By Heather Brewer
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published October 16th 2012 by Dial
ISBN 0803737602 (ISBN13: 9780803737600)


Blurb

The stakes are life or death

The summer after Joss failed to kill the vampire Vladimir Tod, he gets a second chance to prove himself as a Slayer. He is sent to New York City to hunt down a serial killer that the Slayer Society believes is a vampire. It is up to Joss to lead his Slayer team, and through their detective work, they discover that there are actually four vampire brothers who are on the killing rampage. Joss must use all his skill to save the innocent people of New York City from the murderers. Joss’s status as a Slayer depends on it.

The Good

  1. The parallel.  I like that Brewer decided to give Joss his own side-story series so we get a whole different perspective on the tale and characters we know from the Vladimir Tod series.

  2. The action scenes.  The action scenes are well written and interesting.


The Bad

  1. Joss.  I just can’t stand Joss anymore. The entire book, he is so obsessed with fitting into the Slayer Society way of life and getting approval from his Uncle Abraham that he does completely irrational, stupid things that go on for chapters at a time. Even when he does something that I think kind of makes sense, we find out shortly after his reasons for doing what he did are still nonsense.

  2. The horror elements.  The horror elements, particularly the dreams Joss has about his sister, are badly written and, at times, flat out boring.

  3. The writing.  The writing itself is just plain. This felt more like juvenile fiction story than young adult novel.

  4. The constant fashion and band references.  Throughout the book, Brewer makes constant references to characters’ hipster, trendy clothing and punk rock bands. This, in conjunction with the short period of time I spent following Brewer’s blog, has convinced me that Brewer tries entirely too hard to convince her readers she is still “hip” and “cool”. I mean, she calls her fans her “minions” for God’s sake. How pretentious can one person be?


Favorite Quote

"Was Joss Batman? Or was he the Joker, ready and hungry just to watch the world burn?"


Overall Rating

I really couldn’t stand this book and as much as I enjoyed the Vladimir Tod series, I will absolutely not be picking up any more of the books in this series.