Tag: vampires

Book Review | Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Posted April 17, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Rae Seddon, nicknamed Sunshine, lived a quiet life working at her stepfather’s bakery. There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it’s unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. One night, she went out to the lake for some peace and quiet. There hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years, and Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts.

Big mistake.

Vampires never entered her mind. Until they found her. And set upon her, and took her to an old abandoned mansion. They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to a wall-within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight, who is also chained. She knows that it is a vampire. She knows that she’s to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, when light breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is the vampire, Constantin, who needs her to help him survive the day, to protect him from the sun with her magic…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

This is a reread. I’ve read this book twice before and it’s one of my favorite vampire stories. I also really love the author’s works.

The Quotes

“What we can do, we must do: we must use what we are given, and we must use it the best we can, however much or little help we have for the task. What you have been given is a hard thing–a very hard thing… But my darling, what if there were no one who could do the difficult things?”

“It is halfway true that if you are involved in a family coffeehouse you don’t have a life.”

“You can be a really nasty, selfish little jerk when you’re scared enough. I was scared enough.”

“He was a vampire. I was a human. We weren’t supposed to have any bonds between us, except straightforward generic ones of murderous antagonism and so on.”

The Narrator(s)

Laural Merlington. I had a really hard time with the low vampire voices. I could barely hear them and couldn’t make out what they were saying. I had to get a copy of the ebook and refer to it periodically.

My Thoughts

I love this book. I have loved this book, and I still love this book. Listening on audio was not the best experience, unfortunately, because I couldn’t make out what some of the low voices was saying, but I still love the story. I read it for the first time maybe 20 years ago and I thought it was one of the more interesting vampire stories, and 20 years later it’s still true for me.

The relationship between Rae and Constantin is a constant push/pull, and I love that vampires aren’t seen as dashing, romantic bad boys in this world but rather dangerous, animalistic creatures of prey. I mean, to an extent, Constantin is romanticized a little bit but to a reasonable degree in comparison to so many other vampire stories.

There are so many reasons why I love this book; the interesting world-building, the vampire lore, the rich character backgrounds. When the book first came out years ago, I hoped there might be more books set in this world, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any so far, and the author hasn’t published any new books in the last decade. Still, there are plenty of books in her catalog I haven’t read and I love rereading the ones I’ve read. I never get tired of them.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Posted January 17, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 3 Comments

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in ‘Salem’s Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to ‘Salem’s Lot hoping to cast out his own devils… and found instead a new unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.

All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of ‘Salem’s Lot.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #42: Non-human antagonist)
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge

The Reason

It was a buddy read with my online bookclub, and I’m also doing a personal challenge to read all of Stephen King’s books!

The Quotes

“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered.”

“Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.”

“At three in the morning the blood runs slow and thick, and slumber is heavy. The soul either sleeps in blessed ignorance of such an hour or gazes about itself in utter despair. There is no middle ground.”

“The town knew about darkness. It knew about the darkness that comes on the land when rotation hides the land from the sun, and about the darkness of the human soul”

The Narrator(s)

Ron McLarty. No notes, it was great!

My Thoughts

This is a reread and I had very fond memories of reading it the first time during a thunderstorm. I loved the vibes but I think I remembered the vibes more than I remember the details of the book, so I had a lot of fun rereading the book and being surprised and shocked all over again!

I’ve also watched the latest adaptation of the book but didn’t like it very much. It felt very rushed, and rereading the book, one of the things I appreciate about it is that it takes its time. The slow burn was just perfect; the feeling of dread and futility, the anticipation of what’s happening and what’s going to happen, the desperation of trying to do something about it. Oooh, shivers down my spine!

The characters are another wonderful thing about the book. They are all so compelling. Stephen King is so good at getting inside their heads and giving us glimpses of their lives and who they are. I also really love how he writes about “regular” people and show us that sometimes the real monsters are here amongst us.

I also feel like I appreciate SK the more I read, and reread, his books. I tend to miss a lot when I read but every reread helps me to see more details and there is so much to get from SK’s books. This one was such a great reread, and I love it even more now than I did the first time.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books About Vampires

Posted October 28, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 29 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Halloween Freebie

I decided to go with vampire stories for today’s topic because there’s been so many vampire stories I’ve loved. Except Twilight, I did not like Twilight so I didn’t include it, but I do recognize its popularity. I’ve listed some of my favorite vampire books here although I haven’t read the last three. They feel familiar to me because I’ve watched the movies and there are so many pop culture references to them. In any case, I could do with a reread for almost all of these books!

Top Ten Books About Vampires

  1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley – This is one of my all-time favorite vampire books, and an author I love in general. It has been a long while since I read this, so definitely time for a reread!
  2. ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King – I have such fond memories of listening to this on audio during a thunderstorm while being home alone. I spoiled the atmosphere a little by turning on every single light in the house, but I was still very creeped out by it. I loved the experience so much!
  3. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black – Another favorite! And another favorite author! I thought this book was a very interesting take on vampires and a very different vampire story.
  4. Thirst series by Christopher Pike – My first vampire love. The first of the series came out more than two decades ago and I loved it as a teenager. It’s a bit dated but you never forget your first love.
  5. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead – I devoured the series! I read it more than a decade ago but I remember loving them so much at the time.
  6. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – I remember really enjoying the story although missing a lot of the details, especially because of POV and timeline switches, but I do intend to read this again eventually.
  7. The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes – I thought this was such a fun read and intended to read the rest of the series but never got to them for some reason. Now that I’m reading Super Powereds by the same author and loving it, I’m definitely planning to come back to this one.
  8. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist – I thought I read this but I might be wrong. I’m quite certain I watched both the movies though! I think? I remember being immersed in this story and yet I’m doubting myself now.
  9. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice – I definitely watched the movie! I might have read the book but I don’t remember, so it’s time to (re)read it either way!
  10. Dracula by Bram Stoker – I know I didn’t read this one but I’ve been meaning to for ages! The last time I tried, I did a stupid thing and listened to it to go to sleep, and I was very rudely awakened by a screaming evil voice that scared me so much I couldn’t go back to sleep!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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