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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
Zephyr Hollis is a woman ahead of her time. The novel is a pretty rollicking adventure through 1920s Manhattan with all the elegance and grit of that period, mixed in with vampires, golems, djinn, and sooth-sayers.
This one was a DNF for me. The writing was all right, but the main character was afflicted with extreme Mary Sue syndrome. The pace felt off to me, as well. It's a shame, because I loved the setting and concept! Someone else might enjoy this book a lot more than I did. It just didn't hold my interest enough to keep going.
http://nyxshadow.unblog.fr/2011/04/04/moonshine-alaya-dawn-johnson/
un peu déçue moi
un peu déçue moi
Another book in the realm of vampire fiction. This one follows the comings and goings of vampire suffragist. You read right,suffragist. Set in the time of Prohibition and vampires seeking equal rights, you have to be in a mood to sift through all of the elements being thrown at you and to look at the whole vampire myths in a new way. This has the making of a series but like many books in a series, the first is often the weakest. This book does have the potential of becoming something quite interesting.
Oh yeah, I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Oh yeah, I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Very entertaining premise (real and acknowledged vampires in 1920s New York City winter) and a winning heroine can't completely make up for the fact that this book was just okay. It was just a little bit all over the place. Entertaining but not memorable.
That’s right! A vampire book! But not just a vampire book…a book that also includes genies and fairies (though fairies do not play a large role)! Oh and here’s the other thing: humans are completely aware of these “Others”!
Set in New York during the Prohibition, the story opens with the young do-gooder Zephyr Hollis who has a not so do-gooder past that she is trying to make up for through teaching night school and participating in various charities. Her life becomes even more complicated when one of her irregular students, Amir, assists her with freshly-turned child vampire she finds on her way to class and asks for her help in return.
Without giving too much away, I just want to say this was a fantastic book. I love reading about vampires and these are a mix between criminals and upstanding citizens and are most certainly not sparkly for those who abhor that particular vampiric quality. The story is part historical fiction, part fantasy, part romance, and well-written. A little something for everyone! I liked it so much that soon after reading it, I bought it for my Kindle!
The original review is here.
Set in New York during the Prohibition, the story opens with the young do-gooder Zephyr Hollis who has a not so do-gooder past that she is trying to make up for through teaching night school and participating in various charities. Her life becomes even more complicated when one of her irregular students, Amir, assists her with freshly-turned child vampire she finds on her way to class and asks for her help in return.
Without giving too much away, I just want to say this was a fantastic book. I love reading about vampires and these are a mix between criminals and upstanding citizens and are most certainly not sparkly for those who abhor that particular vampiric quality. The story is part historical fiction, part fantasy, part romance, and well-written. A little something for everyone! I liked it so much that soon after reading it, I bought it for my Kindle!
The original review is here.
I was very lucky to win this through one of the First Reads Giveaways.
I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I was struck by how easily Ms. Johnson set up the world and the character within even the first scene. You knew who Zephyr Hollis was and what this 1920's New York was supposed to be from simply those first few pages.
Zephyr herself is immensely likable. Spunky, intelligent, gutsy, able, and empathetic: she is the "singing Vampire Suffragette" as she is labeled at one point. Zephyr stands up for herself (and most certainly others), is able to handle herself in a fight as well as be the proper school teacher and large-hearted philanthropist. She is a layered character, plagued by a family of demon hunting, Zephyr endeavors to save all the Others (as well as helping anyone else) she can find, devoting her entire life to such a cause. Yet she struggles with the fact that not all Others are worth saving, just as not all humans are as well, and the fact that she still has to defend herself even unto "popping" them for good when pushed. In fact Zephyr is deftly skilled at hunting and is even immune to the vampire venom, an exceedingly rare trait which means the Defenders in town both deride her decision to leave them and beg for her return all in the same breath. Zephyr has a reputation for campaigning for the other side by the beginning of the book, fighting for the rights of Others and Immigrants alike through picketing, meetings, teaching, and any other method she can endeavor. Zephyr believes so strongly in the rightness of the path she now follows that she is even unfashionably vegetarian, having been disgusted by her first hand experience with the meat slaughtering process. Zephyr is a character living very in the present, practically dealing with the situations at hand in the hopes of changing things for the better in the foreseeable future. She is an intensely modern woman in her more straightforward approach especially when compared to the proper, wealthy Lily or even her best friend, the epitome 20's NYC vamp, Aileen. Zephyr even advocates for the use of prophylactics and a more modern view of sex, even going so far as to publicly kiss Amir in a cab and in a cafe.
Zephyr's romantic entanglements with Amir are passionate and yet realistic, tugging her back and forth between how she is drawn to him and her rationality. The two of them challenge each other in a way that is complementary and fun. Yet the trouble and happiness shared between the two of them is also purposefully used for the plot as well. Nothing is rushed to be unfolded to the reader before Zephyr herself figures it out, leaving the book with an anticipation of a good mystery. When all is revealed the theme of the interpersonal relations in the book becomes even more definitive for we are left with no one perfectly right or perfectly wrong. Yes, there is a conclusive ending but we also are left questioning the moral rightness of the main love interest.
The book is set in a world of gray-scale where black and white are very rarely the case. In fact this sense of gray is even further used in the description of the backdrop of New York, scenes alternatingly bathed in pure white snow, shadowy alleys, or pitch black tunnels. It's a world where not all Others are perfectly bad or perfectly good much like their human counterparts. Where the characters are described in color with the focus on a single blue mitten or a bright teal dress in a crowd. It's a world where Zephyr Hollis' conflicting background and purpose very much has a place, where she is constantly challenged with the rightness of her philanthropic acts of kindness. Zephyr even has moments where she learns that the situation is so hopelessly muddled and gray that the best thing she can do is, in all honesty, nothing. The best, wisest decision can sometimes be inaction for much like the real world not everything waits on Zephyr to become involved.
An immensely enjoyable and fun read, the book went by almost too quickly and I hope to read more adventures from Zephyr Hollis at some point soon.
I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I was struck by how easily Ms. Johnson set up the world and the character within even the first scene. You knew who Zephyr Hollis was and what this 1920's New York was supposed to be from simply those first few pages.
Zephyr herself is immensely likable. Spunky, intelligent, gutsy, able, and empathetic: she is the "singing Vampire Suffragette" as she is labeled at one point. Zephyr stands up for herself (and most certainly others), is able to handle herself in a fight as well as be the proper school teacher and large-hearted philanthropist. She is a layered character, plagued by a family of demon hunting, Zephyr endeavors to save all the Others (as well as helping anyone else) she can find, devoting her entire life to such a cause. Yet she struggles with the fact that not all Others are worth saving, just as not all humans are as well, and the fact that she still has to defend herself even unto "popping" them for good when pushed. In fact Zephyr is deftly skilled at hunting and is even immune to the vampire venom, an exceedingly rare trait which means the Defenders in town both deride her decision to leave them and beg for her return all in the same breath. Zephyr has a reputation for campaigning for the other side by the beginning of the book, fighting for the rights of Others and Immigrants alike through picketing, meetings, teaching, and any other method she can endeavor. Zephyr believes so strongly in the rightness of the path she now follows that she is even unfashionably vegetarian, having been disgusted by her first hand experience with the meat slaughtering process. Zephyr is a character living very in the present, practically dealing with the situations at hand in the hopes of changing things for the better in the foreseeable future. She is an intensely modern woman in her more straightforward approach especially when compared to the proper, wealthy Lily or even her best friend, the epitome 20's NYC vamp, Aileen. Zephyr even advocates for the use of prophylactics and a more modern view of sex, even going so far as to publicly kiss Amir in a cab and in a cafe.
Zephyr's romantic entanglements with Amir are passionate and yet realistic, tugging her back and forth between how she is drawn to him and her rationality. The two of them challenge each other in a way that is complementary and fun. Yet the trouble and happiness shared between the two of them is also purposefully used for the plot as well. Nothing is rushed to be unfolded to the reader before Zephyr herself figures it out, leaving the book with an anticipation of a good mystery. When all is revealed the theme of the interpersonal relations in the book becomes even more definitive for we are left with no one perfectly right or perfectly wrong. Yes, there is a conclusive ending but we also are left questioning the moral rightness of the main love interest.
The book is set in a world of gray-scale where black and white are very rarely the case. In fact this sense of gray is even further used in the description of the backdrop of New York, scenes alternatingly bathed in pure white snow, shadowy alleys, or pitch black tunnels. It's a world where not all Others are perfectly bad or perfectly good much like their human counterparts. Where the characters are described in color with the focus on a single blue mitten or a bright teal dress in a crowd. It's a world where Zephyr Hollis' conflicting background and purpose very much has a place, where she is constantly challenged with the rightness of her philanthropic acts of kindness. Zephyr even has moments where she learns that the situation is so hopelessly muddled and gray that the best thing she can do is, in all honesty, nothing. The best, wisest decision can sometimes be inaction for much like the real world not everything waits on Zephyr to become involved.
An immensely enjoyable and fun read, the book went by almost too quickly and I hope to read more adventures from Zephyr Hollis at some point soon.
In Alaya Johnson's imagined Prohibition-era New York, vampires and all manner of other Others walk the streets alongside humans. Zephyr Hollis is all to familiar with their kind and feels that they deserve just as many rights as humans. When she discovers a young boy recently turned by a pack of vamps who call themselves The Turn Boys, she know she can't take the kid to the police. The law states that turned children must be staked. In steps Amir, a mysterious non-human and a student in one of Zephyr's classes. Amir agrees to take the boy into his protection in exchange for a favor: Zephyr must help him track down a crime lord named Rinaldo. Rinaldo -- the man who controls the Turn Boys. Rinaldo -- a man so elusive, no one can recall ever having seen his face. And, as Zephyr soon learns, not a man at all. Rinaldo is a vampire who has taken something very precious from Amir.
This first in the Zephyr Hollis series is a unique twist on urban fantasy: blending the historical setting of 1920's New York and the events of that time with the paranormal makes MOONSHINE an interesting stand out.
This first in the Zephyr Hollis series is a unique twist on urban fantasy: blending the historical setting of 1920's New York and the events of that time with the paranormal makes MOONSHINE an interesting stand out.
This was fun and interesting; I liked Zephyr Hollis as a heroine and I liked her supporting cast (and particularly Amir); the period was well done and delivered with depth and detail. But it just didn't quite hang together wonderfully. I felt in places there was too much to it - too many things going on - for the length and depth of the novel. I would've like it to be bigger and richer, to explore things more fulsomely. (And to, for instance, elevate Aileen's storyline out of deus ex machina territory.) But fun and interesting.
Well this took me less than a day to read, but I had a cold and needed something frothy to distract me. I enjoyed it! It's your typical paranormal romance/mystery genre book, but the NYC in the roaring 20s setting made it very interesting.