Review: A Vampiric Tale that Needs a Little More Life
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 2, 2013
I think it's safe to add a point here if you're familiar with the field of law, particularly corporate law. I'm sure a lawyer, paralegal, clerk, legal secretary or any other kind of legal eagle might have caught more than I did. As for me, this book just dragged on.For those kinds of people, this novel might move more quickly. There are many arguments and bruised egos concerning the up-and-down movements of those along the corporate ladder, and those who have worked in these offices may identify better with them. It's quite possible I missed the nuances of those scenes.But as for me this novel moved VERY slowly. I wanted to like this; there are definite signs that Juno Ross has an author's polish when it comes to putting a sentence together. But she has to work on her story's pacing as well as its structure...her book seems to jump here and there without regard for the audience's need for cohesion, and this made following the story quite difficult at times.The story itself is interesting: a struggling young woman named Candace is snatched from death's door by a polished lawyer named Julian, who pulls her from the path of an oncoming car. We soon find out Julian is not only a senior member of a storied law firm, but also a vampire - a vampire SAVING a life is already a bit different, isn't it? And, secretly, Julian is very interested in her, but tries nobly to disguise his feelings for this fetching young streetwise woman from Baltimore's less fortunate suburbs.As time goes on, we find that Candace is not only star struck by her rescuer, but she has always dreamed of being a lawyer herself, and she is now almost giddy with excitement that she is suddenly on her way. While she has no idea about the vampire angle, she does realize quite quickly that she must play "the game," waiting her turn for her own opportunity - and Candace is not very good at waiting.From here on in we meet not only the partners of the law firm, but also other workers who are also trying to move up the ladder: Kenneth is a handsome ex-football star who was nearly recruited into the NFL before injury sidelined him, and Parker is a privileged loser who is sweet but can't seem to put one foot in front of the other without tripping. What is especially frustrating for Candace AND Kenneth is that Parker's connections seem to place him on the fast track toward partnership - regardless of his ineptitude.Story-wise, all seems well and good so far except for the author's problems with pacing. While Ross knows her way around a sentence, she has a problem with continuously juxtaposing elements that seem to occur to her as she writes, rather than taking the time to organize her thoughts. While Chapter 1 relates a minor character's special ability, Chapter 2 starts with "One hour and ten minutes earlier" and discusses our protagonist. When Chapter 3 begins with "One hour and ten minutes later" one thinks ah, well everything's back on track again, and then Chapter 4 begins with "Ten minutes earlier," then Chapter 5 starts with "Ten minutes left," and Chapter 6's first words are "One minute to go."More importantly, I felt that the book really took too long to relate its story, with too many diversions into minor characters' storylines that seemed to get us nowhere. Entire chapters take us through partners' lives that really could have been summarized much better and more briefly. The book didn't really get interesting until almost halfway through, when one of the character goes through the firm's quite unusual partnership ritual.Which is too bad, because there are several areas here that were quite interesting: besides the initiation rites, Ross discusses vampirism and homosexuality: personality disorders within the vampire line (with "-isms" ranging from bi-polarism to "double vampirism"), as well as the firm's consideration of placing at least one vampire on the Supreme Court. But Ross would do well to consider one or two of these elements and delve into them deeply, letting some of the distractive areas go - petty squabbles among the vampires and some of the Roman elements went on too long for my tastes.And there should be much, much more SUSPENSE! I have never read a vampire story in which I was never tense or worried or at least a little, but there was almost no tension within these pages. Late in the book there is a semi-interesting diversion into serial killing, but as it was it felt less tense than off kilter. More could have been done with it.Despite these flaws, I think Ms. Ross can be a gifted writer, and I hope she continues trying. I think, however, she needs a strong editor to help her corral her gamboling plotlines into a tighter story, one that will give it an immediacy this one lacked. A novel about vampiric lawyers is a hilarious idea, as well as giving them last names like "Blood," "Justice," "Knight," and "Howell." Such elements are rife with the possibilities of good dark humor. For instance, one of the lesser vampires finds that parts of a dissected corpse can still be, well, exciting...I found that hilarious, and humor like that would be very welcome. I am not asking Ms. Ross to be prurient, necessarily...only to investigate what should be a richer field than what is shown here.There are many indications Ross has real talent, and I hope Ms. Ross succeeds in her next venture. I will be looking, and rooting for her.