Public Service Announcement Time:
Just a reminder, I’d like to pause for a moment to thank everyone who helped to make our #GETINFECTED book giveaway a huge success. You all successfully helped raise awareness about one of my favorite new independently published zombie series’, and for that I am incredibly grateful. The winner, selected by randomizing all of the entries, was Sean (@OddNMacabre) one of our Twitter followers. Congratulations Sean! I’ve passed along your information to the Zukos and your books should be on their way to you very soon. Didn’t win? You can still pick up either The Infected: Jim’s First Day or The Infected: Karen’s First Day for $3.99 each on Amazon or read them for free if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription.Now, back to our regularly scheduled program…
Give Me The Night: An Evil Love Story by Martin Scanlan was a book I came across in one of my horror writing groups. Being a fan of vampires, in general, I was intrigued by the premise of a love story featuring a vampire more menacing than the abomination presented in the Twilight series. I like my vampires evil, frightening, blood thirsty, and cunning. I was most curious because the author posted a challenge on the book’s Facebook page in June which indicated the following:
I will send you a free .pdf copy online or else one of my remaining comps, also free. Your choice. What I ask in return is that before inserting it into the stack or hiding it away in the folder, you more or less immediately allocate about 45 minutes of precious time, OPEN THE BOOK either physically or mouse-wise, and read the FIRST TWO chapters.
I say immediately because I think we both know that if you toss the book down on your table or leave the .pdf lying in your e-mail in-box, it’s still going to be there a week from now or more, unopened. We is after all human beans and that’s the way human beans roll in this day and age.
But if you will open the book and read those first two chapters, you’re going to be up until dawn finishing it. Now, for certain reasons having to do with plot and content, you may think GMTN really sucks. If so, feel free to tell everybody how sucky it is, far and wide. But sucky or not–read those first two chapters and you’re going to finish the book.
Yeah, it’s that good. Yeah, I’m that confident
Although Give Me The Night: An Evil Love Story promised viciousness and action laced with romance, it fell short in a variety of areas. If you’ve read my reviews before you know that I don’t generally complain about typos or grammar issues unless they are distracting, but Give Me The Night could have used a round or so with an experienced editor. Barring that, I believe that even a beta read by a Grammar Nazi friend or acquaintance could have made my slow trudge through the first two chapters more enjoyable. My primary recurring gripes are that sentences stretched on for ages while typos and incorrect word choice littered what might have otherwise been interesting paragraphs. (I would like to take the opportunity to stress the word might.)
Despite Scanlan’s assertion, I stopped reading towards the beginning of Chapter 3. The characters were neither likable nor interesting enough for me to want to continue reading, and there was nothing about the author’s writing style which could compel me to stay in spite of them. The only reason I finished reading through Chapter 2 was due to Mr. Scanlan’s challenge. (To be entirely truthful, the only reason why I am bothering to post a review on a book I have yet to finish reading is because I had indicated I would; I do like keeping promises.)
Overall I would give the book a 1.5/5 and suggest that even if you have a Kindle Unlimited Subscription that you utilize it elsewhere. Mr. Scanlan’s debut novel is not one I recommend.
My next order of business:
Aside from the work of Anne Rice, I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen a vampire in fiction be written well. Perhaps I have excessively high standards… But maybe I’m not reading the right books. SUGGEST A GOOD VAMPIRE BOOK! As a reference point for what I might like, to save me from yet another fanged tragedy, I enjoyed the portrayal of Henry from the film adaptation of Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but have yet to read the novelization because I’m afraid it will either outshine the film or fail to live up to it. (Whichever I’ve seen first seems to set the tone for how I feel about the second.) Let me know what your favorite vampire books are. Romance need not be involved at all, and bonus points if the book you suggest involves zombies, werewolves, or other supernatural elements. <a href=”https://ctt.ec/feZyd”>Tweet: Hey @fox_emm you should read:</a> and I’ll share my favorite suggestions on here for all the other ZADF readers to check out. Oh, and before anyone asks, you should feel free to suggest books that you’ve written, too!
