Dead Until Dark: A Book Review
I was hard up for something new to read and it caught my eye in passing while cruising the shelves at the local megabookstore. The back cover read like a mystery / crime thriller with a supernatural twist. It piqued my curiosity so I picked it up.
Before I go further, it's actually an okay read, whatever its faults are. I've put down books that couldn't hold my attention or were based on preposterous circumstance. I finished Dead Until Dark and am considering reading its sequels.
Having said that, the disappointment is that Dead Until Dark doesn't spend enough time on the mystery / crime part of the story and seems to be completely derivative of Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. Set in small-town Louisianna, the heroine has a supernatural power - she reads minds. Vampires are newly recognized citizens. She's attracted to the vamp character (in this case because she can't read him). Her power strengthens because of her association with vampires. The head vamp in the area has shown an interest in her. There's groundwork for a love triangle with a third supernatural being. The similarities are astonishingly blatant.
But you don't have to put up with Richard's whining, which is a *massive* plus for the novel...
If you haven't read the Anita Blake novels, Dead Until Dark is a fun read (260 pages). If you're a big Anita Blake fan, I can only make a guess: You'll love it or you'll be contemptuous of it.
For me, beyond the similarities to Anita Blake, I was disappointed by the lack of mystery development (Perhaps it was poorly done; I'm not big enough into mystery to claim expertise to know the difference). I tried to draw up a list of suspects but was pretty much clueless (harhar) to the murderer's identity. In the end, I saw what clues were there but they were so buried in the plot that they just seemed part of the background supernatural angst. The heroine was surprised by who it was so maybe I'm not so dense afterall...
Dead Until Dark: a new spin on an old story, without Richard. I'll give it a three outta five.
Before I go further, it's actually an okay read, whatever its faults are. I've put down books that couldn't hold my attention or were based on preposterous circumstance. I finished Dead Until Dark and am considering reading its sequels.
Having said that, the disappointment is that Dead Until Dark doesn't spend enough time on the mystery / crime part of the story and seems to be completely derivative of Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. Set in small-town Louisianna, the heroine has a supernatural power - she reads minds. Vampires are newly recognized citizens. She's attracted to the vamp character (in this case because she can't read him). Her power strengthens because of her association with vampires. The head vamp in the area has shown an interest in her. There's groundwork for a love triangle with a third supernatural being. The similarities are astonishingly blatant.
But you don't have to put up with Richard's whining, which is a *massive* plus for the novel...
If you haven't read the Anita Blake novels, Dead Until Dark is a fun read (260 pages). If you're a big Anita Blake fan, I can only make a guess: You'll love it or you'll be contemptuous of it.
For me, beyond the similarities to Anita Blake, I was disappointed by the lack of mystery development (Perhaps it was poorly done; I'm not big enough into mystery to claim expertise to know the difference). I tried to draw up a list of suspects but was pretty much clueless (harhar) to the murderer's identity. In the end, I saw what clues were there but they were so buried in the plot that they just seemed part of the background supernatural angst. The heroine was surprised by who it was so maybe I'm not so dense afterall...
Dead Until Dark: a new spin on an old story, without Richard. I'll give it a three outta five.