The last time I contributed to the Sunday Salon was in March, so depending on how you look at it, I am either late for posting this Sunday just past or very late for not posting since March!
The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn
I'm a huge fan of Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey mystery series, so when I saw this stand alone book at my favourite local bookstore I was excited. The excitement lasted for a couple of chapters when for whatever reason - I'll get to that in a second - I stalled, stopped reading and put the book back on the shelf. When it came time for my recent overseas trip, I packed it, deciding to start from the beginning again. I did, I stalled yet again a couple more chapters in than the first time. I picked it up again last week and managed to get all the way through to the end. Despite all of that, this really isn't a bad book.
So what was with all the stalling on my part? The Dead Travel Fast purports itself to be a vampire book. In fact the very title is taken from Dracula, the most epic of all vampire novels (no matter what those crazy Twlight people might tell you). Things to know about me: I don't really like books about vampires. Werewolves, witches, magic wielders, supernatural powers = awesome. Vampires = not so much. I mean at the end of the day vampires are undead, they want to suck our blood and they're immortal. Everywhere that concept can be taken, it has been taken, at least to the level of my interest.
Raybourn writes beautifully - her attention to detail, her ability to describe a room, a view, a person is near flawless. This is something I struggle with as a writer so I admire it all the more in others. So perhaps it was Theodora, the protagonist, that I didn't really warm to. She wasn't horrible or cold or anything, she was just a bit bland and a bit filled with her own self importance as a serious "novelist". I also thought the lack of antagonist was irritating - there were some hints about the Count and some murmurs about the rest of the family but nothing really came to fruition until the last 20 pages when it turned out all was not as it seemed.
*little bit spoiler-ish*
And by that, I mean it turns out there may not be any vampires or anything of the supernatural after all, which leave certain events unexplained and unable to be reconciled with the rest of the book.
*end of possible spoiler*
This is a decent book, possibly more than decent if you're a vampire fan but, I can't say I enjoyed it as much as the Lady Julia Grey series.
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
This is the second book in Marr's Wicked Lovely series. The first was all about Aislinn and Keenan, the Summer King and Queen and this one is about Aislinn's friend, Leslie, who manages to get caught up in the world of faery when she chooses to have a tattoo inked on her skin that ties her to the King of the Dark Court, Irial. Toss in a compelling attraction between Leslie and another faery, Niall, and you have the makings of a good, dark book.
There is a growing movement in YA fiction towards stark, gritty realism whether it be in the form of death, eating disorders or abuse. This book frames Leslie as someone who survived a gang rape sanctioned by her drug dealer brother. This isn't a key feature of the book and is never explored in detail (thank goodness) but that event informs all of Leslie's decisions and goes some way towards understanding why she makes the decisions she does.
Leslie's destruction at the hands of the Dark Court is hard to watch and while she manages to come out of it towards the end, her journey isn't a pleasant one, even as it makes for compelling reading.
There are some plot issues in this book - a major twist is casually dropped into character exposition when so much more could have been made of it; a few plots go nowhere (this is probably because this book is part of a series) and there is no real resolution for Leslie who moves into a sort of holding pattern, returning to a mortal life while the faeries who love her bide their time in the shadows.
I enjoy Marr's writing and I'll read the next two books in the series but I'll borrow them from the library rather than buy them.
Currently reading: Forbidden Fantasy by Cheryl Holt
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