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A review by lauriereadslohf
In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
2.0
Read this one in a day (it's only 147 pages after all) and though it was interesting it wasn't all that memorable.
In the Forest of the Night contains only 147 pages and those pages are filled with big fonts and lots of white space.
Risika is a 300 year old vampire who was turned and torn from everything she loved when she was only seventeen. The story flips back and forth between present day and the time when Risika was a mortal on the eve of her change.
I thought the past story was more engaging than the present. In the present Risika discovers that her archenemy, a darkly handsome Eeevil vampire named Aubrey (who is evil, I'm guessing, simply because he can be), is near and begins causing her great distress. She fears him, he's more powerful than she, but yet stubbornly defies him, baits him and, by her actions, basically dares him to come after her. It didn't make any sense to me. Because of her actions a tragedy occurs. For a 300 year old vampire she doesn't appear all that bright and is completely ineffective for the majority of the book when it comes to dealing with Aubrey. The glimpses into Risika's past as she learns to live her life in darkness are much more interesting than the present bits with Aubrey.
The writer was only thirteen when she wrote the story (according to the blurb) and, to my jaded eyes, it shows. Her character lacks maturity and common sense and character motivation wasn't explored as nearly as fully as it should have been. There was also an odd sense of emotional detachment throughout the book and I never felt like I knew any of these characters very well. But it was the ending that truly did me in. Everything is wrapped up with a twist that isn't explained and didn't make a lick of sense and, again, the lead character acts oddly and without emotion. Though the atmosphere was done exceptionally well (all dark and broody-like) I was left in the dark too often when it came to character motivation and the plot was too thin to rate this book as anything more than average.
In the Forest of the Night contains only 147 pages and those pages are filled with big fonts and lots of white space.
Risika is a 300 year old vampire who was turned and torn from everything she loved when she was only seventeen. The story flips back and forth between present day and the time when Risika was a mortal on the eve of her change.
I thought the past story was more engaging than the present. In the present Risika discovers that her archenemy, a darkly handsome Eeevil vampire named Aubrey (who is evil, I'm guessing, simply because he can be), is near and begins causing her great distress. She fears him, he's more powerful than she, but yet stubbornly defies him, baits him and, by her actions, basically dares him to come after her. It didn't make any sense to me. Because of her actions a tragedy occurs. For a 300 year old vampire she doesn't appear all that bright and is completely ineffective for the majority of the book when it comes to dealing with Aubrey. The glimpses into Risika's past as she learns to live her life in darkness are much more interesting than the present bits with Aubrey.
The writer was only thirteen when she wrote the story (according to the blurb) and, to my jaded eyes, it shows. Her character lacks maturity and common sense and character motivation wasn't explored as nearly as fully as it should have been. There was also an odd sense of emotional detachment throughout the book and I never felt like I knew any of these characters very well. But it was the ending that truly did me in. Everything is wrapped up with a twist that isn't explained and didn't make a lick of sense and, again, the lead character acts oddly and without emotion. Though the atmosphere was done exceptionally well (all dark and broody-like) I was left in the dark too often when it came to character motivation and the plot was too thin to rate this book as anything more than average.