Reviews

Vampires of Portlandia by Jason Tanamor

colorfulleo92's review

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2.0

The grandmother of the family moves her family from the Philippines to Portland, Oregon to get away from the Hunters and Filipino government. Because the family is indeed vampires, aswang vampires. The story follows Percival as he tries to solve a murder and what happened to the covenant of aswangs. The premise of this sounded so cool and I was so excited to dvelve into this book, but I was highly disappointed in this. Wasn't engaging and there was a few issues throughout the novel and it just didn't work. Would love to read more books about aswangs and other mythical creatures from other cultures though

thequeenreads's review

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3.0

Happy to be a part of #AswangInPortlandTour hosted by Caffeine Book Tours of Shealea. Thank you for including me

kamreadsandrecs's review

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 Just threw in the towel on this. Too pretentious. Also: don’t tell me I have to care about this character, because it’s either I do or I don’t depending on how well they’re written. 

vickycbooks's review

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DNF @ 65.4%

I really was so excited for Vampires of Portlandia. It sounded amazing--Filipino mythology and vampires, magic, Pacific North West vibes. And I do think that the things I was excited for were still exciting, but I hit some road blocks while reading that made me ultimately DNF this book.

I almost never DNF ARCs. It's not an action I do lightly, but as my time is more and more precious in college and because it's become increasingly important for me to find joy in fiction and not drag my feet about reading, I've DNF'd Vampires of Portlandia. I tried very hard to give it my best shot, and it's been hindering my reading for more than two weeks at this point.

The writing style is different than I am used to, but I don't actually think it's inherently bad. It's more roundabout and measured than the direct type of writing I am used to, but I don't think that makes it bad. Tanamor uses third person in a very distinct way that's like a narrated script, but also not. There's changing POVs, little details that a narrator wouldn't know, and things slipped in that you should be paying attention to. It just meant that for me personally, I had a hard time getting absorbed into the story from the writing. I think if I was a different reader, I could absolutely enjoy the writing style more, but ultimately that's not me.

What was ultimately a deal breaker for me was the writing style in combination with the way Vampires of Portlandia framed victims of the murders happening. To be completely honest, I feel like the way the story talked about homeless people, the elderly, people who are struggling with drug abuse, was callous. One line (from the e-ARC, mind you) read

"Thus, they [the ghouls] added a new clientele to their repertoire [the people they preyed on & killed], one who had also contributed very little to society--the elderly."

I personally disagree, and I think elderly people, although not perfect, are still important members of society? I think they do hold a lot of wisdom. I dislike this framing a lot and I don't enjoy it being used so casually. I think we can absolutely examine sentiments like this critically, but I personally felt like it was an offhand comment that was meant to be more stylistic, rather than critical of the ghouls.

We see the same thing with the treatment of homeless people, as the story reduces them, who are the predominant population being murdered in Portland, to a faceless aggregate. There were anti-homeless sentiments being expressed, as well as really suspicious lines about drug use.

It made me uncomfortable enough that I DNF'd the book. I just grew so tense with how the story used homeless people as faceless victims of these murders, but used the writing style and narrative to push the readers away from empathizing with the people affected by the murder, and instead read about the vampires and werebeasts and ghouls and witches and viscera and their conflict.

I don't think my priorities matched with the priorities that Vampires of Portlandia had, and it's honestly a huge relief to be able to put this down.

I think readers who are more persistent or less sensitive than I can find something to like in this. The beginning where an anti-homeless sentiment wasn't so strong was interesting. I liked the folklore and the aswang. I liked the idea of a murder mystery. But I hated the framing, and that's ultimately what made me set this aside.

I've thought quite a lot about this, and I didn't make the decision to DNF lightly. I just can't bring myself to read more of this because I am quite frankly, very tired. There was so much potential, I can't help but feel left down.

bubblewombat's review

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2.0

I really thought I'd love this one. Unfortunately, it didn't match my expectations.

The book was very repetitive, if I didn't remember something the first time it was said then no worries, it would be mentioned again and again and again...

I didn't much care for the "past" chapters, I kept wishing for them to end quicker so I could get back to the real action.

In the "present" chapters what I liked was the family bond, I felt it. Percival is a good big brother who would even sacrifice himself to save everyone else. PJ is pretty cool in her own way too. But my favourite has to be Geena, she's adorable, and all the cooking made me hungry.

The civil war...that was the biggest let down of all. It wasn't as exciting as it was supposed to be. Especially the way it got started - by Roger just wanting a little flying snack - give the kid a break why don't you?

All in all, it was a pretty quick read and decently enjoyable.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

rbritt515's review

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2.0

I really wanted to like this book about aswangs and Filipino folklore set around a family of adopted vampires in Portland. Everything about the idea spoke to me! But the execution just fell flat. I couldn't find any depth to the story or characters, and at almost halfway into the book, I'm still not sure what the plot actually is. Sadly, this one wasn't for me.

librarianlayla's review

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3.0

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars.

I was really excited to read this book, the entire premise behind the story excited me and we need more Filipino own voices fantasy out in the world.

However, I was left feeling a little let down by the writing. I feel that it read like a first draft and needed a lot of work on the timeline, as well as the characters and the dialogue. It has so much rich history and lore to work with, which is why it's a 2.5 star for me. If I only judged this book on the writing alone, it would have been lower. You didn't really get a good grip on the characters and there are plenty of emotionally charged moments, that fell a little flat because you hadn't a real feel for the character, nor time to get attached enough to immerse yourself into their feelings.

Really great concept, I just think it needs more work on it. It has the essence of something really great, and I could easily see it adapted for TV.

pmileham's review

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5.0

I loved it. The characters all had their own motives and growth which built to a powerful climax.
I will be seeking out more of Jason Tanamor's works.

misssleepless's review

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dark mysterious slow-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

1.0

Wtf this started so promising and then it got worse and worse. The plot was weird, the characters were almost completely unbelievable at times, the whole fixation on homeless people and "druggies" hurt my head and my soul and the writing was just... I'm glad i listened to most of it on audio because I'm not sure I could have made it through if I had had to read a species name instead of a name or a pronoun one more time. Though i almost dnf'd this at 98% or sth anyway because of the
surprise baby

I would feel like i wasted a lot of my time with this but since i listened to most of it while doing other things I'm not quite as mad about that part. The rest though...

honey15469's review

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I have tried to read this three times now and each time I only mange to get through one to two pages so I give up. I can't get past the amount of times they mention he's a vampire (in third person no less so it comes across as 'new information' as if we didn't get it when he said that one line ago). I don't like a lot of the lines of the writing style. if someone can find enjoyment out of this then I am extremely happy for them up this was just not for me