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3.1 AVERAGE
3.1 AVERAGE
Darker than previous books and with a different feel. Not so sure I like the change, though Damon, when not being totally evil, was pretty entertaining.
So things reeaaaally get wierd on this one. Damon gets possesed, there's Kitsunes running around Fell's Church and Elena now has powers but I kinda liked it??? Some of it is cringey, but the way Damon and Elena develop their relationship is quite original. Not the model of a healthy relationship but intriguing
After years since I finished Dark Reunion I finally got my hands on the next three books about a year ago.
The reason why I didn't read this sooner was because I wasn't in the mood.
But after several times when my TO-READ-NEXT can gave me as options book 6 and 7, last week it gave my first 7, then 6 and then, when I said "well, if nr 5 cames out I'll read it", book 5 came as an option. Must have been fate.
I didn't expect, or maybe I did, the book after Dark Reunion to keep up with the pace and intricacy of plot, but it did.
The Return had a slow start and by the middle of the book I thought I'd give it a 4 rating just like the others, it hadn't blown my mind yet. But after that point (lets call it point of no return xD) it changed my mind. And my reading pace.
Smith did a fantastic job with this book. She created an intricate plot that kept all the cool stuff from the past books but was still fresh. At least to me. I hadn't read anything that dealt with kitsune yet, so I found the twins - the antagonists - a fresh and very interesting pair of characters. That I loathed all the way 'till the end.
Unlike previous books, Stefan didn't have much screen time, due to him being kidnapped by the evil twins. We get, however a deeper look at Damon. The kitsune infects him and plays him like a puppet, making him do horrible things, things that even in his darkest times, Damon would never do.
I loved the character development for, well, everyone. We got more of Matt, Elena's ex-boyfriend and an overall good guy. Damon doesn't like him that much though, he doesn't even remember his name correctly. We also get our normal amount of Meredith, always the same reliable Meredith, and more Bonnie.
I loved all the Bonnie scenes, and adored all the Bamon scenes. Bonnie's still the sweet and fragile little red-head, but by the end of the book she becomes someone, well, less scared. The Damon and Bonnie scenes were adorable. Their relationship is so different from Damon and Elena's. I feel like Damon around Elena becomes borderline obsessed with her, while with Bonnie he almost forgets Elena. Don't get me wrong, I really like Damon and Elena's relationship, especially in this book (but not romantically), but his interactions with Bonnie feels less... crazy (for lack of a better word) and more natural. The way he took care of Bonnie was very sweet, he almost took a punch to keep holding her.
Fair warning, there are a few gore-y scenes. Under the spoiler you can see them listed:Misao, the female kitsune, infects the local young girls (under 14 yrs old) with overly sexualized behaviour, and all the scenes involving these young girls felt wrong, with them dressed in prostitute-like homemade outfits. Another girl, older than these girls pierces herself repeatedly and attacks a few characters, acting in a wild manner. The descriptions of her injuries are very graphic. Meredith is almost forced to cut her own tongue. There's another scene (earlier than Meredith's) in which Caroline attacks Bonnie and Meredith in a very horror movie way (think evil things under the bed). Possessed-Damon also nearly forces Matt and Elena to have sex while he records it (but it doesn't happen).
To compensate the bad stuff there's also good stuff. Stefan's love for Elena. The girls' strong friendship. The good in Damon.
Overall I think this book exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to read the rest (I'm already reading the next book)
The reason why I didn't read this sooner was because I wasn't in the mood.
But after several times when my TO-READ-NEXT can gave me as options book 6 and 7, last week it gave my first 7, then 6 and then, when I said "well, if nr 5 cames out I'll read it", book 5 came as an option. Must have been fate.
I didn't expect, or maybe I did, the book after Dark Reunion to keep up with the pace and intricacy of plot, but it did.
The Return had a slow start and by the middle of the book I thought I'd give it a 4 rating just like the others, it hadn't blown my mind yet. But after that point (lets call it point of no return xD) it changed my mind. And my reading pace.
Smith did a fantastic job with this book. She created an intricate plot that kept all the cool stuff from the past books but was still fresh. At least to me. I hadn't read anything that dealt with kitsune yet, so I found the twins - the antagonists - a fresh and very interesting pair of characters. That I loathed all the way 'till the end.
Unlike previous books, Stefan didn't have much screen time, due to him being kidnapped by the evil twins. We get, however a deeper look at Damon. The kitsune infects him and plays him like a puppet, making him do horrible things, things that even in his darkest times, Damon would never do.
I loved the character development for, well, everyone. We got more of Matt, Elena's ex-boyfriend and an overall good guy. Damon doesn't like him that much though, he doesn't even remember his name correctly. We also get our normal amount of Meredith, always the same reliable Meredith, and more Bonnie.
I loved all the Bonnie scenes, and adored all the Bamon scenes. Bonnie's still the sweet and fragile little red-head, but by the end of the book she becomes someone, well, less scared. The Damon and Bonnie scenes were adorable. Their relationship is so different from Damon and Elena's. I feel like Damon around Elena becomes borderline obsessed with her, while with Bonnie he almost forgets Elena. Don't get me wrong, I really like Damon and Elena's relationship, especially in this book (but not romantically), but his interactions with Bonnie feels less... crazy (for lack of a better word) and more natural. The way he took care of Bonnie was very sweet, he almost took a punch to keep holding her.
Fair warning, there are a few gore-y scenes. Under the spoiler you can see them listed:
To compensate the bad stuff there's also good stuff. Stefan's love for Elena. The girls' strong friendship. The good in Damon.
Overall I think this book exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to read the rest (I'm already reading the next book)
I think this book deserves another good review. Let me first get over with the one thing that is not so good in Nightfall – the writing. It is not that bad, I especially like some genuinely funny parts in this book, but it could certainly use another round of editing. What bothered me the most was that the transitions between the scenes are too jumpy on several spots, and there are also a few inconsistencies. However, none of these present any major impediment for enjoying all that is good in Nightfall, and there is plenty of that, I must say.
The plot is action-packed, suspenseful, and full of twists and turns. Elena’s return and the consequent changes of her character are well-done. She has to learn anew a lot of things, including how to use her powers. Soon she realises that with her altered state, she has acquired new responsibility for her actions. Therefore, she is trying to figure out herself and help others at the same time.
Other characters retain their familiarity while benefiting of additional bits and pieces here and there. Bonnie is struggling to learn how to be brave, Matt finds himself in a whole lot of trouble, Meredith is still the one who keeps everybody together, and Caroline is as nasty as ever, cleaning up her own mess at everybody else’s cost.
For the most part of the book absent Stefan is still Stefan, while Damon takes the reins in his hands. Smith throws in some new information about the brothers’ past, slowly rounding up the reasons for what they are like. Damon’s being possessed by a greater evil is carried out so well that even the reader who knows about the possession might forget about it. However, if one pays attention, there are clues which clearly show whether the real Damon or his possessor is in control. The clash between Damon’s true self, his possessed side, and his possessor is extremely intense and enthralling to witness.
The evil side is spearheaded by the evil twins Shinichi and his sister Misao with whom Smith introduces a whole new spectre of the paranormal. The effects of their mischief are gory, and Smith fully confronts the reader with both physical and emotional pain they cause in Fell’s Church. Shinichi and Misao are the kind of villains one loves to hate, and I believe the series definitely has not seen the last of them with the end of Nightfall.
The ending reveals that everything comes with a price, and no good deed goes unpunished. However, I liked that in Damon’s case, because he pays that price by his own choice, and it leaves open a way for him to work for his redemption, which I am curious about among other things. The ending of the book is a perfect mixture of closure and open issues. Whereas it ties all the important loose ends, it still leaves enough space for the reader to want more.
RECOMMENDATION: If you can get past the writing issues, this is a compelling read especially for the fans of the series and the author. For my part, it was totally worth to suffer some writing confusion to read this otherwise fantastic story.
The plot is action-packed, suspenseful, and full of twists and turns. Elena’s return and the consequent changes of her character are well-done. She has to learn anew a lot of things, including how to use her powers. Soon she realises that with her altered state, she has acquired new responsibility for her actions. Therefore, she is trying to figure out herself and help others at the same time.
Other characters retain their familiarity while benefiting of additional bits and pieces here and there. Bonnie is struggling to learn how to be brave, Matt finds himself in a whole lot of trouble, Meredith is still the one who keeps everybody together, and Caroline is as nasty as ever, cleaning up her own mess at everybody else’s cost.
For the most part of the book absent Stefan is still Stefan, while Damon takes the reins in his hands. Smith throws in some new information about the brothers’ past, slowly rounding up the reasons for what they are like. Damon’s being possessed by a greater evil is carried out so well that even the reader who knows about the possession might forget about it. However, if one pays attention, there are clues which clearly show whether the real Damon or his possessor is in control. The clash between Damon’s true self, his possessed side, and his possessor is extremely intense and enthralling to witness.
The evil side is spearheaded by the evil twins Shinichi and his sister Misao with whom Smith introduces a whole new spectre of the paranormal. The effects of their mischief are gory, and Smith fully confronts the reader with both physical and emotional pain they cause in Fell’s Church. Shinichi and Misao are the kind of villains one loves to hate, and I believe the series definitely has not seen the last of them with the end of Nightfall.
The ending reveals that everything comes with a price, and no good deed goes unpunished. However, I liked that in Damon’s case, because he pays that price by his own choice, and it leaves open a way for him to work for his redemption, which I am curious about among other things. The ending of the book is a perfect mixture of closure and open issues. Whereas it ties all the important loose ends, it still leaves enough space for the reader to want more.
RECOMMENDATION: If you can get past the writing issues, this is a compelling read especially for the fans of the series and the author. For my part, it was totally worth to suffer some writing confusion to read this otherwise fantastic story.
Deffinately getting strange, but still a good read. Surprising twists and turns, and mysterious happenings.
Okay, so the four stars is generous - this is a quality-two, maaaaaybe two and a half, but my enjoyment was a solid four. Oh, L.J. Smith, never stop being so crazy! I mean, this book is almost comics-canon-esque in how it attempts to reconcile a book written today picking up a week after the plotline of the book written ten-ish years ago! The miraculous discovery of cell phones, which appear and disappear when plotually convenient! The slight name-dropping of shoes and bags and clothes so that we know these people are "with it"! D'awwww.
This book is ambitious, moreso than I think what Smith has attempted before, and I think it partially succeeds. It's pretty clear that this book is setting up a new take on the Vampire Diaries (wow, there's an awkward abbreviation) universe, especially with the SPN Pilot episode "we've got work to do"-style ending. She's setting up a caper! On the run! Or something.
This book feels like a hybrid of the early nineties Smith (the classic Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, etc) with the new swathe of young adult horror novels (Cassie Clare, Holly Black, etc). I feel like Smith is retconning a lot of world-building onto her universe to make it wider and more complex (a la the new skool stuff), and it's handled relatively deftly, but it still feels, you know. Retconned. (See also: Damon's abuse of the Italian language. And have I mentioned the cell phone hilarity? Because the cell phones are hilarious.)
I will admit to missing the smaller world, a little bit. It was part of the original books' charm - that here was this crazy stuff happening in a relatively contained universe. Still, that doesn't leave you many options of where to go next. Let's hear it for expanding that universe, even if the Sunnydale = Fell's Church jokes are nigh on irresistible.
Also, I hope we get more than just kitsune in the next novel. Let's hear it for Smith and her already-almost-more-diverse-than-Supernatural use of multiple cultures' mythologies, but if we don't get more kinds of Big Bad, then the whole Japanese mythology is going to feel very slapped-on-because-convenient, as opposed to first-in-a-wider-world-of-things-that-go-bump-in-the-dark.
As for the characters, I felt a little shortchanged on the humans, and Stefan was in full-on Edward Cullen mode. "My little lovely love"? Are you kidding me? I still love Bonnie and Damon interacting, and the author's bias is hugely evident yet again: everyone is more interesting around Damon than Stefan. There's more to work with, rather than just noble and self-sacrificing and In Love With Elena.
Elena-with-her-mind-back grows on me. She's got more depth than I remember, and her Bella-esque devotion to Stefan is balanced by, you know, actual personality and skills. Elena-as-a-spirit-childe was mostly just amusing, but that assessment is wildly biased by her - ahahahaha, it still makes me laugh just thinking about it - Go-Go Gadget Wings of Plot Devices. Wings of Redemption (or whatever)? Seriously? Whoever said that wingfic was gonna be the next young adult trend is dead on.
I found Matt annoying, and I miss his mancrush on Stefan. Meredith and Bonnie were present but felt kind of irrelevant for much of the book. If we lose Meredith and Bonnie and up our Matt quotient in the next book? I will likely lose interest very, very quickly.
I remain, in a very seventh-grade-lingering sort of way, intrigued by Damon. Once again Smith fails to sell me on him actually being eeeeeevil, which makes the tension of will-he-won't-he (disembowel, crush, betray, etc) so much less, but I really liked the setup for the tension with does-he-or-doesn't-he-remember his whole Wings of Redemption experience.
So, yeah. An uneven effort but still a guilty pleasure favorite set of characters, and count me in for book two.
This book is ambitious, moreso than I think what Smith has attempted before, and I think it partially succeeds. It's pretty clear that this book is setting up a new take on the Vampire Diaries (wow, there's an awkward abbreviation) universe, especially with the SPN Pilot episode "we've got work to do"-style ending. She's setting up a caper! On the run! Or something.
This book feels like a hybrid of the early nineties Smith (the classic Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, etc) with the new swathe of young adult horror novels (Cassie Clare, Holly Black, etc). I feel like Smith is retconning a lot of world-building onto her universe to make it wider and more complex (a la the new skool stuff), and it's handled relatively deftly, but it still feels, you know. Retconned. (See also: Damon's abuse of the Italian language. And have I mentioned the cell phone hilarity? Because the cell phones are hilarious.)
I will admit to missing the smaller world, a little bit. It was part of the original books' charm - that here was this crazy stuff happening in a relatively contained universe. Still, that doesn't leave you many options of where to go next. Let's hear it for expanding that universe, even if the Sunnydale = Fell's Church jokes are nigh on irresistible.
Also, I hope we get more than just kitsune in the next novel. Let's hear it for Smith and her already-almost-more-diverse-than-Supernatural use of multiple cultures' mythologies, but if we don't get more kinds of Big Bad, then the whole Japanese mythology is going to feel very slapped-on-because-convenient, as opposed to first-in-a-wider-world-of-things-that-go-bump-in-the-dark.
As for the characters, I felt a little shortchanged on the humans, and Stefan was in full-on Edward Cullen mode. "My little lovely love"? Are you kidding me? I still love Bonnie and Damon interacting, and the author's bias is hugely evident yet again: everyone is more interesting around Damon than Stefan. There's more to work with, rather than just noble and self-sacrificing and In Love With Elena.
Elena-with-her-mind-back grows on me. She's got more depth than I remember, and her Bella-esque devotion to Stefan is balanced by, you know, actual personality and skills. Elena-as-a-spirit-childe was mostly just amusing, but that assessment is wildly biased by her - ahahahaha, it still makes me laugh just thinking about it - Go-Go Gadget Wings of Plot Devices. Wings of Redemption (or whatever)? Seriously? Whoever said that wingfic was gonna be the next young adult trend is dead on.
I found Matt annoying, and I miss his mancrush on Stefan. Meredith and Bonnie were present but felt kind of irrelevant for much of the book. If we lose Meredith and Bonnie and up our Matt quotient in the next book? I will likely lose interest very, very quickly.
I remain, in a very seventh-grade-lingering sort of way, intrigued by Damon. Once again Smith fails to sell me on him actually being eeeeeevil, which makes the tension of will-he-won't-he (disembowel, crush, betray, etc) so much less, but I really liked the setup for the tension with does-he-or-doesn't-he-remember his whole Wings of Redemption experience.
So, yeah. An uneven effort but still a guilty pleasure favorite set of characters, and count me in for book two.
OMG! this book was amazing! i found myself drawn into the book completely. i found shinichi and misao to be intriguing villains. and i found myself liking damon more, dispite him being a villain in the past. and...I missed stefan! when is he coming back? will he get saved? oh, no! i don't get to find out til february!
At first, I was worried that this was L.J. Smith's Breaking Dawn, but I ended up really liking it.
(spoilers)
This is the first of a trilogy (I think) set after the original four books in the Vampire Diaries series. At the end of book four, Elena had just come back to life as a human (she was a human who became a vampire but then died).
In this one, she's sort of Other. She's not a vampire but she's not wholly human, either. And weird things are happening in Fell's Church (which is on a Hellmouth, although they don't call it that--but I've watched Buffy, and this place seems like it's on a Hellmouth). To make matters worse, Stefan's disappeared and Damon's acting all weird. (Meaner than usual and possessed.)
I still like this series, but it's pushing it.
(spoilers)
This is the first of a trilogy (I think) set after the original four books in the Vampire Diaries series. At the end of book four, Elena had just come back to life as a human (she was a human who became a vampire but then died).
In this one, she's sort of Other. She's not a vampire but she's not wholly human, either. And weird things are happening in Fell's Church (which is on a Hellmouth, although they don't call it that--but I've watched Buffy, and this place seems like it's on a Hellmouth). To make matters worse, Stefan's disappeared and Damon's acting all weird. (Meaner than usual and possessed.)
I still like this series, but it's pushing it.
The published date Goodreads lists is wrong - this series is from the early 90s. It is important to me to point this out because my main memory of this series is the EXTREME 90s energy is has.