Book 129-130
Generation V by M.L. Brennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm a sucker for vampire stories so I wanted to love this. I didn't quite but I did find it fun. It lost a star because the beginning is pretty slow and full of info dump that at least is done well enough comparing our protagonist, Fortitude "Fort" Scott to his family. They're vampires but he's not quite 'transitioned' into being a full vampire like his mother and his brother Chivalry and sister Prudence (who is a stone cold bitch. Chivalry at least likes Fort even if he doesn't understand him).
Brennan gets full points for coming up with some very different takes on the vampire lure and I don't want to spoil that here since that's a big chunk of the plot points. Let's leave it as it's not the usual get bit and turn type. These vampires are only long lived, not immortal and their reproduction is the other reason I was on the fence with this story. Without spoiling anything, let me just say it's very different but it's SO complicated and difficult I'm not sure how the first vampires ever figured it out. It's one of those it sounds good on paper but the reality of it seems unlikely.
Anyhow Fort is living on his own in Rhode Island, barely surviving as a film theory major turned barista with a roomy who won't pay rent and a girlfriend who wants an open relationship (as far as her sex life is concerned, not necessarily Fort's). He is called home to meet a new vampire from Europe which is a big deal because they are so rare (outside of Fort's family there's like only three other vamps in all of America). This new vampire is there to learn how Fort's mom is so 'fertile' (She has one kid a century it seems, Prudence from the Revolution, Chivalry from the Civil war and Fort is young being modern day). Not only is Fort unhappy to be there (He hates his sister for killing his adopted family) but he's very unhappy when he learns that the new vampire is a pedophile and no one, including his family will stop him.
So Fort decides he will especially after the newcomer kidnaps two young sisters. His mother has assigned him a bodyguard, a kitsune, Suzume and that's when the story really picks up. Suzume is a lot of fun but even she doesn't want to go up against a full fledged vampire. Fort is going to do this one way or the other even if it kills him.
I did like the characters and like I said, once Fort has his bad guy in sight and Suzume joins the cast, the pacing picks up. I liked this world and would like to read more of this one.
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Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us by Bill Jessome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In the last decade, it's become a thing for me to collect local haunted books when I travel and this is one of the ones I picked up this year in my tour of the Canadian maritimes. I have a preference for the newer style true hauntings, i.e. some real investigation has been done. This is not that book. This is more of a collection of local lore and oral tradition and there is nothing wrong with that.
It's well written and sometimes we get more than one version of the story. Some are your typical haunted hitchhiker or spurned lover sort of thing that are ubiquitous but others are very different. I enjoyed the book. It's broken into the different types of hauntings (churches, rural etc). I'm glad I picked it up.
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