Review: Beautiful writing dragged down a bit by excessive narration
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2012
After an incident with her frightening uncle on her sixteenth birthday, Lady Evangeline Languish is sent off to boarding school without explanation. After suffering for a few months, Eve is informed that her parents have died. Her parents' death unlocks the secrets that have plagued Eve since she was sent off to St. Rita's, and opens up a world of terror and intrigue she would have never imagined.There are a lot of things I loved about this book. For one, the author has a hauntingly beautiful writing style that borderlines on Gothic. She creates very powerful images and feelings with her words and truly brought to life the environment in which the characters lived. Unfortunately, sometimes these elements outshone the heroine, Eve, who to me came across as a bit flat at times. She is very naive and innocent, as her parents have locked her away her whole life to protect her. She is a dhampyr (half human, half vampire) and is considered dangerous. For me, though, her doe-like innocence got old after a few chapters and it just got annoying.The writing also drags in places and is, as we say in the South, 'slow as molasses'. I found this to be the book's greatest flaw as we spend a lot of time reading things that had absolutely no bearing on story progression.However, I found the secondary characters to be much more intriguing and added a lot of life to the story. Eve's best friend from boarding school, Sive, had me laughing in every scene in which she appears. Lorcan, the vampire love interest of Eve, was the very definition of 'strong, silent type'. He was quiet, mysterious, and I truly wanted to know more about him. Even the villain of this story, Eve's uncle Malachy, was created into a character I could sort of sympathize with. Made a vampire against his will, his story is one that will at least make the reader understand how and why he became what he is.I will say that the second half of the book is better than the first half and definitely worth hanging in there for. Though the story does drag in the beginning, things really take off in the last half and make this a very pleasant read.