The Vampire of Highgate by Asa Bailey

The Vampire of Highgate by Asa Bailey
Buy The Vampire of Highgate by Asa Bailey at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: Steamy and fast-paced vampire book is enjoyable enough but the fairly flat characters stop it from being as good as it could have been. Still worth a look.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352	Date: June 2012
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
ISBN: 978-1444903515
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Kathy Bilic can barely remember the sister she was separated from when they were tiny. An ocean lies between them – she’s been adopted by an American couple and Amber is living in London. When she hears that Amber has gone missing, though, and receives a mysterious package, she flies to London to see if she can help to find her sister.

This is billed as being inspired by the real-life story of the Highgate Vampire, a media sensation of the early 1970’s which saw a couple of people claim they’d seen a vampire and try to hunt it down. It’s not a retelling of those events, though – rather it’s a very up-to-date story which follows on from them.

First, the good news – if you’re looking for a fun vampire read which isn’t particularly taxing, grab this now. There’s evil villains, a likeable main character, an interesting mythology for the vampires (although I think that Christians may find parts of it offensive…) and it moves along at a good pace. I was interested in what was happening throughout and liked Bailey’s writing style – it’s also contains some of the steamiest scenes in recent teen fiction. Nothing explicit but very, very hot – right up there with Jessica Verday.

That said, there were a few issues – none of the characters are particularly well-portrayed, Kathy is a bit too much of a ‘damsel in distress’ for my liking and some fairly minor characters end up playing rather a major part in the ending compared to her. I also found the parts which set in earlier years to be rather distracting from the main narrative rather than adding to it.

There’s such a huge amount of vampire fiction out there at the moment that this is rather a mild recommendation due to the issues above. Having said that, it’s an enjoyable enough way to pass the time and I liked Asa Bailey’s writing style and will be looking forward to his future books."

By Midnight by Mia James is another vampire story set in Highgate - I loved it, thanks to a brilliant grasp of the setting and some fabulous characters.

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