Stephen Dobyns Message Board
Dave posts on 4/6/2005 11:26:51 PM
I was waiting for the big thrilling payoff to The Church of Dead Girls but found myself worn out before the killer or killers revealed. The novel takes an incredible amount of time building the story and introducing dozens of characters, subplots, and themes. Dobyns weaves the lives of the citizens of Aurelius together into a wonderful panorama of human weakness, hostility, and social Darwinism. However the books conclusion felt rushed, not nearly as well thought-out as the main body of the novel. So many characters are richly portrayed and yet the ending plays so poorly to the work that led up to it. Still a thriller worth reading.
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