Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
There are several scenes of bullying, blood, violence and murder.

The Reluctant Vampire Queen sounded very interesting, unfortunately I got a bad feeling from the moment I started reading this book. I stopped reading at 47%, but honestly I should have stopped reading as soon as the first vampire character turned up with the stereotypical Eastern European accent. It was terrible, and what also bothers me is that a book written in 2022 referred to characters as “Eastern European” and being from “Eastern Europe” rather than providing them with a specific cultural identity. It gave the impression that the author had not bothered to fill out that part of the story, as well as assuming that young adult readers don’t need those details.

This is the first young adult novel by the author, Jo Simmons, in fact it’s her first book not written for children, and to be honest, that shows throughout the book. The language is very immature for a young adult, feeling more appropriate for a middle grade novel. Other than the character being sixteen and the quick (and awkward) discussion of consent with her mum, this could easily be a story about younger teenagers. Simmons’ use of slang is also all over the place, which I’m surprised an editor missed. At one point she uses modern slang when a bully calls Mo a “neek” (geek and nerd combined), and then later she uses slang which is two generations out of date when an adult asks Mo if she’s “going steady” with a boy. That’s the sort of language my grandparents would have used, not a modern day parent. Also having seen this mentioned in another review I want to add that writing mini-Battenbergs as a noun is not one of the author's transgressions. That is the correct British spelling of the cake; see this wikipedia page for reference.

The biggest transgression for me though is the way that Simmons does complete injustice to her own character. Mo is written as a smart girl, a geek who plans everything. So can someone please explain to me how her plan to fake being a vampire involves stealing someone else’s mouth guard and painting vampire fangs on it?! This is a girl who’s first instinct when faced with vampires is to go straight into research mode, yet when she decides to fake being one she doesn’t research it at all? She suddenly acts out of character, steals a mouth guard, which if you’ve never used one before has to be moulded to a person’s mouth to fit properly, and decides that’s the best course of action. It makes zero sense. Not to mention that in the universe of The Reluctant Vampire Queen vampires can’t go out during the day, so how exactly is Mo going to continue to go to school, live at home and hide that she’s still human from Luca and the vampires? This is the point where I stopped reading as it was too ridiculous to contemplate.

What’s worse is that the vampire who turned her can’t tell that she’s not a vampire. I’m sorry, what?! The Reluctant Vampire Queen is a good example of why I’m not a fan of publishing’s current trend of comparing books with other books/franchises. Sometimes it’s accurate, often it’s just a publicity student to reel the reader in with false pretences and that is certainly the case here. I feel that whoever decided to make this comparison has never actually watched Butty, because anyone who has will remember a particular episode where Willow pretends to be a vampire and is found out not to be one pretty darn quickly. Yes, Buffy had a lot of comedic elements, but it took it’s supernatural world-building seriously. This book seems to have none at all which disappoints me. I loved the premise of this book, but it’s more high school romcom with vampires thrown in as a cool afterthought than anything actually supernatural. I personally didn’t really see the comedy side of this book, and perhaps if this was a TV show or a Mr Bean movie it would have been funny, instead it just comes off badly.

I’ve not read Geek Girl, so I can’t compare it, however, as a geek girl myself Mo feels very stereotypical. She feels like what people expect a geek or a nerd to be; good at school, only focused on school and making clubs that no one else ever joins. There is so much more to being a geek or nerd than academics, and yes, geeks and nerds are two different things. She even chooses to study over spending time with her best friend, Lou. Speaking of Lou, I’m not actually sure what the point of the character is as she is seriously underutilised as an actual best friend. As soon as “dreamy Luca” comes on the scene Mo pretty much drops her bestie (for her “own good”).

I’m sure The Reluctant Vampire Queen will work for some people, but if you read the plot and thought “hey this sounds great” and like a more serious urban fantasy novel, then I would give it a pass. It’s sadly not that kind of book.

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justgeekingby | 1 altra recensione | Jun 6, 2023 |

The Reluctant Vampire Queen

I was excited to read this and found it a light fun read. However, there were some things that felt off to me. Mo is supposed to be fifteen, but the things she says seem to be coming from a girl younger than that.
The vampire Bogden really shouldn’t be quested to find a vampire queen at all, he couldn’t see through the silliest blags ever.
It did make me laugh though and it was a good palette cleanser.

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StressedRach | 1 altra recensione | Jun 2, 2023 |

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