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pagesplotsandpints 's review for:
My Roommate Is a Vampire
by Jenna Levine
Read Completed 9/1/23 | 2 stars
Whew, I did not like this one. The beginning was slow, clunky, and a little weird and I hoped it would get better but it just kept meandering with no real purpose. Romance books can be 100% pure vibes and don't really need a super intricate plot, but the plot should at least be the romance and I almost felt like this was half just plain contemporary with barely any romance at all.
It took us until the first 27% until Cassie finds out that Frederick is a vampire, which isn't a terrible thing but except for some instalove-type swooning because he's hot, there's really nothing happening between these two characters. I would have loved if it was more of a SOMETHING because they had already given in to attraction and oops, I made out with a vampire or something. It was just boring and the same exact formula you've read in all your vampire teen books. Things are weird and obvious and suspicious, blah blah blah.
There were tiny ebbs where things would pick up and something moderately interesting would happen but there was little to no spark between these two. Once the spicy scene rolled around, I honestly skipped it because I felt ZERO between them and I couldn't have cared less. It was supposed to be cute because Frederick was so formal and Cassie was so free-spirited but he was just SO old-fashioned and stiff that it was booooring. Plus, the audiobook narration kind of made him sound like an 85-year-old man with the old timey ways of talking. (I also hated all her voices for anyone except Cassie.)
There was a silly little side plot about Frederick being engaged to another vampire before his "100 year sleep" and some ridiculous escapade in the end which was honestly just so stupid. If you want to have this in the plot, there should be more substance to it so there's a purpose other than adding some action and and FORCING a conflict, because that was it.
I wish there had been more depth about Frederick. We get to know about Cassie's art and career struggles (which honestly, I hate almost artsy story lines. I don't know why, I just think it's annoying) but we know almost nothing about the MOST INTERESTING CHARACTER in the book! We barely hear about his history, we barely get to know anything about vampire lore (since it's always different), what else does he do during the night when he's awake? All we get is awkward, bumbling scenes where he doesn't know what to do in this time period. That was also annoying -- if he's a vampire and he's going to KEEP living for multiple centuries more (I'm assuming), he may still like old-fashioned ways but why rail so hard against it? You're gonna need to catch up at some point. Wouldn't the first thing you do, for your own sanity and for the sake of keeping your vampire-ness a secret, is to catch up on the times and try to get with it? I don't remember if the author noted exactly when he woke up from his long slumber, but he's been awake for at least a little bit...
I just didn't connect to this at all and everything was so basic. Lots of telling instead of showing, characters who were caricatures with no depth or unique personality, little to no chemistry... This was just not something I connected with or appreciated as a writing style. I can't say I'd pick up anything by this author in the future.
Whew, I did not like this one. The beginning was slow, clunky, and a little weird and I hoped it would get better but it just kept meandering with no real purpose. Romance books can be 100% pure vibes and don't really need a super intricate plot, but the plot should at least be the romance and I almost felt like this was half just plain contemporary with barely any romance at all.
It took us until the first 27% until Cassie finds out that Frederick is a vampire, which isn't a terrible thing but except for some instalove-type swooning because he's hot, there's really nothing happening between these two characters. I would have loved if it was more of a SOMETHING because they had already given in to attraction and oops, I made out with a vampire or something. It was just boring and the same exact formula you've read in all your vampire teen books. Things are weird and obvious and suspicious, blah blah blah.
There were tiny ebbs where things would pick up and something moderately interesting would happen but there was little to no spark between these two. Once the spicy scene rolled around, I honestly skipped it because I felt ZERO between them and I couldn't have cared less. It was supposed to be cute because Frederick was so formal and Cassie was so free-spirited but he was just SO old-fashioned and stiff that it was booooring. Plus, the audiobook narration kind of made him sound like an 85-year-old man with the old timey ways of talking. (I also hated all her voices for anyone except Cassie.)
There was a silly little side plot about Frederick being engaged to another vampire before his "100 year sleep" and some ridiculous escapade in the end which was honestly just so stupid. If you want to have this in the plot, there should be more substance to it so there's a purpose other than adding some action and and FORCING a conflict, because that was it.
I wish there had been more depth about Frederick. We get to know about Cassie's art and career struggles (which honestly, I hate almost artsy story lines. I don't know why, I just think it's annoying) but we know almost nothing about the MOST INTERESTING CHARACTER in the book! We barely hear about his history, we barely get to know anything about vampire lore (since it's always different), what else does he do during the night when he's awake? All we get is awkward, bumbling scenes where he doesn't know what to do in this time period. That was also annoying -- if he's a vampire and he's going to KEEP living for multiple centuries more (I'm assuming), he may still like old-fashioned ways but why rail so hard against it? You're gonna need to catch up at some point. Wouldn't the first thing you do, for your own sanity and for the sake of keeping your vampire-ness a secret, is to catch up on the times and try to get with it? I don't remember if the author noted exactly when he woke up from his long slumber, but he's been awake for at least a little bit...
I just didn't connect to this at all and everything was so basic. Lots of telling instead of showing, characters who were caricatures with no depth or unique personality, little to no chemistry... This was just not something I connected with or appreciated as a writing style. I can't say I'd pick up anything by this author in the future.