Monday, March 4, 2013

Review: The Dark Heroine

THE DARK HEROINE: DINNER WITH A VAMPIRE
The Dark Heroine #1
Abigail Gibbs
Paranormal New Adult
549 pages
HarperCollins
Available March 5th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
One moment can change your life forever...

For Violet Lee, a chance encounter on a darkened street draws her into a world beyond her wildest imaginings, a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth – of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone. A place from which there is no escape...no matter how hard Violet tries.

Yet all the riches in the world can’t mask the darkness that lies beneath the gilded surface, embodied in the charismatic but dangerous Kaspar Varn.

Violet and Kaspar surrender to a passion that transcends their separate worlds – but it’s a passion that comes at a price...


MY THOUGHTS
The Dark Heroine lives up to the adjective in its title, introducing us to a world where vampires are not the romantic heroes of recent fiction, but rather anti-heroes seemingly unconcerned with winning our affections in favor of unapologetically making us see who they truly are. Thus our relationship with Kaspar, his family, and his world is a fragile and unsettling one, often pushing the boundaries of our tolerance and challenging our capacity to forgive at every opportunity, but even as our hearts and minds struggle with what they can and cannot accept we find ourselves deeply intrigued. Ms. Gibbs is without a doubt a talented storyteller, impressing us with her ability to create such morally and romantically ambiguous characters and delighting us with her talent for making a 500+ page tale feel as though it's over in the blink of an eye.

Though this story alternates between Kaspar and Violet's point of views, it's Violet with whom we spend the most time, but despite our extended access to the inner workings of her mind, she remains a young woman we can't quite figure out. There are some behavioral inconsistencies for all the characters across the board, but given our ample time with Violet hers are the most pronounced for us, her thoughts and actions completely unpredictable in a way that keeps us at arms length as we fight to get a handle on who she is. While she deals with many of the difficult situations admirably given her young age, there are times when she either underreacts to situations we feel bear more of an emotional response from her, or overreacts to things we don't anticipate given her behavior up to that point. As a result, our relationship with her feels tenuous; a fragile string connecting us that's stretched unnervingly tight every time she reacts somewhat erratically, keeping us anxious that it will break without notice and leave us with nothing.

Kaspar is as much a puzzle to us as Violet is, his behavior throughout like a test Ms. Gibbs is administering to us readers to see who will stick with him long enough for his layers to be peeled back. He is generally unlikable from the very beginning and for much of the first hundred or so pages, making us think he's going to need every one of the remaining four hundred to reverse our current opinion, but the saving grace for us is Violet herself. She shares our instant dislike of him and all he represents, so we're able to find some comfort in the fact that she's not a girl pining for and mooning over a boy who treats her poorly. Ms. Gibbs does a beautiful job of slowly endearing Kaspar to us, though each moment of vulnerability is often accompanied by a reminder of how brutal he can be, and in the end he's someone who holds us transfixed even if a handful of niggling doubts about him remain.

A few of those doubts we have with regard to Kaspar are a result of questions we have about this world of vampires itself, some of the rules that govern their society and their method of feeding not entirely clear and thus coloring our perception of the characters themselves. For instance, Kaspar eventually reveals that they don't have to kill to feed (it's also made clear that they can feed on animals, bagged blood, or even other vampires), but they often do commit murder in the name of survival, leaving us to wonder how deep the pleasure of the kill is ingrained in them and even more so, how we feel about that given one such killer is our romantic lead. Overall though, this tale is quite entertaining, our issues with it actually a sign of our deep interest given they keep us thinking of Violet and Kaspar long after we finish reading, and Ms. Gibbs is certainly an author to watch for me moving forward.

Rating: 3.5-4 out of 5 (I'm giving a range because there are some days where the inconsistencies in the characters' behavior bothered me more than they did on others, but all in all, I'm excited to see what's to come in book two.)

35 comments:

  1. Honestly, I can tell from your review already that this one would not be for me, even though it's the only review I've read for it. I just know that those inconsistent and frustrating characters would be a major source of annoyance for me and I might not be as forgiving of them. I'm really glad you found this one entertaining overall though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely had some issue with the characters, but there was something really interesting about this world and the way it was written that I couldn't stop reading:)

      Delete
  2. Hi Jenny. I'm back!!! I'm super curious about this from your review. I usually don't go for things that you give only a 3.5-4 to, but something about this really catches my eye. Probably the fact that it's a vampire. And I'm curious about the anti-hero factor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome back Alison! I really liked that anti-hero aspect of this one, even if it was also a source of irritation on occasion:) I'll be interested to see how this author grows and develops as the series continues.

      Delete
  3. Ah Jenny!!! WE must talk about this book!
    I feel like I'm still torn about this book even though I already read it a few month ago. Did I love it, hate it? I still do not know...
    There are some things that just don't end up for me.. Stil, The Dark Heroine idea sounds awesome!

    Again... we must chat!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THERE ARE LOTS OF THINGS TO TALK ABOUT WITH THIS ONE DANNY! Lots. Of. Things.:)

      Delete
  4. This is one of those books I just could not get into. I DNF'd at page 150. I keep meaning to get back to it, but somehow I can't bring myself to pick it up again. Also, I thought Kaspar was a total ass. Seriously - his behaviour is meant to be appealing?! I mean, maybe he has a personality transplant after page 150. I wouldn't know...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kaspar was definitely a challenge Leanna! I did not like him for a very long time, and I still wasn't even completely won over by the end, but Abigail did a good job I thought in the later chapters of creating a little vulnerability:)

      Delete
    2. I'm glad to hear that. Maybe I'll give the book a second chance sometime. :)

      Delete
  5. I've seen a lot of mixed reviews for this one. I have an ecopy, but I've been reluctant to read it. Kaspar - lol, I think Caspar is the more usual spelling version of the name, but in Estonia we have more Kaspars than Caspars so that's cool. Anyway, about the story, it sounds different to me and that's the thing that appealed to me when I first heard about it. I don't think I'm goin to love this book, but from your review I can see that it may just be an enjoyable read. I have so many physical books waiting to be read that I think this is gonna have to wait, but you gave me hope for sure and if I'm in need of a vampire read, I'll definitely pick this up:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is for sure going to be a book that inspires a wide variety of opinions - clearly I waffled with my own given I couldn't pick just one rating:) There were some great things about it and some not so great things, but all in all, I liked the world!

      Delete
  6. I've never heard of this book before today but I love the simplicity of the cover. When you mentioned the inconsistencies with the character's behaviors though, I was a little worried. I like that the vampires aren't the romantic kind but are nightmare-inducing ones.
    Lovely review, Jenny!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The inconsistencies were frustrating. Normally unpredictable characters work for me and keep things interesting, but Kaspar and Violet were both unpredictable in a seemingly unintentional way, and that made them frustrating at times. Still, I was invested in their story and enjoyed it overall!

      Delete
  7. Thank you, Violet, for not falling for the broken, bad boy right away just because he's a jerk to you. Thank you for making him work for it. That endears me to her more than anything else. Plus, good storytelling that makes a big ole book fly by rocks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right? That was truly the saving grace for me. If she had been all "he's so hot" when he was being a complete a-hole, I wouldn't have been able to finish reading. Luckily, she's on the a-hole train with us for a very long time, and only starts to thaw as we do:)

      Delete
  8. Between your review and Mary's comment, I think Dark Heroine is something I might have to pick up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a challenging read Amanda, and I really liked that about it! There are lots of bothersome things, but for some reason, those things made this a book I couldn't stop thinking about:)

      Delete
  9. I hear ya. Some days I feel like giving one grade, and then another day another ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep! It's been happening with more frequency lately, I can't seem to make up my mind:)

      Delete
  10. This sounds dark,gritty and complex..and I am so curious. The fact that you wavered back and forth between annoyed and intrigued has me itching to pick this one up. Delightful review Jen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be interested to see what you think of this one Kimba! The characters take some getting used to, but that also kept me reading because I really wanted to see if they could win me over. For the most part they did:)

      Delete
  11. Hmm, as Ann Aguirre would say, for me, character is king. I'm not sure how well I'd deal with both Violet and Kaspar's inconsistent behavior and the fact that they're both rather unlikable. I have this one for review and I fully intend to read it, but after finishing the first two chapters, I'm not very hopeful about it.
    Still, I'm comforted by the fact that you liked it despite its shortcomings. Perhaps there's hope after all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kaspar's behavior in the first couple hundred pages is definitely a challenge, especially when this book claims it's the "sexiest romance you'll read this year". That's a high bar to set for a book, especially when the "hero" is a womanizing murderer, vampire or no:)

      Delete
  12. I wish I could get excited about vamps, but these days I am so burned out them I just don;t have the desire to pick up a vampire book. I remember Sam reviewing this one awhile back and she wasn't overly impressed, either. I think the inconsistencies you had with the characters would be an issue for me. I guess the next time I am in the mood for a vamp book, I should consider this one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am not sure about this book b/c I swore I would take a break from vampires, but it sounds so darn intriguing even with the character's behavioral inconsistencies. And a 500 page book that feels like it's over in a blink of an eye? Impressive....perhaps I'll check this book out! Thanks for the great review, Jenny!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm not sure to be honest. It sounds like something I may wait for the second book before I decide if I would pick it up. I think the character's inconsistencies would bother me too much. Perhaps if it is fixed within the next volume, and I know that, it wouldn't bother me as much. I don't think I want to read about a girl pining over someone who treats her badly right now. :-/

    ReplyDelete
  15. I surprisingly haven't heard of this one before, but it does sound quite good. I'm not a big fan of vampires - at all, actually, not just because of the YA craze - so maybe I'll wait a bit to check this out. Still, thanks for introducing me to an interesting new story, Jenny! :D

    ReplyDelete
  16. This sounds like a tricky one! On the one hand, it's amazing the author can have you captivated for 500+ pages, but the character inconsistencies would definitely bother me too. That being said, sometimes I feel like morally ambiguous characters are more interesting, more mysterious. I love when I'm on a knife's edge between intensely disliking a character and loving them. It doesn't happen often, and I think it's quite a writing feat to achieve.

    I'm so torn, I kind of really want to read it! Maybe I'll wait until book two comes out and see what the reviews are like. My TBR pile will thank me for waiting. :-) Amazing review as usual, Jenny!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm a little worried about your mixed feelings about the characters, however, I love the idea of a vampire that isn't just "bad" until he sees his true love for the first time. I think I need to give this a try.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great review ;) Im reading this right now for a book tour and liking it so far, I haven't hit the annoying stuff yet though so fingers crossed that I like it in the end!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PS-Um yeah I ended up not liking it. My review is super tamed compared to the first draft I had...LOL

      Delete
  19. I'm not so sure this one is for me. The characters sound like they might drive me nuts but I'm not so sure I'd be loving the vampire stuff. I think I'm just burnt out on it right now. I do really like the cover though!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I just won this book in a giveaway so I'm anxious to see if I will like it or not. I have feeling I may feel the way you did.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hmm..not sure about this one, Jenny. I'm a bit burnt out with the vamps lately and the inconsistency with the characters make me hesitant to pick this one up. I think I may hold and on see what you think of book 2 before picking this one up.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I sometimes am surprised that the whole vampire thing is still being done. I don't think I have read a YA novel (since Twilight) that stared vampires and I don't know that I will. I am glad to see that the protag in this novel wasn't pining for the boy who did not treat her well. This is a trend we see far to often in YA. I think I may skip this one though.

    Thanks for the review.

    Sara @ Just Another Story

    ReplyDelete