Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Das Reich der Vampire by Jay Kristoff

80 reviews

swally2005's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Excellent. This book does take some time to get pulled into, but if you stick with it, it is definitely worth it. The tale starts off with Gabriel de Leon, an infamous vampire hunter, who happens to be half vampire himself, captured in a prison cell and being implored to tell his life's story to a vampire historian named Jean-Francois of the Chastain vampire bloodline. This book is one night of Gabriel sitting in a cell and recounting his life, while the vampire historian records it. 

Gabriel's story jumps back-and-forth between different time periods in his life, as well as back to his present reality; so at first, this can be quite overwhelming as you still don't really understand what's going on, but you get used to it and things start making sense as the story goes on. The world-building in this book is excellent, and the storytelling format is quite engrossing once you get past the initial confusion. This book also uses many French words, and some of them may be hard to figure out the meaning of, based on context alone, so be prepared to have to look up a few. This can be more than a little challenging to do if you are listening to this via audiobook (which I was), as you kind of have to guess on spelling. 

Speaking of the audiobook, I'm not sure if this was just on my version, or if this issue was present across all audiobook platforms, but I borrowed this from my library through Libby, and there were several instances in this book where the audio would cut off part of the sentence. It became annoying after about the 10th time it happened, so I tracked down the e-book in Kindle Unlimited just to see how much I was missing, and was able to verify that it was usually just the first word or two of the sentence, so it's nothing major, but it was annoying nonetheless, and was an issue that was prevalent all throughout the recording. 

Minor audio issue aside, I am very much looking forward to continuing on with Gabriel's tale in the next book, as he does not finish telling it yet.

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cambion's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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nimzipow_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a JOURNEY. This book was absolutely incredible. The witty lines, the intrigue and suspense, the characters… there’s not a single thing I didn’t love. I am unwell.

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faehistory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A well-written take on vampires that walks the line between horror and fantasy. Gabriel manages to be a flawed character who never quite crosses over into being unlikeable and I found myself emphasising that even when he makes poor choices. The setting manages to be dark and bleak without crossing into so dark you find yourself apathetic. 

Some of the bigger twists you can perhaps see coming if you have read a lot of fantasy because they fit the narrative conventions of this kind of book but are still well executed and some do take you by surprise. 

There is a really interesting thorough line about the difference between faith and organised religion which ties into Gabriel's main arc. 

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chaptermaggot's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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dragonrid3r's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

Loved it. Started a reread before starting the sequel.

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aladybug19's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Empire of the Vampire is masterfully written. I would gush more about this book but I think going into it with as little information as possible is the best course. This book keeps you at the edge of your seat when it’s not making you weep for the characters.

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thatphdstudent's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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chazleyk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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amy14's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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