Author Info: Website
Published: August 16, 2007
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 332
Age Group: Young Adult
Format I Own: Kindle e-book
Purchase: Amazon
When I first heard of the book, I was constantly seeing it being compared to Twilight, and considering I did enjoy Twilight, I thought I should probably read this too, even though I'm not a huge vampire lover or anything.
I didn't really enjoy this book much at all, and usually when I'm not enjoying a book, I don't focus all my attention on it, and let it consume me, so I probably miss a lot of important factors, keep that in mind when reading what I'm about to write.
I found this book to be... a little too young for me. I'm only in my early 20's, but when reading this, I felt like I was in high school again with all the catty girls, gossip, and sex references galore. If this hadn't been a vampire-themed book and it just focused on a bunch of normal teenagers, I would have felt like I was just reading some 15 year-old girls diary.
I also felt like there was a lack on any real plot. Usually when I read a book I notice the main focus of the story pretty early on, but not with this. It wasn't until I got to the end that I got a better understanding for what the plot was, and perhaps found it a bit more interesting as well, but at that point I was more focused on finishing the book, rather than what was going on.
Rose just seemed like your stereo typical high-school girl to me. She was boy crazy, kind of slutty, wanting to drink even though she's underage, and had a foul temper. However the foul-tempered thing didn't bother me too much, because with that I also felt that she was quite badass, but that's about the only thing I liked about her.
The last thing I want to point out, is that I felt this book was ridiculously inappropriate for being YA, mostly because of the language, but also again, sex references and underage drinking. I'm pretty sure that if this was 8-10 years ago and I had asked my parents if I could read this book, they would surely say no if they knew what was in it. So I wouldn't have been allowed to read it as a teenager, and found it to be too juvenile as an adult.
Overall, I know these are very popular books and tons of people like them, but I had high expectations for this book, and they were not met at all.
Finally someone who agrees with me! I was so shocked when I read this book recently. It sure does feel inappropriate for younger readers. And I don't get the popularity of the series at all... and not only that. I'm convinced it's difficult to find a good vampire book these days.
ReplyDeleteAgnieszka @ Nook of Books
I'm starting to wonder that myself. I usually stay away from paranormal romance in general, because there's just WAY too much of it in YA these days that I try to find something different. But when it comes to vampires, I only read Twilight because my best friend said it was amazing, and while I did enjoy it, it was poorly written and had a lot of flaws. VA made have had less flaws, but I didn't enjoy it.
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