Book Review: So... I Met a Vampire by Paul McAvoy

Wednesday 26 August 2015

So... I Met a Vampire
Paul McAvoy
Genre(s):  Paranormal, Supernatural
Published: July 18th 2015
Pages: 180
Rating: 2.5 stars

On a foggy morning, thirteen year old Jessica wakes up in a strange forest, not knowing how she got there, but with a feeling she is being watched. Helped to a local police station, memories start to come back, about where she has been the last few days… She remembers a deal she had to make to stay alive… to obtain a small bottle of vampire’s blood. With the use of a magical phone, her journey takes her to the English Lake District, a lonely Scottish village and the bright lights of New York. She meets mysterious men who work for a secret government organisation and a vampire who seems willing to help, but is he and his teenage vampire friends to be trusted? On the run, she must reach a government hide out before her adversaries catch up with her and take her to a realm of darkness and blood…  


A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

From the start, things looked interesting and promised to be good. The tone of the story was set early on, as was the scene. I instantly got a sense of foreboding and air of creepiness, with the narrator struggling to remember things and talking of drowning. However, I do think there was an overkill of ellipses in the initial setup. They’re good for creating suspense and uncertainty… when they’re used sparingly.

I’ll admit that I was surprised to discover that the narrator was female as she didn’t read as female at all to me. It wasn’t something I minded; in fact it was quite refreshing to read a character like that. She came across as quite smart and I liked the way she kept calm, despite what had happened to her.

The writing style was easy and pretty fast to read, with good variation in regards to sentence length and structure. Nothing was jarring or choppy, yet nothing dragged on and on either. I did, however, notice a few more poetic and metaphorical lines had been included every now and again, and these felt a bit off to me. It wasn’t that they were bad, they just didn’t fit the tone and overall style, in my opinion. 

The dialogue could be a bit more refine, and it was here that my biggest problem emerged. Adults didn’t read as adults; they came across as childish and trying too hard to be funny. There were also times when I found it difficult to follow conversations (but that may just have been me and nothing to do with the dialogue). Contractions needed to be used more often to make some sentences less formal and stilted, especially when the young narrator spoke.

I’m not entirely sure of the intended age range of this book, but to me it came across as children’s or young teen paranormal fiction. I don’t have a problem with that, but it was a bit of a surprise after the initial setup, as things did seem to take a bit of an odd turn, most notably when Jessie gets set her three tasks. 

Overall, this had its ups and its downs. There were moments I thought could have been better and moments that were action-packed. Some of the more action-packed scenes did feel a little out of place next to the more subdued parts, but in the end it wasn’t a bad read. That being said, I did prefer So... I Met a Demon.

Paul McAvoy and his work can be found at...
Website
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Amazon UK
Amazon US

Top 5 Wednesday: Series I Wish Had More Books


Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly topic created by gingerreadslainey over on Youtube. There's a Goodreads group here, where you can sign up and take part each week.

First of all, I'd like to apologise for missing last week. It was my grandad's birthday, and I had a lot of stuff going on, and I just never got round to posting. On one hand, I'm glad I took the day, but on the other I'm a little annoyed that I missed a post because I was doing so well. Second of all, I'd like to give you a heads up. College starts for me again in the first week of September and I'm taking four subjects that I am determined to study properly for. Posts may be few and far between because of that, but we'll see.

For now, let's get on with this week's topic: series I wish had more books.

Book Talk: Organisation

Friday 21 August 2015


I'm one of those people that likes their books displayed in a very specific way. Grouped by genre, alphabetical by author's last name within those genres. No double stacking, spines out, pushed right to the back of the shelf.

Book Review: The Night is Darkening Round Me by Emily Brontë

Friday 14 August 2015

The Night is Darkening Round Me
Emily Brontë
Genre(s):  Classics, Poetry
Published: February 26th 2015
Pages: 64
Rating: stars

Some of Emily Brontë's most extraordinary poems. 


I think it is entirely safe and fair to say that I am not a fan of poetry. Especially not flowery verse that I have to search for a meaning in. I like prose. I love straightforward prose. I do not enjoy poems.

I'll hand it to Brontë, the rhythm and flow she managed to create throughout her poems was nice. I liked how things weren't choppy as I was reading them, and the rhyme schemes she chose always seemed to work.What I couldn't get on with, however, was the constant imagery and metaphors I had to figure out. When I read, I do so for enjoyment. Not because I want to work out a puzzle. It got to the point where I would read a poem, not understand what it was trying to say, then move on to the next one. Perhaps that is why I didn't enjoy this little collection.

I've never read any work by any of the Brontës, and if this is the standard of it, I don't think I'll delve any deeper into it. Just not my cup of tea.

Top 5 Wednesday: Required Reading

Wednesday 12 August 2015


Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly topic created by gingerreadslainey over on Youtube. There's a Goodreads group here, where you can sign up and take part each week.

I won't lie, I struggled with this week's topic, and it turned into a bit of a cheat for me. Throughout school, I was never really required to read things. It was only GCSE English literature that required things, but I never liked any of them. So I bring you my top three required reading, which aren't my top three at all because I hated them all.

The Magic of Makeup

Friday 7 August 2015


A bit of an odd post coming from a book blogger but I felt like sharing it regardless.

Top 5 Wednesday: Favourite Maps

Wednesday 5 August 2015


Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly topic created by gingerreadslainey over on Youtube. There's a Goodreads group here, where you can sign up and take part each week.

This week, the topic is our favourite maps. As someone who's favourite genre is fantasy (and therefore owns a lot of fantasy books) I was spoilt for choice. There are so many amazing maps throughout the genre so it took me a lot of consulting my books to narrow down my top five. Some were chosen for the scale of the world, and some were chosen purely for how aesthetically pleasing I found them, regardless of how large or complex the world was. So without further ado, my top five maps are below. I'd like to apologise in advance for the pictures; I found that it's incredibly difficult to take decent pictures where nothing is left out of shot but it's close enough to show the details.

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