Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by cofferofbooks
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
3.0
This tells the story of Gabriel de Leon through two timelines: when he was 15-16 in a coming of age story and when he is 32 after the glory days as a vampire slayer are over.
The world-building was good, drawing inspiration from the Testaments and creating a cult of vampire slayers.
The story is dark, gritty, violent and fit for an adult reader who understands the pain of losing your belief, your purpose and many of your friends.
The narrative style wasn’t my favourite. I’m all for two timelines and jumping from one to the other but I wasn’t a fan of the storytelling through conversation, a nod to Interview with a Vampire.
With a bunch of teenage boys stuck together, there’s a lot of bullying and foul language, especially “yo mama, yo sister” profanities but I wasn’t on board with the adult teachers making such vile insults about these kids’ mothers.
The mysoginistic beliefs and derogatory terms continue throughout the book… I understand that the setting is medieval and maybe it was a choice for the sake of accuracy. However, I wasn’t a fan of the MC sharing into these beliefs.
Nearly all the graphic, sexual scenes were in the first timeline, when they were all teens. Either keep the characters at that age to maximise the effect of their tragic fate and take out the sex scenes, or age them up and write sex scenes that are appropriate for your readers. Or don’t market the book for adults because I don’t know what adult wants to read a graphic scene between two 16 year olds. Or what 16 year old girl would say “pray to me on your knees”.
The world-building was good, drawing inspiration from the Testaments and creating a cult of vampire slayers.
The story is dark, gritty, violent and fit for an adult reader who understands the pain of losing your belief, your purpose and many of your friends.
The narrative style wasn’t my favourite. I’m all for two timelines and jumping from one to the other but I wasn’t a fan of the storytelling through conversation, a nod to Interview with a Vampire.
With a bunch of teenage boys stuck together, there’s a lot of bullying and foul language, especially “yo mama, yo sister” profanities but I wasn’t on board with the adult teachers making such vile insults about these kids’ mothers.
The mysoginistic beliefs and derogatory terms continue throughout the book… I understand that the setting is medieval and maybe it was a choice for the sake of accuracy. However, I wasn’t a fan of the MC sharing into these beliefs.
Nearly all the graphic, sexual scenes were in the first timeline, when they were all teens. Either keep the characters at that age to maximise the effect of their tragic fate and take out the sex scenes, or age them up and write sex scenes that are appropriate for your readers. Or don’t market the book for adults because I don’t know what adult wants to read a graphic scene between two 16 year olds. Or what 16 year old girl would say “pray to me on your knees”.