This book would be alright for those of you who have never read a vampire story in your life. If you have read lots, then I think you'll be a little unimpressed by the whole thing. I initially thought that it'd be hard for Rees to make any kind of impact with this book as it contains your run-of-the-mill immortal vampire that's allergic to crosses, stakes and of course the pungent spice that is garlic. Turns out I was right. The storyline is pretty generic. The heroine of our story, Ellen Forrest, finds herself feeling sick and pale. She's not getting any explanations from the countless doctors and specialists her mother has taken her to as they too have no idea what the problem is (don't they always?). Then one day she discovers a set of diaries in her grandmother's attic and the truth is revealed.I also thought that Rees wrote this after the Twilight series was published because of the new cover. However it turns out that she wrote this in 1996 so she definitely gets credit for the originality of her book. The story wasn't riveting. As it's for teens, it contained small elements of romance. What was good about the book was how she took a little folklore from both Transylvanian (I presume) and Chinese culture. The Chinese have their own version of a vampire and remedies to fight them off and I think she did enough research to make it believable. However, this cross-culture element only surfaced in the last fifth of the story. It's a shame that she didn't capitalize on it more. It could have made this a one of a kind vampire tale.
Great title though.
0 comments:
Post a Comment