A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

TL;DR Twilight, but with kidnapping

not on TBR

finished 11/14/16

I downloaded the 2015 extended edition via Prime Reading.

I borrowed this book on a whim because it was free for me. It was easy enough to power through in about a day (even if it was too awkward to try and read in class). The narration is agreeable, but the structure of a lot of the sentences felt awkward. I've googled a whole bunch of grammar terms to define it (to no avail) so I'll share an example instead:

Hoping to relieve some of the tension, I reached for a tissue and stood up. Cautiously, I placed a hand on his broad shoulder. He looked up at me and took the tissue, wiping his mouth. There was a small area that he missed, so I pulled out another tissue. (page 196 / 70%)

It feels kind of ... clunky? I think a lot of the sentences could be rearranged to get rid of the commas, like "I cautiously placed a hand on his broad shoulder". This particular example feels boring in how it outlines what's going on. I don't think there needed to be this much detail to cleaning blood off Derek's mouth.

(Ironically, I'm pretty sure this is the same kind of sentence structure I use the most ...)

Sofia was a little uninteresting as a main character, but at least she had some bravery to her. She adapted to her situation better than I expected. (Stockholm Syndrome, maybe?) The vampires were also uninteresting, and I'm not sure if they're really supposed to be the villains of the story. They're definitely not as evil as I was expecting based on the Amazon blurb.

(Maybe my expectations were just wrong overall?)

There's very little action and a lot of just sitting around. Like, at least Sofia is smart enough to not risk an escape she knows won't get her anywhere, but a good part of the book is her sitting around the treehouse and hanging out with the other girls that were kidnapped. It's not very dynamic.

I do feel the need to point out that there was a murder that was probably just for the shock factor (which was ineffective, since I wasn't attached to the character) and a reveal towards the end that wasn't as shocking as it probably should have been. I was wondering more about the implications of the reveal outside the realm of the story than how it necessarily related to Sofia's immediate story.

The setup for a love triangle is also awful and I hope it doesn't actually happen. I don't particularly like either of the boys, or the third boy that's only a stakes to the plot than an option. He's only there to scare Sofia and cause drama with Derek.

Amazon recommended me a bunch of similar books and I decided to look it up on Goodreads -- there are thirty-four books in this series. The first seven are of Sofia and Derek. That's a little too many. Like, they're not that long, but I have no idea how you can find seven books' worth of drama to include, let alone extending this world and lore across thirty-four more books.

Although I will admit that I'll probably read more if I can get my hands on them for free. Just out of curiosity. I really do want to see how such a long series is attempted.

I'm going to admit that I haven't made a successful re-read of Twilight since I finished it the first time back in 2009, but it's impossible to deny that they have the same kind of vibe. Derek has the same "silent brooding type that the heroine somehow finds endearing" thing going on, and for as brave as Sofia is, I don't think she's much smarter than Bella. The remainder of the vampires in A Shade of Vampire are exactly like the Twilight ones to me. I will admit that I enjoyed A Shade of Vampire more. (But I also hated Twilight, so the validity of my statement is a toss-up.)

TL;DR It was easier to read through than Twilight, and the characters do have some of their own traits, but it's also pretty standard for a post-Twilight vampire book. I don't think there's much to stand out from all the others except for how freaking massive this series is.