Paradise Lost

By Kate Brian, Julian Peploe and Andrea C. Uva

Paradise awaits....

Now that Cheyenne's murderer has been revealed and Reed knows the truth about who's been stalking her, she's ready to leave the heartache and turmoil of last semester behind. And what better way to recover than a five-star Caribbean vacation?

Reed is reunited with former Billings Girls Kiran and Taylor, and she and her friends take over the exclusive island. They spend their days tanning on white-sand beaches and their nights partying on sixty-foot yachts.

It's heaven on earth.

But as they raise their champagne flutes to toast their friendship, Reed worries that it's all too good to be true. Because even in paradise, the Billings Girls are never far from trouble -- and nothing's more dangerous than the calm before the storm....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Release date: Feb 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9781439156667

Kate Brian

Kate Brian is the author of the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Private series and its spin-off series Privilege. She has also written many other books for teens including Sweet 16 and Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys.

Book preview

REALITY

Not happening. This was not happening.

I walked down the hall of the ICU at Edward Billings Memorial Hospital, trying to look as if I belonged there. Holding my coat closed tightly over my now ridiculous-seeming gold minidress and trying to make the nurses and doctors believe I knew where I was going. But I didn’t. I didn’t know where I was going, or where I was, or how I’d gotten there. I had never navigated these sterile halls, never had to visit this cold, ominous place with its grim-faced orderlies and somber lighting. The one thing I knew was that this could not be happening.

In my mind’s eye, all I could see was the blood. I had woken up on the floor of the solarium in Mitchell Hall, the back of my head throbbing with pain. Noelle had been hosting a preparty there for Kiran Hayes’s birthday fête in Boston, and I had gone to confront Sabine DuLac about her relationship with Ariana Osgood. She had pulled a gun on me, I had blacked out, and when I’d come to, I had seen Josh’s prone body, his face pressed into the hardwood floor. And blood. Blood everywhere. The scream that had escaped my throat had sounded otherworldly, like something out of a science fiction film. Like nothing that could have come from my own throat. That was when Sabine had realized the bullet had missed me. Even though the gun was gone, even though Trey Prescott and Gage Coolidge were holding her back, she had made one final lunge, intent on strangling me or clawing my hair out—hurting me in whatever way possible. I had thrown myself backward in fear and had bumped into something hard. A second body. Dark hair had been splayed everywhere, arms bent at unnatural angles. Another scream, and after that, everything had become a blur.

The shouting as the police had hauled off Sabine. The Pemberly girl who, splattered with blood, had fainted dead away. The flashing lights of the ambulance. The EMTs shouting for us to stay back as they’d sorted out who was hit and who was unconscious and who might be . . . dead.

Now an orderly shoved a meal cart out of a room and right into my path. I was so startled that my hand flew to my heart. My knees felt like they could collapse at any second. I pressed my other palm against the wall to steady myself, my fingers landing just above a gold plate with a room number printed on it: 4005. Which meant that the next room was 4007. The room I was looking for. The room I dreaded.

Deep breath, Reed. You can do this. You have to do this.

I closed my eyes for a moment. This wasn’t about me. Yes, Sabine had tried to kill me. Yes, the person who, all semester long, I had thought was my best friend had turned out to be a raving homicidal lunatic stalker. Yes, I had spent months living in the same room with a girl who had then tortured me and drugged me and sent out a lewd video of me to the entire Easton Academy community. That was all about me. And I could deal with all of that later.

But right now. This. This was not about me.

I took that deep breath and stepped tentatively into room 4007.

Josh’s eyes instantly met mine, whisking the breath right out of me. I was aware of the machines—the beeping of the heart monitor, the strange twitching lines on the screen, the dripping IV. But for a moment, just one moment, all I could see were those eyes. The relief, the anguish, the longing, the fear. Everything I felt was right there in his eyes. He knew. He understood. But then he broke eye contact, and I dropped back to reality.

Reality, where Ivy Slade lay on a hospital bed, unconscious and pale, her eyelids appearing purple under the fluorescent lights. Tubes and wires and sensors were stuck to her temples and wrists, and her black hair was shoved back from her face in a haphazard, unparted way that she would have loathed if she could have seen it. The white hospital sheets were tightly tucked in all around her, giving her the look of a half-wrapped mummy. Only her arms were free, and Josh was holding her hand. Her delicate, seemingly lifeless hand. My throat went completely dry.

Why hadn’t she stayed outside like the police had told her to do? Why had she run back into the solarium? In all the panic, I hadn’t even realized that she had come up behind me. She didn’t have to be there. Didn’t have to come with me to confront Sabine. I had even told her not to come along, but she obviously was worried about me in my one-track state of mind. That track being the express train to confrontation with a homicidal maniac.

It was my fault that she was here. All my fault.

Is she going to be okay? I whispered.

Please say yes. Please, please say yes. I wasn’t sure I could handle another death. Another funeral. Another good-bye. I wasn’t sure if any of us could handle it.

They think so, Josh replied. He looked hopefully over at her. The bullet went through her upper shoulder and just missed her lung. If it had been half an inch lower . . . She lost a lot of blood, though, which is why she’s unconscious right now. But yeah, they expect her to make a full recovery.

My eyes misted over as a crushing weight was lifted from my shoulders. She was going to be okay. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Ivy and I had just started to become friends. If it weren’t for her, I may have never figured out that it was Sabine who was after me. That Sabine was the person who had killed Cheyenne Martin and had tried to make me believe it was my fault.

If it weren’t for Ivy, I might have gone to Kiran’s party with Sabine and ended up shot dead in an alley in Boston somewhere. Who knew what the details of the girl’s plan had been? It seemed that, as long as it had ended with me dead, Sabine would have deemed it a success.

Josh placed Ivy’s hand on the bed next to her hip and slowly got up to usher me out the door. As we left the room, I turned to him, prepared to be a good friend—a supportive friend and nothing more. To ask the right questions. The questions that Noelle Lange and Rose Sakowitz and all the other people down in the waiting room wanted me to ask. But before I could even open my mouth, I was in his arms.

I thought she was going to kill you, he said breathlessly.

Surprised tears jumped to my eyes. I savored the familiar strength of his arms, the crisp scent of his shampoo. I clung to him, gripping the smooth fabric of his oxford shirt like it was a life vest and I was about to go under.

I can’t believe what you did, I said as a tear spilled down my cheek. Lunging for the gun like that . . . I forced myself to pull back so I could look into his eyes. When you hit the floor, I thought you were dead.

Josh placed his hands on either side of my face and looked at me as if he was trying to reassure himself that I was actually there. I didn’t even think. You were frozen, and there was a gun pointing at you, and I . . . I didn’t even think. It was either throw you down or go for the gun, and I guess I was closer to the gun, so . . . I just did it.

You saved my life, I said, a sob choking my throat.

He moved his hands to cup my shoulders and touched his forehead to mine, blowing out a sigh. You’re okay. You’re okay, he said. Thank God you’re okay.

Just like that, my heart filled with bubbles of joy. Josh still loved me. He loved me so much that he couldn’t stop touching me. He loved me so much he had put himself in harm’s way to save me. Josh loved me. I felt so high, I could have floated right out the hospital window.

But then, reality. Like a lasso around my ankle, reality once again slammed me back down to the ground. Because Josh’s attempt to save my life had resulted in Ivy’s current state. He had knocked the gun just as it had gone off. Knocked it so that the bullet had passed me by . . . and had hit Ivy right in the chest.

In trying to save me, his ex-girlfriend, Josh had put his current girlfriend in the hospital.

We both looked over at Ivy’s room. I knew that Josh was thinking exactly what I was thinking, that Ivy didn’t deserve this. He let his hands slip from my shoulders, and he stepped away. Suddenly, I was freezing. For the first time, I noticed the bloodstains on the front of his shirt. On his hands. Under his fingernails. Ivy’s blood. It was everywhere.

What happened to Sabine? he asked flatly, as we started walking back to the waiting room.

They arrested her, I told him. Pretty much everyone heard her confess, so . . .

I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this is happening.

Josh pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. I knew the feeling. It was all so overwhelming that it was hard to decide which part to try to sort out first. Cheyenne’s pointless murder, Ivy’s pointless injury, or the fact that Sabine was Ariana’s sister and, apparently, had come to Easton for the sole purpose of torturing me. How were we supposed to deal with that?

And then, of course, there was the issue of us. The us that now included three: me, Josh, and Ivy.

So . . . now we just . . . , I trailed off. I knew Josh well enough to know that he always did the right thing. And the right thing at this moment did not include me.

We turned the corner and stopped down the hall from the waiting room. Josh leaned against the cinderblock wall. He looked miserable. Tired and gaunt and haunted. He raised his hands to his face again, making a little tent around his nose and mouth. For a moment, neither of us breathed. Then he dropped his hands, as if resolved, and looked at me. The emotion was gone. In its place was an expressionless wall.

I have to stay with Ivy, he said firmly. I have to know she’s okay. She’s going to need . . . someone.

My heart contracted painfully, and I allowed myself one moment of selfishness. One. But what about me? I thought. And then I let it go. Because he was right. Ivy needed him more than I did. Yes, I had been through a lot this semester. We both had. Cheyenne’s murder, our breakup, my falling-out with Noelle, and the constant feeling that someone was stalking me. All the heartache and paranoia had been because of Sabine. It had all been part of her little torture Reed for hurting Ariana plan.

I wished that Josh and I could have talked through all of this right then. That we could have sat together and figured out what it all meant. But at that moment, it all meant nothing. Because he cared for Ivy and, as much pain as I was in, Ivy needed him more.

I glanced over my shoulder toward the waiting room. I saw Noelle hovering, watching me expectantly. We hadn’t even had a conversation yet. Hadn’t cleared the air after our massive breakup and her kicking me out of Billings. But she had made a peace offering—she’d invited me to the party tonight—and after everything we’d been through in the past few hours, I knew that things were going to go back to normal between us. At least I hoped they were. She was all I had now.

I guess I should go tell them what’s going on, I said slowly.

The last thing I wanted to do was leave him, but I had to. Standing in front of Josh and not being able to touch him was going to kill me.

Okay, he replied, his eyes wet.

Okay, I repeated, somehow getting the word past the lump in my throat.

I turned and started down the hall, my footsteps heavy. A few doors down, I paused and looked over my shoulder. He was still standing there, watching me. Watching me walk away from him. Keep me posted, okay? On how she’s doing.

I promise.

So there it was. Good-bye. I was going to be strong. I was not going to pine and whine and wish. I was going to be good. For me, for Josh, and for Ivy. That was my promise to myself.

THE CRAZIES

Sunday morning, the sky was the perfect shade of gray. The kind that wouldn’t bring the joy of snow, but would hang around all day, reminding everyone to be cold, down, depressed.

It was freezing inside the chapel. We all pulled our coats tighter as we stepped through the arched doorway and under the vaulted ceiling. The atmosphere was hushed. Whispers skittered along the cold stone floor and up the walls. We may as well have been attending a funeral in the austere old church. The girls of Pemberly gathered in their pews, hugging one another and resting their heads on each other’s shoulders. Gage trudged in, head down, hands in the pockets of his heather gray coat. That was when I knew for sure that he was seriously depressed—the boy never wore outerwear. Thought he was too cool for bundling. But today his head was clearly somewhere else—room 4007.

Students, let’s all take our seats, Headmaster Cromwell said, stepping up to the podium.

I glanced at Diana Waters, my friend from Pemberly. Cromwell had never greeted us so informally before. As we sat down next to each other, I noticed that even his appearance had changed. He wore a burgundy wool sweater under his suit jacket and no tie. No American flag tie tack. It was Casual Crom.

Freaky, Diana whispered as everyone settled in around us.

No doubt, I replied.

I’ll make this short, Headmaster Cromwell began, his pale hands gripping either side of the podium. First, as of today, I will be relinquishing my post as headmaster of Easton Academy.

Surprised murmurs filled the room.

No more Crom? Lorna Gross said from the pew behind mine. She actually sounded upset. I, however, felt a huge sense of relief, though it was tinged by irritation. I detested the Crom. He had put us all through the wringer this semester. But that also was part of the reason I was irritated. All those hoops I had jumped through for him . . . and now, next semester, there was going to be some new headmaster to suck up to.

Cromwell held up a hand to silence the crowd. But I do have a few announcements to make before I go, he said. First, due to the events of last night, the school will be breaking early for the holiday. Which means you are all excused from your finals.

This announcement was met with stunned silence. I was sure that a few of my classmates wanted to celebrate—I could practically feel the strain as they held back whoops of joy like a hundred overfilled helium balloons—but no one uttered a sound. Considering that Ivy was in the hospital, that yet another of our classmates had turned out to be a murderer, celebrating just didn’t seem appropriate.

The Board of Directors has discussed the situation, and we all believe that it would be best for you students to take this time to be with your families while the Board discusses how we might better ensure the security of the student body.

He sounds like he’s issuing a statement to the press, Diana whispered, tucking her hands under her arms.

He’s practicing, Missy Thurber said, leaning in from behind us. Did you see the vultures parked outside the gates this morning? The press smells blood in the water, and they’re about to chow down.

You’re mixing your metaphors again, Missy, I scolded through my teeth. When I glanced over my shoulder, I found myself staring into those yawning nostrils of hers. Ick.

Whatever. I wouldn’t be surprised if they shut down this place, Missy replied, sitting back again. "Parents have been calling all night. People are freaked out. I’m freaked out. I mean, I lived down the hall from the girl."

Yeah, and I’m the one who had a gun pointed at her head last night. Boo-freaking-hoo, Nostril Girl.

Thank you for your time and attention, Mr. Cromwell said awkwardly. You’re all dismissed.

The room filled with chatter and exhausted-yet-exhilarated students jammed the aisles. I found Noelle as quickly as I could. She was on her way out the door with Amberly Carmichael and Tiffany Goulbourne, her long black coat contrasting sharply with Tiff’s pristine white jacket. Amberly wore a light-blue coat with white gloves

Reviews for Paradise Lost

[scoutlee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s winter break and Reed, her friends and their families head to St. Barths to spend the holidays. The students are still in shock after the latest tragic events on Easton’s campus. Reed agrees to the trip as an attempt to move forward. While vacationing, she meets Upton, despite feeling reluctant about dating again, she soon finds herself falling for him. Once again, Reed finds herself surrounded by drama, jealousy and mystery.Although I thought Paradise Lost was a quick read, it wasn’t a favorite from the series. I did like that the story took place away from Easton, however I found myself quickly frustrated with how the other girls treated Reed. Reed considers Noelle to be her BFF, however since the start of this series, I’ve questioned the sincerity of their friendship. I would like Reed to develop an identity apart from the Billings Girls and not think she has to run to Noelle for everything.Like the previous books, Paradise Lost ends with a cliff hanger. What happens next? To be continued in Suspicion, book 10, to be released in September.

[karensaville · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Same characters as always featuring Reed Brennan as more unbelievable things happen to her. This time set away from the usual school academy and on a Carribean island for the Christmas holidays. A quick and easy read, annoyingly addictive but good fun. Most of the characters are totally unlikeable, I hope that people like this don't exist in real life

[kariannalysis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We finally know who killed Cheyenne Martin and it’s time to get a little R&R. So instead of going home for Christmas, where Noelle points out Reed will be mobbed by the media, they all are going Carribean. This is a Christmas tradition for Noelle and the gang, but Reed isn’t sure what to expect.We see a lot of old faces on the island including Kiran and Taylor, Amberly and Tiffany. We also meet new, gorgeous ones including the Ryan twins, Sawyer, Poppy and the most beautiful man alive, Upton. Of course she does great with Kiran, Taylor and Noelle, but since she’s got the lead in the Upton Game, Poppy and her posse aren’t really fans.And then the strange stuff starts to happen. Poppy disappears, Reed has two almost death experiences and someone is lurking in the shadows.The beauty of the vacation spot in this book makes my mouth water. These are the kinds of places you see in your dreams and these girls are living it (well, through Kate’s writing). The weather is warming up here and I would love to be relaxed on a beach. I wouldn’t even need the designer gowns or Casino night.While this book had the drama built into it, it didn’t leave me hanging as the last book did. I know they will still be on the island in the next one, but I don’t really know what to expect. My guess is that Reed ends up with Sawyer, just a hunch.Now, I still have a hard time believing these girls are in high school. It still amazes me the things they know, see and do. I know that people with this much money do have the opportunity to live like this, we’ve all seen the reality shows, but I have a hard time fathoming going to St. Barth’s at Christmas my junior year in high school.I give Paradise Lost 4 bookmarks.

[kbpup903 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reed Brennan is a magnet for trouble. It seems that everywhere she goes murder and mayhem follow. After the revelation at Kiran's pre-birthday bash, the Billings girls decide that maybe they should leave Easton a little early for their holiday plans.The Billings girls, along with Gage, Dash, and a few others head to St.Barth's for Christmas break. Reed is the only newcomer to the islands so the girls decide to introduce her to their favorite pastime,the Upton Game. Upton Giles is labeled the hottest man on the islands and the object of the game is to be the first girl to hook up with him. Reed decides that she is going to change her ways and forget about her past. She vows that she will stay out of the Upton Game and make her own fun, at least until she actually meets Upton.Little does she know, Upton is somebody else's boyfriend or at least she thinks he is. Poppy Simon is not happy about Reed interfering with her plans and she makes it known. Loyalties are tested and friendships are broken all over one guy.Also, Reed starts feeling a little paranoid. Everywhere she goes she seems to have some near death experience. And she doesn't think they are accidents. Reed can't help but feel like someone is following her and that whoever it is plans on taking Reed out of the Upton Game...for good.I was actually a little bit disappointed at the end of this book. I love all the Privates books but it seems like Kate Brian is running out of ideas. The ending is definitely another cliff-hanger, though. I may have been disappointed but I still can't wait for S

[antao-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Milton wrote a great poem but it's also a byproduct of its day - 1667 - and he views events and characters very much through the male gaze; as do all organized religions and which the poem references. Thus, the apple on the tree of knowledge was (imo) something a religious-minded white Portuguese male would regard as sinful. As it stands, the sin no longer applies. It is 2005, eating the apple amounts to doing just that; eating an apple. Unless you have the apple representing something else, i.e., update the sin attached to it. What if it the apple was meant to test the consequence of giving Adam and Eve free will? See what they'd do with it? It's almost as if Satan was allowed to escape hell because it was part of God's bigger plan. Of course - so that man could LOVE God of his own free will. Even the simple act of eating does of course symbolise our interactivity, our symbiosis, with nature - that in itself bears a responsibility. So, the apple was an interface in a way between mankind abnegating responsibility to God's will and being participatory in it instead. That's Evolution! Moral certainty of sin/grace evolved too - quite rightly into today's concept of contingency and context.In my book Milton is the main man, the Yeats of his day, but with a much less comedic outcome and overall strike rate of gags. Cromwell’s PR man and a life spiralling out of control, the linguistic mouthpiece for himself first and discovered deeper than anyone sane person would hope to emulate or seriously hope to outlive as a narrative of reality the fates allotted exquisitely and which has long been understood in the brythonic tradition, that each life is unique and a poem in itself. Milton went blind, the cruelest fate but one which propelled him to the highest ridge of poetic attainment, forged in the turbulent bloodletting in which his first robust roar for himself first as the poet of a revolution; like Mayakovsky, fate put him in a certain space and time and he surrendered to the powerful spiritual combination of his intellect and passion, and it is befitting, though entirely tragic, that the first seriously poetic cornerstone figure whose gravitas came from the real life antics his person was part and often a central linguistic force affecting not to mirror as the Luna light of William Shakespeare did in far less personally turbulent times when he struck the primary metrical coinage of modern English bardic lore; but acting as the show and pazzaz, the me, me, me of being needy, very clever, broke the mould and everyone since conspires to make the best of a poor do with this chap, who let's face it, we read far less of than beyond a few verses before switching off, knowing we are being offered caviar, but preferring instead the real staple of British poetic. Rustics we are, as well as morons clotted whimsies, we indulge in because intellectually, we are all “me arse”, and as Graves said, admitting Milton is the British genius, should not blind us to the basic error which is the very grain, grease and premise of poetry, the binary opposite set of circumstance and premise which create the journey and object of linguistic artifice we call poetry.And Milton discovered it at a terrible cost of a new national poetic born in less than charitable times, a most intellectually fascinating, but less natural than Shakespeare; he’s a great source of refuge for the fire and brimstone mobs; one can imagine his frenzies fed to direct action, like Cromwell, possessed by a warp spasm of uncontrollable madness when the Muse was in full flight, inventing the terrors only too, too real, and so Milton is extremely strong proof, best for whipping one's rabble into shape with him and Cromwell, two very divisive national martyrs who have a high regard domestically but globally are seen as fundamentally flawed perhaps; life's too short for taking on Milton in one mad binge, and really one needs next to none of him, as he cannot be cooked up to offer us anything other than mad loathing and foaming, a terrible wisdom bought at horrific cost, and after him the artificial decorum of the new bores in the coffee shops which exploded in 18th Century London, where Horribles got together and bitched, the blind leading the suicidal bad vibe, which I think it is fair to say, is essentially, supremely competitive.Please adopt me as your protégé Milton; I want to carry the rumens' flame to the next generation of young poets seeking to set out into the treacherous straits of amateur verse, just how to set about switching over to be a pro, to attain that gravitas only our most ennobling examples of savvy exotica we concoct in the thoroughly unpleasant and incredibly jealous septic tank heritage Milton and various other chaps had no fun inventing.NB: My wife and I once saw a dramatisation of “Paradise Lost”. In the first, before the Fall scenes, Adam and Eve were completely naked in the Garden of Eden and, no doubt as a result of their cuddling, Adam soon got rather a splendid but no doubt unwanted, erection. This distraction was, as I pointed out to my wife, sadly appropriate since the early Christian church maintained that before the Fall, Adam was able to control his penis at will. This postlapsarian actor, of course, could not.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The parts I understood were lovely, lol.

[cyderry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but this telling of the creation and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise was entertaining even though the writing was a bit different from what I am used to.I found it amusing that according to Milton Sin and Death were the offspring of Satan and that Chaos' consort is Night with Confusion and Discord along for the ride.The manner of using words as names for creatures was very inventive.Rarely, do I like Classics this old, but this one worked f or me.

[erinjamieson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Books 3, 9-12 are brilliant. This book challenged me and helped me gain maturity as a reader. Even if I read it six more times there would be still so much I wouldn't understand. John Milton (with help from the Holy Spirit) writes an epic poem that stands with the great epic poems of history. This epic poem takes you through the fall of the angels, the fall of man and God's great plan to rescue humanity through the voluntary sacrifice of His Son. This poem does well to illustrate that God is good. His plans are good. Humans turned from God toward Sin. We are depraved and in need of Jesus. I would like to read Paradise Regained some day.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Formidabel kosmisch epos, met vooral in de eerste helft grote scheppende kracht, maar daarna ?verworden? tot een uitgebreide navertelling van Genesis. Nochtans zijn de delen over het scheppingverhaal en de menselijke zondeval (vooral de interactie tussen Adam en Eva is meest po?tisch). Weinig actie, behalve in de strijdtaferelen, de tweede helft is vooral verhalend

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Formidabel kosmisch epos, met vooral in de eerste helft grote scheppende kracht, maar daarna “verworden” tot een uitgebreide navertelling van Genesis. Nochtans zijn de delen over het scheppingverhaal en de menselijke zondeval (vooral de interactie tussen Adam en Eva is meest poëtisch). Weinig actie, behalve in de strijdtaferelen, de tweede helft is vooral verhalend

[Leslie Duke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

omg that ending got me like ah I so need to read the next book asap

[calavari · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Okay, I only read part of it, and it was for college. It was incredibly well written and entertaining. My only issue is the complete lack of biblical credibility. It's LOOSELY based on the three little chapters that it covers in the Bible and takes A LOT of artistic license. In doing so, it tells a few outright lies.

I take comfort in that I doubt anyone takes their biblical knowledge from it.

[jguidry-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I read this in college and really enjoyed it. But, I think that was because I had a wonderful professor who loved Milton and her energy was infectious. Reading it now, I found it very misogynistic. The poetry was beautiful and I enjoyed the metaphors, but I couldn't take Milton's contempt against women very easily. Oh well, I guess I won't be continuing on with Paradise Regained.

[engpunk77 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had dreaded taking a class on this but ended up absolutely loving the text. I didn't like my professor and his ideas so much, but found that the text stands on its own as excellent literature, which is something I can't say for Shakespeare.

[jwarbler-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I never would have picked this up on my own, but reading it for class gave me a real appreciation for all the effort Milton put in to composing this piece. It was fun to try to reconcile my own beliefs with what Milton puts forth as the narrative of the Fall(s), and after a while, I think I actually enjoyed reading it. Maybe. Or I just got used to it, at least.

[sammii507 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We had read selections of this book in my AP Lit class in high school, but as always, selections don't tell the whole story. I love reading religious literature, and this being one of the most famous epic poems in that genre, I quite enjoyed it. As an interesting aside, I did, however, find Lucifer/Satan to be far more sympathetic than he comes across in the Bible. I don't know if this was intentional on Milton's part, or simply something that was a result of describing his motivations.

[nadinec.keels · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Quite a read for a poet! My first journey with an epic poem in its entirety, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Too many lines of good verses to name--phrases that inspired me for their deft command of language--and a great amount of passages that left me feeling triumphant. One of the simplest lines I liked the most, spoken to the Son: "Two days are therefore pass'd, the third is thine"; and a favorite passage, sung to the Creator: "Who seeks To lessen thee, against his purpose serves To manifest the more thy might: his evil Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more good."I was impressed with what creativity the characters' experiences and emotions were developed. Story-wise, my favorite character is the Son, the unmatched warrior amid all the hosts of heaven who compassionately serves as intercessor for fallen humankind. This classic presents a challenge to me, both as a poet and as a novelist.

[sealford_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this many years ago and thought that it was actually a very fascinating read compared to other literature of its day. I loved the style and language in which it was written, and I think that makes me enjoy it all the more. I am sure that I will read it again very soon.

[anniik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We had read selections of this book in my AP Lit class in high school, but as always, selections don't tell the whole story. I love reading religious literature, and this being one of the most famous epic poems in that genre, I quite enjoyed it. As an interesting aside, I did, however, find Lucifer/Satan to be far more sympathetic than he comes across in the Bible. I don't know if this was intentional on Milton's part, or simply something that was a result of describing his motivations.

[srboone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This epic poem is stunning; a magnificent read all the way. I loved it.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I expected to have more trouble reading Milton's Paradise Lost than I actually did, mostly because it's written in blank verse. As a matter of fact, that didn't matter much. It flows wonderfully and it's great to read aloud. The rhythms and the way the words were strung together were just lovely -- my synaesthesia just pretty much regarded it as a feast! I also enjoyed the classical sort of structure, which reminded me of the Aeneid.

I didn't so much enjoy the characterisation of Eve or the angels, and it doesn't fit with my view of Christianity, but that didn't keep from enjoying reading it.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A grand sprawling epic. I can't possibly say anything good about it that has not already been repeated.

I am fortunate enough to have a brand new edition with lots of annotations and references. Layers upon layers of allegory and myth and history and religion and fable. Deserves infinite rereadings.

[alcracka · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There's all this debate over why Satan is so appealing in Paradise Lost. Did Milton screw up? Is he being cynical, or a double-secret atheist? And why is God such a dick?

No one ever asks that about Iago, though, to whom I think Milton's Satan owes a debt. No one asks whether Shakespeare screwed up in making Iago so much fun; they just give him credit for, y'know, writing an awesome villain. And that's all Milton's doing. Satan is tempting for us because Satan is tempting for us. That's the point of Satan! If Milton didn't make him as appealing as possible, he'd be doing Satan a disservice. And Eve, for that matter.

Similarly, God's a dick because God's a dick. You've read the Old Testament. He's not exactly all flowers and hugs there either. Again, Milton's just being true to his characters, and writing a great story while he's at it.

There’s slightly more to it than that, yeah. For example: it's hinted, albeit obtusely, that God sets Satan up to fall. He gives a stern warning that anyone who disobeys him or his son will be cast out of Heaven. But since there's no sin or evil at the time of his speech, why give the warning? Isn't that like saying "Don't touch these cookies while I'm gone" to a kid who didn't realize there were cookies until you pointed them out? I get why people spend their entire careers arguing over this thing.

Here’s my advice to people considering reading Paradise Lost: read the first two books. It starts with a bang, and it’s pretty amazing for a while. It slows down a bit in books III - VII, so if you’re not totally sold in the first two books (I was), you can either quit altogether with a fair idea of what Milton sounds like, or skip to books IX and X. IX is the actual temptation and fall (especially fun if you’re a misogynist), and X is an astonishing sequence where Adam and Eve contemplate suicide:

"Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out
To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet
Mortality my sentence...
his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears." (Adam, X.774 - 780)

“We’ve totally mucked this up, and our kids are gonna justifiably hate us because we got kicked out of Paradise, and maybe we should just quit while we’re behind.”

But really, the whole thing is worth it. Took me a while – it’s intense stuff, so I found that I had to read a book and then chew on it for a while to process it before moving to the next one – but it’s cool.

In book VIII, if you’re cosmologically minded, Milton lays out the whole universe. Like Giordano Bruno, he understands that our earth is a tiny speck in the universe, and he gets that all the stars are suns like ours, and therefore could have planets like ours around them. He also thinks they might be inhabited; our species might not be God's only experiment. Elsewhere, other Adams and Eves may have faced the same test of the Tree of Knowledge - and they might have passed it. Isn't that an amazing thought?

In books XI and XII, Michael tells Adam sortof all the rest of the stories in the Old Testament, which of course boil down to:

“So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign,
Under her own weight groaning.” (XII 537 – 539)

That’s your fault there, Adam. Nice work.

He rushes through them though, and it makes me wonder whether Milton had originally intended to retell the entire Old Testament but got bored or intimidated or something. That would’ve been remarkable. Certainly Paradise Lost is better literature than the Old Testament is, and significantly more coherent.

It’s also better literature than almost everything else. It’s pretty awesome. Probably the second-best poem by a blind guy ever. I give it two thumbs up.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 This was somewhat slow going, but worth the effort to persevere with it. I had the oxford Classics verison, which phas an essay at the beginning to put the poem into context, which was helpful. it also had footnotes for references in the text to classical legends and diffiocult worrds or phrasings, which was very useful!

The text concerns the biblical acocunt of creaction and the expulsion of Adam & Eve from paradise - hence the title. Regardless of if you believe, it makes for a really good read, but takes a little effort to get into it each time. The text has a hypnotic flow and rhythm to it. Tthe language is sometimes a little obscure, but not excessively so, it isn't like every line requires serious explanation. There are also a large number of legends worked into the text, all building this into a complex mass of intertwined threads, rather than a straightforward retelling of the same story. It is also one of those works that you realise has been referenced in other books you've read - the number of times I found myself thinking "I've read something like that before" and realising that it was a reference to Milton that I'd not known at the time. It was excellent, but I'm going for something a little lighter next time!

[juliaboechat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Milton cria um diabo carismático e persuasivo, que clama: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven".

[timbears · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was very powerful. I am not the most religious person in the world, but I found the subject matter intensely interesting. The poetic beauty of Milton words captivated me throughout the course of the work. Sadly, I tried "Paradise Regained" but I did not get far into the read before I became disinterested. I guess we are fascinated more by evil than goodness. Sad. I may retry "Paradise Regained" but I fail to see how it can be as moving as "Paradise Lost."

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd be lying if I said I understood and enjoyed every word of Paradise Lost, but there's no getting around the fact that it's beautiful and terrifying and provoking. It's definitely a book that requires many rereadings.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Even though I don't hold with religious belief, that didn't stop me from adoring Dante's Divine Comedy and I've loved Homer's epic poems. Yet I can't say that Milton's Paradise Lost spoke to me. Much of the poem felt repetitive and bloated with discourses on such matters as heliocentric theory. His recapitulation of Genesis is part plagiarism, part bizarre twisting. (Among other things, according to Milton, "God the Son" who would become Jesus was really the Creator.) Unlike Dante, who never lost the human even when dealing with the divine, in Paradise Lost so much is focused on God, Satan, and their angelic allies. Only Adam and Eve are human--and the depiction of Eve gave me no end of problems. And unlike others Milton is compared to such as Homer, Dante, Chaucer and Shakespeare, if Milton has a sense of humor, I completely missed it.I did recognize passages of beauty and grandeur in Paradise Lost, but rather disconcertingly they were almost always spoken by Satan. "The Mind is its own place and itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." Ironically, according to the introduction to the edition I read, Milton was himself a rebel. He supported Cromwell's republic which executed a anointed monarch and argued against censorship in his treatise Areopagitica. It seems incongruous that in Paradise Lost he seeks to "justify the ways of God to men" by making disobedience and a desire for knowledge the root of all evil. So maybe it's not that surprising that Romantics such as Shelley and Blake would see Satan as the hero of Milton's epic. Especially since Milton's God has all the hallmarks of a despot. Milton describes God as a "sov'reign King;" the purpose of angels and humans is to praise (flatter) him, he's arbitrary, capricious and rigid in his commands, jealous of his power, willing to sacrifice others for his ends and decrees "torture without end."I found it hard not to gag at the depiction of Eve from the start who says to Adam, "God is thy law, thou mine." It's not all negative. It's through Eve that Milton depicts humans arriving at self-awareness and Milton is sex positive. He insists the unFallen Adam and Eve had sex for instance and he supports marriage. But Milton emphasizes Eve's subordination, inferiority and centrality to the human tragedy throughout. Says Adam:Of Nature her the inferior, in the mindAnd inward faculties, which most excel;In outward also her resembling lessHis image who made both, and less expressingThe character of that dominion givenO'er other creatures. God sends a warning through the Angel Raphael to Adam--not Eve--merely telling him "to warn thy weaker." Eve succumbs because of flattery and vanity. Adam disobeys God out of love, joining her in sin because he fears otherwise they'd be divided. So woman is weak in herself--man only if and when he's weakened by woman. "Sin" is also female with parallels to Eve--a grotesque demoness who is the daughter of Satan and through an incestuous union with him the mother of Death. Both Sin and Eve are in league with Satan and bring death into creation.Unlike the case with Homer, I can't blame an initial negative reaction to Milton as the result of being forced to read him in school, a lack of maturity or a bad translation. Milton wrote in English and I've read Paradise Lost only recently for the first time. However, Milton greatly influenced the Romantic poets and even how many Christians see the story of Adam and Eve and Satan. Because of that I'm glad I read the poem and do encourage others to read it. Besides the glints of beauty, many of Milton's religious views are, well, unique. The glimpse of his political views are interesting too--almost libertarian.He gave us only over Beast, Fish, FowlDominion absolute; that right we holdBy his donation; but Man over menHe made not Lord; such title to himselfReserving, human left from human free.Nevertheless, unlike Homer or Dante, I can't by any means see Paradise Lost as a favorite or a work I'd ever reread nor am I tempted to read the sequel, Paradise Regained.

[darcia_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This anthology is full of creepy goodness! Contributions from eight authors give readers a variety of writing styles, all captivating in their own way. Anthologies can sometimes be difficult to rate, since some stories and authors can be much better than others. But this one left me with no such dilemma. A great read, from start to finish.

[anagarika0sean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was fantastic, but wasn't quite as good as Dante's work. Still, one of my favorites.