Review of It's Hard to Be a Vampire

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Hayley Stokes
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Latest Review: It's Hard to Be a Vampire by Viktoria Faust

Review of It's Hard to Be a Vampire

Post by Hayley Stokes »

[Following is a volunteer review of "It's Hard to Be a Vampire" by Viktoria Faust.]
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2 out of 5 stars
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Victoria Faust’s It’s hard to be a vampire is a collection of nine short stories, all with a horror theme. The first story titled i
It’s Hard To Be A Vampire, is about a girl who wants to become a vampire but is deemed too fat by a male vampire she meets, so she sets out to prove him wrong. The second story titled Gallery Of Horrors is about an artist who uses live models for his pictures, however, everyone thinks his pictures are too vulgar. The third story titled The Painting Strikes Back is a follow-up to the previous story and in it, the model decides to take her revenge. The fourth story titled Do Vampires Dream Of Slaughtered Sheep is about a man who was destined to become a vampire hunter but falls in love with a vampire. The fifth story titled Narcissus is self-explanatory, the woman isn't interested in anyone else because she loves herself too much. The sixth story titled Quietly They Rise From The Fog is about a man who has lost everyone he loves in the fog that surrounds the river. The seventh story titled Behind The Door is quite simply about a woman who is on one side of a door, listening to what is happening on the other side. The eighth story titled The Invisible Ink is about a writer who thinks that her ink disappears somewhere else. The final story titled That Bloody Useless Bloodless Body is about a writer who hates to be loved by his fans and meets an adoring fan.

I struggled to find a lot of good points in this book, I had a mainly negative view of it. Some of the ideas were definitely interesting and they could have benefitted from the stories being a bit longer. It was also very well edited, and the spelling and grammar were perfect. The pacing in most of the stories was also pretty good.

Even though there were a lot of good ideas in this book, I feel as if they weren't all explored enough. If some of the shorter stories, such as The Invisible Ink, had been a bit longer and more in-depth, then they could have been better stories. I also found that the writing was a little bit simplistic, it almost felt as if it was written by somebody who had no previous writing experience, which I know is not the case. Also because of the shortness of some of the stories, they could be difficult to follow at times, and even after going back and re-reading they didn't always make complete sense.

The author has been dubbed Croatian ‘Queen Of The Horror’ and yet, I was disappointed with the lack of actual horror in any of these stories. There were certainly horror themes, but nothing I would describe as horror, and for this reason, and all the reasons above, I would give this 2 out of 5 stars.

I wouldn't recommend anyone rushing out to go and buy this book, however, if you are in a reading slump and you want something quick and easy to read, then this would be the ideal book for that. It's nothing too heavy or overly complicated, and it is a bit cheesy. However, if you are a hardcore horror fan you will be disappointed with this book.

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It's Hard to Be a Vampire
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