Tagged: violence
Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike
(Cover picture courtesy of The Book on the Hill.)
Alisa has been in control of her urges for the five thousand years she has been a vampire. She feeds but does not kill, and she lives her life on the fringe to maintain her secret. But when her creator returns to hunt her, she must break her own rules in order to survive.
Her quest leads her to Ray. He is the only person who can help her; he also has every reason to fear her. Alisa must get closer to him to ensure her immortality. But as she begins to fall in love with Ray, suddenly there is more at stake than her own life.
Oh no! Christopher Pike had a female vampire as his main character, but guess what? She was a real vampire. Yes, a blood-sucking, cold-blooded killing machine who has almost no regrets about murdering people in order to survive. Not only is Sita a real vampire, she has an amazing backstory and, in the context of urban fantasy vampires, it is a believable one. No, it’s not a science origins vampire story, but it is interesting and Christopher Pike created an interesting world around it.
I think Sita is proof of Loren Estleman’s statement in his book on writing that characters don’t have to be sympathetic, but they have to be interesting. She’s hardly sympathetic in the beginning, but at least she is interesting. As she grows throughout the three books that make up Thirst No. 1 (which were originally published separately), we begin to see an almost human side of her. Sita falls in love, confronts her past and begins to look to her future and even though it’s a slow character arc, it’s believable.
The plot moves along pretty quickly because the three books that make up the volume are less than 200 pages each. However, being a book about real vampires, Thirst No. 1 is extremely gory. I would not recommend it for young audiences, especially because of the gore and sexual content. But despite gore that seems almost unnecessary, Thirst No. 1 is a good book that overall, I enjoyed.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
(Cover picture courtesy of Wikipedia.)
Months have passed since Gregor first fell into the strange Underland beneath New York City, and he swears he will never go back. But he is destined to be a key player in another prophecy, this one about an ominous white rate called the Bane. The Underlanders know there is only one way to lure Gregor back to their world: by kidnapping his little sister, Boots.
Now Gregor’s quest reunites him with his bat, Ares, and the rebellious princess, Luxa. They descend into the dangerous Waterway in search of the Bane, and Gregor knows what is at stake. If he does not fulfill the prophecy, his life, and the Underland, will never be the same.
Just like in the case of The Iron Daughter, this is a book that does not suffer from Book 2 Disease. In fact, I like it even more than the first book because there are many interesting new characters (Photos Glow-Glow, Zap and Howard, for instance) and a great plot that throws many twists and turns at you, especially at the end. Gregor also becomes a much more interesting character as he braves even more dangers to help protect a land he owes no true allegiance to.
What I like about this book is the fact that Suzanne Collins does not spare her characters any pain. Gregor, unlike a lot of heroes, gets injuries and these injuries actually leave scars. What a novel idea! People get scarred in real life (both mentally and physically) and Suzanne Collins injects this realism into her writing. Sometimes she goes overboard, but no one is perfect.
What is odd about Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (and really, the entire Underland Chronicles) is that it is written in a style more suited to tweens and young teens, but it contains just as much violence as The Hunger Games. I would definitely recommend this book for younger readers who are mature simply because of the violence, which is not something I would normally warn readers about. This really is an excellent book, but it does have mature content.
I give this book 4/5 stars.