A review by smoores415
The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was another book where the premise was better than the outcome in my opinion. I'm not the biggest vampire fan, but the idea of vampires living alongside humans in their own colonies with a treaty in place was interesting to me.

I thought that having the vampires being comparable to indigenous people was also an interesting viewpoint, but it got old fast. The story takes place in a very small, very narrow-minded Alaskan town. The author compared anti-vampire tattoos to swastika tattoos. After a while, the comparisons became too repetitive and I was bored with all the hate in the book. I feel like it's easy to write a small town that's just full of racist bigots and it's not compelling to me.

I thought it was going to be more 30 Days of Night and they mentioned that the main character might be stuck there, which would add to the drama and sense of urgency, but it didn't really feel like she was in real danger or had to worry about that. I'm fine with that, but I just find it weird that they repeatedly brought it up but it wasn't really an issue in the end.

The ending also fell super flat for me. I feel like it was a lot of build-up and red herrings with no payoff. Then the resolution after the climax was pretty nonexistent.

Like I said, I liked the concept and the universe that was built. The book sets up a possibility for a sequel and I would be interested in that because I liked the main character and I think another story in a different setting could work.