My Rating: ✩✩✩✩✩
I have to open with my excitement for the cover being one of my favorite art pieces. Add in a premise that intertwines with my special interest of vampire lore in New England and I was hooked. With great hopes that this would be the vibes of the whole book, I was excited to receive this ARC. What followed was a delightfully spooky and dark story of the ways women have searched for their freedom in times of superstition and oppression.
The premise of a vampire hunter who knows she is working an angle to disperse manufactured panic is a very interesting approach to historical vampire lore. The allusions to said lore are artfully written into the narrative. Calling on Slavic traditions surrounding vampires (which also became the new world superstitions leading to "slaying the dead" as late as 1893 in my neighboring town...but I do digress) to build a town in a panic makes for an atmospheric read. While no characters are completely good-the hunter is a self-admitted fake, the man who "saved" our fair protagonist is an obsessed groomer, the brother is trying to help but cannot resist damaging everyone to get what he wants- the overall theme of justice via myth was cleverly done. In the end the real monsters get their just desserts.
As a dark novel for the dark days of winter, this one should be on the TBR list of any spooky fans.
I have to open with my excitement for the cover being one of my favorite art pieces. Add in a premise that intertwines with my special interest of vampire lore in New England and I was hooked. With great hopes that this would be the vibes of the whole book, I was excited to receive this ARC. What followed was a delightfully spooky and dark story of the ways women have searched for their freedom in times of superstition and oppression.
The premise of a vampire hunter who knows she is working an angle to disperse manufactured panic is a very interesting approach to historical vampire lore. The allusions to said lore are artfully written into the narrative. Calling on Slavic traditions surrounding vampires (which also became the new world superstitions leading to "slaying the dead" as late as 1893 in my neighboring town...but I do digress) to build a town in a panic makes for an atmospheric read. While no characters are completely good-the hunter is a self-admitted fake, the man who "saved" our fair protagonist is an obsessed groomer, the brother is trying to help but cannot resist damaging everyone to get what he wants- the overall theme of justice via myth was cleverly done. In the end the real monsters get their just desserts.
As a dark novel for the dark days of winter, this one should be on the TBR list of any spooky fans.
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