A review by kateshaw
Josie Griffin is Not a Vampire by Heather Swain
1.0
The book actually started off interesting, even fun. Unfortunately, after a chapter or two it nosedived. The plot is not very complicated, but it takes forever to resolve because the main character can't put the clues together. She can't, in fact, do anything at all. She's there to observe and get in trouble so her friends can rescue her.
If the book were funny, I'd forgive all that. But there isn't much humor unless you like spoonerisms and badly written slapstick. The writing is clumsy, the characterizations erratic. Josie starts off trying to convince her new friends to help her find a missing girl, then a few pages later has to be convinced by her friends to help. It doesn't make any sense. The plot is predictable too. I nearly put the book down out of boredom several times. Eventually I just skimmed the last few chapters.
The world-building is almost nonexistent. There are vampires and werewolves and fairies and Greek gods etc. all around, constrained by rules handed down by a shadowy organization. The organization is used as a scare tactic but doesn't impact anything the characters do, and the characters' abilities are mostly ignored after being mentioned once or twice.
If the book were funny, I'd forgive all that. But there isn't much humor unless you like spoonerisms and badly written slapstick. The writing is clumsy, the characterizations erratic. Josie starts off trying to convince her new friends to help her find a missing girl, then a few pages later has to be convinced by her friends to help. It doesn't make any sense. The plot is predictable too. I nearly put the book down out of boredom several times. Eventually I just skimmed the last few chapters.
The world-building is almost nonexistent. There are vampires and werewolves and fairies and Greek gods etc. all around, constrained by rules handed down by a shadowy organization. The organization is used as a scare tactic but doesn't impact anything the characters do, and the characters' abilities are mostly ignored after being mentioned once or twice.