Daylight
Daylight by: Elizabeth Knox
Published: 2003
# of pages: 368
I like the idea of vampire stories, but I don't like most vampire books. With the exception of the Twilight sage, Sunshine by Robin McKinley, and Dracula, I have yet to read a vampire book that I really like. Unfortunately Daylight has joined the ranks of bad vampire books.
The story is about a man named Bad, a caver and policeman, who is caught up in a complicated web of relationships after he helps retrieve a body from the ocean that is floating below a cliff. All of the characters in this book are related in some way. It's actually neat how Knox ties them all together. I was fascinated by the characters of Father Daniel Octave, Ila, and Martine. Other than that, I didn't like many of the other characters. I think my favorite character was Martine even though she doesn't play a big part in the book. She was a good person and didn't fall into the disgusting habits that her friends were engaged in. That's another reason I liked Ila, he was trying to follow Martine's example. I did not like Dawn whatsoever. She had no self control and I felt like she was really selfish.
The entire story is very vague and there isn't much dialogue. Knox narrates the dialogue. I personally don't like this method of writing. I like to hear things "firsthand" and decide for myself if a character is angry, sarcastic, mysterious, etc. I don't like being told all of that without any evidence. I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear, but I felt like it was hard to really get into the story and understand the characters because they don't have much of a personality, mainly because the reader doesn't "see" them speaking much.
However, I did like the idea of the story. I only wish it had been told a little better. I almost gave this 3 stars because I liked the way vampires and saints were placed side by side, but the narration and vague timeline gave the book an uncomfortable feel which outweighed the story's potential. Overall, I only recommend this book to vampire lovers and people who don't mind bad language and sex scenes. Also, I think people who appreciate and enjoy unconventional writing styles would also appreciate this book.
4 comments:
Sorry that this one turned out to be disappointing. I like vampire stories, but it's a subgenre I tend to be picky with. There are a lot of vampire stories out there that just don't do it for me.
PS: The blog looks gorgeous!
I agree with Nymeth, your blog is great now! I like your reviews, too. Though this book is probably one i can miss. Thanks for leaving me a comment on my blog, I am still finding blogs I had on it before :-) and I LOVE the names of your pets! Firefly and Serenity, hee. I My son would totally agree with you :-)
As you can both tell from my blog, I'm always honest about how I feel about a book and I will go ahead and post a review even if I'm not recommending it.
And thanks for the compliments on the new look! It took me a long time, but I finally finished it and it's good to hear some praise ;-)
Susan, I love your blog too and even though I haven't been able to read book blogs as much the past few months, I'm starting to get back into it so you will see me as a regular visitor!
One reason I love the name of our kitties is because that's how I find out who is a "Firefly"/"Serenity" fan. Other people just think we picked weird names for our cats!
Hi. I'm sorry to hear that the story turned out to be disappointing to you, but on the other hand I'm also a little relieved to discover that. A fairly large amount of books I've read semi-recently were books everyone seems to have loved except for me. It makes a nice change to feel less alone in my reaction to a book.
Your reaction to the book is very similar to mine. While I don't mind the structure used*, I don't think it was the right one for this story. There was too much focus on the characters' pasts that kept me from connecting to their present selves and present relationships.
* Knox uses a similar structure to great effect in The Vintner's Luck.
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