Sunday, June 13, 2010

Review: Katie Salidas, Immortalis Carpe Noctem


If you can get past the poor grammar and awkward dialogue, you might actually enjoy this one. I found it entertaining and occasionally even poignant.

The main character, Alyssa, was a little grating at times. While I admired her stubbornness in some instances, at other times it seemed out of place and unnatural, like the author decided that "stubborn" was a primary trait of Alyssa and so felt obligated to make sure she demonstrated this characteristic at least twice in every chapter, even if it there wasn't good cause for her to do so. In general, though, I liked Alyssa. She is turned into a vampire early in the story, not by choice. I liked her transition; I feel like a lot of authors in this genre don't bother delving into the emotional turmoil that a human would feel at being turned against her will, having to say goodbye to her human life, all her friends and family, everything she knows. It's a really fascinating thing to think about, and it's a shame that more authors in this genre don't really explore the transition in depth. Alyssa, however, feels her loss acutely, and so her story is more interesting, her character more complex and real.

Lysander, Alyssa's maker and eventually lover, is also interesting, so long as you don't think too hard about his choices and motivations. He tells Alyssa the reason he didn't intervene earlier when she was being attacked and nearly raped early in the book was because of a "morbid fascination" with what the humans were doing to her. What? How does this fit in with the gentle, deep-feeling, noble Lysander that is displayed on practically every other page of the book? Putting that aside, another issue that I didn't fully understand was Lysander's strong feelings for Alyssa. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did fall for each other; I just don't see how a 3000+ year old vampire who is clearly still feeling pain from being dumped by his mate of many centuries - a rejection that happened hundreds of years ago - would fall so hard for a mere 25 year old in the space of a couple weeks.

The plot was indeed predictable. I actually thought for awhile that the person who wound up being the villain couldn't possibly be the villain, because there were just too many obvious clues. It seemed like the author was setting this person up as a red herring. But nope, I guess it really was just that obvious.

Predictability and character inconsistencies aside, this was still a fast-paced and exciting story, and one that was even occasionally moving. I was pleasantly surprised.

3 stars

Immortalis Carpe Noctem

Rising Sign Books; 1st edition (March 2, 2010)

4 comments:

  1. You have won an award-- check out my blog for more info here

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  2. What a great review! I am going to pick this one up in a hizz-urry.

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  3. brandi: thank you! wow! i am new to the blogging world so i will have to think about who to give this to. i appreciate your thinking of my little upstart blog though!

    spanish cow: mooooo

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  4. (In response to the comment on my Going Too Far review. :D)
    I will say, if you do read it, don't expect better than Perfect Chemistry. It is very good, and the chemistry is hot, but I don't think anyone in the YA genre has quite pulled off what Elkeles pulled of with Perfect Chemistry, none that I've read anyways. Except for Rules of Attraction, which is again, Simone Elkeles so that doesn't count. I'll stop babbling now! lol.

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