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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Aisde from the fact that when I started this book I had no clue that it was a vampire book and I don't normally read vampire books. This book is well written. I enjoyed the writing style at least. It had a tad more language than I prefer but aside from that it was great.
This book is extremely dark and very weird and you’ll find yourself in a weird headspace afterwards. And it sags a bit in the middle to the point where you’ll start to wonder if you should even bother continuing to read it or if you should just give up. But stick with it. Trust me.
This is a book about vampires but the vampires are barely in it. Take a large dash of Stephen King, mix in some Cormac McCarthy, sprinkle in Station Eleven, and add just a slight helping of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Walking Dead and you might get a sense of just what this book is going for.
This book is more about the survivors of a vampire outbreak and the community they form to survive. And it is also about government experiments gone wrong and the disastrous effects of playing God. There’s some really interesting religious imagery in here that causes all kinds of thought provoking questions. This is by no means an easy book to read. In terms of its length and in terms of its themes. If you’re looking for a book that you can fully immerse yourself in and spend hours with, this is the book for you. I really appreciated how many strong female characters there were. Especially considering the author is a white straight man! He could have very easily given us some cliched female caricatures but he doesn’t go for the easy route. He chooses to give us fully fleshed out and deeply complex female characters. I appreciated that and it was an unexpected highlight of this book.
I didn’t quite know what to expect with this book. I knew it was about vampires. And it is, sort of. But it also isn’t about that at all. This is definitely not Twilight so leave your expectations behind when you start this. And be prepared to spend hours with this book. Trust me, you’ll need them! I’m already looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
This is a book about vampires but the vampires are barely in it. Take a large dash of Stephen King, mix in some Cormac McCarthy, sprinkle in Station Eleven, and add just a slight helping of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Walking Dead and you might get a sense of just what this book is going for.
This book is more about the survivors of a vampire outbreak and the community they form to survive. And it is also about government experiments gone wrong and the disastrous effects of playing God. There’s some really interesting religious imagery in here that causes all kinds of thought provoking questions. This is by no means an easy book to read. In terms of its length and in terms of its themes. If you’re looking for a book that you can fully immerse yourself in and spend hours with, this is the book for you. I really appreciated how many strong female characters there were. Especially considering the author is a white straight man! He could have very easily given us some cliched female caricatures but he doesn’t go for the easy route. He chooses to give us fully fleshed out and deeply complex female characters. I appreciated that and it was an unexpected highlight of this book.
I didn’t quite know what to expect with this book. I knew it was about vampires. And it is, sort of. But it also isn’t about that at all. This is definitely not Twilight so leave your expectations behind when you start this. And be prepared to spend hours with this book. Trust me, you’ll need them! I’m already looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
adventurous
mysterious
tense
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
3.5 stars, actually. I finished this book a few days ago and still am debating what I thought of it. Already have book 2 borrowed from the library so I thought it was good but I don't know that I loved it. Parts of it was odd. That said, I jumped into the book without knowing what it was about at all so that was a fun surprise.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Verdict: Got to 63% DNF
Total 🌟: 2
-1 *: The author did have never met a long day description or overly detailed hack story he could resist.
-1*: With good editing this would have been two 200 page books. We spend all this time with a set of characters only to abandon them for another set in another world.
-1*: How does such a good premise turn into such a BORING book?
Total 🌟: 2
-1 *: The author did have never met a long day description or overly detailed hack story he could resist.
-1*: With good editing this would have been two 200 page books. We spend all this time with a set of characters only to abandon them for another set in another world.
-1*: How does such a good premise turn into such a BORING book?
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I kind of adore this book. But it didn't happen on my first read. I read it first in 2010, when it came out. My wife got it for me for my birthday that summer, saying to me that "it's supposed to be like The Stand, but updated."
I tore into it and devoured the first 250 pages within a few days. Then I got to the second "half" of the novel, where everything changes. If you've read other reviews you know that I'm talking about where the plot shifts to almost 100 years into the future and douses the reader with a completely new set of characters. In 2010, the rest of the book took me awhile to get through. I missed Wolgast and the other figures from the first third of the book. I wanted more action where the second part of the book gave me more in the way of character development.
It took me awhile, but I got through the book eventually. I gave it 4 stars here - I would have given it 3, but the first third and then the last 30 pages or so convinced me to rate it higher.
Then in 2012, the sequel came out. I bought it, but shelved it for awhile, knowing I wasn't quite ready to tackle it yet. In fact, I waited a long while, and by the time I felt ready, I considered that a re-read of the first book was in order. I had forgotten much of what had happened in that second part of the book. I also thought that, knowing what I knew from my initial read, that the plot jumps a century and the reader needs to become acquainted with new characters and an entirely new post-viral world, I might be better equipped for that second part.
I wasn't wrong. Once I got there, I relished meeting these new people and becoming entrenched in their new world. I grew to love Peter, Sara, Michael, Alisha, Maus and the others, and that section of the book became as thrilling to me as the previous third that had so captured my imagination the first time around. It is a wonderful story, the entire way through. You just need to be ready for the twists that happen.
If you are considering a re-read: do it. I sincerely believe the book is more rewarding the second time around.
I tore into it and devoured the first 250 pages within a few days. Then I got to the second "half" of the novel, where everything changes. If you've read other reviews you know that I'm talking about where the plot shifts to almost 100 years into the future and douses the reader with a completely new set of characters. In 2010, the rest of the book took me awhile to get through. I missed Wolgast and the other figures from the first third of the book. I wanted more action where the second part of the book gave me more in the way of character development.
It took me awhile, but I got through the book eventually. I gave it 4 stars here - I would have given it 3, but the first third and then the last 30 pages or so convinced me to rate it higher.
Then in 2012, the sequel came out. I bought it, but shelved it for awhile, knowing I wasn't quite ready to tackle it yet. In fact, I waited a long while, and by the time I felt ready, I considered that a re-read of the first book was in order. I had forgotten much of what had happened in that second part of the book. I also thought that, knowing what I knew from my initial read, that the plot jumps a century and the reader needs to become acquainted with new characters and an entirely new post-viral world, I might be better equipped for that second part.
I wasn't wrong. Once I got there, I relished meeting these new people and becoming entrenched in their new world. I grew to love Peter, Sara, Michael, Alisha, Maus and the others, and that section of the book became as thrilling to me as the previous third that had so captured my imagination the first time around. It is a wonderful story, the entire way through. You just need to be ready for the twists that happen.
If you are considering a re-read: do it. I sincerely believe the book is more rewarding the second time around.
I’ve never read a vampire story like this. It’s not so far of a stretch to take the concept of a vampire and turn it into a world ending plague and it’s a wonder it took that long for someone to turn it into an epic like this one.
I really only have two complaints about the story. The first is that I feel like the jump in time from the end of Wolgast’s story to the colony left so much to be desired for me. I wasn’t done with Wolgast’s character and I feel like there’s so much more to tell from that 100 years. My only other complaint is I felt like there were some conflicts that were almost entirely brushed over that I would have loved to have read about. The first being the night the lights went out at the colony and the second being the expeditionary’s attack on the hive in the mountains. You get little hints of both but I wanted them to be fully fleshed out.
I really only have two complaints about the story. The first is that I feel like the jump in time from the end of Wolgast’s story to the colony left so much to be desired for me. I wasn’t done with Wolgast’s character and I feel like there’s so much more to tell from that 100 years. My only other complaint is I felt like there were some conflicts that were almost entirely brushed over that I would have loved to have read about. The first being the night the lights went out at the colony and the second being the expeditionary’s attack on the hive in the mountains. You get little hints of both but I wanted them to be fully fleshed out.
4/5stars
This was recced to me by my wonderful boyfriend uwu its one of his favorite series and a book he had been recommending me basically since our first date, so I was excited to pick it up - PLUS it follows my current favorite trope of "end of the world, most of the population is killed out and we follow a small group of survivors"
Firstly, I LOVED the premise it was incredibly interesting and a wonderful mix of several books i've really enjoyed in this same vein (I'd say this is book of m/severence/station eleven meets the oracle year meets twilight because duh). The science/story behind this whole apocalypse was probably one of my favorites recently and I loved how we saw the before, during and after the "apocalypse" in this book, in chronological order rather than in flash backs. i hadn't really seen this in a while in one of these types of books.
I also really liked how the writing style in this book was almost more like literary fiction than scifi/fantasy. This, to me, made it feel a lot less like a fictional, mostly-for-fun apocalyptic story and more a comment on humanity and society, and also really made you think a little bit more than the average book in this category.
I also LOVED a LOT of these characters - Amy, Lacey, Wolgast, Grey, Carter - they were all AMAZING and definitely characters who are going to stick with me for a long time, unlike many character whose names I immediately forget after finishing the book lol
But, that being said, if you have read this book, you can tell from that list of characters that all of those people were in the first part of this book. That was where this book lost a bit of love from me, was the fact that the beginning 200 pages were SOOOO far above the rest of the book it was a little off putting. The ending 100 pages were also great, but that middle part honestly felt like a completely different book. it was incredibly dragged out and I found myself getting very bored after a little while of it. There were SO MANY characters and I cared about maybe 2 of them (Peter and Michael) and so many things about the current world that weren't really explained.
That was really my only problem with this book - which did kinda suck since the middle part is obviously the biggest part of the damn book lol but the ending has me VERY interested for the second book and I'm hoping this first book was just a little draggy/boring because it was having to set up a lot. that being said, the beginning and end were enough to overshadow how tedious the middle felt - and I still absolutely FLEW threw the middle too
Definitely highly recommend for people who are interested!!
This was recced to me by my wonderful boyfriend uwu its one of his favorite series and a book he had been recommending me basically since our first date, so I was excited to pick it up - PLUS it follows my current favorite trope of "end of the world, most of the population is killed out and we follow a small group of survivors"
Firstly, I LOVED the premise it was incredibly interesting and a wonderful mix of several books i've really enjoyed in this same vein (I'd say this is book of m/severence/station eleven meets the oracle year meets twilight because duh). The science/story behind this whole apocalypse was probably one of my favorites recently and I loved how we saw the before, during and after the "apocalypse" in this book, in chronological order rather than in flash backs. i hadn't really seen this in a while in one of these types of books.
I also really liked how the writing style in this book was almost more like literary fiction than scifi/fantasy. This, to me, made it feel a lot less like a fictional, mostly-for-fun apocalyptic story and more a comment on humanity and society, and also really made you think a little bit more than the average book in this category.
I also LOVED a LOT of these characters - Amy, Lacey, Wolgast, Grey, Carter - they were all AMAZING and definitely characters who are going to stick with me for a long time, unlike many character whose names I immediately forget after finishing the book lol
But, that being said, if you have read this book, you can tell from that list of characters that all of those people were in the first part of this book. That was where this book lost a bit of love from me, was the fact that the beginning 200 pages were SOOOO far above the rest of the book it was a little off putting. The ending 100 pages were also great, but that middle part honestly felt like a completely different book. it was incredibly dragged out and I found myself getting very bored after a little while of it. There were SO MANY characters and I cared about maybe 2 of them (Peter and Michael) and so many things about the current world that weren't really explained.
That was really my only problem with this book - which did kinda suck since the middle part is obviously the biggest part of the damn book lol but the ending has me VERY interested for the second book and I'm hoping this first book was just a little draggy/boring because it was having to set up a lot. that being said, the beginning and end were enough to overshadow how tedious the middle felt - and I still absolutely FLEW threw the middle too
Definitely highly recommend for people who are interested!!