OK, Fine
Subtitile: Why I think Lelia's should spend her limited reading time on more worthy books (like The Garden) than the Charlaine Harris Vamp series.
Now, I read this like 3 years ago, and I didn't finish it because I thought it sucked, so this review is probably going to be a bit lacking. My apologies.
So, it started off well enough. The main character is some flavor of psychic, in that she can hear other folks thoughts. Ok, cool. This 'talent' of her's makes her pretty skittish about being around other people, it's noise, noise, noise all the time. Strangely enough though, she's a waitress in a bar. I don't remember how the author justified this decision. She also lives with her grandmother, the only cool character in the book.
For various reasons, she rescues a vampire from blood harvesters. Vamp blood in this world has healing properties, and people trap and drain vampires and sell the blood on the black market. Vamps are legal people, but viewed with extreme predjudice. Still, basically interesting premises, and holding my attention. It turns out that the vamp is completly silent to her, she can't remotely hear his thoughts, and she finds this comforting, and the unlikely romance between the two begins. We enter dangerous territory in a vamp book as far as I'm concerned. When the author decides if this is still an horror/mystery, or if the book is going to be a supernatural romance. (bear with me, there are cetain 'formulas' of romance that I abhor, that completely turn me off of books, no matter what else is going on in them)
There is some conflict between Sookie and her family over land ownership (I think, possibly inheritance, can't remember) that leads to a very strained relationship between her and her brother(?, possibly a cousin). Basically extremely obvious murder set up stuff. This is where the details are really fuzzy, as I don't remember the timeline of the events. The grandmother is killed. The GRANDMOTHER. The only character that I liked! And quite honestly, it seemed really unecessary. It felt so much like purely a plot device to rope Sookie in the main plot of the book. There were already other murders happening. It seriously pissed me off. Of course, it looks like a vamp kill, etc., etc.
Other stuff that put me off:
We meet a group of "evil" vamps. We know they're evil because they hang out in a bar/club and wear SPANDEX. Why the hell do authors think 1) Spandex says evil?; 2) Spandex is acceptable club wear anymore?; 3) Spandex is 'fetish' wear (yeah, if you have an 80's fetish)? 4) Spandex is sexy? Apparently the undead have no taste, and that's why they're evil, inflicting spandex upon the world. I say this like I've seen this device before? Well, I have. Too many times.
This is one of those romance formulas that I was talking about earlier that will make me run screaming from a book, so I admit this is a personal taste thing:
Sookie is a virgin. Not a teen virgin. An adult virgin. Her thought hearing is so severe that she could never be intimate with anyone. OK.....kind of with you, sort of. So, she sleeps with her new vamp buddy, because he's so quiet, in one of those ridiculous romance scenes of "I'm a virgin please be gentle with me I've never been with anyone before, but you're so different" CRAP that I HATE. And this amazingly touching sex scene of Sookie losing her vriginity and finally being able to lose herself in another person LASTS FOR A PAGE AND A HALF. This incredibly important and life altering moment in Sookie's life is given a page and a half. I really don't like the "I'm a virgin and so this sex is more justified and meaningful" romance world crap. I don't find anything romantic about virginity. But the fact that the author was so disrepectful of this moment to give it only a page and a half was offensive. And before you ask, no, it wasn't and off camera sex scene. I would have been fine with an off camera sex scene. If you are not confident enough as an author to write a good sex scene (whether in just the details of it, or fearing backlash from your audience), you should move it off camera and give your characters some respect in doing so.
It was an interesting world, despite the characters. It was really too bad it lost me in the details. Unfortunatly, this is the most highly recommended other series for fans of the Anita Blake books. I don't agree with this at all.
Now, I read this like 3 years ago, and I didn't finish it because I thought it sucked, so this review is probably going to be a bit lacking. My apologies.
So, it started off well enough. The main character is some flavor of psychic, in that she can hear other folks thoughts. Ok, cool. This 'talent' of her's makes her pretty skittish about being around other people, it's noise, noise, noise all the time. Strangely enough though, she's a waitress in a bar. I don't remember how the author justified this decision. She also lives with her grandmother, the only cool character in the book.
For various reasons, she rescues a vampire from blood harvesters. Vamp blood in this world has healing properties, and people trap and drain vampires and sell the blood on the black market. Vamps are legal people, but viewed with extreme predjudice. Still, basically interesting premises, and holding my attention. It turns out that the vamp is completly silent to her, she can't remotely hear his thoughts, and she finds this comforting, and the unlikely romance between the two begins. We enter dangerous territory in a vamp book as far as I'm concerned. When the author decides if this is still an horror/mystery, or if the book is going to be a supernatural romance. (bear with me, there are cetain 'formulas' of romance that I abhor, that completely turn me off of books, no matter what else is going on in them)
There is some conflict between Sookie and her family over land ownership (I think, possibly inheritance, can't remember) that leads to a very strained relationship between her and her brother(?, possibly a cousin). Basically extremely obvious murder set up stuff. This is where the details are really fuzzy, as I don't remember the timeline of the events. The grandmother is killed. The GRANDMOTHER. The only character that I liked! And quite honestly, it seemed really unecessary. It felt so much like purely a plot device to rope Sookie in the main plot of the book. There were already other murders happening. It seriously pissed me off. Of course, it looks like a vamp kill, etc., etc.
Other stuff that put me off:
We meet a group of "evil" vamps. We know they're evil because they hang out in a bar/club and wear SPANDEX. Why the hell do authors think 1) Spandex says evil?; 2) Spandex is acceptable club wear anymore?; 3) Spandex is 'fetish' wear (yeah, if you have an 80's fetish)? 4) Spandex is sexy? Apparently the undead have no taste, and that's why they're evil, inflicting spandex upon the world. I say this like I've seen this device before? Well, I have. Too many times.
This is one of those romance formulas that I was talking about earlier that will make me run screaming from a book, so I admit this is a personal taste thing:
Sookie is a virgin. Not a teen virgin. An adult virgin. Her thought hearing is so severe that she could never be intimate with anyone. OK.....kind of with you, sort of. So, she sleeps with her new vamp buddy, because he's so quiet, in one of those ridiculous romance scenes of "I'm a virgin please be gentle with me I've never been with anyone before, but you're so different" CRAP that I HATE. And this amazingly touching sex scene of Sookie losing her vriginity and finally being able to lose herself in another person LASTS FOR A PAGE AND A HALF. This incredibly important and life altering moment in Sookie's life is given a page and a half. I really don't like the "I'm a virgin and so this sex is more justified and meaningful" romance world crap. I don't find anything romantic about virginity. But the fact that the author was so disrepectful of this moment to give it only a page and a half was offensive. And before you ask, no, it wasn't and off camera sex scene. I would have been fine with an off camera sex scene. If you are not confident enough as an author to write a good sex scene (whether in just the details of it, or fearing backlash from your audience), you should move it off camera and give your characters some respect in doing so.
It was an interesting world, despite the characters. It was really too bad it lost me in the details. Unfortunatly, this is the most highly recommended other series for fans of the Anita Blake books. I don't agree with this at all.
posted by Chrissy at 11/16/2005 01:19:00 PM
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