Paranormal Element: Vampire
Series: Twisted Tales, Book Two
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Rating: 3 of 5
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Silver Dolphin Books; Reprint edition (April 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1607102560
Review copy from NetGalley.com
PJVs QUICKIE POV:
A new take on an old fable, Sleeping Beauty joins the rank of the other classics to get a revamp, literally. Entertaining for it’s frivolity, SLEEPING BEAUTY: VAMPIRE SLAYER had the intensity to get me intrigued but was a little too light for my vampy tastes. I think I was more entranced with the novelty of it than the plot or characters. The tone was a too juvenile and the plot a bit too thin, but overall I was entertained. McGowan did a great job given her restrictions and now I’m intrigued enough to seek out more of her writing.
REVIEW:
Our Sleeping Beauty would be the usual Rose, but for a nasty vampire queen that throws a hex on her at birth. To combat the curse she is named Lucette. Poor Lucette, hexed by the nasty vamp queen has a curse lurking over her that is destined to plummet her into sleeping during the day to only awake at night, while the rest of the kingdom sleeps during the night and awakens at day. This doesn’t sound so bad, but her kingdom is on the brink of war with the vampires -- and a sleeping kingdom is an ALL YOU CAN EAT buffet for vamps sneaking over the border.
No matter what her father does, the curse is destined to overcome Lucette at the age of 16 so she strives hard to prepare herself for her impending nightly struggle. Lucette will become a Vampire Slayer and rid the world of the hated blood-suckers!
Set up in the CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE style that was so very popular in the 80s and early 90s, you can choose what decisions Lucette gets to make. It was a very fun read in that way - and even though this YA had the typical triangle -- you get to choose which boy to keep and which to push away! Fun.
The tone might have been a bit juvenile and there might have been some jumps in the plot that I thought didn’t mesh well, but overall the novel did what it was intended for, entertained. The potential romance did rub me a bit wrong, because it was a “oh he is soo hot” “oh she is so beautiful” but no real love connection type of romance. For a bit of the time I felt like I might have chosen wrong, or went to the wrong page and missed something because of the plot jumps. Who knows I might have, which is why I felt the plot made leaps that I didn’t feel were cohesive. As a twelve year old I would have been thoroughly entranced though!!
RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is for a more immature reader, pass it along to your tweens and younger teens. Older readers might not enjoy as much. For parents, there is a bit of violence, but nothing major there is a bit of sexual tension that I found didn’t match the tone. You might want to read before you pass it along, just to be certain.
5 comments:
I agree with you on the fact that there were some 'plot holes' in this novel, and that it was aimed more at tweens than young adults. That said, I also think it was very appropriate and interesting for the age group it was aimed at.
I reviewed this book as well, and gave it 3/5 too. Here's the review, in case you're interested. :)
Thank you for your review, I thought it was very interesting to see another person's perspective on this novel and realise we mostly thought the same things.
Hmm, I’m definitely intrigued. The mix of Sleeping Beauty and vampires is intriguing, and I have fond memories of those Choose Your Own Adventures. They were so much fun . . . it’s exciting to see somebody playing with the format again.
Ehh, not feeling any love for this one. If the revamped version was more serious I'd want to pick it up.
Excellent review!
~Kelsa
I've got this one near the top of the TBR pile, thanks to NetGalley. I hear mixed things about it, but I really ought to just take the plunge and start reading it soon.
I have this for review too, didn't know it was a choose your own! Interesting.
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