Xing

Rating: 2.5 stars

Let me state that the prose is well written. Despite not being a fan of first-person POV, Reylan (the vampire Blood Shade) is an interesting enough character. The world is interesting enough, one that is riddled with the supernatural and societies that seem to govern these creatures living in the shadows of an ignorant humanity.

But overall? Meh.

My eyes were glazing over too much detail. I understand that a richly developed world needs to be detailed oriented and have a nice cast of secondary characters. But do we REALLY need to know so much about Ross, Isobel, Patricia, Sophia and her little 10 yo friend who's name I can't remember, Kelvin, Brett, Father Issac, the drunk girl at that emo club, Rory, Dorotha and other characters that I can't remember off the top of my head? I felt like I knew even LESS of Jorgas, who I originally thought was the other MC in this book. But by how much attention and word count he received, I felt he was more of another secondary character.

And the so called relationship between Reylan and Jorgas? It felt so shallow. Like they hated each other, and then they were having a blood sucking-induced orgasm? Like...really?! Maybe this is the norm for vampire-inspired stories, but apparently this really isn't my thing.

So yeah, the story is very violent and gory. There's a lot of blood involved. Lots of loose ends that makes me think there has to be a sequel (if not, then that's another thumbs down). But overall, I just wasn't impressed.