Review: Gruesome and fun, but flawed.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2013
3 Stars. Maybe a 4, if you're a big fan of the romantic vampire/urban fantasy style. I think I was predisposed to be the wrong audience for the story.  Wolfenden's dark, gruesome, crisp imagery is fun, and parts of it read like a morality tale, with macabre fates befalling people who actually deserve it. There's a lot of fun stuff in it. It's got some flaws, though.I found some of the characters to be less than engaging, because I did not care for the central relationship at the center of it. I don't think I'll ever truly enjoy reading about older people meeting children, watching them grow, obsessing over them, and wrestling over romantic feelings with them when they're grown, no matter the supernatural mechanisms involved. That's just my personal taste. I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been more focused on Cain's search for identity, humanity, and revenge outside of his obsession with Mia.Putting aside my personal views on the characters, there's some noticeable flaws to Behind Blue Eyes. The text follows British editing conventions, so I'll surmise Wolfenden is British. The vast majority of the story is set in the US, however the author's language during American characters' dialogue still reads distinctly British, using phrases and word usages that are not commonly used in American vocabulary.Some of the details of the setting are inaccurate, and don't reflect local culture or laws, such as an 18 year old chatting to her future-roommate about how she enjoys a glass of wine with dinner. The geography of the area most of the story is set in is vague, as the main character owns stores in three cities, and I'm not sure which city he is residing in when the events take place, but after a character is gravely wounded in Alaska, she manages to travel to the main bulk of the US, to collapse on the main character's doorstep, still bleeding as though the wound was fresh. And then they travel back to Alaska, without much description of time passing. It read as though the author was expecting it to be a much shorter distance than it realistically would be.The characters and action are the focus, so there's plenty to keep you occupied if you don't obsess over details of the setting. Outside of travelogue lovers, how many of us salivate over the details of the locale in a book anyways? I'd rather focus on the characters, myself.The pace of the plot didn't grab me very tightly, mainly because it seemed like it was a bit too expansive to really heighten the effect of any one plot twist. I would love to see the side stories and smaller adventures pared back, to allow more time to focus on the interactions and relationships that shape the climax and main arc of the book.Cain's conflicting motivations (protecting Mia vs. hunting Vasile) didn't seem quite balanced enough to lend impact to either. It never really made sense to me that Cain set aside his revenge-lust towards Vasile so easily to "protect" Mia. Though in a few spots it's reignited and he departs to chase Vasile, but he gives up very quickly each time. (I put protect in quotes there, because his version of protection is something that most people I know would find quite suffocating, and possibly even call stalking.) It's a little unclear why Vasile decides to stalk and torment Cain, specifically, halfway through the book. He seems to have a particular animosity toward Cain that could be clarified... He doesn't know that he knows Cain's mother. I'm sure Vasile gets attacked by a lot of others, given his violence towards both humans and other vampires... I'm not sure why he has singled Cain out. Or why other vampires haven't ganged up and taken him out of the picture already, as they've done to another vampire who "threatened" the vampiric community.There's some elements to the writing that break up the flow of the story, and slow down the reader. On a sentence level, there's some areas that could use more detail to really resonate, and some spots where the action is confusing. Behind Blue Eyes could use a strong editor, too, to clarify the action in places, refine the structure for presenting characters' thoughts, and to search for continuity errors. There's one character, only ever mentioned by other characters, not actually active and present, who seems to have two names, Mary and Mandy. From the descriptions, it's the same woman, but both names are used for her, fairly randomly. Also, there are still quite a few editing errors, from typos (One recurring one that stuck out to me was the name Mia sometimes being Mai) or wonky grammar.I think a draft or two after working with an editor and refining the overall flow of the plot would be very helpful. The story has some interesting quirks, unusual imagery, and could be quite entertaining if given a little more polish. If you like edgy romance-tinged vampire stories, this one will likely hit the spot.One thing readers may need to be aware of- this book contains mature themes, and may trigger some abuse survivors. There's some fairly graphic descriptions of sexual violence.I received a free copy, in exchange for an honest review.