Matheus had put a lot of effort to escaping his past and
leading a nice boring life free from any kind of drama – or any real human
contact. Until he was recruited to steal something from his workplace
And by recruited, we mean threatened with terrible,
horrible torture until he complied. If there was any doubt as to the sincerity
of the threats, his contact is a vampire. And to ensure his silence, he makes
Matheus one too
Learning to become a vampire isn’t easy – less so when
you have considerable resentment towards the vampire who murdered you. There’s
a lot to learn, a lot of hoops to jump through, city politics to navigate,
hunters to dodge – and some surprising revelations to learn about himself as well.
But even that gets complicated when his long hidden past
returns in force.
A book about vampires! Time for me to get my big big pile
of clichés and tropes and scenarios I’ve seen again and again and again…
And throw them out the window! Because they don’t apply
here! Yes, I’m quite gleeful about this. A vampire story without so many things
that are now staple – and impossibly gorgeous vampire, lots of angst for no
good reason, a whole lot of sanitising what it actually means to be undead and
a monster with a heavy side order of super powers and romance.
Not this book. First of all becoming a vampire is
difficult and really messy – as Quinn notes, he really should have brought a
mop.
The vampires drink blood and kill people. This isn’t a
choice and there isn’t an alternative – for a vampire to go on living they kill
people. This is a moral quandary and it is treated as such –something to think
about and feel guilty about and try to find exceptions and minimise the damage
and have considerable resentment from Matheus towards Quin for both murdering
him and dooming him to murder other people. It’s not angst in a “oh what a
terrible person I am” but it’s extreme discomfort, anger and fear over what
Matheus has become and what he has to do rather than the very tired angsty
monologues over nipping a vein. It has a depth, a nuance and a strength to it
that is sorely missing in so many stories of monsters that regret who they are.
In fact life and death continue to be a major theme in
the books. There are a lot of deaths and they’re not even slightly sanitised.
It’s graphic, it’s often brutal and it’s not pretty nor is it meant to be.
People die – and no-one’s expendable and no-one’s disposable and even people
hunting you or working for the evil corporation are people with families. At
the same time, while everyone who dies is human, Matheus is not a saint – and
he’s certainly not going to weep for his torturer – and Quin is far too jaded
by his centuries to feel anything.
