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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
I have an addiction for fairy tale books, and this one is definitely one of my favourites. I did have some issues with the book, but I still was able to read and finish this book with no screaming.
So, this book is about Cami, a girl who was found in the snow, bleeding as a young girl, by vampires. She was taken in by this vampire Family and named after the Vultusino's wife. She has befriended Ruby and Ellie (who are representations of Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, as teenagers) and goes to school with these girls. You would think that Cami would be loving this life that has been given to her, since she is scarred from her past life, but no. Our main character, our stuttering scarred Cami has never felt like she belongs with the Family and she wants to remember her origin and that's where garden boy Tor comes in.
The plot and pacing of the book had its ups and downs. The story was told from 3rd person pov but from Cami's perspective. At times, she or the other characters could be very confusing, especially with all of the memories of Cami's past life with the Queen. And the story would talk about vampires, fairies and magic, but named differently as the Family was the vampires and the magic in the story was called Potential. At first everything was a bit confusing but once I figured everything out, I was fine and dandy. I found the plot with the Queen and Cami's heritage very interesting. This retelling obviously did not follow the original story of Snow White as there was really no dwarves unless you want to call the 7 families of Vampires dwarves. And the prince in the story was a bit of an ass. Though I could not tell whether this story was a somewhat modern day story after some sort of Apocalypse or a story that takes place in the past. I must say though, the descriptions could be very vivid.
The characters were pretty good. I really loved Cami, Ruby and Ellie the most. I loved Cami, even though she stuttered (which was an awesome character flaw because I feel as though, like Cami, it is hard to get feelings out through words). Cami did lack a bit of backbone and very insecure, as she has many scars and would always apologize for stuff that wasn't her fault. It's not a bad thing in my PoV, as I see it as a good character flaw, and some people can relate like myself. She feels as though she doesn't not belong throughout the whole story and with her friends feels a little like a third wheel, a burden that has caused so much pain. And no one really knows these feelings as she can't make herself express them. She was just a flawed character who could be related to easily and possessed the traits of a princess and a teenager at many points.
I loved Ruby and Ellie the most of the secondary characters. They were very well developed and they had their own fairytale lives as well. It was very interesting to see a modern day (somewhat)version of Cinderella and Red Riding Hood as teens. Ruby was loud, had a temper and sort of slutty. Ellie was the abused, somewhat positive and caring girl. I'm really wishing for continued stories of these two girls (my dreams would come true!!!).
I honestly don't know how I feel about Nico, at all. He was Cami's love interest from the beginning of the book. Nico is the son of the Vultusino, the heir after Enrico Vultusino becomes Unbreathing (elder vampire). Nico has a wicked temper (it is a terrible vampiric temper), is very overprotective of Cami and loves her to pieces. Sometimes he was cute, but his temper was crazy and Cami didn't always defend herself and I just wanted to slap her silly. He had some personality but could have used more for me to like him.
The other characters of the Vultusino household were a bit flat but had a role in the story. I found it fascinating to read about the characters of the Queen's cult but they too didn't have much to them.
Well, to sum up all of this, I really did like the story. It was a great retelling that didn't follow too much of the original story but enough to make it entertaining for fairy tale lovers. Some characters and ideas could be confusing but lots of things make up for it. I can't completely the greatness of the book, so you will probably have to read it yourself. I will definitely be waiting to find a sequel.
2.5 stars really...for what it could have been.
If I could use one word to describe this book, I would use potential.
It has an intriguing premise. The characters might easily have been something worthwhile. The familiar yet unique way of approaching the story of Snow White is both haunting and comfortable.
Oh yes, this could have been something good.
Yet I would argue...it is not. It is confusing. The characters are not properly developed, important plot points not explained. I really liked the ending, but it is to rushed.
Plot:
In a futuristic/fairy tale world, "The Families" run New Haven. Besides being like the Mafia, the heads of the Families are vampires. Ten years ago, the head of the Vultusino Family adopted a young human girl discovered abused and abandoned on the city streets and raised her along with his son Nico. He named her Camille after his dead, mortal wife.
Cami is now sixteen but nightmares give her a double world. She is part of one of the most important Families, but feels like an outsider. Her stutter keeps her apart. The secret of her early years eludes her. And somewhere...a White Queen continues the search for the heart of a girl who escaped her clutches ten years earlier.
Thoughts
I'll admit, I'm not much of a vampire fan. However, I enjoyed the Mafia/Vampire connection immensely. Something about "The Family" and "blood" worked really well together. I don't have much complaint as far as the plot outline itself goes. I appreciated the lack of a love triangle...though they did a good job drawing it out like there might possibly be one. No, my problems with this book run like this...
1). Cami. "The Nameless". Our Snow White heroine...So much of her doesn't fit with the story. She comes across as a typical 16 year old with an INCREDIBLY AWKWARD CRUSH on her old brother for most of the book. She is stupid, runs into danger, though she has some personality because of the stutter/way the book hangs around her POV. I could have liked her.
However, she spends a lot of the book contrasting her "richness" to Tor's "poverty". Or anyone's poverty. It was an entirely unneeded plot element, in my opinion. Soooo....one of her shirts cost more than anything Tor makes in a day? How is that relevant? She strikes an odd cord as one who is a "modern day teenager" and as some fairy-tale princess who is kind of useless.
The whole thing with her being "The Nameless" gets thrown in there randomly.
Also, her obsession about not being "Family" makes no sense. Everybody treats her with respect and kindness and she just turns into this little puddle of 'I'm going to be abandoned.' Why? Where does this come from? It was this extreme section of her life yet doesn't seem to have a source. it just IS and because of that she goes and throws herself into a stupid situation that was totally preventable...as Nico points out at the end.
Both of those things just lightly irritated me, really. I just felt like her character growth was entirely...random. One minute she is a very typical 16-year-old girl, the next....what? What is she exactly at the end? Still a 16-year-old girl? Yes, but to think of her that way doesn't work. She's a high schooler and she doesn't really change much but she gets herself into a dumb situation and is saved out of it. Have her worst fears really been...fixed? Will her nightmares go away? Will it all be better? I'm not convinced. We lose touch with Cami at the end because she has somehow 'fought' her destiny but done very little fighting. She has this weird crush-thing on Nico and that's weird and apparently all worked up but what?
I might as well go into that next.
2). Cami and Nico. Who are technically legal siblings. That was...weird. I guess I can overlook that part because I will admit their romance was cute but it is just strange that Nico would fall for her and propose and its all true love or whatever...
She is his little sister.
Legally, if not by blood. Apparently they were also raised as siblings too. "Took baths together" and all that fun stuff. I fail to see how they fell in love, frankly. I also thought the scene where she just RANDOMLY throws off her tank top was UNNEEDED. It was awkward. It was weird. It was when the story went borderline sketchy. (though I was grateful nothing else went down)
Can I remind the world that Cami is 16? There is nothing really about her relationship with Nico that hints at more than a school girl crush, really.
Anyway...
3). Nico. Nico alone was why this book drips with Potential. I don't normally fall for book characters in teen fiction, and he had his share of flaws, but I love him. He is a redeemable Bad Boy Character whose redemption could have been so much more developed. I can't be as mad about the romance as I want to be because honestly Nico has so much potential intermingled with his angst, earnestness, protection and love. But he makes no sense. Why did his anger turn to sadness so quickly? Is the change going to be long-lasting? Has he really taken his role as leader seriously? Is his love for his sister a little twisted...or romantic? I don't know. I wish he could have been more developed. The scene at the bar was a great start but I wanted more Nico/Cami time before he proposed...because it made no sense. Or even after he proposed. Or when he got his heart. ALL of that is intriguing. I thought his character was way more relevant than Cami's friends, who get equal or more time. Is this book a romance or not?
Is a fairy-tale a romance?
I think it would have been better if he has rescued her in the end. Or at least if there had been more focus on his part, instead of again equal/more mention of her friends. It made the whole modern teenage girl/fairy tale heroine separation more dramatic and distinctive but not in a good way. It was harder to understand.
I don't normally go for this, but maybe even stress a prophecy about the two of them or something. Anything to bind Nico/Cami together in a more sensible, less awkward way and make their romance another level.
4). A lot of this book is hard to understand. The whole magic/sparks/visible potential thing was never really explained. That was a problem from the beginning. It made it hard to follow what was happening. Also the whispers about who she was...when she actually begins figuring out who she is...confusing.
5). Um, what happened to Tor? He started out as sort of this third love triangle-ish dude....turned out to be her legit half brother and almost step father sorta? It was just WEIRD. He appears...flirts...is cool but keeps getting compared to Nico which is not cool...and then becomes useless but he has this great act of heroism...and disappears from the plot again as irrelevant. That was confusing. Is he important? Isn't he? Is he paranoid or are there actually people after them? Will Cami just let her brother go? There is an entire relationship there that could have been intriguingly developed.
In conclusion, I really fell for the characters. I just wanted...MORE of them. More of their development, emotions, character change and redemption. More interaction. The best friends really have little "foil" compared to Tor and Nico but somehow flicker through the plot as pseudo-Cinderella/Red Riding Hood. Plot good, needed more flesh. Less about Cami's weird emotional issues. Good for what might have been...
If I could use one word to describe this book, I would use potential.
It has an intriguing premise. The characters might easily have been something worthwhile. The familiar yet unique way of approaching the story of Snow White is both haunting and comfortable.
Oh yes, this could have been something good.
Yet I would argue...it is not. It is confusing. The characters are not properly developed, important plot points not explained. I really liked the ending, but it is to rushed.
Plot:
In a futuristic/fairy tale world, "The Families" run New Haven. Besides being like the Mafia, the heads of the Families are vampires. Ten years ago, the head of the Vultusino Family adopted a young human girl discovered abused and abandoned on the city streets and raised her along with his son Nico. He named her Camille after his dead, mortal wife.
Cami is now sixteen but nightmares give her a double world. She is part of one of the most important Families, but feels like an outsider. Her stutter keeps her apart. The secret of her early years eludes her. And somewhere...a White Queen continues the search for the heart of a girl who escaped her clutches ten years earlier.
Spoiler
Thoughts
I'll admit, I'm not much of a vampire fan. However, I enjoyed the Mafia/Vampire connection immensely. Something about "The Family" and "blood" worked really well together. I don't have much complaint as far as the plot outline itself goes. I appreciated the lack of a love triangle...though they did a good job drawing it out like there might possibly be one. No, my problems with this book run like this...
1). Cami. "The Nameless". Our Snow White heroine...So much of her doesn't fit with the story. She comes across as a typical 16 year old with an INCREDIBLY AWKWARD CRUSH on her old brother for most of the book. She is stupid, runs into danger, though she has some personality because of the stutter/way the book hangs around her POV. I could have liked her.
However, she spends a lot of the book contrasting her "richness" to Tor's "poverty". Or anyone's poverty. It was an entirely unneeded plot element, in my opinion. Soooo....one of her shirts cost more than anything Tor makes in a day? How is that relevant? She strikes an odd cord as one who is a "modern day teenager" and as some fairy-tale princess who is kind of useless.
The whole thing with her being "The Nameless" gets thrown in there randomly.
Also, her obsession about not being "Family" makes no sense. Everybody treats her with respect and kindness and she just turns into this little puddle of 'I'm going to be abandoned.' Why? Where does this come from? It was this extreme section of her life yet doesn't seem to have a source. it just IS and because of that she goes and throws herself into a stupid situation that was totally preventable...as Nico points out at the end.
Both of those things just lightly irritated me, really. I just felt like her character growth was entirely...random. One minute she is a very typical 16-year-old girl, the next....what? What is she exactly at the end? Still a 16-year-old girl? Yes, but to think of her that way doesn't work. She's a high schooler and she doesn't really change much but she gets herself into a dumb situation and is saved out of it. Have her worst fears really been...fixed? Will her nightmares go away? Will it all be better? I'm not convinced. We lose touch with Cami at the end because she has somehow 'fought' her destiny but done very little fighting. She has this weird crush-thing on Nico and that's weird and apparently all worked up but what?
I might as well go into that next.
2). Cami and Nico. Who are technically legal siblings. That was...weird. I guess I can overlook that part because I will admit their romance was cute but it is just strange that Nico would fall for her and propose and its all true love or whatever...
She is his little sister.
Legally, if not by blood. Apparently they were also raised as siblings too. "Took baths together" and all that fun stuff. I fail to see how they fell in love, frankly. I also thought the scene where she just RANDOMLY throws off her tank top was UNNEEDED. It was awkward. It was weird. It was when the story went borderline sketchy. (though I was grateful nothing else went down)
Can I remind the world that Cami is 16? There is nothing really about her relationship with Nico that hints at more than a school girl crush, really.
Anyway...
3). Nico. Nico alone was why this book drips with Potential. I don't normally fall for book characters in teen fiction, and he had his share of flaws, but I love him. He is a redeemable Bad Boy Character whose redemption could have been so much more developed. I can't be as mad about the romance as I want to be because honestly Nico has so much potential intermingled with his angst, earnestness, protection and love. But he makes no sense. Why did his anger turn to sadness so quickly? Is the change going to be long-lasting? Has he really taken his role as leader seriously? Is his love for his sister a little twisted...or romantic? I don't know. I wish he could have been more developed. The scene at the bar was a great start but I wanted more Nico/Cami time before he proposed...because it made no sense. Or even after he proposed. Or when he got his heart. ALL of that is intriguing. I thought his character was way more relevant than Cami's friends, who get equal or more time. Is this book a romance or not?
Is a fairy-tale a romance?
I think it would have been better if he has rescued her in the end. Or at least if there had been more focus on his part, instead of again equal/more mention of her friends. It made the whole modern teenage girl/fairy tale heroine separation more dramatic and distinctive but not in a good way. It was harder to understand.
I don't normally go for this, but maybe even stress a prophecy about the two of them or something. Anything to bind Nico/Cami together in a more sensible, less awkward way and make their romance another level.
4). A lot of this book is hard to understand. The whole magic/sparks/visible potential thing was never really explained. That was a problem from the beginning. It made it hard to follow what was happening. Also the whispers about who she was...when she actually begins figuring out who she is...confusing.
5). Um, what happened to Tor? He started out as sort of this third love triangle-ish dude....turned out to be her legit half brother and almost step father sorta? It was just WEIRD. He appears...flirts...is cool but keeps getting compared to Nico which is not cool...and then becomes useless but he has this great act of heroism...and disappears from the plot again as irrelevant. That was confusing. Is he important? Isn't he? Is he paranoid or are there actually people after them? Will Cami just let her brother go? There is an entire relationship there that could have been intriguingly developed.
In conclusion, I really fell for the characters. I just wanted...MORE of them. More of their development, emotions, character change and redemption. More interaction. The best friends really have little "foil" compared to Tor and Nico but somehow flicker through the plot as pseudo-Cinderella/Red Riding Hood. Plot good, needed more flesh. Less about Cami's weird emotional issues. Good for what might have been...
An interesting take on the Snow White fairy tale. The world was a little to complex and lacked some context, the main character was a little bland, and it was very slow going, but it was interesting enough for me to finish it. Note some mild content may not be suitable for all readers.
Definitely an interesting and different take on the story of Snow White.
Cami was found in the snow by one of the most powerful families in New Haven. She has grown up with everything she could possibly need except the ability to fit in to her vampire family. Magic abounds and Cami has Potential, but she doesn't know what it will be yet. This book is the story of her discovery of where she comes from, sort of.
This is a loose fairy tale retelling - very loose as I didn't realize it until I read others talking about it. It is very odd and ethereal. And even the answers at the end are not complete. I liked this but it isn't going to be for every fantasy reader.
This is a loose fairy tale retelling - very loose as I didn't realize it until I read others talking about it. It is very odd and ethereal. And even the answers at the end are not complete. I liked this but it isn't going to be for every fantasy reader.
I started this 20 minutes ago and I have a migraine after 22 pages. I am not the sort of reader who likes to constantly read between the lines. Having references of new worlds that are not explained drives me crazy and I refuse to continue with a book that leaves me with a "wtf," look on my face after every page.
Example:
"The only way through the Waste was sealed in a train; and the nasty creatures that lived outside the order of the city and the kolkhozes mostly at bay. The collective farms are full of jacks and Twists, but someone had to grow the food, right? And you couldn't farm the Waste without reclamation to drain off the blight and channel the wild magic into systematic forms."
This is when I stopped because the ENTIRE FIRST 22 PAGES IS LIKE THIS. Maybe I'm stupid, but when I read a book, I like to know what's going on. I like to see a clear image of what is happening in my mind and with this, I can't. So, after 22 pages, this book is in my DNF list.
Example:
"The only way through the Waste was sealed in a train; and the nasty creatures that lived outside the order of the city and the kolkhozes mostly at bay. The collective farms are full of jacks and Twists, but someone had to grow the food, right? And you couldn't farm the Waste without reclamation to drain off the blight and channel the wild magic into systematic forms."
This is when I stopped because the ENTIRE FIRST 22 PAGES IS LIKE THIS. Maybe I'm stupid, but when I read a book, I like to know what's going on. I like to see a clear image of what is happening in my mind and with this, I can't. So, after 22 pages, this book is in my DNF list.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like there was a great idea behind the book, and so much potential. It really was a let down because the author didn't take advantage of this brilliant idea and write an amazing book...and just look at that beautiful cover! I really don't have any part I enjoyed so I don't suggest that others waste their time reading this. But if you are interested in fairy tale spin-offs, this diagram is amazing http://www.epicreads.com/blog/an-epic-chart-of-162-young-adult-retellings/ .
This book had so much potential, but it fell way flat. I has to force myself to finish it, and I sort of wish I hadn't. When writing a fantasy novel, the author cannot just drop you into this made up world and expect you to understand everything. I was truly and utterly confused for 80% of the book. Dropping things like jacks, twists, potential, and whatever the heck was going on with the family and New Haven. Obviously some things could be extrapolated, like the allusions to vampires, but all in all terrible. Also, Cami's speech impediment was difficult to read. I have read other books with characters who have stutters, they were written in a less grating way. There is definately a way of including a plot device like that into the story, and this was not a successful one
devoured! At first I didn't understand the sentence structure and proper nouns but it all comes together in the end. I really really enjoyed this...it has all the scary fantasy characters. Cam is not your typical girl YA protagonist. Her frustration and struggle with her speech makes for a forced introverted character. Great stuff.