Reviews

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

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skygge's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

mooncake98's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

4.25

nerdyforbooks_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Yes, yes, yes 🙌🏻 oh my god I loved this whole damn ride. I was worried about this one as it seems to be fairly split where people either really love it or they really hate it. Definitely thought I might be in team hate as I can’t seem to get on the train of popular epic fantasy/grim dark types lately. It had me gripped from the start.

I’m not typically big on the interview/story telling type book. Something about this one though? Nailed it. It could be because I love Gabriel’s snarky ass edge lord vibe 🤷🏼‍♀️ call me a basic bitch, IDC. This was interesting, this was unique, this was dark without being dark “just because.”

It did have a weird dry spell around ~650, but damn it righted that quickly. Also, yes it’s long and building a whole story/background. I didn’t mind - I was here for it. Yes it’s got gross & dark moments - it’s uhm… a vampire book.

This felt very much like reading a version of Castlevania & I loved every moment. Book 2 here I come. Let’s goooo!

bschase's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

betseywj's review

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I may try this again later, but it’s so long/world building seemed involved and right now i do not have the bandwidth. I’ll likely try again once the series is complete.

laraloops's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I am very torn on this book. On one hand I enjoyed some of the vulgarity and unabashed horniness. On the other the sheer brooding masculinity put me off at times - I feel that there were some very very well used tropes in this one and I feel that the fact I have already seen things like The Last of Us and The Witcher made me feel like those aspects of the story I've already seen before. It's when the story diverged from these elements that I enjoyed the book more. Aaron de Costes story-line I especially enjoyed

and the fact that he did not die at various parts of the book was a surprise and probably the only reason I continued to be honest.

The aesthetics were cool, tattoos with powers and blooborne like themes were a plus. The art was also a great addition to read and see a nice depiction of the scenes and characters.

I think at the end of the day this book was just not my cup of tea and not what I was feeling up to reading. Like an good shonen anime that just didn't click with me. I do think though that the length of the book really dragged, it took me longer than usual to finish it and 700+ pages just felt like too much. The blurb at the end of the book that I mistakenly read without realizing it was the next book did get me interested to see how the second book goes so when it's available at my library I'll probably finish it as well.

Content Warnings