By BellaDonna Drakul
Published by Publish America
ISBN: 9781604418026
Review by Rob Walter
Review Posted: 9/3/2009
This is a collection of 14 vampire short stories and novellas from the new author BellaDonna Drakul. The stories range from the horrifying tale of a child turned to a vampire at an early age never to develop into and adult, to an apocalyptic end of the world war between the mortals and the immortal vampires, to a short lived, painful, but passionate relationship between a human and a vampire.
The collection imparts an “ebb and flow” of emotions to the reader that is effective. These stories most definitely are not “Twilight” redone. They are darker, treading more into our psyches. Drakul doesn’t leave the reader with the typical one dimensional vampire, but gives them multi-dimensional depth and development. An example of this is Sala of the “Blood Kin” stories, is as evil a character as you have read while showing some compassion for her victim. She has some original twists to the stories as well. In “The Merciful Physician” she adds a twist with a “moral” vampire that uses his “gift” to ease the suffering of his patients only after getting them to agree.
A similar phrase found in every story, “brushed her hair from her face” or “moved his tousled hair from his face” did become repetitive, but was not enough to ruin this collection.
Overall BellaDonna Drakul provides interesting characters with original ideas and a definitely not mainstream treatment of vampires. Her use of the genre to talk to the basics of life and love and bring home the feelings derived from that, was quite refreshing. If you are looking for something that isn’t “Twilight” and don’t mind a few sleepless nights it is worth your time to read a copy.
