A review by lilibetbombshell
The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez
3.0
This is definitely a comfort-read-style YA contemporary vampire read. It’s nothing too deep, it’s not rife with meaning or metaphor, and it’s not asking you to think too much. It’s just asking you to sit back and enjoy yourself a little and let yourself relax as we watch our main characters, Tansy and Vaughn, try again and again to rescue their mutual bestie, Skyler, from the lead singer of a band made up entirely of vampires that she has fallen under the thrall of.
Tansy is a witch, who, due to some sort of quirk in her family lineage, is resistant to vampire compulsion and can perform compulsions herself. We don’t get much in the way of an explanation about her family lineage and this particular magic (which seems to either inspire awe or fear--Tansy gets both throughout the book), but that’s because Tansy and Vaughn spend a good 60% or so of this book spitballing plans at the wall, trying their best to execute them, and then watching as something goes wrong because they’re teenagers and not exactly vampire experts since they didn’t know vampires even existed until the beginning of this book.
“Afterlife of the Party” both likes to draw from previous vampire lore and sources both literary and not, and then it likes to turn around and poke fun in doing so. Sometimes those self-deprecating gestures will go over the heads of younger readers, but if you’re an older reader, like me, they’ll catch you and make you snort-laugh.
Honestly, if you just like some cute, vampiric fun with a little witchy mystery on the side, it wouldn’t hurt to check this book out before the sequel comes out.
Tansy is a witch, who, due to some sort of quirk in her family lineage, is resistant to vampire compulsion and can perform compulsions herself. We don’t get much in the way of an explanation about her family lineage and this particular magic (which seems to either inspire awe or fear--Tansy gets both throughout the book), but that’s because Tansy and Vaughn spend a good 60% or so of this book spitballing plans at the wall, trying their best to execute them, and then watching as something goes wrong because they’re teenagers and not exactly vampire experts since they didn’t know vampires even existed until the beginning of this book.
“Afterlife of the Party” both likes to draw from previous vampire lore and sources both literary and not, and then it likes to turn around and poke fun in doing so. Sometimes those self-deprecating gestures will go over the heads of younger readers, but if you’re an older reader, like me, they’ll catch you and make you snort-laugh.
Honestly, if you just like some cute, vampiric fun with a little witchy mystery on the side, it wouldn’t hurt to check this book out before the sequel comes out.