Kat Redding is known as Lady Death to the vampires. Armed with silver, illegal since the Uprising when vampires and werewolves drove humans into virtual hiding at night, she preys on the predators, saving the lives of the Purebloods, the untainted humanity, as much as she can.But Kat is one of the tainted herself, a vampire desperately struggling to control her own hunger and anger. A drive that she cannot restrain and still has her leaving bodies in her wake; even as she tries to prey on the human predators, she cannot escape the truth that she is as much a killer as the ones she hunts.And then came the Luna Cult, knowing more than they should, with an offer for her. A chance to take down a Vampire House she would normally consider too big to tackle, and save innumerable lives in the process. But it involves working with the werewolves of the cult, people she continues to see as enemy. Or, perhaps worse, people she is beginning to see as people.There are a lot of vampires out there now and it can be hard to find a book that doesn’t follow some very predictable patterns. So I was very happy to see some of the original nuances that this book brought, The Taint that turns “Purebloods” into vampires or werewolves, the problems with mixing the Taint, the vampire houses, the Uprising causing humanity to pretty much cede the night to the Tainted: there’s a lot of elements here that make it very different from most vampire books. There’s an originality that makes it fascinating and a world I want to explore. The world building is also very solid and consistent with some decent development – not only do people stay in after the curfew but there are other problems as well, like college campuses being only a quarter full because they were hit first as an easy source of quick recruits by the vampire houses. Things like this, extra details, extra considerations of what other effects would come from an event like the Uprising really add a lot of meat to the world. It gives it a realness and makes the events more authentic rather than just useful story points the author makes up as they go along.The story itself is also an interesting one and one that’s perfect for the first book in a series. It gives us a chance to explore several of the main characters (albeit not as much as I would like in one case as I mention below) as well as the world setting , all without much in the way of info-dumping (though we do get a fair bit of monologuing). The pacing is decent (except, again, for that monologuing) with plenty of action strung together without it just being action without plot. There was also plenty of twists with mistrust of the Luna Cult and then the revelation of the Luna Cult’s splinter group. From that there are still plenty of unanswered questions that beg to be answered in the next book – which is a hook in and of itself.It does have a couple of moments where I have to say “huh” like an experienced vampire house deciding that restraining their angry werewolves to a wall said wolfies can break is a good idea, or that imprisoning people and then leaving a huge pile of their weapons just outside the cell. They seem small but things like this put the protagonist’s success more in the hands of random chance and enemy screw ups rather than their own planning (or complete and utter lack thereof) and competence.Read More
