The Vampire Stalker, by
Allison van Diepen
Series: None
Genre: YA,
Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural, Romance, Sci-Fi
Published: July 2011
Pages: 250
My rating:
The Blurb: What if the characters in a vampire
novel left their world--and came into yours?
Amy is in love with someone who doesn't exist: Alexander Banks, the dashing
hero in a popular series of vampire novels. Then one night, Amy meets a boy who
bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander. In fact, he IS Alexander, who has
escaped from the pages of the book and is in hot pursuit of a wicked vampire
named Vigo. Together, Amy and Alexander set out to track Vigo and learn how and
why Alexander crossed over. But when she and Alexander begin to fall for each
other, Amy wonders if she even wants him to ever return to the realm of
fiction.
Despite some of the less positive
reviews I wanted to read this book for myself anyway. I certainly don’t regret
reading it. It wasn’t a waste of time, because it didn’t take up that much of
my time, fortunately. The 250 pages can easily be read in a few measly hours.
And a few hours later you will have forgotten all about the book already.
Why?
No matter how promising the premise
of this book is - a fictional character suddenly comes into our world- the
execution of the story seriously lacks. Which is a shame, because the idea of ‘Literary
Physics’ (writers who unknowingly tap into other dimensions while they are
writing) is very original. It could have been epic, if written the right way. It
deserves to be explored more, further, deeper. ‘Otherworld’ (the parallel
Chicago from this book) deserves more world building. It is a very interesting
place in my opinion. Imagine all sorts of technical and medical developments never
happened because of a vampire-dominated society. Imagine an evening curfew
because of those dangerous creatures out there. Imagine the shortened life
expectancy because of the dangers and lacking means to aid people. Imagine
people fleeing, immigrants never showing… I imagined those things, because
besides the mere mention of these points, we never got to know the real ‘Otherworld’.
A shame.
The story seems to be told simply
because the writer wanted to tell it. It feels like reading the fan fiction often
referred to in this book. Contemporary,
simple, fluently, shallow, a bit juvenile even, but never poetic. I love it when
a book grabs me with beautiful prose, which was never the case here. Another
shame.
I seriously missed some elaborate
world and character building. I hardly knew what the characters looked like! Besides
their appearances not much detail was provided about their inner selves either.
We were told Amy had it bad for Alexander, but the feelings weren’t conveyed. I
couldn’t feel her crush, nor did I understand it. Alexander was a flat character,
a cardboard cut-out. There was no spark of life in him, or any sparks between
him and Amy for that matter. He didn’t make sense either: thinking it’s not
normal Amy isn’t engaged to be married yet, at age 16, but still kissing her,
thus possibly ruining her reputation. Yet, another shame.
And what about Amy’s gullible mom?
If I showed up with an attractive guy she’d never seen, or even heard about,
she sure as h*ll wouldn’t let him stay over at the house, for indefinite time! Without
making any fuss or asking too much questions. Seriously?!
That is one example of how ‘easy’
(fluently if you will) the story was written. Everything happened neatly the way
it was supposed to go, the plot ‘twists’ were predictable, the villain came
from a Disney movie, the plot was rather simple and the ending? Yup, saw it
coming from the start. Quadruple shame.
But still this was a pleasant story
to read. Seriously. Despite its many flaws I didn’t hate it. Why? It’s a quick,
fun, romantic ride. Which, in my opinion, could do with some more fan fiction.
To spice things up a bit. To finally tell the untold story that deserves to
be told...
