About the book:
You think it’s safe to walk alone at night. It’s not.
You think the only threat is other humans. It’s not.
Monsters are real. Demons are real. Vampires are real.
And I’m about to become one of them.
My name is Arianna Spero. I was an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life, until my mother lapsed into a coma. Now, I am her only hope. She made a deal with the devil, and on my 18th birthday he came to collect. But there’s a way to save her. There’s something the princes of hell want more than my mother.
Me.
So I signed my soul away and promised to pick a prince to marry. I would take the blood oath, become one of them, and give them an heir. I would become a princess of hell, and my mother would live.
I expected fire and brimstone. I expected pain and misery. I didn’t expect beauty. I didn’t expect magic.
I didn’t expect love.
But the princes are keeping secrets from me.
Secrets that could shatter everything.
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Review by Katy Haye:
I’m intrigued as to why so many YA books have a girl in a floaty ballgown on the cover when they are vastly impractical for what said girl gets up to between the covers. Vampire Girl fit this mould, although there was a fun dig at genre expectations where she gets dressed up all fancy (against her own best instincts) only to find that she would have been better off in jeans and sneakers.
Vampire Girl is well written, with a lively and entertaining narrator. There were a couple of consistency slips which irritated (mild spoiler: at one point, Ari goes out in the snow and notes that it’s fortunate it’s stopped snowing so she can retrace her steps; five minutes later people are coming hunting for her. They comment that it’s going to be hard to find a scent in the snow … yeah, but why not just follow the footsteps?).
The fictional world of hell was well put-together, with social orders that were guaranteed to cause friction, and I loved the relationships Ari built as she got to know her new home.
Mostly told from Ari’s first person perspective, Vampire Girl dipped into the hero’s POV a couple of times, which I wasn’t sure added anything to the narrative – I got confused momentarily thinking it was still Ari speaking and I can see now why writers often move into 3rd person when they have dual perspectives. I think that might have helped here.
But overall it’s a fun read and a nice addition to the genre.
Katy Haye is reading (and reviewing) her way through the alphabet. For those of you expecting a “U” review this week, Katy does know the alphabet, she just hasn’t found a good book to read beginning with a U – recommendations welcomed!
When not reading, Katy writes speculative YA fiction. Discord “The Matrix meets Planet of the Apes” is currently available.
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