A review by francis_deer
Kiss of the Vampire by Nancy Baker
4.0
The novel's original title used to be "The Night Inside" which is a far better fit than the simplistic "Kiss of the Vampire".
I first read this book in the nineties and now took it out for a reread that also felt like a journey back in time: There are video tapes, no mobile phones and when people talk about "mail" they mean "snail mail" not "email".
I enjoyed the scope of the book: The protagonist Ardeth Alexander is introduced as an academic, calm and responsible. She is kidnapped and forced to make a hard choice. She reinvents herself and when doing so plays with the known vampire trope of dark seductress. I love that the story does not end there, that it explores issues of insecurity and morality.
"I thought we didn't have consciences."
"Things would be much simpler that way, I admit. But all that died [...] was your body. Anything else that seems missing now, you yourself have buried."
Besides being an intriguing vampire story, this novel is also a fast-paced thriller with all pieces fitting together logically.
What I did not like:
At times, the combination of morbidity and eroticism was too much for me. We get the phrase "kiss of cold steel" twice. Coming from the PoV of our heroine, this term just felt wrong. When someone put a knife to my throat and threatens me with death, "kiss" is not the metaphor that would pop up in my mind.
There are also several dead women, unlucky victims all of them.
In one case, these women are killed in a larger battle but the protagonist does not give them a second thought later. I wish there would have been a moment of regret.
As for further corpses, I also wish they would have been given a resolution, e.g. someone informing the police so at least the bodies could have been found and identified. (At least, at one point Ardeth talks about that grave in the woods, so there might be a resolution outside the novel's pages.)
Still, the novel is a fast-paced and captivating read that ponders the weightier issues of identity and moral choices, and it's a pity that Nancy Baker's novels seem to be hard to obtain.
I first read this book in the nineties and now took it out for a reread that also felt like a journey back in time: There are video tapes, no mobile phones and when people talk about "mail" they mean "snail mail" not "email".
I enjoyed the scope of the book: The protagonist Ardeth Alexander is introduced as an academic, calm and responsible. She is kidnapped and forced to make a hard choice. She reinvents herself and when doing so plays with the known vampire trope of dark seductress. I love that the story does not end there, that it explores issues of insecurity and morality.
"I thought we didn't have consciences."
"Things would be much simpler that way, I admit. But all that died [...] was your body. Anything else that seems missing now, you yourself have buried."
Besides being an intriguing vampire story, this novel is also a fast-paced thriller with all pieces fitting together logically.
What I did not like:
At times, the combination of morbidity and eroticism was too much for me. We get the phrase "kiss of cold steel" twice. Coming from the PoV of our heroine, this term just felt wrong. When someone put a knife to my throat and threatens me with death, "kiss" is not the metaphor that would pop up in my mind.
There are also several dead women, unlucky victims all of them.
In one case, these women are killed in a larger battle but the protagonist does not give them a second thought later. I wish there would have been a moment of regret.
As for further corpses, I also wish they would have been given a resolution, e.g. someone informing the police so at least the bodies could have been found and identified. (At least, at one point Ardeth talks about that grave in the woods, so there might be a resolution outside the novel's pages.)
Still, the novel is a fast-paced and captivating read that ponders the weightier issues of identity and moral choices, and it's a pity that Nancy Baker's novels seem to be hard to obtain.