So here's something you should know about me...I love all things Victorian Era...specifically Victorian London. I think it's because I have a slight interest/obsession with all things Jack the Ripper...yeah...I'm weird. I tell you that because there's not much on the back of this book to tell you what the story is about but the first words are "LONDON, 1892:". Well hello Victorian London. All I know from the back is that we're in London and James Norbury has disappeared and his sister, Charlotte, leaves her home in Yorkshire to go find him. We all know, based on many previous posts, that I'm an avid mystery fan. So, Victorian London plus a good mystery equals a book after my own heart. It was then I read one of the reviews on the front and back covers that I also realized there were vampires involved. Yep...you guessed it...I'm a vampire fan. Anyway, this book seemed like a fitting choice for my tastes so I picked it up without further thought. On to the review! HUGE spoiler alerts by the way, in that I'll tell you what happened, including the ending, because it pissed me off that I have no closure and this book make me unexpectedly cry at the end.
This book has 5 parts and at times can seem a bit choppy because it's broken down in these 5 parts. You have to mentally switch gears because Part 2 starts off and I was going who the fuck are these people? What the hell is going on? I'm so confused! You just have to stick with it! I promise, it all starts to come together. I don't remember what happened in each part, I just remember the first 2 seemed to have nothing to do with one another until I got to Part 3...then it all clicked into place.
Part 1 introduces you to James and Charlotte growing up in a mansion in Yorkshire and then their father dies so all of the money and property are left to James but he's still a child. Upon the death of their father, Charlotte goes to live nearby with Mrs. Chickering and James goes off to basically a boarding school and then on to Oxford. Of course, there's a lot more detail as the author is setting up some details that at the time I was like why do we need to know this but comes into play later. Again...I found myself just biding my time to see how all of this was going to come together. Okay...cut to James just graduating Oxford and he decides to stay in London rather than returning home. He ultimately ends up rooming with Christopher Paige, a fellow Oxford graduate that James knows but not really in that he saw him making out with a woman in the library stacks and now they meet again. James wants to be a writer and Christopher stays out until all times of night/morning partying and living up the bachelor life and they eventually become friends. Then they eventually become more than friends and I DID NOT SEE THAT SHIT COMING. I'm not homophobic but I seriously had to flip back a few pages because I didn't see it coming. I felt it came completely out of nowhere and I honestly feel like there was never anything to suggest an underlying sexual tension or interest for either of them. Maybe you'll read it different but I was floored for a minute. So...yay they're happy with one another but Christopher's older brother somehow knows what the deal is (you find out later it's because he can read minds because he's a...*gasp*...VAMPIRE) and he doesn't like it one bit. Tells James to pack his shit and go so of course Christopher and James decide they'll run away together. The night before they're set to leave they're attacked and the part fucking abruptly ends...a cliffhanger already dude? Seriously?
Then we get to Part 2 which introduces you to journal writings by Augustus Mould and I was like what the fuck is going on here? Who is this kid? Who are Michael and Edmund? WHAT THE MONKEY?! Basically there's a secret club, the Aegolius club, which is a secret society of male vampires...no women allowed...of course not...it's Victorian London. Edmund is a vampy who knew A. Mould before his "Exchange" took place. So...after he's a vampire, he seeks Mould out because he wants Mould, a researcher, to figure out all he can about the vampiric condition. From here, it's a lot of blah blah blah and figuring out how to not only overthrow the Aegolius leader so Edmund can rule, but also how to capture poor, unfortunate vampires in order to test theories and weapons and traps and other such nonsense on them. Eventually, Edmund does become the leader and Mould develops the nickname of Dr, Knife but the poor, unfortunate vampires called the Alia. It's also during this time we learn that Christopher was killed in the attack but James has been transformed, against his will, into a vampire. It was previously thoughts, based on a bad translation of Latin, that consent must be made in order for the Exchange to occur successfully. Michael's (Edmund's psychotic brother) exchanging with a non-consenting James has now proven otherwise. James and a human who helps him, Arthur Howland, escape the Aegolius club.
Now we cut to Mrs. Chickering dying and James not responding to the telegraphs Charlotte sent so she hops on a train and comes to London is search of her brother. She goes to his home and finds him being all weird and vampy...he bites her...they both freak out...she runs away. There's other stuff but that's the gist. While she's busy running through the streets of London with her luggage in tow, she's grabbed by a vampire but woot woot the day is saved by Shadwell and Adeline...vampire hunters of the time, if you would. When they get back to the bookstore owned by Shadwell and Adeline, Howland is passed out on the curb in front of their shop. Everyone goes inside and tells their respective stories.
Meanwhile, you're being told about the Alia when all you really truly need to know is Mrs. Price is the leader of them and her errand vampire child is Liza. You probably also need to know there's a Mr. Burke who was a vampire, killed his partner, felt the guilt every day so he cut off his arms and legs so he couldn't stalk his prey. Somehow he's cool with all sides so he knows what's up with the Alia, what's going on the Aegolius club, and Shadwell and Adeline use him for information as well. Shadwell and Adeline want to get Charlotte and Howland out of London. You also learn in a side note than Edmund and Mould have captured James and are holding his ass in a silver lined coffin. Around this time too, Mr. Burke is murdered by Shadwell, but he tells Liza it was Dr. Knife and now we can get a war going on between the Alia and the Aegolius club.
Remember Michael? Edmund's psychotic vampire brother who killed Christopher and turned James? Well he opens up the silver lined coffin James is in and taunts his ass with silver spikes...kind of like knitting needles...and in a last act of self preservation the incredibly weak James kills his ass. Well of course Edmund isn't happy even though his brother was psychotic so they chain James up with silver and beat him and torture and blah blah blah. Lucky for him, the Alia are coming to the club and Liza sneaks in so she and the other little vampire children can set fire to the building. She knows James from a previous incident (not that important) and removes the silver from him. At the same time, Charlotte and Howland are trying to infiltrate and they're alone because Shadwell and Adeline have been murdered because of Mr. Burke. Chaos ensues!
Turns out Christopher's brother helps Charlotte, Howland, and James get out. Liza gets out. Edmund and Mould get out. Maybe a couple of unimportant vampires. Edmund turns Mould into a vampire...fucking finally...it's all this little man has been waiting on for like ever. Liza goes off and remains a child vampire forever...I just kept thinking about Kirsten Dunst's character in Interview with the Vampire. Charlotte, Howland, and James get out of London where she drops Howland off at the doctor because he was grazed by a bullet during the skirmish (he ends up losing a leg.) James...well...James...she puts him in a secret closet behind the bookcase room of the library, bleeds him as if he really had any blood left in him, and nails his feet to the floor. Apparently he doesn't even really know all of this is going on (she learned it from a book Shadwell and Adeline wrote). Charlotte and Howland go on to get married and travel the world looking for a cure but they never find one and she can't return to her brother. Cut to the very end in which I cried like a little baby because Charlotte has dementia, sometimes calls her husband James instead of Arthur, and is all around cantankerous from time to time. He's taking her home to England to die but she dies on the boat trip across. He sees to her burial and now all of the property is left to him. He goes to check on James and what do you know...MOTHERFUCKER ISN'T THERE!
Fuck you cliffhanger. I can't even say with any certainty that there will be a sequel. I think we all just may have been fucked over and left not knowing how the fuck he got out or what's up with him. I felt sometimes the author got a bit wordy and that in some instances we didn't need to know as much detail as she put in. Overall it was a good book. I liked her take on vampires being creatures that were so much more zombie like that most other portrayals of them. It's like with their exchange, their human gene just died and they became incapable of caring about anything other than self preservation. It was refreshing to see them NOT romanticized. I also think Mould was psychotic as well. He reminds me of a mad scientist with crazy hair doing anything and everything in the name of research no matter who he hurts, maims, or kills. I wonder if that was really how he was or if it was maybe a bit of influence from Edmund that also brought it about.
Lots of interwoven plot lines and this book skips around a bit, but Owen does tie it all in together. Be aware though, you may need a flow chart to keep up if you don't like jumping plot lines. Certain parts of the book dragged and certain parts flew by and I wanted to go back to what was going on with that character, but you find you eventually end up back with them in this roundabout interwoven way. All in all, a good book and I would buy the sequel if there is one because I'm not big on cliffhangers. I feel a part of me has been left behind in that book just hanging out waiting to know what's going to happen next. If your interests are like mine, go read it for yourself. You can see for yourself all the details I left out...I couldn't tell you EVERYTHING now could I?
No comments:
Post a Comment