I was a
little dubious when I picked this book up and saw a red sticker, in a familiar
script proclaiming it was from the author of the bestselling True Blood series.
I used to be a fan of True Blood. Honestly, I am not much of a fan anymore, it
is my humble opinion the plot line of the series dropped severely below par a
few seasons in and never quite recovered – I haven`t read the book so I am
unable to comment on the connection between the series and the books. It is my
view though, that stickers loudly proclaiming the previous successes of the
creator of one particular item be it a book, a film or anything else, is a
possible signal for a mediocre work. Still,
the little book did a good job of selling itself. It promised a darker story
than the Sookie Stackhouse novels and a dead body artfully placed in the corner
of the front cover promised at a mixture of magic and murder mysteries – a
particular favorite with me as you probably know by now. So I bit. I bought it
(I could get it two for one with Mayhem – check here for the review – so that
definitely helped with my decision). I got so sucked into the book that on my
four hour flight over to Turkey, I did not even turn on the entertainment
system. I started leafing through the book in the lounge because my flight was
delayed by about half an hour and well, when the plane landed, I was still
burrowed in the book. That should tell you something or other – I rarely miss an
opportunity to watch a free film.
Sookie
Stackhouse fans will find the setting painfully familiar. It is set in a small,
southern town, Midnight, Texas. The town is dusty, small and almost completely
abandoned - but strangely enough the handful of inhabitants who are left seem
to prefer it that way. This way there are fewer people to avoid and more room
for… Personal lives. This means there aren`t too many newcomers to this town,
but Manfred Bernardo is a rarity (in more ways than one) who was looking for
just this kind of town. However, as unobtrusive as a newcomer may be, a new
presence will always create ripples and waves in the day to day life of a small
town. And in a town like Midnight, you can never be quite sure what those waves
might wash up…
Now,
serious fantasy and horror fans beware – this is not quite your cup of tea. I
mean yes, the ``slightly`` meaner fans of True Blood have pointed out that the
TV series is little more than soft porn with fantastic creatures in some
episodes and I can assure you the book is not so bad. This said, it is not the
kind of book any serious horror fan will find particularly easy to get their
teeth (or fangs) into. The book abounds with handsome, striking men with
supernatural powers (and more often than not platinum hair for some reason) and
beautiful women who could pluck their eyebrows with one hand and strangle you
effortlessly with the other, should they so choose. Love triangles, all the
intrigue that comes with them and ancient family secrets are also plentiful. In
fact, although I do not like this kind of speculation, I am almost sure the
book was written with the hope of it becoming some sort of TV series as so many
of the characters seem to be either directly borrowed from and elaborated on stock
characters from fantasy series all the world over, ranging from the friendly
witch to the ancient and wise vampire who only feeds on bad guys. Oh and the
handsome and mysterious stranger who rides into town guarding secrets of his
own (but that character is much older than fantasy as a genre – High Plains
Drifter anyone?).
I think it
is the abundance of these characters and the `televisionish` feel to the story
that slightly dwarfs the serious elements. Because there are some potentially
good meaty storylines and serious plot twists in there, but I honestly felt
that they could have been expanded on a bit more. More attention seems to be
given to the love triangles and the mysterious pasts of some of the characters
which, in the scheme of things, are little more than exposition around the real
story. Was this left a bit ``hanging`` in the hope that it could be elaborated
on camera? I have a suspicion it might be the case.
This said,
like I mentioned earlier, I was so badly hooked on this book that I finished it
in what ended up being a matter of hours. It`s a typical best seller and good
little page turner, it just isn`t by any stretch of the imagination high
literature. Nor is it trying to be. I
strongly recommend you get it for your daily commute – or to while away the
hours on a long trip. Just don`t expect to be able to write a thesis on it.
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