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A review by jkneebone
My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This review contains minor spoilers, because I couldn’t be bothered to tag so much of it, sorry!
My Roommate is a Vampire is pretty much what it says on the tin. Cassie is a struggling artist with multiple part time jobs who thinks it’s too good to be true when she comes across a stranger looking for a roommate and charging way under market value. But she’s desperate, so she goes for it, moving in with Frederick Fitzwilliam. At first Cassie thinks Frederick is just strange, but she soon finds out he’s actually a 300+ year old vampire who’s just woken up from a century-long coma. Totally out of step with the modern world, Frederick needs someone to re-teach him how to live in 21st century Chicago. Cassie agrees, and then they fall in love.
There’s really…not a lot happening in this book? Even for a romance novel, the plot is sparse. Cassie is struggling to find success with her art (she adds trash to traditional paintings, which doesn’t feel as unique as the author wants us to think it is), with an art show application and an opportunity to teach at a prestigious high school serving as the touch points of that B plot. Frederick, meanwhile, is trying to escape the clutches of his mother, who has arranged a traditional vampire marriage for him, which he isn’t interested in. Although that’s supposed to be a high-stakes situation, it’s resolved in a way that is laughably simple which diminishes all of the weight placed on it earlier.
However my biggest issue with this book is it somehow manages to be a romance novel about a vampire that is neither scary nor sexy? The fact that Frederick is a vampire obviously affects the plot, but in some ways it feels like a nonissue because it doesn’t mess up the potential romance. Cassie is initially freaked out when she finds out what Frederick is, but she gets over it pretty fast and her safety never comes up again. Frederick sucks her blood during sex and it’s not treated as something either risky or hot, it’s a complete non-issue. This reads like a cozy romance where one of the characters just so happens to be a vampire. I’m sure that’s what some people are looking for, but if I’m going to read about a romance between a human and a vampire, I need it to be more something - dramatic, fucked up, erotic, problematic, spooky - I don’t care what, but it needs to be SOMETHING with feeling, so for me this book wasn’t it.
My Roommate is a Vampire is pretty much what it says on the tin. Cassie is a struggling artist with multiple part time jobs who thinks it’s too good to be true when she comes across a stranger looking for a roommate and charging way under market value. But she’s desperate, so she goes for it, moving in with Frederick Fitzwilliam. At first Cassie thinks Frederick is just strange, but she soon finds out he’s actually a 300+ year old vampire who’s just woken up from a century-long coma. Totally out of step with the modern world, Frederick needs someone to re-teach him how to live in 21st century Chicago. Cassie agrees, and then they fall in love.
There’s really…not a lot happening in this book? Even for a romance novel, the plot is sparse. Cassie is struggling to find success with her art (she adds trash to traditional paintings, which doesn’t feel as unique as the author wants us to think it is), with an art show application and an opportunity to teach at a prestigious high school serving as the touch points of that B plot. Frederick, meanwhile, is trying to escape the clutches of his mother, who has arranged a traditional vampire marriage for him, which he isn’t interested in. Although that’s supposed to be a high-stakes situation, it’s resolved in a way that is laughably simple which diminishes all of the weight placed on it earlier.
However my biggest issue with this book is it somehow manages to be a romance novel about a vampire that is neither scary nor sexy? The fact that Frederick is a vampire obviously affects the plot, but in some ways it feels like a nonissue because it doesn’t mess up the potential romance. Cassie is initially freaked out when she finds out what Frederick is, but she gets over it pretty fast and her safety never comes up again. Frederick sucks her blood during sex and it’s not treated as something either risky or hot, it’s a complete non-issue. This reads like a cozy romance where one of the characters just so happens to be a vampire. I’m sure that’s what some people are looking for, but if I’m going to read about a romance between a human and a vampire, I need it to be more something - dramatic, fucked up, erotic, problematic, spooky - I don’t care what, but it needs to be SOMETHING with feeling, so for me this book wasn’t it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Blood