Review: Dragged for too long
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 30, 2013
This review is a difficult one to write as I can see the author has talent but the story is missing the most important thing for me to enjoy. I'll get to that later.For the review, I will separate the book in two. The first 45% of it happens at a university in England, and in the second 55%, we find ourselves in the middle of the Amazon.First part: It started well with Caitlin. We had a feel for her character and how caring she was but then it all went to hell. While the dialogues were meant to get us acquainted with the characters, I am sorry to say that I found them quite boring and they did nothing to advance the story. After 45% of the book, I still didn't feel anything for the characters, so I took a break, not able to push myself to read more. In my humble opinion, it dragged for too long and shouldn't have lasted more than maybe 15% of the book.When two students supposedly commit suicide, it left me cold. (It seems to have left everyone at the university cold also aside from Caitlin.) In my humble opinion, the reason for that is that the story is being told and not shown. I was not led to feel for any characters. I saw the story unfold as if I was a spectator without any attachment to the characters. To top it all, when Caitlin, affected by the loss of her friend, leaves the university for a couple of weeks, Steven, who is supposed to be interested in her, immediately brings another girl home. (She just wants to see how he lives and he owes nothing to Caitlin, so he sees nothing wrong with that.) Then when she asks to see his bedroom, we are told that he thinks she just wants to see his bedroom. (Yeah, right.) Anyway, I will not enter any details as not to give spoilers, but by then, the protagonist had lost many points.Finally, at about 45% something happens. I hoped it would trigger my interest, even though the way it happened is a mystery as it feels almost impossible, but some kind of explanation is given much later on. It almost felt as a 'whoops I need to fix that' afterthought. The explanations given are simple, they don't know how it's done but it works and that's all that counts. Ok. I guess I can live with that.Now we find ourselves in the Amazon.A little less of mundane talk might have helped, but yet again, although the dialogues are somewhat better, they are still often pointless. By then, I had practically given up on the book. Yet, something dragged me back. Vanessa Wester had a great idea for her vampires. She created a cool world in the Amazon for them. Told us how they lived. How they came to exist etc. The problem yet again is that everything was still told. 'Steven felt sad.' 'Steven didn't like this or that.' Although, it is said that he misses Caitlin, and that he still loves her, I never had the idea that he actually loved her to begin with. I wanted to hear about how he felt and not only of what he felt.Don't take me wrong. Vanessa Wester has great potential. With a little bit more investment in her characters, this book could have been so much better. I'm hoping the sequel will fill the empty spots in my heart so I can finally learn to like Steven and Caitlin and the other many interesting characters that filled the book, but yet are still cold strangers to me.Sadly, I can't give it more than a 2 stars. It was somewhat OK. Without the first half of the book, I might have gone as far as giving it a 3 or even a 3.5 for its originality. I'd almost have to tell people to skip the first 45%, and to go read the second half. All we need to know, really, is that Stevens and Caitlin were in love with each other before the 'events'.