Rating: 
Summary: bloody indeed
Review: a quick interesting read,its too bad there isnt more available about this bizzare subject.
Rating: 
Summary: The Blood Countess
Review: Elizabet Bathory was believed to be the most beautiful noblewoman in the land, and she believed that drinking the blood of young virgins and bathing in it (as well as using it for cosmetic purposes) would make her stay young and beautiful forever. Indeed, her witch-hag servants assured her of this "fact." Over 650 young women paid with their lives to satisfy the wicked woman's sadistic cruelty and vanity before she was finally stopped. I was distracted by the writing style of this book. I think the style is either too old-fashioned and overwrought, or badly translated, I don't know which. It lacks the kind of clear and straightforward narrative base I like to see both in fiction and non-fiction. However, this is the first book about Countess Bathory which I've read, so I have nothing to compare it to. I'll read other books about this disturbing and fascinating woman in the future. I'm also planning a trip to Slovakia to visit the castle where she lived and where all of her horrible crimes were committed.David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"
Rating: 
Summary: Well, it was pretty bad.
Review: I haven't read something this poorly written since Christian Jacq's 'Ramses - Son of Light'. I attributed the thin, 2-dimensional prose to an inept translation from French to English. Could this be the same reason? It is quite bad.
Rating:
Summary: Horrid Trash
Review: I loved this book. I only gave it 4 outta 5 due to very detailed Hungarian history. It was hard to keep all the names of all the towns and castles in order. The story itself was great and full of delicious gore and I have recommended this book to many friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Mindless Tripe
Review: Not to be taken as a serious, scholarly work on its own. It reads more like a bad novel occasionally hemorrhaging facts--perversely analogous to one of Bathory's poor victims. Sadly, there is no clear dividing line between facts and breezy, flatulant fiction-writing. Unless you are experienced in reading poorly written continental-European prose, are some sort of PoMo cretin, or are some teenaged Goth/dork, the value to be culled from reading this book is little worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: The content is good, if not the way it is presented
Review: There's alot of fuss being made about this book. I don't particularly see anything wrong with the prose style, except that it becomes a little heavy handed in some places. The fact of the matter is that this is the only freely available work on Erzebet Bathory, and as such it is superb. I thought it highly interesting, although it could have been structured better.
Rating:
Summary: Confusing but Interesting Historical Perspective, Sort of...
Review: This book is not a great telling of the story of E. Bathory. However, the intertwining of family marriages and who is related to who is dizzying and intriguing. This leads one to assume that E was very much a victim of inbreeding, not to mention she was simply nuts. Not the best book on the subject but quotes the trial at the time. There are key facts that are excluded from the book but not at anyone's fault, the powers that be at the time struck them from the official records and were destroyed. Supposedly because they were so gruesome. That sounds like interesting reading! Get the book if you are curious of an almost too detailed description of the story. However, keep in mind that it's not the details that one really wants to read. Also, the book jumps from E to others who have had similar behaviors. It's a bit boring but at the time I purchased it there weren't many books out there about the actual trial.
Rating:
Summary: Confusing but Interesting Historical Perspective, Sort of...
Review: This book is not a great telling of the story of E. Bathory. However, the intertwining of family marriages and who is related to who is dizzying and intriguing. This leads one to assume that E was very much a victim of inbreeding, not to mention she was simply nuts. Not the best book on the subject but quotes the trial at the time. There are key facts that are excluded from the book but not at anyone's fault, the powers that be at the time struck them from the official records and were destroyed. Supposedly because they were so gruesome. That sounds like interesting reading! Get the book if you are curious of an almost too detailed description of the story. However, keep in mind that it's not the details that one really wants to read. Also, the book jumps from E to others who have had similar behaviors. It's a bit boring but at the time I purchased it there weren't many books out there about the actual trial.
Rating:
Summary: Like Her Victims, A Terrible Mess
Review: This has got to be the most poorly written book I've ever read. Unnecessarily flowerly prose makes much of the work incomprehensible, and what is understandable is loaded with minute detail about things that add absolutely nothing to the story or our understanding of it's subject. A totally unrelated chapter devoted to the crimes of Giles de Raiis only adds to the confusion. Try instead, the fictional "Blood Countess." It's far more readable and there's probably enough fact in the mix to give readers the overview they won't find here.
Rating:
Summary: Like Her Victims, A Terrible Mess
Review: This has got to be the most poorly written book I've ever read. Unnecessarily flowerly prose makes much of the work incomprehensible, and what is understandable is loaded with minute detail about things that add absolutely nothing to the story or our understanding of it's subject. A totally unrelated chapter devoted to the crimes of Giles de Raiis only adds to the confusion. Try instead, the fictional "Blood Countess." It's far more readable and there's probably enough fact in the mix to give readers the overview they won't find here.
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