so much throughout the book. The humour, the dialogue...the writing was brilliant. I grew to really love Ruth in this book. She's a murdering little freak, and reading about her exploits was entertaining.

Ruth won me over when she saved the cat from the house she set on fire. Ruth may have the desire to kill but she can't be all bad if she loves cats, right?

Camillo was a badass, one of my favorite side characters. He shows up riding a motorcycle with a couple of hot girls, which grabs Rachaela's attention.

'And I met Lou and Tray at concert. Not Prokofiev, of course. A gig. They attached themselves to me like pretty flowers to a gnarled old branch. They think I'm some fallen star. And do I sleep with them? What does Rachaela suppose?'

'You like to ride things,' Rachaela said, bleakly, 'why not Lou and Tray?'

'Superb,' said Camillo.

As Rachaela spends more time with the Scarabea, we get a few more hints of the Scarabae's psychic nature.

Areas of her emotions had opened out. She seemed to have another sense. This constant awareness of other places, times, feelings...different lives, previous centuries. It was insidious, and pleasing in a bitter-sweet way. Perhaps it had even been there from the beginning...When she listened to music, maybe it had come then, in another form.

I loved the scenes between Rachaela and Althene. I enjoyed their banter. Seems like Rachaela will finally find some happiness with her. The dynamic between Ruth and Malach was engaging. I was left wanting more of Malach and Ruth. I was really disappointed when he cast her aside so quickly because of Nobbi's death. For the first time he seemed petulent and rash. He knew what Ruth was...he'd seemed dedicated to sticking by her. For him to completely lose patience because of Nobbi's death seemed odd. Yeah, Nobbi was innocent, but his death by Ruth shouldn't have angered Malach so much. Malach didn't even know the guy, and didn't care for Tray that much."


My minor quibble is with the ending. I didn't like it, and it wasn't satisfactory to me. I also wish Tanith had included more POVs from the Scarabae family. There were too many POVs from Ruth's victims. Many of the POVs from Ruth's victims were good. They added a gritty, London vibe to the book. Towards the end I thought there was too much time spent on Nobbi and Stella. I would have loved more time with Althene and Malach. Even Miranda. To Tanith's credit she's great at leaving the reader wanting more.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars--I liked it, but have some reservations. Warnings for child sexual abuse. Some minor spoilers (for this book and the first one) in this review.

The Scarabae family is as mysterious and alluring as ever, and Lee's writing as purple as ever. (I enjoy it. Your mileage may vary.) I could have done without Ruth's underage sexual adventures, however. (Yes, I get that she's not really human, and I get that supposedly these "vampires" age quicker than humans, but it was still gross.)

Rachaela is as vague and dreamy as ever--possibly more so--but it was nice meeting more of the family.

[Scarlett O.H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous! Even better than the first book in the series.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to find I liked this book even more than the first in the series. It's not *quite* as trashy (there's no incest, but there is a case of a thirteen-year-old having sex. And then of course there's Althene.), but you still have all the flowery, purple prose, and the loving details of how a room is decorated and what everybody's wearing. (Laurel K. Hamiliton has nothing on Lee, but for some reason it's easier to take here.) Plus the Scarabae are much more fun to read in "Personal Darkness", mostly because it's more interesting to see them parade around with an insane amount of money and power in a grand house than it was to see them huddled in a crumbling mansion, eating rabbits and seagulls.

I still don't *like* Rachaela, the main character, all that much. She makes inertia into a fine art and her internal monologue for every single interaction and plot development could be summed up as "I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like this, oh well okay then." She's the lens through which the reader sees the Scarabae, but not much more than that. I enjoyed the chapters with Ruth are a LOT more, which is weird because she's still the same cold-blooded spoiled little monster she was at the end of the first book. You know from the start (and probably from the book description) that things aren't going to end well, for her and possibly for a lot of other people (can we say "collateral damage"?) but it's interesting to see how things develop.

The ending made me sad, but it was still more satisfying than the end of "Dark Dance". We can't all have happy endings, but we CAN have the loose ends wrapped up.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

With Lee, her books are more about atmosphere than plot, but with Personal Darkness, there's a nice merging of the two that gives the book a little more OOMPH than the last book of hers I read. Her style still takes the stage here, but the story, which continues right after the end of Dark Dance, is one of identity and revenge.

At times, it feels like Lee is writing with a general idea in mind, and is waiting to see where the story will take her. It doesn't feel focused, and instead reads like it's a collection of vignettes featuring some recurring characters. On the other hand, the structure of the book allows the reader to experience other points of view; where Dark Dance was almost exclusively from Rachaela's POV, Personal Darkness jumps around and lets us into the heads of other characters. It broadens the world of these stories, and also allows us to see how deft Lee was with characterization.

This is part of my Dell/Abyss reading project, but technically, this is just a Dell Horror novel. For whatever reason, the publishers chose not to put this in the Abyss imprint, even though the book falls into its publication schedule. I'm not counting it as an Abyss book, but I'm reading it as part of that project, regardless.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my favorite of the three. Again, I'm drawn to Rachaela and like to see how she maneuvers the Scarabae clan. Her murderess daughter Ruth is running free in the countryside, spreading death. Along comes the white knight, Malach, to put right the wrongs. And dark Althene, with secrets all her own.

The 'vampires' in this novel are not the vampires we are used to in most tales. The Scarabae are a strange mix of power and decay. I've reread these books nearly every year since the mid 90's when I first found them. They are always fascinating for me, even with knowing what's on each page. Give them a chance!

[Taryn Moreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blood Opera Sequence really keeps me guessing. Just when I think I know how things are going to turn out or how various threads of the story will culminate, things take a very different turn. But it's always fascinating. Always satisfying, in its own way.

I love Tanith Lee's dark, gorgeous prose, her utterly unique characters, and her willingness to let this story go as dark and violent and taboo and nontraditional and sensual and over the top as it wants to go.

I was skeptical that the second book in the series would hold my interest as well as the first, but it definitely did. Moreso, even. Can't wait to read the next.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful follow-up to "Dark Dance." Another one I never tire of.

[Elizabeth Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever finished a Tanith Lee book before, I just couldn't get into them. But Kathryn loaned me this one, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. It's beautifully decadent. We get scenes of fantastic wealth and opulent settings, interspersed with some very satisfying violence. I was able to jump into this one even though I hadn't read the first book in the series: you catch on pretty quickly to the back story. And for all that it's technically a vampire book, you really don't see much in the way of traditional vampire feeding. Everyone's just very old, very beautiful, and most definitely human. Or rather, not human anymore.

[Devi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this second volume of the series very good - better in fact than the first because the story made more sense to me (perhaps because the characters were familiar).

I recommend reading the the first volume (Dark Dance) before this book, else some of the story references will not make sense.

[Arwen Telian]

I loved this book. It took me eight years to find the sequel to 'Dark Dance,' and I cannot wait to get my hands on 'Darkness, I.' Tanith Lee is amazing.

[Ken Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of Dark Dance, Ruth revealed she's an efficient little butcher and ended up leaving half the Scarabae murdered on the floor of their home. Which she then promptly set on fire! But the survivors are strangely not very upset with her. In fact they seem kind of ... stimulated. Apparently the only thing that gets Scarabae more hot and bothered than mating with their relatives is killing them. Because not only do they all suddenly develop an insatiable appetite for champagne and endless gourmet cuisine (described in loving detail) but they are in a glorious mood, can't keep their hands off each other AND all grow a few decades younger. They even go for electricity and television.
     Lucky for them Ruth is just getting started! She heads out to find her doting grandmotherly neighbor from Dark Dance, and leaves a trail of gory destruction behind her. (There are moments where your stomach drops when you realize what's about to go down.) Meanwhile some other scary members of the Scarabae clan appear, Camillo turns up with a motorcycle gang, and the family get their psychic fangs hooked into two rock groupies. They age into rapid decrepitude as the clan flourishes.
  This book was more fun than the brilliant Dark Dance. I gave myself some time to ponder what was most important: the contrast of Ruth's youthful nihilism with the spiderlike eternal patience of the Scarabae? The book's repeated emphasis on unreliability of any mate and the uselessness of coupling in general? The outrageous food spilling out of every page? The story is unpredictable and even occasionally silly, but Lee's prose is as sharp as Ruth's razor when it comes to the way these men are always watching, looking, appraising. In the wake of their craning necks we learn isolation and loneliness is the book's 'Personal Darkness'. Poor Ruth!

"
Michael brought Rachaela a glass of white wine. She noticed its peculiar freshness, an undertaste of apples. She was about to ask Michael its origin, when a dire picture darkened the screen. It was the frame of a burned house.
     Not, of course, like the Scarabae house, not remotely. This was the remnant of a terrace dwelling, and it had not, for example, collapsed. Yet the windows gaped in on a rabid, empty blackness.
     "... The latest fire, which also occurred in Southeast London, has now definitely been linked to the series of other fires police have been investigating since April of this year..."
"

[Donald Henson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only one of the sequence that I've read. It's not a 'normal' vampire novel, but is a fascinating exploration of damaged and twisted psychologies, and various forms of abuse. I found it hard to put down, even though there are no characters that I empathised with. The Scarabae are undoubtedly very strange thanks to to the way she writes them. The atmosphere is very visual with lots of detail. I wold love someone to do paintings based on her descriptions of the people and the decor. On the whole, it a rather disturbing - which I like. It challenges you to think about people and what motivates them, and how sad many people's lives really are. It's not a novel to read for fun, and that makes it more worthwhile for me.

[Vampyranha Pointe du Lac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampire book #51???

I don't think I've been this entertained by a book in so long, definitely not what I expected. I really enjoyed it, even though vampirism plays a minor role in this book series. There's no big event or major plot twist, but unlike the first one, this isn't a slow burn. Things happen fast, and before you know it, you've reached the end.

When I finished the first book, I honestly hoped things would get darker in a vampiric way, but they didn’t! Don't go into this book expecting an epic vampire story. It has some vampiric elements, but not enough for vampire lovers like me. But even so, I still think the book is awesome!.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was terrible, story nonexistent, characters barely 1 dimensional often unintelligible and then there´s the descriptive passages oh my saints and martyrs!
"The ice box was full of ice"
The sky was orange and dusty like India"
This book gets two stars because I picked up in a secondhand store during a horrendously bad bout of depression. It took a day and a half and less than one third of one half of a brain cell to read while keeping my distracted enough while the worst of the depression passed.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not quite as compelling as Dark Dance, but definitely worth reading! Rachaela's daughter, Ruth, stalks the London streets, powerful and dangerous, at only 13 years old. Rachaela is once again enmeshed in the lives of the strange Scarabae, and this times finds love in an unexpected place.

While many people die, the dogs and cats in this book are always absolutely fine, which makes it comfort reading for me!

[Bill Borre]

I am sorry to leave a comment here under reviews for a book that I have not read yet but I wanted to assign a date for this book and the date set functionality of the website currently seems to be broken. If they get this working I will use this and delete this review.

11-21-2013

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

good old fashioned horror from the 90's... relatively typical of a lot of books published at the time... not spectacular but a fun and creepy stylistic read...

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost gave up half way through but decided to persevere. It didn't improve, and a lot of it I just found nonsensical. I'm all for a different take on vampires but this didn't work for me.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[ayanami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following the events of Dark Dance, the Scarabae, along with Rachaela, move into a new house. Meanwhile, Ruth is wreaking havoc in London. I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as Dark Dance since I never really cared for Ruth's character and wasn't particularly entertained by reading about her murder spree. The book became more interesting about halfway through once the new characters Malach and Althene showed up. We lose some of the mystery in this book compared to the previous as we are given more explanations about the existence of the Scarabae, but they are still pretty fascinating nonetheless. Tanith Lee's prose is as lush and dreamy as always.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little less Anne Rice-ish than the 1st book, & the Scarabae mystery becomes a little easier to understand if not accept. The ending is very abrupt & leaves you somewhat bereft, which is in itself an interesting experience.

[Xan Asher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanith Lee is just pure genius ... has a power of imagination that just astonishes, puts words together in a way that is utter magic. I've read all three in the Blood Opera sequence, I wish she'd continued the series.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second book in this enjoyable series about a unique family of vampires.

[Rhiannon Frater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the three books in the trilogy, I felt this one was the weakest, but I did enjoy it.

[Auntie Raye-Raye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read April 2015

[Gypsie Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have to say that this is one of the strangest written book trilogy I have ever read. Curiously I like it in all it's depravity. And, oh yes, it is truly disturbing and twisted.

[Salimbol · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3 and 1/2 stars]

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't disappointed by the second book in the series. Well worth spending the time with.