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iam's review against another edition
3.0
Stake Sauce, Arc 1 is the first book in a mystery series featuring vampires, the arcane and found family.
Content warnings include:
For some reason this took me a lot longer to read than length of the book warrants.
The writing was good (though there were quite a few editing errors), the story engaging, I really adored the cast of diverse characters, and yet...
One thing that I can definitely tell didn't work for me was the fight and action scenes. The timing was so off, which seemingly huge stretches of time where characters do nothing. Obviously the focus can only ever be on one character or one action at a time, so parallel events have to be told sequentially, but in this case it truly seemed like the events were happening one after another which just... didn't work out. The majority of vampires here seem to be extremely fast, like moving-so-fast-you-can't-even-see-them, so it didn't make sense to me that ages seem to pass where the human character do.... something and the vampires just.... wait? Stare? Watch? Apparently do nothing, before the focus of the humans shifts back and then the attacks/actions resume. Idk what was up with that, maybe I read these scenes wrong/misinterpreted them, they just really didn't work for me.
What I really loved was the diverse cast of characters. Jude, the protagonist, is gay and grey-aro-ace, trans, has PTSD and wears a prothesis, Eva is aro-ace as well, Jasper has migraines, Pixie is chubby, and while we don't know the identities of all the other characters, all of them are queer (or seem to be) and there's a poly relationship in the works!
I also loved the tarot card drawings at the beginning of each chapter. They were so beautiful, and I believe drawn by the author. I recommend looking at them on a device that displays colour if you buy this as ebook.
Overall a very nice read that I wish had done more for me because the stats on paper are awesome, and I recommend anyone to give it a chance!
Content warnings include:
Spoiler
violence, kidnapping, assault, crucification, burning buildings, loosing a limbFor some reason this took me a lot longer to read than length of the book warrants.
The writing was good (though there were quite a few editing errors), the story engaging, I really adored the cast of diverse characters, and yet...
One thing that I can definitely tell didn't work for me was the fight and action scenes. The timing was so off, which seemingly huge stretches of time where characters do nothing. Obviously the focus can only ever be on one character or one action at a time, so parallel events have to be told sequentially, but in this case it truly seemed like the events were happening one after another which just... didn't work out. The majority of vampires here seem to be extremely fast, like moving-so-fast-you-can't-even-see-them, so it didn't make sense to me that ages seem to pass where the human character do.... something and the vampires just.... wait? Stare? Watch? Apparently do nothing, before the focus of the humans shifts back and then the attacks/actions resume. Idk what was up with that, maybe I read these scenes wrong/misinterpreted them, they just really didn't work for me.
What I really loved was the diverse cast of characters. Jude, the protagonist, is gay and grey-aro-ace, trans, has PTSD and wears a prothesis, Eva is aro-ace as well, Jasper has migraines, Pixie is chubby, and while we don't know the identities of all the other characters, all of them are queer (or seem to be) and there's a poly relationship in the works!
I also loved the tarot card drawings at the beginning of each chapter. They were so beautiful, and I believe drawn by the author. I recommend looking at them on a device that displays colour if you buy this as ebook.
Overall a very nice read that I wish had done more for me because the stats on paper are awesome, and I recommend anyone to give it a chance!
firstorderpixie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
nightjar656's review
3.0
Pretty good! I enjoyed reading this.
Negatives: It felt a bit cliche at times and the summary was a little misleading.
Positives: It was fun and unique and I really liked the characters. The way the theme of grief and trauma and moving on was dealt with was really cool, especially with the vampires existing in that universe.
Overall, I liked this! If you’re looking for a paranormal book with vampires, this is def one of the books I’d recommend.
Negatives: It felt a bit cliche at times and the summary was a little misleading.
Positives: It was fun and unique and I really liked the characters. The way the theme of grief and trauma and moving on was dealt with was really cool, especially with the vampires existing in that universe.
Overall, I liked this! If you’re looking for a paranormal book with vampires, this is def one of the books I’d recommend.
artareadsatnight's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this book. I truly did. It represents several important topics. And does it pretty well. But. This story seemed like a retelling of a story. Not a full story in itself. Relationships progressed very quickly, like skipping several steps between them and lacked depth. The same goes for the plot. It seemed there was blank places. Just like a retelling of a good story.
_p0ssum_'s review
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Eating disorder
kblincoln's review against another edition
4.0
(provided a copy of this book in return for honest review)
So this is a dear, little oddball of a book. It's about a group of ex-Firemen who have retired after one of their group is killed in a fire. Eva is a mall security head. Jude is one of her security officers, and Jasper runs a magic store.
They are all trying to live with the pain of having lost Felix, who was Jasper's finance, but also had a very close relationship with the other two. This story is mostly told from Jude's perspective. As the story unfolds, (I think) we learn that Jude has had major changes in his life, has a prosthetic leg, and also never really had a romantic relationship before. We also learn that he's been seeing these punk kids at the mall that are vampires. He keeps trying to tell Eva that, but understandably she thinks he's a bit crazed by grief.
The story suffers at time from a bit of vagueness. Most of the story is the main characters (including Pixie, a cutie who comes tumbling into Jude's life and forces the action to start) talking to each other about grief and love. This is wonderful. And because of the diversity represented in the genders and romantic orientations of the main characters, quite interesting. I really liked Jude.
However, at times I wanted to slap him for agreeing to do things like, oh, confront major villains in subterranean dens with no other weapon except a bottle of steak sauce. (not even a baseball bat? Or a stake? Or nunchucks or something?). That was a bit frustrating at times.
However, with the mindset that this is story about a group of people who love each other and are broken by the death of a member, instead of focusing on the practicalities of fighting vampires, I enjoyed it much more. Cool illustrations of tarot cards throughout as an extra bonus.
So this is a dear, little oddball of a book. It's about a group of ex-Firemen who have retired after one of their group is killed in a fire. Eva is a mall security head. Jude is one of her security officers, and Jasper runs a magic store.
They are all trying to live with the pain of having lost Felix, who was Jasper's finance, but also had a very close relationship with the other two. This story is mostly told from Jude's perspective. As the story unfolds, (I think) we learn that Jude has had major changes in his life, has a prosthetic leg, and also never really had a romantic relationship before. We also learn that he's been seeing these punk kids at the mall that are vampires. He keeps trying to tell Eva that, but understandably she thinks he's a bit crazed by grief.
The story suffers at time from a bit of vagueness. Most of the story is the main characters (including Pixie, a cutie who comes tumbling into Jude's life and forces the action to start) talking to each other about grief and love. This is wonderful. And because of the diversity represented in the genders and romantic orientations of the main characters, quite interesting. I really liked Jude.
However, at times I wanted to slap him for agreeing to do things like, oh, confront major villains in subterranean dens with no other weapon except a bottle of steak sauce. (not even a baseball bat? Or a stake? Or nunchucks or something?). That was a bit frustrating at times.
However, with the mindset that this is story about a group of people who love each other and are broken by the death of a member, instead of focusing on the practicalities of fighting vampires, I enjoyed it much more. Cool illustrations of tarot cards throughout as an extra bonus.
oshild's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
amy_reading_23's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
2.75
There were some very cute moments in this book and I liked the good range of representation and how queer it was, plus the theme of bringing up consent when drinking blood is great. But it just wasn't really very well written or produced, there were quite a few mistakes in it and overall it didn't quite hit like I wanted it too. But there's still some sweet characters in it and if you're looking for an easy queer fantasy read then it's here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, and Kidnapping
marzi's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
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? No
3.5