If you’re here for the vibes, you will like this book. I was indeed here for those vibes. I like Castlevania. I like queerness and sexiness. I like a darker fantasy. I like conflicted main characters. But there really isn’t anything here for someone to grab onto if you need more than vibes. I am a little sad to say that it was a more shallow reading experience than I was expecting. I’m saying shallow but clearly I enjoyed myself, with a four star rating. It just didn’t have much thematic depth.
Just lots of cool imagery, broody characters, violence, angst, a little bit of magic, and some really good sex scenes.
I suggested this book for one of my IRL book clubs and I am sad to say I enjoyed it the most of the only three other people who read/showed up. I wish more people had read it so I would have maybe had more people in my corner, but we still had a pretty good discussion, mostly about why it wasn’t a good book for a general audience. And it was really because they were not super into the vibes and don’t find vampires as inherently interesting as I do! I did make really good food, though. If you guys haven’t tried masabacha you need to get on that. There were three of us there and we demolished a doubled recipe.
It did realllly make me want to rewatch Castlevania though.