Vampire Girl
By Karpov Kinrade
Series: Vampire Girl
Number in Series: 1
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Dystopian
Publisher: Daring Books
Publish Year: 2016
270 pages.
The book's description (from Goodreads):
You think it's safe to walk alone at night. It's not.
You think the only threat is other humans. It's not.
Monsters are real. Demons are real. Vampires are real.
And I'm about to become one of them.
My name is Arianna Spero. I was an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life, until my mother lapsed into a coma. Now, I am her only hope. She made a deal with the devil, and on my 18th birthday he came to collect. But there's a way to save her. There's something the princes of hell want more than my mother.
Me.
So I signed my soul away and promised to pick a prince to marry. I would take the blood oath, become one of them, and give them an heir. I would become a princess of hell, and my mother would live.
I expected fire and brimstone. I expected pain and misery. I didn't expect beauty. I didn't expect magic.
I didn't expect love.
But the princes are keeping secrets from me.
Secrets that could shatter everything.
More of a Summery:
Vampire Girl is a book revolving around Arianna, starting with her turning 18, showing her day as a normal teenager from the low class, waking up to her loving mother making breakfast and going to work instead of school while hiding this fact from her mother, knowing she has to help the household and rising to the responsibility she chose to take on herself. At work we meet her best friend, Es, who is a transgender woman with bubbly personality, and learn of Es' boyfriend, Pete, and them being somewhat of an extended family to Arianna. During their shift Arianna comes to know a strange man named Asher who seems to know who she is and leaves her his card hinting she might need it. When she comes back to her house she finds her mom on the floor, unconscious, can't wake up.
While in the hospital, waiting for her mother to wake up, Asher comes back, telling her about her past and giving her a proposition she can't refuse if she doesn't want her mother's soul to suffer for eternity – Arianna will come with Asher to another world called "Isle of Inferna" where there are seven princes of hell (who are vampires and cursed with a deadly sin each) and she will spend a month with each, when in the eighth month she must choose which is the one who'll she marry and by that making him the king Inferna, and producing him an heir. If she signs this contract she will set her mother's soul free and she will come back to health and life, disconnected from the demons of hell.
When Arianna comes to the land of Inferna she finds out the situation is not as simple as she thought. On this land there are also Fae who have long, bloody history with the vampires, a lot of secrets, so much she doesn't know, and a threat of war coming very soon.
Review:
So, how will I start this review?
Why I gave a descent rating - the book is interesting, the characters are lively, the plot progression is okay and makes sense, there are things and concepts I liked such as the way they design every beginning of a chapter, and Fen. I love Fen. Also I can admire the subversion of things in the end.
What I appreciated less is the writing - the dialogue was sometimes weird. For example, sometimes Fen used very proper language and sometimes didn't, without justification for the different usage. From Fen's POV Arianna was more of a proper talker that she wasn't from her POV. They should have given a character a manner of speech and stick to it, which they did not do.
Also about the writing - I found myself starting to get bored in the none-dialogue parts sometimes, no matter if it involved fighting or high tension moments. To be honest, Fen's sweetness kind of did it for me in this novel. If it weren't for the way he was written this book would probably get a much lower rating from me.
The world building - was lackluster. We know that the kingdom of Inferna is different from the human world, has no technology progress (why? They could have tried, experiment and learn. Human progress happened exactly like that), it has demons which are vampires and fae. Apart from that we know pretty much nothing about the laws of this universe. We don't know what works, what can't work, we know so little about the politics, the society, the princes and government, it's sad.
I know this is the first of 7 books, so they might (or might not) answer these things and clear out how this universe works, and the real origin of both fae and vampires, but I would expect a bit more. This book should be able to lay the basics of this world or at least its difference from our world, and I felt that was lacking.
Also, the book seemed righteous and trying to be political at times, though most times it didn’t really concern me and felt fine (mostly because I agree with their core ideas). Such as, they made her best friend a transgender woman, a choice that felt very conscious, like – "We need to be inclusive! We need to give representation to this group of people!" – and felt less like it's a character, who is a real person, who happens to be transgender. Also, a lot of parts with Fen being extra conscious about consent and her being her – which I stand behind – but felt very noticeable, too noticeable. Like "I am Fen, the big, strong manly man, but I respect women and have feelings". It too is a message I stand behind, that even the macho-est of men has emotions and has the right to act upon them, and every person should pay respect to other people no matter who they are, where they are from and so on and so forth. Just… it was too conscious, too much trying to prove some lesson with the characters and not building them in such a way that this kind of structure and actions felt genuine enough to the character itself.
Though this seemed that I had a lot of negative opinions about this book, I had a lot of fun reading it and learning about the plot and the characters. I also believe in it and hope that my criticism will dissipate, especially the world building stuff.
3.3 stars out of 5 stars.
Ready to read the next one. Here I come!
Alice, YF.
270 pages.
The book's description (from Goodreads):
You think it's safe to walk alone at night. It's not.
You think the only threat is other humans. It's not.
Monsters are real. Demons are real. Vampires are real.
And I'm about to become one of them.
My name is Arianna Spero. I was an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life, until my mother lapsed into a coma. Now, I am her only hope. She made a deal with the devil, and on my 18th birthday he came to collect. But there's a way to save her. There's something the princes of hell want more than my mother.
Me.
So I signed my soul away and promised to pick a prince to marry. I would take the blood oath, become one of them, and give them an heir. I would become a princess of hell, and my mother would live.
I expected fire and brimstone. I expected pain and misery. I didn't expect beauty. I didn't expect magic.
I didn't expect love.
But the princes are keeping secrets from me.
Secrets that could shatter everything.
More of a Summery:
Vampire Girl is a book revolving around Arianna, starting with her turning 18, showing her day as a normal teenager from the low class, waking up to her loving mother making breakfast and going to work instead of school while hiding this fact from her mother, knowing she has to help the household and rising to the responsibility she chose to take on herself. At work we meet her best friend, Es, who is a transgender woman with bubbly personality, and learn of Es' boyfriend, Pete, and them being somewhat of an extended family to Arianna. During their shift Arianna comes to know a strange man named Asher who seems to know who she is and leaves her his card hinting she might need it. When she comes back to her house she finds her mom on the floor, unconscious, can't wake up.
While in the hospital, waiting for her mother to wake up, Asher comes back, telling her about her past and giving her a proposition she can't refuse if she doesn't want her mother's soul to suffer for eternity – Arianna will come with Asher to another world called "Isle of Inferna" where there are seven princes of hell (who are vampires and cursed with a deadly sin each) and she will spend a month with each, when in the eighth month she must choose which is the one who'll she marry and by that making him the king Inferna, and producing him an heir. If she signs this contract she will set her mother's soul free and she will come back to health and life, disconnected from the demons of hell.
When Arianna comes to the land of Inferna she finds out the situation is not as simple as she thought. On this land there are also Fae who have long, bloody history with the vampires, a lot of secrets, so much she doesn't know, and a threat of war coming very soon.
Review:
So, how will I start this review?
Why I gave a descent rating - the book is interesting, the characters are lively, the plot progression is okay and makes sense, there are things and concepts I liked such as the way they design every beginning of a chapter, and Fen. I love Fen. Also I can admire the subversion of things in the end.
What I appreciated less is the writing - the dialogue was sometimes weird. For example, sometimes Fen used very proper language and sometimes didn't, without justification for the different usage. From Fen's POV Arianna was more of a proper talker that she wasn't from her POV. They should have given a character a manner of speech and stick to it, which they did not do.
Also about the writing - I found myself starting to get bored in the none-dialogue parts sometimes, no matter if it involved fighting or high tension moments. To be honest, Fen's sweetness kind of did it for me in this novel. If it weren't for the way he was written this book would probably get a much lower rating from me.
The world building - was lackluster. We know that the kingdom of Inferna is different from the human world, has no technology progress (why? They could have tried, experiment and learn. Human progress happened exactly like that), it has demons which are vampires and fae. Apart from that we know pretty much nothing about the laws of this universe. We don't know what works, what can't work, we know so little about the politics, the society, the princes and government, it's sad.
I know this is the first of 7 books, so they might (or might not) answer these things and clear out how this universe works, and the real origin of both fae and vampires, but I would expect a bit more. This book should be able to lay the basics of this world or at least its difference from our world, and I felt that was lacking.
Also, the book seemed righteous and trying to be political at times, though most times it didn’t really concern me and felt fine (mostly because I agree with their core ideas). Such as, they made her best friend a transgender woman, a choice that felt very conscious, like – "We need to be inclusive! We need to give representation to this group of people!" – and felt less like it's a character, who is a real person, who happens to be transgender. Also, a lot of parts with Fen being extra conscious about consent and her being her – which I stand behind – but felt very noticeable, too noticeable. Like "I am Fen, the big, strong manly man, but I respect women and have feelings". It too is a message I stand behind, that even the macho-est of men has emotions and has the right to act upon them, and every person should pay respect to other people no matter who they are, where they are from and so on and so forth. Just… it was too conscious, too much trying to prove some lesson with the characters and not building them in such a way that this kind of structure and actions felt genuine enough to the character itself.
Though this seemed that I had a lot of negative opinions about this book, I had a lot of fun reading it and learning about the plot and the characters. I also believe in it and hope that my criticism will dissipate, especially the world building stuff.
3.3 stars out of 5 stars.
Ready to read the next one. Here I come!
Alice, YF.
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