Reviews

Perspective: We follow multiple characters in the town. Mainly an easygoing, dedicated detective with a background in vampire anthropology visiting to assist in the investigation, and an unknown captive being kept in a small room while being cared for (somewhat) by their captor.

🐕 Howls: Losing interest near the end. The underdeveloped fantasy-style lore of the vampires.

🐩 Tail Wags: The writing style. Barbara (the anthro-detective). The world-building and atmosphere.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

Reminded me of Stephen king style of writing. Cinematic, slow burn descriptive style.

To enjoy this, I think you need to build some level of care for the community (regardless of the vampires) otherwise it would probably feel like a slog.

Audio was easy to listen to. The chapters aren’t from any specific perspective, so if you zone out for a second, you’ll likely be lost for a bit but quickly get context clues on who is speaking and where we are without having to skip back.

I’m iffy with police procedurals, but this one was interesting. I agree it has a Fargo vibe, where people beyond the police are such characters and the police parts are more investigative hunting down clues rather than high stakes action.

I was initially intrigued by the vampire structures/society, but near the end we do a deep dive in to the colony and lost my attention. It just felt like suddenly we were expected to understand the colony and its hierarchy. Maybe I was just hoping for more of a day-in-the-life get-to-know-them style, but it felt underdeveloped.

I was losing track of peripheral characters late in the story, especially if they ended up having a more major role later on. At first, I felt like I was keeping up, so didn’t keep detailed character notes, but I wish I had!

The violence and high stakes action is quick and sprinkled throughout so never felt drawn out or boring. But I also wouldn’t call this heavy on high-stakes action-adventure if that’s what you’re looking for.

----

🤓 Reader Role: A little bit of an outsider. Observing and overhearing conversations, with the narrator filling us in and taking us to different scenes.

🗺️ World-Building: Cinematic, immersive and descriptive.

🔥 Fuel: Did a vampire murder a teen boy? If so, why? If not, who did? Why did one of the characters commit suicide? Who is the girl being held captive? Will Barbara be able to solve the case? Will it result in a legal cull to the vampire colony?

📖 Cred: Sci-fi style realistic (think modern day but vampires are real and were present throughout our human history).

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Sour bar smells. Earthy scents. Christmas lights. Falling snow. Coffee. Rot. Dark buildings. Howling winds.
Anthropological sci-fi with Us vs Them elements
Police investigation whodunnit and whydunit

Content Heads-Up: Infidelity. Suicide (brief mention). Prejudice. Confinement. Blood. Death. Murder. Alcohol use. Alcoholic parent (recall). Loss of child (teen). Animal death (bat, pig). Sex trafficking and abuse. Violence. Genocide/cull.

Rep: Indigenous, Black, and White Americans. Transgender. Cisgender. Gay. Heterosexual. Diverse body sizes.

📚 Format: Library Audio

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

Content Warnings

mxmaxreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my new favorite Tudor book! I am shocked because I am very particular about vampire books (in this case, “vampyr”), but this was one of the most original concepts for a thriller/horror novel, and it was executed so creatively! I love the way Tudor weaves in cultural and societal issues as a result of there being colonies of vampyrs. The parallels to racist historical events are prominent, and I love that there is so much nuance explored with the way this is addressed. I found the characters to be compelling and multi-dimensional. And the ending blew my mind and made me hope that the way it was written is implying a sequel in the future! Hoping for that so much!

This reminded me of Salem’s Lot meets the crime fiction of Robert Bryndza, both of which I enjoy very much.

kdmiddlebrooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

2.5

youraveragedave's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book sits at the crossroads of horror and crime/detective genres. In this world vampyrs are real and live around humans. They need protection from the government or humans would wipe them out given the opportunity.

When a child is murdered by what appears to be a vampyrs, Det Barbara Atkins is called into a small town in Alaska to investigate. There are many layers and nefarious things going on in Deadheart AK.

The tension builds throughout the story and the conclusion comes quick and satisfying.

readinggod33's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Wow what a book that is definitely up there as book of 2024 just wow and I thought the Drift was bloody good but this beats that hands down. A MUST READ

smoores415's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was another book where the premise was better than the outcome in my opinion. I'm not the biggest vampire fan, but the idea of vampires living alongside humans in their own colonies with a treaty in place was interesting to me.

I thought that having the vampires being comparable to indigenous people was also an interesting viewpoint, but it got old fast. The story takes place in a very small, very narrow-minded Alaskan town. The author compared anti-vampire tattoos to swastika tattoos. After a while, the comparisons became too repetitive and I was bored with all the hate in the book. I feel like it's easy to write a small town that's just full of racist bigots and it's not compelling to me.

I thought it was going to be more 30 Days of Night and they mentioned that the main character might be stuck there, which would add to the drama and sense of urgency, but it didn't really feel like she was in real danger or had to worry about that. I'm fine with that, but I just find it weird that they repeatedly brought it up but it wasn't really an issue in the end.

The ending also fell super flat for me. I feel like it was a lot of build-up and red herrings with no payoff. Then the resolution after the climax was pretty nonexistent.

Like I said, I liked the concept and the universe that was built. The book sets up a possibility for a sequel and I would be interested in that because I liked the main character and I think another story in a different setting could work.

lmskikun's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

evilmaxreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

More...