Little Vampire Women

 

 

 

Happy weekend to all my fellow booklovers.

 

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, it's freezing cold outside here, and so I've been enjoying the chance to curl up with a book and a cup of tea.

 

I'm here today to review Little Vampire Women which was "adapted" from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott by Lynn Messina. I am going to preface this review by stating that I may have just been a wee bit prejudice going into reading this. I am a huge fan of Little Women. I have read it more times than I can count, I've watched the movies, researched Louisa May Alcott's life, chosen it as the subject of more than one of my papers back in high school, etcetera, etcetera, in short I really really loved that book. When I first came across this one it was once again during one of Book Outlet's huge sales (Bookoutlet and I are sometimes in an unhealthy relationship. I've gotten to know our mailman waayyy too well since I discovered their site.), and it intrigued me, and for 1.49 how could I go wrong. I was expecting to see my beloved favorite novel with the addition of the vampire content, and I was prepared to fully enjoy this one. Unfortunately this was not the case. Here is the synopsis from goodreads:

 

 "The dear, sweet March sisters are back, and Marmee has told them to be good little women. Good little vampire women, that is. That's right: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy have grown up since you last read their tale, and now they have (much) longer lives and (much) more ravenous appetites.Marmee has taught them well, and so they live by an unprecedented moral code of abstinence ... from human blood. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy must learn to get along with one another, help make society a better place, and avoid the vampire hunters who pose a constant threat to their existence. Plus, Laurie is dying to become a part of the March family, at any cost. Some things never change.
This horrifying — and hilarious — retelling of a timeless American classic will leave readers craving the bloodthirsty drama on each and every page."

 

To put it mildly, this book left me highly disappointed. While I knew right from the synopsis that this was going to be more of a comedic retelling, I was still expecting it to be done respectfully. I was expecting to read about my beloved Meg, Jo, Amy. Beth, Marmee, and Laurie, just with the addition of vampire elements that would maybe modernize the story a bit to help reach this classic to a whole new generation of readers. Unfortunately, I was really unimpressed with the changes that Lynn Messina brought to the characters in this novel, and I don't feel she stayed true to the original novel, nor did she really seem to include much normal vampire lore. The novel felt quite disorganized and seemed to skip around a bit, and this novel is only over 300 pages, with the original being well over 700, there were obviously quite a few scenes cut out, a lot of which were my favorites from the original novel.

 

I really didn't like Jo's obsession with killing vampire slayers, and how this became the main centre of the entire book, i.e, Aunt March hires Jo not as a housekeeper, but as a protector against the slayer who killed her husband, Beth's illness is tied to the slayer, Jo's lifework is not writing, but rather documenting how to kill vampire slayers. Overall, I would have to say that I do not recommend this book, especially for anyone who is a fan of the original. I'm not opposed to retellings such as this one, I've read some excellent Jane Austen ones, and some excellent fairy tale ones, but this one felt too much to me like it was making a mockery of the original novel which to this day remains one of my all time favorites, and so unfortunately I only gave this one two out of five stars. I did also purchase Romeo and Juliet and Vampires when I bought this one, so I will still give that one a chance as well, but after my disappointment in this book, it might be awhile before I get to it.

 

My favorite quote: "Although there were many reasons to sire that didn't include finding a lifemate, such as friendship, whimsy, fondness, or spite, the act always created some kind of connection and Jo loved her independence too well to be tied to anybody on such a deep and abiding level."

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will see you all in my next post. Thanks for reading :)

 

This is not a sponsored post. The book was not provided for review, and was purchased by me with my own money. I am not affiliated in an anyway with Book Outlet, I'm just simply a fan of their website. The photo was taken by me with my IPhone.