From My Cold, Undead Hand

by Marie Marshall

Chevonne Kusnetsov - gutsy teenager - is good at "docking" vampires. She has to be, because she lives in a world a few decades in the future, where you don't venture out after nightfall. Backed by a "cell" of other vampire hunters, Chevonne is on a mission to break the horrible deathgrip in which vampirekind is holding humankind. Will she succeed?

183 pages, ebook

First published September 15, 2014

Reviews

[Roughseasinthemed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will confess, I was not impressed with the start of this book. Too busy, rushed, and my head was swirling with the action. What's the classic advice? Slow down on the action, speed up the slow parts.

But, when our vampire-hunting heroine, Chevonne, starts to includes extracts from the chronicles of a nineteenth century vampire hunter, the story improves no end.

Chevonne's character is well-drawn and so is the character of her predecessor, Anna Lund, the supposed author of the chronicles. While we don't get so much insight into the other secondary characters, some of them play a pivotal and dramatic role in the plot, affecting Chevonne's future in the vampire-hunting Resistance.

The setting is futuristic, ie some time further on in the 21st century than the present day, so vampire-hunting has moved on somewhat from just wooden stakes and garlic, and the Resistance members have fancy weapons. Even the vampires use guns too.

What makes the book interesting, the deeper you get into it, are the unexpected twists to the plot, and the build-up to the climax. I was totally taken by surprise. From a book that starts with a Buffy-type clone, kicking and killing vampires in high school, the story takes a totally different turn.

It was well worth sticking with past the first couple of chapters. And, a pretty rare occurrence, I started off thinking I'd struggle to give it three stars, and ended up thinking it easily merited four. It's imaginative, unpredictable, well written, with some nice contrasts and similarities between the past and the present vampire hunters.

Chevonne isn't perfect, and makes some prize mistakes. Through her perspective we come to realise that the whole vampire issue is much bigger, more organised and far more dangerous than it originally appeared to be.

The ending? Nicely contrived, and like Chevonne thought, the last significant kill (dock) seemed too easy. But at least it gives the author an opportunity for a sequel. It did however, tie the story up neatly without leaving the reader hanging over the cliff.

A vampire story with an interesting kick. It's a short book, with few typos, and recommended to anyone who likes vampire tales.

[BestChickLit.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

What impressed me most about this book was that it was a vampire novel where vampires were unequivocally the bad guys. All the evil things you ever read about vampires from I Am Legend or Dracula come back to the fore in Marie Marshall’s novel, with no romanticism and no sexuality – just brutal, dead killers.

Chevonne is more than just a normal American teenager. She fights for a group called The Resistance, who aim to rid the world of ‘vamps’. But the undead seem to be rising up and no one in authority is listening. Or maybe the vamps have infiltrated the government. When her mentor is killed, things get tough for Chevonne and it looks like she must rely on the power of her own impressive bloodline to help save the nation. But will she succeed? Or are the vamps stronger than anyone suspected?

Marshall’s story is a great adventure book that will keep you reading and wanting to know more. She has created a world set slightly in the future, which has followed a realistic curve of where we are today, just with a few fantasy elements added in that change everything and make a dystopian society. Within this world our heroine, Chevonne, has plenty of fierce attitude and intelligence to offer a ray of hope, providing an interesting role model for young female readers.

review by Nikki Mason on behalf of BestChickLit.com

[Lyz Russo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fast-moving, this YA novel leaves the reader reeling with everything that happens in such a short time. The protagonist, Chevonne Kusnetsov, mercilessly hunts down vampires after they kill her mentor - apparently to mock her. She is not only up against the creatures of the night, but against the current fashion at school where others of her age show a nearly worshipful reverence to the vampires, and against the authorities who stand fast on their point of view that that vampires do not exist. The only things she has to help her, except for a "cell" that has its own set of politics, is an old text and some instructions from her dead mentor.



Under such circumstances, can she succeed?




Nail-biting stuff, certainly not of the romantic persuasion. No wonder another vampire fan rated it "insanely good".

[Michal · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review here: https://onelastsketch.wordpress.com/2...