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A review by wanderinglynn
A People's History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal
slow-paced
1.5
A book that should have taken me a day to read, ended up taking me 3 because I kept putting it down. I thought it was going to be more like World War Z, but that's a bad comparison (as I actually enjoyed WWZ). I thought that a book focusing on the challenge of having proof of vampires and then trying to live in a divided world with vampires would be an interesting book. Sadly, this is one vampire book that was a complete snoozefest. I finally just started skimming chapters just to get through to what I thought was going to be an uprising but was more of a sigh.
The book started off okay with Dr. Lauren Scott. Had the book kept the focus on Dr. Scott, and maybe adding in FBI Agent Hugo Zumthor, this might have been a better read. But with the addition of other POVs, including the "interview" of Father Reilly, each chapter begins to sound too similar, with the same "if I had known then what I know now" narrative. Furthermore, I couldn't distinguish any different voice or emotion—all the characters seemed to be the same, which contributed to the story be boring. And I won't even comment on the POVs that made an entrance but then completely disappeared.
I think the biggest problem is that the book lacks a cohesive plot to hold things together, and so it felt like a bunch of random articles held together in the same folder instead of different POVs following the same plot. The title including the word "uprising" made it sound like there was going to be some big action. While some grander "take-over-the-world" schemes were hinted at, nothing materialized. The Gloamings (vampires) clearly need live human blood to survive. Some may have some nefarious scheme to end daylight via some sort of nuclear bomb? Or not? Maybe they're trying to harvest people? Or not? These and other schemes are mentioned and there's some tension that seems to be building to something (an uprising?). . . but nada happens. (Except one incident that's relegated to a footnote and seems to really involve the human National Guard and a bunch of teens). And the author hinted at other things (like how the Gloamings seem to be able to almost hypnotize people, or their pheromones attracting people or repelling others), but he went no where with those things either. So basically, no uprising on either side, no big action, nothing. I kept reading to the end for zero payoff.
The lack of cohesive plot was further highlighted by the way the POVs jumped forward and back in time, even thought each chapter was supposed to be +# time from the initial incident. And again, this might have worked had there been any actual plot to hold it together. Honestly, a reddit thread discussing a vampire uprising would have been more interesting.
The author Villareal is an attorney, and so I wasn't surprised to see an couple legalese chapters, including a Supreme Court "opinion" that was supposed to be written by Justice Kagen (although I Kagen writes far better than this, so I thought it was a bit insulting to her). As an attorney myself, I got what he was trying to do but I thought he went a bit too far in trying to sound smart or make this something more than it was. This isn't a legal thriller, it isn't even a Grisham novel. Without a plot to really it to, it just made the story longer than it needed to be. And really, there were too many footnotes. Yes, footnotes can be a fun, funky way to add to a novel. Here, the footnotes didn't really add any value to the story, and were, quite frankly, overkill on an already messy novel.
For a vampire book, this is a story that goes no where, has no action, and definitely no excitement. Honestly, I should have DNF'd it at page 88 (end of Chapter 4) and saved myself some time.
The book started off okay with Dr. Lauren Scott. Had the book kept the focus on Dr. Scott, and maybe adding in FBI Agent Hugo Zumthor, this might have been a better read. But with the addition of other POVs, including the "interview" of Father Reilly, each chapter begins to sound too similar, with the same "if I had known then what I know now" narrative. Furthermore, I couldn't distinguish any different voice or emotion—all the characters seemed to be the same, which contributed to the story be boring. And I won't even comment on the POVs that made an entrance but then completely disappeared.
I think the biggest problem is that the book lacks a cohesive plot to hold things together, and so it felt like a bunch of random articles held together in the same folder instead of different POVs following the same plot. The title including the word "uprising" made it sound like there was going to be some big action. While some grander "take-over-the-world" schemes were hinted at, nothing materialized. The Gloamings (vampires) clearly need live human blood to survive. Some may have some nefarious scheme to end daylight via some sort of nuclear bomb? Or not? Maybe they're trying to harvest people? Or not? These and other schemes are mentioned and there's some tension that seems to be building to something (an uprising?). . . but nada happens. (Except one incident that's relegated to a footnote and seems to really involve the human National Guard and a bunch of teens). And the author hinted at other things (like how the Gloamings seem to be able to almost hypnotize people, or their pheromones attracting people or repelling others), but he went no where with those things either. So basically, no uprising on either side, no big action, nothing. I kept reading to the end for zero payoff.
The lack of cohesive plot was further highlighted by the way the POVs jumped forward and back in time, even thought each chapter was supposed to be +# time from the initial incident. And again, this might have worked had there been any actual plot to hold it together. Honestly, a reddit thread discussing a vampire uprising would have been more interesting.
The author Villareal is an attorney, and so I wasn't surprised to see an couple legalese chapters, including a Supreme Court "opinion" that was supposed to be written by Justice Kagen (although I Kagen writes far better than this, so I thought it was a bit insulting to her). As an attorney myself, I got what he was trying to do but I thought he went a bit too far in trying to sound smart or make this something more than it was. This isn't a legal thriller, it isn't even a Grisham novel. Without a plot to really it to, it just made the story longer than it needed to be. And really, there were too many footnotes. Yes, footnotes can be a fun, funky way to add to a novel. Here, the footnotes didn't really add any value to the story, and were, quite frankly, overkill on an already messy novel.
For a vampire book, this is a story that goes no where, has no action, and definitely no excitement. Honestly, I should have DNF'd it at page 88 (end of Chapter 4) and saved myself some time.