curiousity killed the cat

Life and Death comparing with Twilight – Stephanie Meyer 

Vampires, werewolves, romance. YA, fantasy, fiction. 

No Rating

I was curious and decided to read this novel as well as the other Twilight series books that are out. It became popular once again since Stephanie Meyer made Midnight Sun as of recently and currently working on a novel spin-off that takes place after Breaking Dawn staring Renesmee and Jacob. I will be comparing both this with the original work. Just know this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to have their views towards this franchise. I’m just critiquing the two works side by side. I will also reread the entire saga plus Midnight Sun. In no shape or form is this to harm the author. Just as a disclaimer. And spoilers ahead… Anyways… 

This was marketed as the gender-bent Twilight version but the character is Edith as Edward’s female counterpart and Bella’s male counterpart is Beaufort. Not all characters were gender-swapped which is lazy work honestly. Edward’s parents were gender-swapped but Bella’s parents weren’t which was odd. This new form made Edith look like a mean girl with her attitude towards Beaufort. In the original version Edward came off as a douche bag but with the female counterpart, this didn’t make the novel any better. 

As far as the events go, most events happen just like the original novel except for the endings. The gender-swapped one was vastly different than the original which is cheating and being ultimately lazy and a little misogynistic. Beaufort had the decision and was given it whereas Bella wasn’t allowed to choose. Basically whether or not the bite from James or whatever the female version of him turned the main character into a vampire or not. This could be the author trying to establish that men can freely choose and women can’t with this work. Either way, I was disappointed with the ending. That did bother me slightly because I was suspecting that Meyer kept the original ending but I do see the understanding to create a standalone work. 

Overall, both novels weren’t my favorite since the love interest was a complete douche bag towards the main character, and the main character still chose the douche bag love interest that is a vampire. That is just how I see it because both Edith and Edward had gaslight Bella and Beaufort plus acted towards them in an unfavoring way. I still plan to read all the other works minus Twilight because I read that to do this comparison. 

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I understand the hype….

Crave – Tracy Wolff

Young adult, supernatural, vampires, dragons, werewolves, witches, fiction.

Rating 10/10

Grace is arriving to Alaska to a private school her uncle and cousin reside at after losing her parents in a fatal car crash. On day one she is warned by tall, dark, and handsome to stay away from certain people there as well as her cousin. She doesn’t understand besides the fact that there are cliques here too. Her attention is drawn to two boys who have anger towards each other. Jaxon and Flint. Jaxon is the tall dark and handsome that warned her about himself. Flint is much friendlier and kind to Grace. Except when she experiences near death experiences, it is revealed to her that she is surrounded by the supernatural and she herself was supposed to be a witch. She finds herself in a supernatural war.

I had to get this book to understand why the hell is the hype for. I’ve seen this book all over Tik Tok as well as my Instagram feed. I decided to get this book. I understand the hype now. This novel had a lot of Twilight vibes and a few references of the Twilight book. The main character is funny, and I liked her with Flint. I felt that Jaxon felt too much like Edward Cullen and the distasteful character he has immediately made him unlikeable. The fact that Jaxon gave her the Twilight book gave away a lot about his character and it was ironic that he would compare himself to that god awful character. I prefer Flint so yeah. I was shocked by the fact that there was a dragon shifter. That blew my mind and made me love Flint even more. I thought this was going to be a vampire versus wolf shifter but no. The writing was well done, and I liked how chapters were short too. I don’t like chapters that are too long where it’s a snooze fest. I may continue the series in the future but not so sure if I really want to dive into a book series where the protagonist love interest is a duplicate of a Twilight character that I hated a lot. I do recommend this book though.

she is now human? what?!

Thirst: Phantom – Christopher Pike

Vampires, fantasy, young adult, fiction.

Rating 8/10

After the explosion and aftermath of the events at the government facility, Sita wakes up in a hotel room as a human. She cannot believe this at all that she is somehow human thanks to this Arturo’s, an old chemist and ex-lover, setup that made him a hybrid of a human and vampire. This setup transformed her into a human. She goes to Seymour to give him the news and inform him of this mysterious person who knew her birth name. Later on, Ray finds her and she is overly excited that she can do human things such as start a family. He helps start their family. The only unsettling aspect is the child’s quick development that is unnerving. Once her baby is born, she names her Kalika, one who destroys. Sita reconnects to Seymour to tell him everything. Seymour tells her that something is wrong here and that Kalika is an evil creature. Later, Sita is mortified and wished she listened to Seymour.

I was happy and sad that Sita was turned into a human. She seemed to be better off as a vampire but she could be normal for a change. Unfortunately, that normal only lasted for a brief amount of time until she got pregnant with this vampire creature that isn’t entirely a vampire but something rather sinister. I remember buying this book because I was eager to see what lies in store for Sita. This was rather strange, but I did like it. Rereading this kept me on my toes as the first time I read this novel. I must remind myself to expect the unexpected when it comes to this series.

loss and instant revenge…

Thirst: Red Dice – Christopher Pike

Vampires, fantasy, young adult, fiction.

Rating 7/10

Sita mourns the loss of her lover, Ray, after she had thoroughly took down Eddie Fender and ended Yakasha completely. Before Yakasha died, he offered Sita his power to make her stronger. She is grateful for that and uses it to help herself and Joel Drake, an investigator that helped her locate Yakasha’s body. Both are on the run now from law enforcement due to the acts of terrorism they saw but, Sita was taking down a great and terrible evil. In the middle of ethe escape, her accomplice Joel, was taken into the government facility and she has to rescue him. Her worst fears come to light and it is a rush to save Joel.

I did not really like this book as much as I did with the first two. This book was good and made sense just did not like the new plot. Did not make entire sense to had turned Joel into a vampire for an unjust reason. I understand that Sita lost her love of her life but replacing that person with another but that was a horrible way of grieving. Nonetheless, Sita isn’t perfect and that is what I like about her. This author continues to build the lore slowly when the information was needed which is great. The information is sparsely spread out for the reader to dissect and interpret to the plot line. I do not like information unloading all at once. I prefer breadcrumbs. Overall, I do like the series it is just this book I wasn’t a fan of.

a worse evil lurks

Thirst: Black Blood – Christopher Pike

Vampires, fantasy, young adult, fiction.

Rating 10/10

Sita revisits Los Angeles due to the sudden rise of horrific violence. Not wanting to be away for a while because she wants to be there to help Ray, her new lover she turned vampire to save his life, feed. He reminds her of her husband she had long ago, Rama, who looks eerily alike to Ray. She wants to know what is going on until she comes across some barely inexperienced newborn vampires. It is impossible because she ended Yakasha in the fire. Or did she. She goes back to Seymour to check in on him and to talk with him. He offers that maybe Yakasha is not truly dead. Sita later finds out there was a body recovered from the explosion and that same body went missing as well as Eddie Fender, someone who took care of the bodies in the morgue. Sita plans to hunt him down and end not only the newborn vampires he has created but including him.

This second novel in the series was very well thought into and detailed that made sense to the plot of the narrative. We meet some new characters as well as see a new romance budding. Some people might say it’s out of guilt that there is a romance but Sita acknowledges that Ray is not her old husband Rama. I love their chemistry. However, this was thoughtfully made and connects to the first novel. I remember that this part made me officially stay with this universe that Christopher Pike has created.

this was a better vampire story than twilight~

Thirst: The Last Vampire – Christopher Pike

Vampires, fantasy, young adult, fiction.

Rating 10/10

Alisa Perne is her fake and temporary name; her real name is Sita. Sita has lived over five thousand years. She was contacted by a private investigator in regards of her. Detective Riley tells her that he knows some things and cannot tell her these things. She gets little information out of him before killing him. Sita plans to find his son, whose later becomes apparent to be Ray. She has her people adjust her fake student persona and align most of the classes with him. Sita needs Ray to help her get into the computer that has the information in regards of who is investigating her so she will play dumb and innocent to Ray. After retrieving the information, she contacts Mr. Slim, a name Detective Riley had uttered before she murdered him. When he comes to pick her up to take her somewhere, she requests who he works for. In that moment, she realized that she needed Seymour, a nerd friend she made while at the school, to come pick her up from the nearby gas station where she was taken to. Seymour arrives and helps her out. Sita makes plans to meet the person who created her, Yakasha, and put an end to him before he ends her.

This is apart of a series called Thirst and I will do the individual books separately as each book of this series deserves individual recognition of every book. This book series is about nine books long, but I love this series so much. I had been eagerly collecting this book series in middle school and begged to finish the rest of the collection as I love Sita. This is not a typical vampire story that is like the others in this genre of Young Adult. I think it was after reading this book, I really fell for her entirely and needed to continue the series. She was just a total badass and I had to reread it as of recent. I did have to retrieve this from my parents’ garage though. The condition is old and weathered but still readable. I found myself binge reading so fast and forgot how awesome Christopher Pike made this female protagonist. She does have weaknesses as equally of strengths. The writing is a bit fast paced; it makes up for the plot that is addicting to read. The characters interactions are very natural, and nothing feels forced. The imagined lore is so detailed and sparsely spread out throughout the novel. I do recommend hunting this book down if one is into vampire novels but want something that is way better than Twilight. The Twilight Series could never ever be as awesome as this novel’s series. Sorry, not sorry.

can’t get caught…

Rosario + Vampire Vol. 1 – Akihisa Ikeda

Vampires, mystical creatures, high school, manga, Young Adult, fiction.

Rating 10/10

Tsukune got news that he is going to high school and doesn’t think twice of how his parents managed to get him into the high school. During the bus ride through a long tunnel, something spooky happens, he is dropped off in the middle of nowhere. He tries to follow the path marked to where his new high school is. He comes across a girl and her name is Moka. What scares the living daylights out of him is that she sucked his blood! He eventually finds out he was enrolled in a monster high school. Tsukune must make through the days surrounded by creatures without being caught that he is a human.

I originally had seen the anime version of this manga and never read it until after digging through the library database. I don’t regret the hour it took to find this manga. The anime remained true to the manga completely. I appreciated reading this manga so much that I reread it because it was so terrific. I wish I could’ve found the rest of the series, but I’d rather hold off for later. Slowly enjoy the manga series. Either way, if one is wanting to read a good decent vampire manga, this is the one.

Child Vampire = SCARY

Fledgling – Octavia Butler

Vampires, young women, fiction.

Rating 8/10

A young eleven-year-old girl stumbles out of a ruin with no recollection of who she is. As she comes to her senses, she realizes what she is. A vampire with amnesia. As time goes by, pieces of information fits into place as she finds out who she truly is.

I enjoyed reading this novel. I love vampire fiction, the classic vampire kind, not the Twilight type. This novel was amazingly written, and I simply couldn’t put the book down at all. I highly recommend this novel a lot. There is an intricate plot that slowly unfolds. I enjoy a slow burn of plot unfolding and quick escalations. This novel brought everything I wanted within the pages.

This One was INTENSE

Interview with A Vampire – Anne Rice

Vampires, horror, fiction.

Rating 10/10

A vampire seeks out this interviewer to record and tell his story of his life. He tells how he was transformed into a vampire and how he struggled to survive. This vampire witnessed a lot of events throughout his lifetime and is not shy to tell all.

I love the idea and simplicity of this intense novel. I had read this years ago and recently decided to reread the novel. I forgot how chilling the novel is and how intricate the plot was. I highly recommend reading this if one is interested in vampires of the no sparkling kind. Anne Rice is queen for making vampire horror fiction.

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A Vampire, A Witch, A Book Oh My!

A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness

Witches, vampires, demons, drama, romance, fiction, science, magic, sorcery

Rating 7/10

Diana Bishop, a bright and intelligent young scholar who had renounced the witch ancestry she has, studies at Oxford in the Bodleian Library. Diana comes across an alchemical manuscript that immediately has witches, demons, and vampires desiring for the lost text. Mathew Clairmont comes into her life wanting to know more too and gets involved with Diana Bishop in more ways than one. Mathew not only protects her but slowly he falls for her. Even though she is a witch by blood and him being a vampire. Everything is at stake to protect her and the lost manuscript text. Mathew and Diana grow a relationship as well as understanding the manuscript then go on an adventure into the past.

This book was a cliff hanger but it’s the first book in its series. Other than that it was satisfyingly good. Not much other to say about this book. It does have all the elements I look for when wanting to read a book except for the romance. Still not big on romance novels. Only saw this book for the magic, science, and mythological creatures such as vampires, demons, and witches.

Harkness, Deborah E. A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Triology #1). Viking, 2011.