Reviews of
the four novellas by Rohan Quine

To see what The Platinum Raven is about, click here.
To see what The Host in the Attic is about, click here.
To see what Apricot Eyes is about, click here.
To see what Hallucination in Hong Kong is about, click here.

NYC Big Book Award 2021—The Platinum Raven and other novellas as a Distinguished Favorite.

Buy the four novellas by Rohan Quine collected in paperback format, or in ebook format individually as The Platinum Raven, The Host in the Attic, Apricot Eyes and Hallucination in Hong Kong.

 

Dan Holloway, author, poet and Guardian blogger, on the four novellas:

“Rohan Quine is one of the most brilliant and original writers around. His The Imagination Thief blended written and spoken word and visuals to create one of the most haunting and complex explorations of the dark corners of the soul you will ever read. Never one to do something simple when something more complex can build up the layers more beautifully, he is back with a collection of 4 seamlessly interwoven novellas. […] suffice to say he is the consummate master of sentencecraft. His prose is a warming sea on which to float and luxuriate. But that is only half of the picture. He has a remarkable insight into the human psyche, and he demonstrates it by lacquering layer on layer of subtle observation and nuance. Allow yourself to slip from the slick surface of the water and you will soon find yourself tangled in a very deep and disturbing world, but the dangers that lurk beneath the surface are so enticing, so intoxicating it is impossible to resist their call.”
—https://danholloway.wordpress.com

“It would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to bring people’s attention to a truly remarkable book. Rohan Quine writes right at the boundary between literary fiction and experimentalism, and his new collection of four novellas, The Platinum Raven and Other Novellas, is a genuine masterpiece. This guy is as good as [Sergio] De La Pava, and deserves to be the next self-published literary author to cross over into mainstream consciousness.”
—SPR, https://t.co/VSJZDfo5s8

“if you’re an exciting new literary writer with something truly original to say […] fortunately, there *are* some [indie] people doing that. I’d single out the Pankhearst collective for embodying a fuck the word celebration of glorious failure; Rohan Quine for an imaginative ambition and scope that brings indie values to the largest possible creative canvas; […]. Someone on that list has the possibility to create a work that is truly important. Everyone on that list is contributing to an ethos that says this is where important stuff happens. We need more of that.”
—https://jaylemming-author.com/2016/05/30/dan-holloway-a-conversation-about-writing-and-literary-fiction/

“Rohan is one of the most original voices in the literary world today—and one of the most brilliant”
—

“four stunning new novellas by one of the most exciting literary writers in the UK”
—https://bit.ly/1xQahyo

 

Jane Davis, author, on the four novellas:

Her interview with Rohan at her blog

“Rohan Quine is a master of words, his world is also accessible, and it’s a place you definitely need to visit. With echoes of Jennifer Egan’s Goon Squad, Quine captures all that is beautiful, but he doesn’t shy away from all that is ugly. What links the four novellas together is that his characters are all searching for that something beyond the everyday, beyond the ordinary, and Quine is a god, having them dole out kindness and justice. In his world, everything that is commonplace would be annihilated. This is the kind of read you have to give yourself up to. […] When you emerge on the other side with a greater understanding of what it means to be ‘that animal called human’, then that will be the time to stop and ask, ‘What just happened?’”
—https://amzn.to/3soEupW

“Rohan Quine is a poet who happens to write novellas/novels. Incredible use of language.”
—

 

“Quine’s verbal sensuality combines the alluring and the disturbing in equal measure.

From the stasis of her daily life, Raven multiplies herself upwards into two heightened versions of herself — first, a flatly glamorised “Chocolate” version, and then a transcendent “Platinum” version. Through this self-transcendence, Quine is illuminating the self-determinations that many of us make whenever we curate our own images for public consumption. As such, the apparently fairytale-like The Platinum Raven attains a mythic expression of what all our own personas and archetypes are driven by.

The Host in the Attic is a brand-new take on Wilde’s iconic story — a truly original reversioning that resonates with such elements of our contemporary world as the Dark Web, excessive mass-media saturation and unhealthy kinds of fame. I was enticed by the extreme creepiness of its interior settings and thrilled by my escalating apprehension at what new horror would greet my nerve-ends as soon as I was again pulled up that ladder and into the attic.

Throughout a nocturnal New York City, unseen charges of emotion and ambition flicker, in Apricot Eyes. Quine’s verbal sensuality combines the disturbing and the alluring in equal measure. Drawn into the danger of it, I was seduced by the dark “elfishness” of this story and its characters, who pranced their way into my New York dreamscape like mischievous guests.

In its dramatically intense focus upon monstrous possible events that never quite happen, Hallucination in Hong Kong has the kind of unsettling effect that I expect will be seen through those near-future Mixed Reality glasses that will soon be available to us. There’s a kaleidoscope quality to its shifting depictions and exhanges between romance and horror, which makes it stick in the mind long after one’s finished reading.”
—Suzi Rapport, poet, on the four novellas, https://amzn.to/3APxRSY

 

“Novelist Rohan Quine not only has several books out. He also has a career in alternative modeling and film to look back on. Naturally, he has gone on to make a series of silent short films to go with an audio track of the author reading from his work. It’s flooded with city lights, drugs and darkness. One foot in the New York Nineties, and one foot in today’s London, it’s both hypnotic and gut-churning.”
—“Books and Films—Writers Who Also Make Videos”, indieBerlin

 

“A cautionary tale of the potential corrupting power both of vanity and of the internet plays out in modern London’s high-tech dockland offices and luxury apartments, with brief forays to lavish West End hotels and country houses. […] As the story becomes ever darker, gentle touches of humour provide a little light relief. I particularly enjoyed the characterisation of the women, especially the wonderfully petulant Angel Deon […]. While at first this parable’s main purpose may seem to rage against the principles of a high tech, monopolistic, capitalist world that enable individuals to lead unspeakably privileged lives above the law, it is at the same time a cautionary tale against narcissism and the abandonment of love and compassion for others. This broader theme gives the story its true heart and depth. Quine is renowned for his rich, inventive and original prose, and he is skilled at blending contemporary and ancient icons and themes. […] an interesting approach to dialogue, blending idiom and phraseology from different eras, from Victorian times through 20th century popular film culture to the modern day. […] There are some classic moments of horror that are very filmic, including one on a par with the Psycho shower scene. Without giving too much away, I can imagine this book might put readers off accessing their own attics for a while.”
—Debbie Young, author and Amazon UK 1,000 Reviewer, writing in Vine Leaves Literary Journal, about The Host in the Attic, https://amzn.to/3mJ5Aac

 

JJ Marsh, author, on the four novellas:

Her interview with Rohan in Words with Jam magazine

“This is an extraordinary writer. I am going to gorge myself on these novellas as soon as I possibly can.”
—

 

“The Platinum Raven novellas are cerebral works full of brilliant imagery and invention. This series of novellas are all well crafted and designed to draw the reader in to the shifting realities of their settings. The title novella The Platinum Raven in fact has two young women in two narratives […] very vividly described. There are elements of magical realism and alternate reality throughout. At times the two Ravens appear to communicate but the levels of reality are enigmatic and intriguing. The Host in the Attic is a beautifully reinterpreted version of The Picture of Dorian Gray set in a high-tech dystopian world and a sinister computer global company – Mainframe Corporation, which appears to permeate every level of society. The hologram corporate image logo is in essence Dorian. All the main characters from Wilde’s novel are here in more modern form. It has a tremendous and horrific climax. The horror novella Apricot Eyes is a fast-paced horror tale in a nightmarish New York. Hallucination in Hong Kong is a mysterious tale of past and present, dreams and waking with horror and love themes. The whole collection is a roller-coaster of at times nightmarish perceptions and strange surreal happenings brilliantly imagined. The tales leave a lasting impression and I recommend highly.”
—Alexander Gordon-Wood, on the four novellas, https://amzn.to/3wQ0lKi

 

“a collection of four narratives in his distinct prose and approach. Introspective, a little mysterious, a lot disturbing, and usually violent or corrupt, Quine’s stories take readers on an experiment through their own psyche to consider the difference between what is real and what did they wish it to be.”
—IndieReader, on the four novellas, https://indiereader.com/book_review/the-platinum-raven-and-other-novellas

 

“a riveting read. The novella The Host in the Attic in particular is splendidly Wildean: in it, his novel The Imagination Thief itself drives forward the plot of The Host in the Attic. He is a veritable Imagination Thief!”
—David McLaughlin, on the four novellas, https://amzn.to/3g5ZfUH

 

The Platinum Raven excerpted in indieBerlin magazine

More of The Platinum Raven excerpted in indieBerlin magazine

Rohan interviewed at Whitefox

Michelle Elvy’s article “Creating Other Worlds”

Lichen Craig’s “Fireside” podcast interview with Rohan

CK Webb’s “WebbWeaver Books” radio interview with Rohan

 

The following are reviews of Rohan Quine’s four-novella collection published under the title Hallucinations (New York: Demon Angel Books), which was released in print in the USA only. Hallucinations included somewhat earlier versions of: this novella Apricot Eyes; this novella Hallucination in Hong Kong; and a few chapters of this novella The Platinum Raven.

“I have now been reading Hallucinations with great pleasure […] you are indeed a star.”
—Iris Murdoch, author (see scans of her letter here at the foot of this web-page)

“He has no equal, today or tomorrow.”
—James Purdy, author

“Sometimes Quine succeeds with things you wouldn’t think language could do, like describing a piece of music with an extended metaphor that reads something like watching the last half-hour of 2001.”
—Ben Cohen, New York Press

“Hallucinations at the end of this millennium is what Lautréamont’s, Huysmans’s and Wilde’s work represented at the end of the 19th century […] a sadistically svelte structure on top of explosive, primal content that refuses to behave in a linear fashion. It can only be described as literature that strains between ecstasy and bondage […] one of the chic-est, most provocative things we have read in years […] one of those seminal works that goes on to be accorded the status of a classic.”
—Wayne Sterling, New York Web
http://models.com/life_style/meta/rohan.html
http://models.com/life_style/meta/rohan2.html
http://models.com/life_style/meta/rohan3.html

“The imagery is Apocalypse Now-era Coppola meets Wes Craven, or Edward Scissorhands meets Barbarella […] or Anne Rice (as screenwriter) on an acid trip […] the lilt and cadence of prose poetry laid end-to-end, resulting in a narrative that is frequently stunning […] sublime verbal renderings of the emotions and sensations of human love.”
—Hayward Connor, Union Jack

“Most taut and clever in [Apricot Eyes]; it grips the reader and gives a provocative ride [… Hallucinations] develops ‘alternative’ characters with style and dimension, as well as challenging traditional forms of storytelling with admirable results.”
—Tom Musbach, Lambda Book Report

“This is quite an extraordinary work, distinguished both by its originality and by the strength of [its] voice.”
—Anne Hawkins, literary agent, John Hawkins & Assocs.

“There’s a reality in each sentence of Hallucination in Hong Kong that neither depends on nor is blurred by all its virtuoso fuckings of the English language.”
—Dr Michael Halls

 

Buy the four novellas by Rohan Quine collected in paperback format, or in ebook format individually as The Platinum Raven, The Host in the Attic, Apricot Eyes and Hallucination in Hong Kong.

 

Cover of ebook of The Platinum Raven

 

Cover of ebook of The Host in the Attic

 

Cover of ebook of Apricot Eyes

 

Cover of ebook of Hallucination in Hong Kong

 

Front cover of paperback The Platinum Raven and other novellas

 

Back cover of paperback The Platinum Raven and other novellas

 

Full cover of paperback The Platinum Raven and other novellas

 

Cover of audiobook of The Platinum Raven

 

Cover of audiobook of The Host in the Attic

 

Cover of audiobook of Apricot Eyes

 

Cover of audiobook of Hallucination in Hong Kong

 

Endorsement by Iris Murdoch of these novellas by Rohan Quine: “I have now been reading Hallucinations with great pleasure […] you are indeed a star.” This letter of hers refers to the four-novella collection published under the title Hallucinations (New York: Demon Angel Books), which was released in print in the USA only. Hallucinations included somewhat earlier versions of: this novella Apricot Eyes; this novella Hallucination in Hong Kong; and a few chapters of this novella The Platinum Raven.

Endorsement by Iris Murdoch of these novellas by Rohan Quine: “I have now been reading Hallucinations with great pleasure […] you are indeed a star.” This letter of hers refers to the four-novella collection published under the title Hallucinations (New York: Demon Angel Books), which was released in print in the USA only. Hallucinations included somewhat earlier versions of: this novella Apricot Eyes; this novella Hallucination in Hong Kong; and a few chapters of this novella The Platinum Raven.

 

These four novellas’ covers are also in the Google Photos album
“Rohan Quine – THE PLATINUM RAVEN AND OTHER NOVELLAS – images”.

Images of The Platinum Raven’s 31 chapter titles are in the Google Photos album
“Rohan Quine – THE PLATINUM RAVEN (novella) – chapter titles”.

Images of The Host in the Attic’s nine chapter titles are in the Google Photos album
“Rohan Quine – THE HOST IN THE ATTIC (novella) – chapter titles”.

Images of Apricot Eyes’s 11 chapter titles are in the Google Photos album
“Rohan Quine – APRICOT EYES (novella) – chapter titles”.

Images of Hallucination in Hong Kong’s three chapter titles are in the Google Photos album
“Rohan Quine – HALLUCINATION IN HONG KONG (novella) – chapter titles”.

 

Buy the four novellas by Rohan Quine collected in paperback format, or in ebook format individually as The Platinum Raven, The Host in the Attic, Apricot Eyes and Hallucination in Hong Kong.

 

Add Rohan Quine’s The Platinum Raven and other novellas paperback to Goodreads.

Add Rohan Quine’s The Platinum Raven in Mobi or ePub format to Goodreads.

Add Rohan Quine’s The Host in the Attic in Mobi or ePub format to Goodreads.

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Add Rohan Quine’s Hallucination in Hong Kong in Mobi or ePub format to Goodreads.

 
Rohan Quine, The Platinum Raven, literary fiction, magical realism, dark fantasy, cyberpunk, visionary, horror, gay, transgender, LGBTQ+, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Shard, towers, imagination, fairy tale, contemporary, The Host in the Attic, Dorian Gray, hologram, London, attic, The Imagination Thief, corridor, Docklands, Ontario Tower, Apricot Eyes, New York, worms, Bronx, subway, Hunts Point, Hallucination in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, concert, catatonia, plane flight, The Peak