Review of It's Hard to Be a Vampire
Posted: 14 Sep 2021, 13:31
[Following is a volunteer review of "It's Hard to Be a Vampire" by Viktoria Faust.]
Viktoria Faust is known as the queen of horror in Croatia. This is a compilation of short stories, written over twenty years, and it was not what I expected from reading the blurb of It’s Hard Being a Vampire.
It is very much a horror as was described but I wasn’t expecting the descriptive imagery that the author used to portray her worlds. This 86 page book consists of nine short stories, each with a unique take on vampires.
This book has both negative and positive aspects to it. For me, the most negative thing about this compilation has got to be the themes some of the stories portrayed. The first story was filled with fat shaming, which I found quite insensitive. For me that sends a bad message to the reader. In a few of the stories, particularly the second and the last story, there were multiple scenes of blasphemy against Christ, his apostles and Mary.
I feel that the book should have come with a warning for sensitive themes.
The flow of the stories are also interrupted by the stop start of sentences. So even though it was a very well edited story, the sentence structure left much to be desired. The author also could have explained better in regards to her foreign characters and their accents instead of misspelling words to make up for that imagery.
Now, for what I enjoyed about the book. I loved how Viktoria was able to craft these stories in new and imaginative ways. How each story had a completely different spin on the horror scene whether it was gruesome, disturbing or just down right bone chilling. There were two stories that stood out the most for me, mostly because it wasn’t horror in the sense of the supernatural being scary but because of the emotion Viktoria put into the story.
I will rate this book two out of four stars. Here is why. Even with how well written the book was, how amazing the author painted the imagery for the reader, I just did not enjoy it. After reading the first story with the body shaming, my opinion became biased. I strongly believe that any book that is written should come with a warning stating that it will be touching sensitive issues and that it could potentially be triggering.
That being said, I would recommend this book to the readers who enjoy H.P Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. The readers who enjoy the darker form of horror and who aren’t easily triggered by sensitive themes.
******
It's Hard to Be a Vampire
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Viktoria Faust is known as the queen of horror in Croatia. This is a compilation of short stories, written over twenty years, and it was not what I expected from reading the blurb of It’s Hard Being a Vampire.
It is very much a horror as was described but I wasn’t expecting the descriptive imagery that the author used to portray her worlds. This 86 page book consists of nine short stories, each with a unique take on vampires.
This book has both negative and positive aspects to it. For me, the most negative thing about this compilation has got to be the themes some of the stories portrayed. The first story was filled with fat shaming, which I found quite insensitive. For me that sends a bad message to the reader. In a few of the stories, particularly the second and the last story, there were multiple scenes of blasphemy against Christ, his apostles and Mary.
I feel that the book should have come with a warning for sensitive themes.
The flow of the stories are also interrupted by the stop start of sentences. So even though it was a very well edited story, the sentence structure left much to be desired. The author also could have explained better in regards to her foreign characters and their accents instead of misspelling words to make up for that imagery.
Now, for what I enjoyed about the book. I loved how Viktoria was able to craft these stories in new and imaginative ways. How each story had a completely different spin on the horror scene whether it was gruesome, disturbing or just down right bone chilling. There were two stories that stood out the most for me, mostly because it wasn’t horror in the sense of the supernatural being scary but because of the emotion Viktoria put into the story.
I will rate this book two out of four stars. Here is why. Even with how well written the book was, how amazing the author painted the imagery for the reader, I just did not enjoy it. After reading the first story with the body shaming, my opinion became biased. I strongly believe that any book that is written should come with a warning stating that it will be touching sensitive issues and that it could potentially be triggering.
That being said, I would recommend this book to the readers who enjoy H.P Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. The readers who enjoy the darker form of horror and who aren’t easily triggered by sensitive themes.
******
It's Hard to Be a Vampire
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon