A review by cutewitch
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

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

3.75

I feel like this is a bit of a Dead Dove situation for me. The jacket certainly warns you that it’s dark. But I dunno, on the back of the Nevernight trilogy, I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to be so… RELENTLESSLY dark and sad? You kinda feel bad, it’s just one thing after another for this guy. Almost nothing goes right ever for 700 pages. I was also maybe expecting more wit, maybe some levity there… and it’s true, Gabriel is the foul-mouthed asshole father of Mia Corvere’s dreams (nightmares); all of the book’s lightness comes from him being a nasty bastard. I liked the take on vampires, I liked the tri-timeline structure. I enjoyed the story, it was enjoyable and I look forward to the next one, but… idk. I feel like this one won’t really stick with me.

Plus, I don’t get why other reviewers are raving about the worldbuilding? Did they READ Nevernight?? This is pretty basic powered-up-vampires, plus pretty basic pseudo-medieval-renaissancey-Europe, plus Catholicism with a VERY THIN new coat of paint. This is not revolutionary, people.

Sex cw:
is it just me or does Kristoff have a menstruation-cunnilingus kink? I’m not judging, just observing… if I had a nickel for every time he wrote a scene with that very particular phenomenon, i’d have at least two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
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