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La Condesa (2010)

by Rebecca Johns(Favorite Author)

3.48 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8466643796 (ISBN13: 9788466643795)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Ediciones B

review 1: It seems really interesting - mixing reality and fiction, about a royal named Elizabeth Bathory, who lived between 1550 and 1650, and who was known as the first female serial killer.However, the book is told through letters she writes from prison to her youngest son, and she seems a very reasonable human being for 95% of the time. There's an episode that sounds like a crazy moment right before she is taken, but really, until then, you can only gather that she is very autistically black and white in terms of justice, and very cruel in that sense - for instance, a seamstress accused of stealing is placed in the garden, naked, covered in honey, nder the sun, just because she thinks it is a fitting punishment. So she's a psychopath who abuses her power, spanking and starving t... morehe occasional maid, but the 'hundreds' of girls who allegedly disappearar are not really in the book to be found. let's make it clear that none of that is acceptable, but the prerrogative of the book seemed to be that... apart from it, it is well told.
review 2: I will admit, when I bought this book, it was somewhat in anticipation of the gore. I have a bit of a fascination with serial killers, especially ones like Elizabeth Bathory who have legends and mythologies that have grown up around their lives. I also enjoy seeing stories from the point of view of the villain. They see everything so much different than the hero does and I like seeing at what points there is contention between the two tellings.If the idea of the gore had been my sole reason for reading this book, I would have been very disappointed. The violence is downplayed and relegated to the background. The reader knows what is happening behind the scenes, but it is not the focus of the story. Instead, this book focuses on the Countess' personal and family life. While that might make the book sound boring to someone interested in seeing the Countess bathe in the blood of her victims, I thought it made the story more chilling.In the Countess' mind, her murders were not her defining characteristic. In fact, until the very end, she never even considered calling them murders. She was a countess, in charge of keeping her properties running smoothly by whatever means necessary. She was paranoid, believing that all of her maidservants were lazy, stupid, thieves, and whores. Nothing they could have done would have convinced her otherwise. A simple report, no matter how questionable the validity, was enough for her to feel the need to punish the supposed offender. It was her job to teach her maidservants to be better and she felt the only way to do that was through severe punishments. Often, she would get carried away, but it didn't matter to her if the girls died because she was a countess and they were not.To the Countess, her defining characteristics were her education, determination, and fierce love for her family. As the narrator, that is what she focused on. It's the epitome of an unreliable narrator. To her, the way in which she runs her house is not her story. Her story is her family and relationships. She doesn't see herself as murderer, a witch, or a vampire. She sees herself as a daughter, a wife, a mother. She sees herself as a fairly normal human being just living her life To her, the only difference is that she is generally just better than everyone else. She doesn't see the monster that everyone else sees. She doesn't even think she has done anything wrong. I think that is more terrifying than any gore. less

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