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A review by princessrensa
Vampires, Hearts, & Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Great book, and a very poignant exploration of grief and the ways we try to deal with it. I will say, this book either needed more vampire stuff or less vampire stuff, and that probably won't make sense until you read it.
This book follows a teenage girl named Victoria whose father is close to passing away from pancreatic cancer. She ends up taking a trip to New Orleans that she had planned with her dad, accompanied by her estranged best friend Henry in place of said dad. Convinced since childhood that vampires are real, Victoria begins searching for a vampire who can help her save her dad from dying, and eventually becomes convinced she has found one. She's willing to jump through almost any number of hoops to prove her worthiness to become a vampire, and is assigned various scavenger hunt-esque tasks to complete in order to do so.
The part of this book that I was the most invested in was Victoria's friendship with Henry. The two of them are childhood friends who had feelings for each other, but grew apart after Henry started dating someone else. Now single again, Henry is trying to reconnect with Victoria throughout the book (primarily as a friend and as someone else who has recently experienced loss, not like in a pushy "date me" way), but she's continually pushing him away because he doesn't fully support her vampire quest. Honestly, Henry is great and Victoria is kind of awful to him at points, but I still wanted them to be together, or at least for her to let someone in. I'm just saying, if I had someone like Henry following me to New Orleans to hunt vampires, I would be a lot less interested in the vampires. This is huge for me to say, because I love vampires.
As for the vampire thing - spoilers follow. Throughout the book, we're constantly lead to doubt whether vampires are actually real. Although Victoria meets a boy posing as a vampire, the "proof" she's clinging to that he's real is tenuous at best, and eventually falls apart, revealing how hopeless her quest has been. He was never a vampire, just a teenager who sends people on these scavenger hunts to remind them of the joys of life. I liked this. It's a very non-traditional kind of vampire story. However, it gets a little weird when Victoria suddenly figures out, the night before her flight home, that someone else she met IS actually a vampire. She goes to confront him and his vampirism is confirmed when he bites her, either to kill her or turn her. But she isn't turned, and flies home the next morning with a little less blood. I feel like I understand why Maggie Fuston would have included a real vampire at the end of this story, but as a vampire lover I respectfully think she should have resisted the urge. I think it would have been stronger to leave the reality of vampires ambiguous - maybe Victoria suspects someone of being a true vampire, but doesn't get to confirm. Victoria leaving behind her hunt for vampires (even if she has reason to believe they ARE real) could act as a metaphor for her accepting her grief and her dad's death. And yes, she does accept her grief at the end, but I think it would have been more powerful if she didn't get confirmation. For Victoria to keep looking for a vampire (no matter how dangerous the vampire in question may be) after everything she's been through and the emotional journey she's been on just felt...odd, especially at this point in the story. ALTERNATELY, for a "more vampires" option, if this was an entirely different story, Victoria becoming a vampire could be a really interesting conflict to unpack. So that's what I meant by saying this story needs more vampires or less vampires. I personally lean towards less vampires and cutting the reveal, but I'm sure some readers would have been left cold without some kind of resolution to the mystery.
Also, I wish we could have spent more time exploring Victoria's relationships with her friends and family and how she begins repairing those relationships at the end of the book, since that was the heart of the story for me. The scavenger hunt she goes on dragged out just a little too long, although I did enjoy the setting it was taking place in. Like Henry, I was getting more frustrated with Victoria as things continued.
Overall, a very good book that I really enjoyed. I'm really interested to see where Maggie Fuston will go from here, and in general I hope we get more non-traditional vampire stories in the future. I love a good vampire story, and this was a great twist on the traditional formula.
This book follows a teenage girl named Victoria whose father is close to passing away from pancreatic cancer. She ends up taking a trip to New Orleans that she had planned with her dad, accompanied by her estranged best friend Henry in place of said dad. Convinced since childhood that vampires are real, Victoria begins searching for a vampire who can help her save her dad from dying, and eventually becomes convinced she has found one. She's willing to jump through almost any number of hoops to prove her worthiness to become a vampire, and is assigned various scavenger hunt-esque tasks to complete in order to do so.
The part of this book that I was the most invested in was Victoria's friendship with Henry. The two of them are childhood friends who had feelings for each other, but grew apart after Henry started dating someone else. Now single again, Henry is trying to reconnect with Victoria throughout the book (primarily as a friend and as someone else who has recently experienced loss, not like in a pushy "date me" way), but she's continually pushing him away because he doesn't fully support her vampire quest. Honestly, Henry is great and Victoria is kind of awful to him at points, but I still wanted them to be together, or at least for her to let someone in. I'm just saying, if I had someone like Henry following me to New Orleans to hunt vampires, I would be a lot less interested in the vampires. This is huge for me to say, because I love vampires.
As for the vampire thing - spoilers follow.
Also, I wish we could have spent more time exploring Victoria's relationships with her friends and family and how she begins repairing those relationships at the end of the book, since that was the heart of the story for me. The scavenger hunt she goes on dragged out just a little too long, although I did enjoy the setting it was taking place in. Like Henry, I was getting more frustrated with Victoria as things continued.
Overall, a very good book that I really enjoyed. I'm really interested to see where Maggie Fuston will go from here, and in general I hope we get more non-traditional vampire stories in the future. I love a good vampire story, and this was a great twist on the traditional formula.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent