Angelika is a teenager with a dream – she wants to be a
singer and she definitely has the talent to make it work. But her parents are
less than thrilled with this choice of career and wish she’d do something more
conservative, more academic. It isn’t just typical parental worry, though –
Angelika is a Shimshana, descendent of fallen angels and a vampire, the
vampires from which all other vampires spring. She is immortal, she has powers
beyond imagining – and she’s just maturing into all of that.
Just when her big break arrives. Which means getting a recording contract just when she starts craving the blood of her friends and co-workers. Which means getting a recording contract when her voice becomes a weapon that could kill everyone who hears it. And that’s before considering her rocky relationship with Sawyer, the producer.
More, because of the scope of her powers she also has to
master them quickly – because her Maha approaches, a ceremony in which she will
be presented to the rest of the immortal community – and it will be decided
whether she’s too dangerous to be allowed to live.
This is one of those books that would be extremely good
as an introduction to a series and is a little flat as a stand alone novel. The
main reason for this is there isn’t a lot of plot or story – there’s a huge
amount of world building, a lot of character development and a lot of character
establishment. In this book we learn who everyone is and why, we learn what’s
happening, we learn what everyone is and the history and implications behind
that.
It’s a credit to the writing in this book and the imagination
of the creation, that I really enjoyed it. Usually I’m put off by books that
focus more on character development than actual events – I need a reason to
care about people before hearing all about their lives. But with this I was
drawn in – Angelika and her world is interesting and extremely unique. The
vampires, their origins, the different kinds of magic, the world, the angels –
they all bring a very original perspective to some classic Urban Fantasy tropes
and creatures
Her struggles aren’t especially deep, nor do they contain a lot of conflict that isn’t relatively easily resolved. Her family disapproving of her career path, the worry about containing her abilities as a Shimshana is handled well – there are dramas but they are dealt with and moved on. The tension and ramifications of her Maha ceremony are set up well with plenty of concern about the massive impact they could have – and resolved without undue difficulty. Again, this isn’t a story about epic conflict – but, really surprisingly for me, nor does it need to me. Angelika doesn’t have to endure the epic doom for her to be a fascinating character. She doesn’t have to fight tooth and nail against a rabidly oppressive family for her excitement about the band or its success to be any less true or emotionally conveyed. She didn’t have to spend months and months facing disasters and grief from her powers for the achievement of her actually controlling them to be any less of an achievement. Perhaps all of the issues being resolved relatively simply is a bit much, but it didn’t break my enjoyment of them.
