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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
More paranormal romance than horror, the book is an interesting take on the old tropes of "bubble-headed heroine blinded by rock-hard abs to fall in love with self-pitying serial killer." The novel is a slow starter, but give it some time to open up.
A very different Vampire novel from what I may have been expecting, the prose style and plot kept me gripped to the end, and the Japanese culture/mythology edge was a good touch, but would like more of this in the sequel.
Regardingthe plot, it definitely twisted in unexpected directions and the ending was not something I saw coming. The characters were well fleshed, and it was nice for the female leads to exist in a strong friendship and not just be your typical 'oo a vampire, swoon' characters that are so common.
All in all, no it's not Stoker, but nothing else is, it's a fresh exciting twist on the Vampire novel, so I look forward to the next one.
Regardingthe plot, it definitely twisted in unexpected directions and the ending was not something I saw coming. The characters were well fleshed, and it was nice for the female leads to exist in a strong friendship and not just be your typical 'oo a vampire, swoon' characters that are so common.
All in all, no it's not Stoker, but nothing else is, it's a fresh exciting twist on the Vampire novel, so I look forward to the next one.
Julie Hutchings has taken the familiar vampire romance trope and introduced new life into it by reimagining blood suckers as avatars of the Japanese gods of death (shinigami), giving them a interesting set of new abilities and burdens while still designed to please fans of Stephanie Meyer and Charlaine Harris. Where she really succeeds, however, is confronting the reader with the concept of powerlessness in the face of fate. Hutchings' vamps are less about death-dealing than they are about serving an established order that, like it or not, does not always end with a fairy-tale happy endings and a wedding in the big castle. Without giving too much away, Hutchings subtly imbues her main character, Ellie/Eliza, with a growing acceptance of her unavoidable fate as embodied by the stunningly beautiful man she loves. Even her ability to love Nicholas freely is called into question as she is swept along by the vicissitudes of his designs on her present and future. It's a wonderfully insinuated and well-realized subtext that I think both reveals and subverts a reader's expectation of speculative romance in the post-Twilight era.
I feel very lucky to get to read this before publication, and there were so many things I loved about this book! Julie brings a wonderful twist to vampire lore, and I was fascinated by the Japanese elements which filtered through. The prose is gorgeous, balancing richly gothic romanticism with contemporary humour and warmth, really bringing to life a very dark and intense story. Totally gripping!
This is not a good book. The writing is pretty awful, you get no sense of why the main character falls so hard for the man ... in fact you get no sense for why any of the characters do anything. The notes at the end say that the author wanted to use her love of Japan in this book. So how does she do that? By putting the origin of vampires in Japan and giving them a Japanese name. That's it.
And lest you think that this is yet another vampire book where the vampires glitter in the sun, never fear! In this one they ... smell like brownies.
And lest you think that this is yet another vampire book where the vampires glitter in the sun, never fear! In this one they ... smell like brownies.