Rating: 
Summary: So much dark promise not fleshed out.
Review: As a fan of both Poppy and The Crow, I was thrilled to see this book was available. But while "The Lazarus Heart" is a quick, rather twisted fun read, it lacks depth. It started out with much dark promise...the fascinating triumverate of Jarred Poe and the twins (no one does more mystifying twins than Poppy) you embrace immediately, even if they are a bit weird. Present are the brilliant metaphors I've come to expect from Poppy from the days of "Swamp Foetus". Present is her sensory touch of "putting you there." This time in New Orleans. But she failed in letting us "know" the characters once we got attached to them. To me the gore overshadowed the character development. And sadly, the treatment of the Crow mythos under her deft hand could have been elaborated on in more detail. It's only because it's Poppy that we come to expect so much. She set the standards for herself with her short stories, "Lost Souls" and "Drawing Blood." No one writes about the goth subculture with such knowledge. I hope that whatever constraints led to the lack in "The Lazarus Heart" (deadlines, publisher's critera?) don't hold her back in her next effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Brite Creates Yet Another Amazing Book
Review: First, let us establish that through the movies I never got overly attatched to the Crow series. I thought the movies were ok, but not great; not to mention that the sequel appeared to be a regurgitation of the original plot. But since Poppy Z. Brite is one of my absolute favorite writers, I had to give this book a chance (and even sprung for the nice $50 edition--this is how sure I am of Brite's writing.) This novel holds up to all of Brite's previous novel-length work, and quite possibly exceeds it. The characters are amazingly developed--but aren't they always--and for once one of her major characters is a woman! Ok, so she used to be a man, but the point is that she's strayed from the teenage gay mail a little. Brite also expands on the Crow mythos, and writes a powerful story. The main antagonist is the complete embodiment of hate and bigotry, and the hero's purposes are genuine and satisfyingly revengeful. I recommend this book for anyone who loves good horror, but I warn you that Brite is a very dark writer when it comes to her horror. Her fiction makes the works of Steven King look as cozy as a Charles Dickens novel. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm glad this was a fast read
Review: For some reason I found myself not really into the story.Maybe it was the slow process,characters,or development. Often I found myself just flipping thru pages,until I found something with Jared(crow),and the bird seem kinda passively involved. I felt brief excitement though fleeting at the end. The crow mythology was a great touch I really enjoyed that aspect. I'd give 5***** on that all by itself. The wearing of the tragdey mask,made me think of Jason in the Friday the 13th series. Overall I feel I wasn't ready for a more kinder gentler crow.
Rating:
Summary: My First Brite Novel To Read
Review: I am from Louisiana and this book goes into all the details of New Orleans and it's dark side. It feels like you are right beside Jared, feeling and seeing everything that he is doing and feeling. Though I didn't purchase this book of of amazon.com, I still much enjoyed this book and I do recommend this book to anyone. I hope in the near future to buy of Poppy Brite's novel to add to my collections.
Rating:
Summary: Crow, Poe & Brite: Quite a combo
Review: I must admit before you read this that I have been a HUGE Poppy Brite fan since reading "Lost Souls". I was, however, not really familiar "The Crow" beyond the limited notion that it came - I believe - from a comic book format; that Brandon Lee was killed during the making of a mediocre movie; and that a sequel was made with Vincent Perez. I was NOT aware that there was a series of books until I read an interview with PZB in which she stated she was writing a "Crow" book. In that interview, she JOKINGLY said that she was writing it cause - paraphrasing - they were paying her a boat load of money. That made me apprehensive about its quality. That apprehension was unwarranted. Brite has created in this book another boat load of memorable characters who find themselves at the mercy of their circumstances. What Brite manages to do in her novels (and in this one as well) is create people who - even though they may be very different from the reader - resonate love, desire, pain, dreams, and fears with which anyone can empathize. Her protagonists, while dark and flawed, are all - at heart - wonderful examples of literary Innocents. And her "villians" are terrifying because you know that they are not that far removed from the reality of the world. What I appreciate greatly about this book (and PZB's others) is that she does not spoon feed us as to why the "bad guys" have done what they've done. She gives us enough "explination" that we walk away satisfied AND permitted to extrapolate the motivations for ourselves. Brite also does not feel it necessary to give us a happy ending. Refreshing. All this is all wrapped up in a dark, scary, inviting and seductive package created by her understanding of the human condition. We are all different, Brite knows, but not that different. So, will "The Crow: Lazarus Heart" make me run out and buy every "Crow" book on the market? Nope. It simply will make me wait with great anticipation! for Poppy Brite's next work of fiction...one which I hope comes quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Poppy Z. Brite is an excellent writer
Review: I really enjoy reading all of the books in this series. I have only just started collecting this particular series. I'm not sure that it's actually a series, per se, as all the books are written by different authors. I am a die hard Crow fan. I have the first movie, starring Brandon Lee, which was the best and is the orginal cult classic that everything has been based on since it was made. The movie itself was based on J O'Barr's The Crow. This book and the others in this "series" (I will call it a series for lack of a better term) are a must have for Crow fans. The other books to look for in this series are: Quoth the Crow
Temple of Night
Clash by Night (this one is out of print...I bought one used in EXCELLENT condition [...here])
Wicked Prayer Poppy Z. Brite is an excellent writer. I own several books that she has either written or edited and she is wonderful. She brings such vivid images to mind while you are reading that you feel like you are part of the scene taking place.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely not Poppy's best work
Review: I'm not too familiar with The Crow. I had seen the first movie a few years back but I didn't really remember much about it other than thinking that it was ok. Being the huge Poppy Z. Brite fan that I am I, of course, had to read this book. I was a bit disappointed by it though. Poppy's writing style is as wonderfully descriptive as ever but the plot was very inconsistent. I felt that the main character, Jared, wasn't given nearly enough character development needed to make me care about him. I would have loved to hear more about his past with the twins. Another character, Frank, had great character development but he barely figured into the rest of the book. The killer could have used more character development as well. If we had learned more about what drives him, like with Jay and Andrew in Poppy's previous novel Exquisite Corpse, it would have made the main plot a lot more interesting. All in all, I found the main plot of the book to be pretty dull but a few of the back stories made this book wort reading. My favorite part was the chapter when we were introduced to Frank. I found the events that happened with him and his ex partner to be particularly memorable. I was really disappointed that he wasn't in the book more. I also enjoyed the back story of the twins. That would have made a terrific short story. I'd recommend this book to hardcore fans of Poppy and/or The Crow but if you are looking to get into Poppy's writing, I suggest you start with Lost Souls, Drawing Blood, or one of her short story collections if you are a fan of short stories.
Rating:
Summary: Poppy Z brite is brilliant
Review: The Crow was originally an incredible story that Poppy Z Brite not only writes with the same intensity and anger as the original but adds a more current theme. Hatred for gay men. Not only does this bring a different edge to the story but makes the triumphs of the crow character that much more thrilling. The gore is a little too much it takes a little bit away from the love story. You can almost feel the love between the main character and the dead lover. It's a beautiful story of love torn apart by hate and the revenge that follows.
Rating:
Summary: Not Poppy's Best
Review: This is kind of cheesy. Parts of it are down right silly. This is the first of Miss Brite's work I read. (my mom brought it home for me when I was home sick..she's regretted it ever since) It's ok, it's an interested take of the whole Crow thing, (maybe I don't care for this because the subject's been overdone to death?)and I like her writing style. Her latter work is better though. (Exquisite Corpse, etc)
Rating: 
Summary: No stars, please
Review: What a godawful book. Probably written during Poppy's lowest phase, this book takes all that was beautiful and terrifying about The Crow and turns it into a pointless gorefest. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for a person to come back from the dead, there must have been a tremendous, horrible wrong in the world that needs to be righted. Now, what happened to out protagonist was tragic, indeed. However, he came back and began mindlessly killing people with little rhyme or reason. His sister-in-law figures out what he is, and, in a bizarre and highly unlikely twist, kills herself so that she, too, can come back. The Afterlife, apparently, has a revolving door. Our "villain," here, is not in any way scary...more like "pathetic and wierd." Thank GOD Poppy's serial killers were better developed in the brilliant Exquisite Corpse. I had a vague annoying nag in the back of my head while reading this, thinking, "Why doesn't someone just hit him over the head with a chair or something?" He was irritating. He didn't know that what he was doing was really, per se, wrong, which takes out a large degree of the "scary, evil man against the Moral Right," which the Crow series is really, when you get down to it, based on. There is one well-developed character in here: the police detective, hiding his sexuality to avoid flak from his coworkers. And yet, he dies pointlessly, and I was left wondering why he was in the book at all. He contributed nothing to the plot, and seemed like nothing more than filler. To anyone out there who wants to read a good Poppy book, I would have to recommend Exquisite Corpse or Drawing Blood. Poppy is one of the few writers whose (very exprensive limited edition) books (and chapbooks) I buy without hesitation. But this...this is a mess.
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