I loved A. Lee Martinez's Monster, so I jumped at the chance to read this for a newly formed geek book club. And though there's really nothing WRONG wI loved A. Lee Martinez's Monster, so I jumped at the chance to read this for a newly formed geek book club. And though there's really nothing WRONG with this one, it just didn't click with me.
I think, mostly, it felt like Divine Misfortune was trying too hard. It wasn't funny because the plot naturally led to laughs -- it was like Martinez was a stand-up comedian with a Wikipedia entry on various gods at hand.
I'll read more of his stuff, I'm sure. I like his slightly askew view of the world (and the new worlds he creates). It's just that Divine Misfortune didn't seem to offer much commentary on either the world I live in or the world he created. It was more like a sitcom than a novel.
I loved this bizarre take on vampire canon. And actually, that's not exactly right. The canon -- that modern supernatural novelists like to skew, withI loved this bizarre take on vampire canon. And actually, that's not exactly right. The canon -- that modern supernatural novelists like to skew, with some vampires glowing (yes, that mortally offends me), others feeding off emotions, etc. -- isn't that different from your run-of-the-mill story.
It's the kids. And the beings who look like kids, at least. It's an even harsher take than Joss Whedon's high-school-as-hell -- this is tweens as torturers (and nope, I don't mean the vampire), town as the Titanic. Even without the vampire, this is a horrible, horrible place to live.
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