The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice; Gallery Books, $26
A regularly fixture on the New York Times bestseller list, gay writer and Los Angeles-based Internet radio host Christopher Rice has carved out a niche for himself with an ever-expanding oeuvre of accessible, well-written fiction mostly appealing to fans of thrillers and edgy suspense. Raised in New Orleans by uber-talented mother Anne and poet father Stan (now deceased), Rice returns to that locale in his latest foray The Heavens Rise, featuring a gang of teenagers who struggle with the management of their contemporary lives, with a few supernatural powers thrown in for effect.
Leading the pack is beautiful Niquette "Nikki" Delongpre, daughter of a respected physician, and her boyfriend Anthem Landry, a hunky schoolmate whom she accuses of cheating on her. This event spurs chapters of heightened melodrama as newly single Nikki begins dating Marshall Ferriot, an aggressive lover whose poor dating skills force her back into the good graces of Anthem. Before the star-crossed lovers' rushed reunion occurs, however, Nikki and Marshall's disastrous date found them playfully immersed in the Delongpre estate's (dubbed "Elysium") palatial swimming pool for a nighttime swim, unaware that the pool water was tainted by an underground well filled with otherworldly organisms that cause both of them to endure major physical and psychological alterations.
Angered by Nikki and Anthem's repaired relationship, Marshall exacts revenge on them with some seriously psychotic behavior against the entire Delongpre clan, then endures a traumatic accident that leaves him debilitated and wheelchair-bound.
But for all the soap opera-like plot developments in the novel's first half, Rice has saved the most shocking detour for the final chapters, where the main characters prepare themselves for an extraordinary battle with the snake-like creature Marshall morphs into and a 7-foot-tall winged leviathan who may just have good intentions inside him after all.
Downshifting from taut, teenage melodrama to monster mash-up may be a bit much for readers more accustomed to Rice's library of earthbound fiction, but once immersed in this sordid swamp of talons, serpentine scales, and tentacles, it's difficult to turn back.
Besides the risk Rice daringly takes in tossing a literary wrench into the emotional gumbo of his Louisiana bayou, the best thing about the novel is its atmospheric quality. His post-Katrina New Orleans is featured in all its humid, swampy (and sadly weathered) glory, with local lore and true-to-life details intact (many of which Rice did field research on). Nikki's family home Elysium, for example, is a beautifully described two-story Greek Revival mansion a block away from a cemetery, with porches on both floors "big enough for a swing."
There's more than enough here for Rice fans to savor, and a little extra thrown in for those who enjoy a creature-feature component.