A friend gave me this book for my birthday, and it is pitched as a 'mesmerizing SF horror romance'. In the beginning, I found it difficult to get into and equally tough to adjust to her unique writing style. However as soon as the character was 'kidnapped' and chained in a house with a vampire, I was hooked.
I desperately wanted to know so much more about the 'bad spots', the 'wars' and the 'wards' and 'part-bloods' but never received a satisfying amount of background on these topics. I would have preferred the book to cover more of this background and less about Charlie's Coffeehouse (the continual references to cinnamon rolls made me hungry every time I picked up the book). It was almost as though a level of knowledge was assumed here, although I don't think this book is part of a series.
I frequently stumbled over McKinley's writing style and constantly wanted to 'edit' her work which was a slight distraction. At the same time though, it must be said that I was immersed in her world and vividly imagined the characters and scenes she created and could easily imagine this as a movie or tv series.
Her portrayal of vampires differed to other books and was a relatively fresh take on what is a popular subject matter at the moment. I don't believe this book goes anywhere near 'blowing Anne Rice and Clive Barker out of the water' however it was a good read.
I definitely wanted to go out and stand in the sunshine when I was reading it.
My rating = ***
Carpe Librum!
Hey Trace!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it, or at least didn't hate it! =)
I was like you with the beginning. For info, it's not a series, no plans on being made into one (unfortunately) either.
She normally writes YA fiction, so I think that's where the different style of writing comes from. (I think she may have tried too hard to make it read more adult).
I'm pleased it didn't suck as a present!!!!