On November 6th, 2024, the 9,000th article was added to the SuccuWiki!
The Succubus: A Marabell Heart Memoir
For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).
The Succubus: A Marabell Heart Memoir is a novel written by Ezri Erin. The book tells the story of Marabell Heart, also known as Bell, a Succubus born of a human mother and her life from its earliest days onwards.
Book Details
- Title: The Succubus: A Marabell Heart Memoir
- Author: Ezri Erin
- Format: Mass Market Paperback
- Pages: 346
- Publisher: CreateSpace
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1450539300
- ISBN-13: 978-1450539302
- Release Date: January 17, 2010
Book Synopsis
San Francisco, October 31, 1887, Marabell Heart is born inside a convent. Orphaned at birth, an innocent girl, she is raised up until adulthood when she expects to become a nun and live a quiet sheltered life of service to God. Suddenly she finds her entire life was a complete lie.
She is a captive of betrayal and is now pursued by damned souls and demons, both human and supernatural. However, the most dangerous demon she must confront is not one near her, but the one living within herself.
Book Review
the following review is by Tera of Succubus.net
The work is called The Succubus: A Marabell Heart Memoir and is by the author known as Ezri Erin.
This work is available at Amazon.com, and the book’s ISBN number is 978-1450539302.
The novel is 346 pages in length and is available on Amazon for $16.00 US in a large paperback format.
It also should be noted that this work is self published by Ezri herself, through the auspices of the book publishing system known as CreateSpace.
The story of Marabell or as she is more commonly referred to in this story, Mara, is told in the first person, that being told from Mara’s perspective of her life from the moment of her birth onwards.
The novel’s story is summarized on its rear cover as being a tale about:
San Francisco, October 31, 1887, Marabell Heart is born inside a convent. Orphaned at birth, an innocent girl, she is raised up until adulthood when she expects to become a nun and live a quiet sheltered life of service to God. Suddenly she finds her entire life was a complete lie.
She is a captive of betrayal and is now pursued by damned souls and demons, both human and supernatural. However, the most dangerous demon she must confront is not one near her, but the one living within herself.
The beginning of Marabell’s life is hard and, in my eyes, truly tragic. Her mother dies soon after giving Marabell her life. Her pain does not end there as she is treated with contempt by the Mother Superior of the convent she lives her early years within. That is not to say that there are not moments of love for Marabell, one important moment does come that did touch me with its innocence and love. And I think that for all of the pain that Marabell suffers as a child, it was gratefully received. Still the overriding theme of this part of her life is to suffer in various ways at the hands of Mother Superior for reasons she does not understand.
However, that love shares proves to be the downfall of Marabell at the convent, her Succubus powers come to the full and she changes form somewhat. While not having a tail and horns like a classical Succubus, she does have all of the powers of seduction, influence and so on that Succubi do have.
From that point forwards, the story tells of all of the years that pass for Marabell, the loves lost, the pain suffered, the small moments of joy that she cherishes. She discovers her past, her true family and more of her reality that while filling in the gaps she needs to know, never soothes the pains of her life.
There is an old saying that history repeats itself, and, to me, Marabell’s life does that in many ways as she passes through it. The most heart wrenching thing of it is that you can sense how hurt she is from the first words of the story to the very end.
I will say that there is one moment of resolution near the end of the story that I didn’t expect which made me cry after reading all that she had been through. But while that was thankfully received, I have to say that the ending, and where Marabell was, felt, for lack of a better word, as if she was cursed.
The story takes place in various locales around the world, mostly in Europe and the United States in various times from the 1880s through the mid to late 1918 or so. The attention to detail in describing the places, how they change over time, and making the connections with Marabell are exquisite and, to me, draw you into her world extremely well.
Ezri’s writing style of expressing the emotions of her characters is excellent and holds your attention, which is the mark of a good writer. The one thing that I didn’t like very much was the occasional character who was “evil”. On occasion their physical description was a bit over the top to me. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, but when they are doing something “evil” in nature, the actual act of it tells that, it’s not totally necessary to describe their expressions, save for when someone is looking at them.
I didn’t notice many spelling or grammar mistakes in Erzi’s writing, though one caught me at the very beginning of the story that pulled me out of the story for a moment:
…her own undoing too her wishes…
Now that was only in the preface to the story, so it really isn’t a critical thing, but hopefully that can be corrected for a future pressing of the story…
It took me a month to read this story the first time because of things that were going on with my life this past month and is not a reflection on Ezri’s writing. Having the time this past weekend to read it once more, I managed to read it in about five hours, which is about average for me when reading a book of this length that I am enjoying.
I recommend this work to readers of Succubus literature so very much. I think that it is well worth your time to read this story and see Succubi from a slightly different perspective. That one being of a Succubus that might not have horns and a tail, but does have a heart, needs love, and tries to find that in spite of the world around her.
I’m giving The Succubus: A Marabell Heart Memoir by Ezri Erin four pitchforks out of five as my review.
The only thing that I would have liked to see in the story would be that Marabell’s moments of happiness and love happening more often than they do.
I hope that Erzi will be writing more soon, I know that I will be watching for that and I will be supporting her if she does…