I'm back again! And the other day I read the book in the tiles of this post. Gee, who would have thunk it, eh? Well so because this book is not nearly as popular as The Lone City trilogy (which will be my next post) or the Ruined trilogy, I'll do a small non spoiler review first and then do the spoiler review.
Ok, for NON SPOILERS: its not gonna be very long, because basically, I thought it was an all right book and if you like stories that deal with Dracula stuff, then you might like this. The reason I picked up this book was, one the cover is pretty XD and two, the inside flap mentioned Dracula and stuff and so I was like, "sure, I'll give it a go". So, yeah, if you like that sort of thing, I say go for it. It's not amazing, and it might be the 1st in a series, I don't know, I couldn't really find info on that, but it's fine on its own, I think, though it does end in a sort of set up possibility for more to come. Its a little dark, but not really that dark, but its not a bright and cheery read either. Its got suspense and a bit of a thriller feel to it and the story is told through two perspectives, two cousins, and their diary/letters they write to each other. I overall liked both of the characters, while there was a bit where one cousin got on my nerves, but she gets over it, eventually XD and I thought it was quite a unique story and it was an idea that I hadn't specifically thought of before. So, I know this was really vague, but basically, I say, why not, check it out, it won't take long to read and... yeah! On to spoilers.
I'll reiterate that this is the paragraph where the SPOILERS start. Ok? Good? So, like I said, I overall liked this book as it took some original turns and had a pretty original plot, as far as stuff I've seen or read, and it was refreshing. I didn't love it, but I liked. Something I thought was cliche, though, was to have one cousin be the tall thin one, and the other to be the shorter curvier one. (They're both girls, by the way: Dacia and Lou) And the author made it a thing, as in, other characters also brought up the fact that they take after certain sides of the family. Anyway... if I think chronologically, I remember thinking that it was sometimes hard to figure out whose point of view I was reading from. A bit like Ruined, especially the last book. But I do remember that I was hooked into the story from very early on, even if I thought the beginning was a bit... how do I describe it.. I dunno... For some reason the beginning of the book seems like its trying too hard, but then it eases up and becomes what it is. And as it goes on, I was trying to figure out what would happen, but also I was taking it easy on the story sleuthing, so I was genuinely surprised when I found things out like Mihai wanted to overthrow the current King and that the Florescu family had protected and done dirty stuff for the Dracula family all their lives and that each of the Florescus could turn into either wolves, bats or smoke/mist. I actually really liked that, because on the book, and in the beginning words like "claw, wing, and smoke" are tossed around and I thought they were code words for the roles that certain family members had, but I didn't think they'd actually be able to turn into those things. And it gives the Dracula story a nice touch since in Bram Stoker's Dracula, he could turn into a bat, wolf, or smoke. But, in this story, the Dracula person doesn't have the power to do that, but the Florescu family, who does the Dracula person's bidding, does. And it added a cool touch that there is a Queen or King of each type of ability. Actually, the more I think about this book, the more I like it... cause sometimes I feel like I don't appreciate books as much as I should when I read them, but later when I have time to process its like "oh, maybe I liked it more than I though?"
Ok, that paragraph was just getting so big, so I'm breaking it up. The one character that I thought was underused and over... talked about, was Mihai. He's supposed to be the descendant of Vlad the Impaler and all, but... he doens't do much in the actual story. He's talked about a lot, but he doesn't actually do much and I want to be shown not told, ya know. And I thought that Radu was a coward. He did kinda annoy me, but there's always that one dude that is a push over. I did like the characters of Lou and Dacia, though, except when Dacia went all emo and she was complaining that she was a monster. Oh, and Lord Johnny and the Theo dude. They were fine, but I thought it was odd that they author kept saying that people looked younger in person than the character originally thought. I think Lou "says" that about all the dudes. And as someone who is no longer in their teens... Its like "ok, I get it, these kids are younger than me and somehow are doing all these exceptional things with their lives. Thanks for rubbing it in." And I'm not complaining about being older... it just irks me that everyone is 14-19 in everything I read. And I get it, I need to read adult fiction, but still. Why can't a YA book have an older character eh?? Why? Ok, back to the actual book. I liked how Lou was actually the smoke instead of the wing and I liked that she embraced her nature so quickly. And I like how she actually did cool stuff with being able to turn to smoke/mist. She used her abilities well. Dacia on the other hand, only did one cool thing once she got over herself. She killed Mihai. At least, I think she did. I read over Mihai's death so quickly I didn't know he had died and I had to back track. And I wasn't really even skim reading! I was reading, but I was tired, but his death, just didn't make that much of an impact on me. One thing I'll say about Ruined, at least, the death of Olivia happens at the end of the chapter, so it makes a bit of an impact. But this one, happens in the middle of a chapter, and not really even at the end of the paragraph, so its easy to breeze over and not even realize that the main antagonist is dead! I sorta feel that way about Harry Potter too. The movie makes a big emphasis... but the book doesn't really make Voldemort's death a big thing. Yeah sure its important, but the actual paragraph isn't that gripping for me. Its ok in Ruined, still not as poignant as I'd want it to be, but better than this one.
Look, I ended the talk about death, by starting a new paragraph! Anyway, what else... I did sorta like how it ended, in that its over for some characters, but left open for others. Well, I do and I don't like it. It makes sense from a story standpoint, but it would have been nice for the story to wrap up just a little more and have the grandmother dead and Lou's mom not against her daughter and husband and to just have the girls become a part of the society thang that Johnny and Theo are in. That way, even if there aren't other books, you can imagine that they just wrapped up all their family problems and started a cool new career. But alas, Lady Iona or whatever her name is, is still out there somewhere.
Anything else? Uh... Oh! I didn't realize until it was mentioned, that in this book, Bram Stoker's Dracula hadn't been published until the events of the book. Now a days we take Dracula and vampire things like they've always been popular, but back in the late 1800's they didn't really do that, and it was a bit of a "duh" moment when that was brought up. And I think its clever because, we the reader, know all about Dracula and vampire lore since, but the characters don't know about it and its this sorta meta thing, cause obviously the author is using jumping off points from Dracula and vampire lore to write the book and make allusions and stuff, but the characters think its just their lives. I dunno, I liked that XD Also, random fact, I brought Dracula to a day at school when we were supposed to bring our favorite book... yeah, I was that kid. That was like 5th grade... and Dracula was my favorite book... tells a lot.
Anyway, lets wrap this up! The more I think about it, the more I liked this book and the world of it all. I'm not sure it really needs a sequel or anything though, because I'm not sure it would have the same flare to me. If you take out the Dracula link and just make a sequel about the girls going off and fighting supernatural stuff, ya kinda lose me. And if you make it about hunting the grandmother and don't include anymore Dracula stuff, you still lose me... basically, I read it because of Dracula and I feel like if there was a sequel that didn't deal with it, it'd be less likely that I'd read it. Or maybe the author can make every sequel about another "classic" monster. Maybe... that might help. But I'd still want the Dracula link. Also I'm not going to go back and italicize all of those Draculas... I'm just not.
So! That about does it for Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George! Thanks for reading, God bless, and Toodles! ^_^
(P..S.- I'm probably not supposed to like vampires as a Christian... but whatever, I know what I believe and I'm not at risk of changing what I believe over works of fiction.)
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