DNF 35%

I enjoy Rick R. Reed's writing style but the subject matter of this book was not for me.
I have never read the picture of Dorian Grey but I know the general story. Unfortunately, this story did not grasp my attention. I also could not handle the self centered character and when incest was added I was done with the book.

Thank you Netgalley, Rick R. Reed and Ninestar Press for the review copy

DN 35%
I will admit that i have never read the picture of Dorian Grey but i know the general story. But this was sadly just boring, it seemed intruiging by the blurb and the cover was beautiful and mysterious but that was just it. It was so many different characters that came and went and i ended up just being bored and generally not feeling any interest or care for the characters.

I love Rick Reed's writing and his variety of stories. That said, A Face Without a Heart just isn't for me.
His writing is stellar, but the subject matter just isn't my thing.

I liked the book! I found a very attractive story, a good plot, but in my opinion it sinned in some things. But in general a good experience!

A beautiful young man bargains his soul away to remain young and handsome forever, while his holographic portrait mirrors his aging and decay and reflects every sin and each nightmarish step deeper into depravity… even cold-blooded murder. Prepare yourself for a compelling tour of the darkest sides of greed, lust, addiction, and violence.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It took Wildes story and put a futuristic spin on it. The characters worked. The story moved a a good pace. Recommended.

A modern day retelling of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with Liam as an artist taking pictures of his muse and modelling them into holograms. Being a retelling, the book seemed predictable; however, it was interesting to see what a modern setting to it.

I really liked this book. Having never read The Portrait of Dorian Gray but seen a movie version, I thought the author drew well from the source material while also making the story his own. I would recommend this for people looking for a modern retelling of the classic. My only critique would be that the ending felt rushed. The major conflict resolved quickly without much threat to the main character so once it didn't feel like that big of a deal even though it definitely was supposed to be.

Potential Triggers: suicide, sex, cheating and rape, drug use, suicidal thoughts and murder.

Oscar Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray has always been one of my favorite books. When I stumbled across this novel I knew I had to read it.

A Face without a Heart is a retelling of Oscar Wilde's 1890 classic philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In A face without a heart we meet Gary Adrion (an anagram of Dorian Gray) and Liam ( The artist), as well as an entire slew of characters. The story is told from multiple points of view and bounces between narrators to give a broader view of the events.

While I dont think its comparable to the original at all, I found myself enjoying this modern take. The characters were developed well and while I cared for some more than others , I enjoyed having the perspectives of the multiple narrators. Overall, I think this book was beautifully written and worth reading.

I recieved a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Billed as a reworking of Oscar Wilde's classic story about Dorian Gray, this re-release of Reed's 2010 novel swaps watercolours for holographic art in modern-day Chicago while hitting the same story beats as its inspiration. Even though it touches on temptation and decaying beauty like Wilde's chilling tale did, there's a far starker sense of terror, along with some explicit sex and a smattering of blood & guts. Its lead characters – Liam, the artist and Gary, his subject, sometimes read too similar to one another, but the narrative splits off from them to explore various side character's viewpoints, from drag queen Henrietta to tragic love interest Zoe, and that keeps things fresh. Even if you're familiar with Wilde's original, you'll find enough here to keep you surprised and shocked, there's far more intensity on both a visceral and psychological level. And of course, it doesn't have to hold back on its queerness like Wilde's story was made to. Expect to be left moved, and more than a little disturbed, by this excellent revamp.

Although entertaining, this novel doesn't reimagine much the Dorian Gray story. It's basically the same story, with a drag queen that doesn't evolve throughout the novel, in a slightly futuristic setting. I was waiting for changes, a more explicit version, more LGBT+ content, because the original novel was very scandalous for its time, but today it's very light, and the same thing happened here, in addition to Gary (Dorian) being more heterosexual than LGBT+. It focuses more on drugs than anything else, but without elaborating on the topic beyond "Drugs are bad" and "he's just exploring."

An incredibly modern and diverse retelling of the famous classic. This book offers three amazing characters and the author gave them many dimensions, loud vioices and messages to permit that felt true, as much as Reed's style and story is dangerously winning and touching.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

This is a modern day retelling of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with Liam as an artist taking pictures of his muse and modelling them into holograms. The hologram of Gary Adrion (see the pun?) is his masterpiece and he falls in love with the ethereal beauty of young Gary. But Gary soon makes wrong decisions and as his actions become more cruel, violent, and terrible, he remains young and beautiful.

As retellings go, this was super predictable, but this one didn't take me in, emotionally. I thought many things were quite ridiculous (SUCH A LONG PENIS!), especially that graphic sex scenes are supposedly super shocking and how the wickedness of Gary, but it felt more like a caricature. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see what the modern setting would do to the story: surprisingly, not a lot. The alcohol, the drugs, the sex and the artist's helpless infatuation are the same. Yes, it was dirtier and more graphic, but it didn't make it much more shocking. Also trigger warnings galore: violence, abuse, rape, sexual assault,...

2,5-3 Stars

I rated this a 3 because it was well-written, etc. but it was more of a 2 or 2.5 for me. There were a lot of POVs. I kind of get why they were necessary in the end, but it was overwhelming at the beginning. Zoe's POV especially was a bit... much. Like I get why it was that way but I didn't really get her. Even if she didn't care about the dancing anymore, why would she purposely dance badly? Especially if she knew people were coming to see. Like I get that she didn't care anymore but it seemed more like she was going out of her way to fuck things up for some reason I couldn't understand. Then Gary's reaction seemed ridiculous. The entire thing felt more like reading a screenplay than a book, to be honest. Like it was leaving room for the actor's to find their own version of the characters and bring them to life, but without actors they were flat.

In a face without a heart, Liam is an artist who is fascinated by bizarre things and one day he creates a three-dimensional hologram of Gary a young man whose beauty mesmerizes those who see him. For those who do not know the original story, the painting, or in this case the hologram will continue to age while Dorian or in this case Gary remains eternally young. The painting represents the soul of Gary and in the novel, we see the dilemma that the protagonist faces when taking a side between good and evil.
I honestly always liked the portrait of Dorian Gray and I loved the way the author represented this classic book.
4 stars to me
thanks to NetGalley and Ninestar Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

The synopsis for this book sounded amazing, it ticked a lot of the boxes for me from the community of people it revolves around to the fact that it's a re-telling of a beloved classic, but for whatever reason I couldn't connect with it the way that I had hoped I would. I wanted to love it, but the best I found it to be was 'readable' and 'okay'. I wish I could have walked away loving each and every one of the characters, but the best I can say about them is that they're likeable enough, tolerable at best, and I find that to be a real shame. I don't know if it was the book itself or me, but I was never able to fully connect with it, and every time I got into the book, I was thrown out again by the various narrative and tense changes, the skipping of huge chunks of time with no real explanation as to what happened between, etc. On paper, this should have been one of the books that I usually connect with and fall in love with, but in practice I struggled to finish reading it from start to finish and felt disappointed with the gaps never filled in from previous branches of the plotline.

However, the plot in general is complete, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, all the highly significant plot points are woven throughout and wrapped up by the end, and for what it is it's all there. It's possible I expected too much of it as a re-telling of such a huge book, or because I expect more of the books that I usually do read, but whatever the reason, unfortunately, the completeness of the story alone wasn't enough for me personally to connect with it in such a way that made me love it rather than merely liking it. Hopefully others will be able to get into and take away from it far more than I managed to, because it is a good book beyond the problems that I struggled with throughout it.

In Rick R. Reed's Face without a Heart, he does his take on Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. For Reed it seems more of a challenge to take on and is relevant to the live the fast lane culture that youth sometimes decide to take on.

Reed's story moves at a fast pace to keep my interest. The major problem I had was most particularly in the beginning in how it is written. Gary Adrion, an anagram for Dorian Gray, talks about how he falls in love, and the next time he narrates he talks about how he fell out of love.

To me it was too sudden. Gary doesn't talk about how he falls in love or a narrative leading up to it. He is just suddenly in love at first sight and of course she's in love with him. The break up also happens so quickly, which at this point in the book, both characters are annoying.

Gary overall is definitely a character to find annoying and it was intentional. It was the other characters that i felt empathy and aggravation with. In real life, i don't feel they would hang on to their friendship with him considering how selfish Gary is.

Overall, I enjoyed Face without a Heart. Brutally honest and at times gruesome. A modern day retelling that is fun to read and goes places the original couldn't go to, due to the times. Rick R. Reed is someone I look forward to reading some of his original works.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ninestar Press for providing a copy for review.

This was so different from what I was expecting. I really liked the characters. Gary had a crazy character arc, Liam was interesting, and Henrietta was a riot. This book starts with a punch to the gut, and a slight mystery. There is quite a bit of insta-lust going on. Gary is basically walking perfection. He just seems to naturally draw attraction. Liam is a photographer, with a penchant for younger men. Henrietta is a brash, fairly cynical drag queen who keeps the other two in check as best she can. There was a lot more LGBTQ rep than I was expecting and I loved it! It was also a pretty heavy and dark story. For a retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray, this was not expected. It deals really well with what happens if you sell your soul for youth and beauty. It also deals with AIDS and the heavy party scene. There is A LOT of partying happening. The second half of the book was definitely darker than the first. The second watches Gary's descent into turmoil while he realizes that he's not aging and life had essentially lost meaning. I just really enjoyed this one.

This book shows how excess of anything can be tremendously dangerous. I don't know why its blurb gives away everything but maybe it is because it is the retelling. Lust, love, greed, jealousy, drug addiction and every other emotion is portrayed to its best extent. I like the character of Henrietta, a drag queen, who is one the main character of this book. Tbh, I had not read any book having drag queen as a character! And I really enjoyed reading Henrietta's philosophy and twisted opinion towards world.
One point of disappointment is that this book has been narrated from the perspective of almost all characters in the story. Though it is good to understand every character's thought process, yet it can get really tiring sometimes.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and definitely recommend to you all.

I have to admit that I did not really connect with this story as much as I would have liked to. I felt like the myriad of points of views that were used to continue the stories were unnecessary while I was in the thick of the story, but now realize that they were necessary to bring about the climax. I did not like Zoe's point of view much, felt like it was much too child like, which I imagine was kind of a way to show Gary's innocence dying off with her suicide. But it made it really hard to connect with her the way she was characterized and the way she was shown in the story to really make her death impactful to the reader. I wished more had been done to really flesh out Liam's character so that, by the time his death came, the reader felt more impacted by his death or maybe came to feel much like Gary did when he killed him: annoyed. There was much that his novel left wanting in me, to be completely honest. But above all I wasn't too sure about the way Reed treated Henrietta. I am not trans, nor am I a drag queen so I can't speak about it with complete certainty that it wasn't right, but I just know that it didn't sit well. I hope more people from that community reads this and really opens up about that representation.

Gary, raised by an aloof grandfather in a rich family, has never wanted for money or beauty, only for love. Liam, a photographer who creates holograms, sees Gary on the train one day and, astonished by his beauty, requests to make a hologram of him. Gary agrees and Liam creates a masterpiece which highlights both his artistic skill and his awe for the other man. Liam's best friend, the cynical drag queen Lady Henrietta, believes this awe to be only a passing fancy but quickly becomes Gary's best friend as well, encouraging him in some of the more hedonistic parts of life. After tragedy strikes, it becomes apparent to Gary that his hologram ages while he does not. At first this is a blessing, allowing Gary to partake in any number of pleasures without worry for the consequences. But as his friends age without him and his life continues with little purpose, he realizes that maybe beauty and decadence aren't all they're made out to be.

Content warnings: graphic sex, drug use, suicide, rape, murder, victim blaming

This novel is a modern retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray, a classic which I unfortunately have yet to read. So this review will not be analyzing A Face without a Heart in comparison to the original story, but instead relaying my experience of reading it as a independent novel. Still, I began this book with expectations for it to be an examination of youth, hedonism, and depravity which makes more explicit the homoeroticism of Dorian Gray that I have heard so much about. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Prose usually isn't a huge deal to me. I've read prose that others find over dramatic (Nevernight) or overly descriptive (Wheel of Time) and though I can acknowledge the flaws, I usually get past them fairly easily. However, the prose in this novel did bother me. It wasn't necessarily awful, but it was lacking in nuance. I'm not one for flowery writing, but the writing here was so straight-forward that I found it unpleasant to read sometimes. There seemed to be a good deal of telling, rather than showing. Something I am a bit more picky about is dialogue, which felt unnatural to me throughout most of this novel. If nothing else, the plainness of the righting made it quick and easy, though not necessarily enjoyable, to read.

Yet, the biggest issue for me was the characters. Ignoring the fact that "Dorian" was named Gary of all things, I simply didn't connect with him, Liam, or Lady Henrietta. I realize that these characters weren't supposed to be likeable (except perhaps Liam who I think I would have liked if we had seen more of him). I can appreciate unlikable characters who are bad people so long as they're still good, well-developed characters. In this case, however, they felt one-dimensional and unrealistic. Henrietta, in particular, seemed like a conglomeration of stereotypes whose defining features were being excessively outspoken and pessimistic.

At around 250 pages long, this novel is much shorter than most others I read. On the one hand, this was good for me because if it wasn't so short, I probably would have stopped reading about halfway through, and the book does get much better in the second half. On the other hand, I think the quick pace of the novel is part of what contributed to its unbelievability for me. I know that an in depth narration of Gary's entire adult life isn't possible, but I think I would have been much more convinced by his character development, such as it was, if it occurred more gradually and we got more insight into his inner dialogue. There were even a couple of critical scenes that we only heard about in retrospect as he talked about them with Henrietta, which is a decision I didn't understand at all.

In the end, I'm most disappointed because I didn't find much of a point or takeaway from book unless it was "don't do too many drugs" or "don't promise to marry someone you've only just met." Of course, not every book has to have a meaningful takeaway, but I was expecting that this one would since it is a retelling of a well known, philosophical classic. I think the message was perhaps supposed to be that hedonism doesn't make for a satisfying or happy life, but the depravity in this book was almost too extreme for that to be a convincing conclusion. (I could easily argue that one could live hedonistically, pursuing the pleasures of life, without complete disregard for their own well-being or that of others and thus might have a better life than Gary did.) Having never read The Picture of Dorian Gray, I can't say whether it shares this downfall with A Face without a Heart or not.

Finally, I feel I have to mention that if you're looking for a retelling of Dorian Gray with a greater focus on homo/bisexuality, this isn't it. Not that it really claims to be, but I think some people will come in with that misunderstanding. There is no M/M romantic relationship, and though Gary has sex with other men, I (as someone who is bi) don't think you could label him as bisexual; he only does so when he's too drugged up to care and even then doesn't seem to receive any pleasure from it.

Despite my lack of enjoyment of A Face without a Heart, I am giving it two stars rather than one because it's not truly a bad book. I can see how many people who didn't have the same issues I did with the prose and pace might like it, and I did find myself slightly more invested in the second half of the book even if it was too little, too late for me.

A Face without a Heart was published June 1st, 2020. If you're interested, you can find it on Goodreads and Amazon.

Many thanks to NineStar Press and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.