Nocturnal Book Reviews

3.5/5
I had love/hate relationship with this book. I loved the dark and very atmospheric feel of it. I could see the island of Night, taste the salt in the air, shiver in its chilly wind... On the other hand the characters are incomplete. There are glimpses of greatness in Alcantara, the vampire mathematician, potential in Emma, Annelise's friend, but here goes nothing. They all remain props, necessary to move the plot, but devoid of any depth.

This is a mash up of Morganville Vampires and Hunger Games, but Annelise despite claiming that she is a genius, doesn't use her brain like Claire or feels the terrible weight of taking human lives like Katniss... She is empty, selfish and annoying.

The book is full of gratuitous violence and terrible cliches like an uber mean girl bent on destroying Annelise.

In order to survive, you shed your humanity and betray everyone to become a Watcher. I just don't get it, peeps. What is the point? You have these male vamps who need to have female Watchers (sexist much?) so they get them among 10% of survivors - the toughest, strongest, meanest, potentially the most psychotic b*tches on the island.

The reasonable question is why not breed human servants who respect and love you in exchange for the care of their families and comfortable life, why not indoctrinate people from birth? That will ensure devotion and dedication, without a very real possibility for one of these Watchers going on the rampage and offing the vamp as soon as they are off the island.

So the whole idea either incomplete or doesn't make much sense.

The other thing that made me go bonkers is that Annelise has her ipod and listens to her favourite music for a month until she is caught with it. There is no mention of her charging it and I sure as hell want to know what's so special about its battery if it can hold charge for more than 3 weeks! When I had one I was lucky to get 10 hours of listening to the music, and even if she does have a charger (let's be anal about it) US and UK sockets are very different, so she probably won't be able to use it anyway... Am I the only one who thought it was bizarre?!

Overall, I found the book very interesting and enjoyed it despite its flaws, and I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series. There must be light in the end of the tunnel. Surely.