Had I have know that there was sex trafficking of very underage children in this book, I would not have even started it! ( )

Read this book because Anda Kent reviewed it and it just sounded really interesting. Obv its about vampires, but I think it was a really interesting take on the vampire and vampire literature. I agree that it's one of those books that has some HIGHLY disturbing subject matters in it, but I think it still has a lot to dig at.

I think that as much as my heart bleeds for Oskar, Eli is my absolute favorite character and favorite vampire in literature as far as I have read. I think there are so many ways to read and make sense of this novel- as a coming of age story, about self discovery, about finding your people, about the different ways that families are made, what makes a person a monster...its all in there.

I also wish that we got more of what Eli's story was, but then again, it's so horrifying and themes and things that happened to him when he went from child to vampire is so painful to read that I see why we get so little.

Overall, this is a hard book to read and I am still trying to make sense of it, but if you're okay with difficult literature and disturbing subject matter that still seems to have larger messages and important information under the surface, you may want to consider this one. ( )

Not a bit horror reader, but I really, really enjoyed this all the same. A lot of, you know, horror. I loved how mundanely, boringly fucked up the normal characters were. ( )

A very compelling read. Nothing really new to add to the vampire mythos but an intriguing character study with sympathetic characters. Highly recommended. ( )

I've really enjoyed the consistent pacing and that there were no copouts on consequences.
All around this is a very well written book.
But the plot doesn't go anywhere. No tension arc, no goal, no nothing.
I at no point had the feeling that the story worked towards anything.

It's just a random slice of a drama enriched with unnecessary horror.

There is no consistent explanation of the supernatural elements either.
It's just what the author needed at the moment which sadly is much more apparent here than in the general case of this flaw because it is used just to draw horrific graphic scenes that don't even have some other point to them.

I was intrigued enough by the writing and the setting to keep reading. I usually drop a story quite quickly if it suffers from major flaws but this kept me hooked in an unusual way.
I can see why people might appreciate this kind of story but it just wasn't for me.
Maybe this is a bit like modern art. It is appreciated because it is different not because it is "good"? ( )