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A review by hattynguyen
The Mellification by Nat Buchbinder
3.0
I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for this review.
This was a nice, quick and easy read. The set-up was interesting, the idea of combining mellification and vampires was unique, and I liked the LGBT+ representation, which I was pleased to see extended to more than just the main (trans) character! However, this felt a little like a rollercoaster that spends a lot of time setting up a massive scare only to turn out to be a tiny hill at the end. The author spent a lot of time establishing interesting characters, backstories, vampire lore, and even incorporated a fun "jumping between different characters in different time periods" element. But the mystery and suspense of the honey, beehives, referring to the community as a "colony" literally living in hexagons with a "queen bee" in the form of Marlowe, and then eventually the shocker of both Lila in the past and Holly in the present discovering the coffin leaking honey (not to mention Marlowe's weird honey bath) all had me on the edge of my seat, making guesses about what the big conspiracy or reveal would be. But all of this suspense was let down by the ending of the book. It felt really rushed and incomplete, and a lot of seemingly random things happened that felt more like plot devices to quickly end the book than a satisfying conclusion that the rest of the book deserved. All of a sudden, this rebellious and strong willed Holly just meekly accepts this massive betrayal and getting buried? The trial itself lasted all of 2 pages, and we never even saw the resolution of some of the characters and side plots introduced earlier: what happened to Lila after Claudia left? Who was the Lizard King? What happened to Marlowe's wife? ? Was she in the coffin? What did Marlowe mean when he said the honey was how he "maintained his power"? What's the backstory??? The sudden inclusion of the clearly neo-Nazi-esque "vampire hunters" at the end was completely out of left field, not to mention the end raid scene, which felt almost like the author got tired of developing the plot and just wanted a quick and easy way to end the story already—a real shame because there was so much potential in the first half. Intriguing set-up, disappointing execution.
This was a nice, quick and easy read. The set-up was interesting, the idea of combining mellification and vampires was unique, and I liked the LGBT+ representation, which I was pleased to see extended to more than just the main (trans) character! However, this felt a little like a rollercoaster that spends a lot of time setting up a massive scare only to turn out to be a tiny hill at the end. The author spent a lot of time establishing interesting characters, backstories, vampire lore, and even incorporated a fun "jumping between different characters in different time periods" element. But the mystery and suspense of the honey, beehives, referring to the community as a "colony" literally living in hexagons with a "queen bee" in the form of Marlowe, and then eventually the shocker of both Lila in the past and Holly in the present discovering the coffin leaking honey (not to mention Marlowe's weird honey bath) all had me on the edge of my seat, making guesses about what the big conspiracy or reveal would be. But all of this suspense was let down by the ending of the book. It felt really rushed and incomplete, and a lot of seemingly random things happened that felt more like plot devices to quickly end the book than a satisfying conclusion that the rest of the book deserved. All of a sudden, this rebellious and strong willed Holly just meekly accepts this massive betrayal and getting buried? The trial itself lasted all of 2 pages, and we never even saw the resolution of some of the characters and side plots introduced earlier: what happened to Lila after Claudia left? Who was the Lizard King? What happened to Marlowe's wife? ? Was she in the coffin? What did Marlowe mean when he said the honey was how he "maintained his power"? What's the backstory??? The sudden inclusion of the clearly neo-Nazi-esque "vampire hunters" at the end was completely out of left field, not to mention the end raid scene, which felt almost like the author got tired of developing the plot and just wanted a quick and easy way to end the story already—a real shame because there was so much potential in the first half. Intriguing set-up, disappointing execution.