Review: Good, but Could Have Been Better
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2012
Well, I did stay up until 3am finishing this book so there must have been something about it that I really liked- just can't figure out what exactly. The overall theme is kind of similar to Twilight- very rich, very powerful, very attractive vampire trying to prevent the very innocent girl from falling in love with him because it's for the best- and I don't mean that as a compliment.In a Vampire novel the vampires make or break the story and Silvanus didn't really do it for me. He's supposed to be this incredibly old, powerful vampire that was more then ready to kill Sarah just for summoning him (like a dog) but at the last minute he changes his mind and spends months helping her because... She's special? The book spends a lot of time talking about how special and awesome and amazing Sarah is and how she's so unique and special but it doesn't really show it. We're just supposed to understand that she's so special, so unique, (enough to win over the super bad ass, super jaded vampire in mere moments) but we don't really see why. We're told she's really special, numerous times, quite bluntly, but there's really nothing about her that seems to explain why Silvanus would be so captivated by her. Oh, and if you like your vampires "traditional" this one isn't for you. Sun has no effects on him (at least he doesn't glitter), he eats real food, he breathes, sleeps, and he doesn't have fangs. Yup, no fangs, just a very sharp knife. I have a feeling that if it wasn't important for Silvanus to not age (so that Sarah can catch up) he wouldn't have been a vampire at all.Surprisingly, Sarah, as a protagonist didn't annoy me. It's hard to get the female lead right because it's a fine line between damsel in distress and a brainless nitwit, between a strong women and a stubborn nitwit. But then, it's hard to be annoying when you're not really there. I don't know if it makes much sense but, despite the fact that this book is all about Sarah she's not really... there. Physically, she's there, I mean, things are happening to her, she's saying things, etc. But it isn't so much about Sarah as a person but about feeling tormented by devils, feeling gratitude towards a vampire, a crush on a vampire, feeling abandoned by someone you love, etc. The main character in the novel is this feeling of love and longing for a vampire that just happens to be attached to a shell of a woman named Sarah. I once read a theory that Twilight is so popular because Edward and Bella are so poorly defined that it's easy for the reader to project themselves (and their love/crush) onto the characters and live out the fantasy in their head. Maybe that's what this author is doing?As for the whole 13 year old girl and a "35" year old Vampire aspect... The author makes it VERY clear that she is VERY mature for her age (look and personality wise). She also makes it VERY VERY VERY VERY clear, NUMEROUS times, quite bluntly, that Silvanus DOES NOT find Sarah sexually attractive when she's young... though he totally will soon because she will grow up to be a stunning woman. She kind of beats you on the head with that to a point where I'm surprised she didn't just interject a disclaimer that read "ATTENTION READERS: THE 35 YEAR OLD VAMPIRE DOES NOT FIND THE 13 YEAR OLD GIRL SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE, AT ALL, LIKE NOT EVEN A LITTLE. HOWEVER, I DO WANT TO HAVE THEM FALL IN LOVE WHEN SHE'S OLD ENOUGH SO I WILL HAVE HIM TALK ABOUT SEX AND STUFF SO THAT WHEN HE DOES FALL FOR HER (AT AN APPROPRIATE AGE!) IT'S NOT COMING OUT OF NOWHERE. PLEASE DO NOT MISTAKE THE SEX TALK FOR SEXUAL TENSION."I know this review sounds overly critical and, to be frank, I could go on some more (like how all the characters sounds the same and there's very little personality difference between the main players). But, I have to say, it's not a bad story; I mean, I did stay up all night finishing it (though I did skim through a lot of the back half because that whole thing in Italy... I don't know...). I still don't know what it is that kept me up late just to finish the book but kudos to the author for creating that need to finish. I wouldn't be spending this much time on a review if I just straight up didn't like it. The story has some great bones but the characters are so nondescript they don't stay with you after the book is done. It's like the author just really didn't want to turn anyone off so she made the characters as universal and vague as possible. I couldn't even tell you what the characters are supposed to look like; I just know they're supposed to be very attractive. Silvanus is barely a vampire, I'm not familiar with witches but Sarah didn't seem that "witchy", and I'm surprised there isn't some watered down werewolf thrown it (or is that what her dog was supposed to be?).