Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by wanderingwordwitch
Dinner with a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs
3.0
I first saw this book in my local newspaper. The author, Abigail Gibbs, originally began posting the story on Wattpad at the age of 15, and gained millions of readers, ending up scoring a six-figure deal with Harpercollins before she’d even started university! Pretty impressive!
When Violet witnesses a horrifying mass-murder in the middle of London, the last thing she expects is to be kidnapped by the murderers, who are actually vampires, and held prisoner in their grand house. She swiftly discovers that she’s been dragged into a sinister vampire-ruled underworld in which her position as the daughter of the city’s Defence Minister makes her an unwilling pawn in a power play between the vampires and the slayers trained to kill them, and the subject of a prophecy. Now she has to choose between life and undeath, with the fate of humans and vampires alike potentially hanging in the balance.
It’s certainly an action-packed plot, and even though the book is fairly long, I didn’t find myself tuning out. The thing that bothered me at first is that Violet, the protagonist, doesn’t talk like a 21st century teenager. Her narrative voice is a bit too formal, and this didn’t completely gel with the modern setting and dialogue. This bothered me less as I read further, however, at least there isn’t as much angst as you find in a lot of vampire fiction. This might be because it isn’t YA – there’s a lot of violence and gruesome moments, and the vampires are a genuine threat.
This isn’t a bad book, but it suffers from an overlong, convoluted plot which is a tad predictable in places. I felt some situations were a bit contrived, and I didn’t take to Kaspar, the main ‘love interest’ – he never quite lost the creepy factor for me. I thought the editing was a bit rough in places, and there were a few awkward sentences and clumsy wording which drew me out of the story. But overall I did enjoy the read, and I think this young author is at the start of a very promising career.
When Violet witnesses a horrifying mass-murder in the middle of London, the last thing she expects is to be kidnapped by the murderers, who are actually vampires, and held prisoner in their grand house. She swiftly discovers that she’s been dragged into a sinister vampire-ruled underworld in which her position as the daughter of the city’s Defence Minister makes her an unwilling pawn in a power play between the vampires and the slayers trained to kill them, and the subject of a prophecy. Now she has to choose between life and undeath, with the fate of humans and vampires alike potentially hanging in the balance.
It’s certainly an action-packed plot, and even though the book is fairly long, I didn’t find myself tuning out. The thing that bothered me at first is that Violet, the protagonist, doesn’t talk like a 21st century teenager. Her narrative voice is a bit too formal, and this didn’t completely gel with the modern setting and dialogue. This bothered me less as I read further, however, at least there isn’t as much angst as you find in a lot of vampire fiction. This might be because it isn’t YA – there’s a lot of violence and gruesome moments, and the vampires are a genuine threat.
This isn’t a bad book, but it suffers from an overlong, convoluted plot which is a tad predictable in places. I felt some situations were a bit contrived, and I didn’t take to Kaspar, the main ‘love interest’ – he never quite lost the creepy factor for me. I thought the editing was a bit rough in places, and there were a few awkward sentences and clumsy wording which drew me out of the story. But overall I did enjoy the read, and I think this young author is at the start of a very promising career.