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Night Rising by Chris Marie Green

Night Rising[Review by Annie Dean]
Grade: C

When I first saw this book, sent to me for review, I thought, Oh Christ, not another one. The world needs another vampire series the way I need to stop at Dunkin Donuts. The cover art is hot, though. The chick on it is sexy. I’d totally do her if I had two or three Margaritas under my belt and I wasn’t married.

I’m deeply conflicted about this book. I liked Dawn, the heroine and the writing showed occasional sparks of life that made me smile. It had awesome potential. I mean, one of the main characters is a midget. A psychic midget! How cool is that? And then there’s the hypnotic Voice that does crazy Vulcan mindsex with Dawn, so she comes in her panties every fourth page. Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little.

Dawn isn’t your typical heroine. She’s an adrenaline junkie who works as a stuntwoman and she uses sex in the same way. She doesn’t date, she just likes to fuck. It’s a recreational sport for her, which is quite different from the Madonna / Whore thing that most romance novels have going. I should be clear, though, this is not a romance. The book is weirdly erotic via the crazy Vulcan mindsex, but there’s no hero in the truest sense of the word (although I was rooting for Kiko. Why aren’t there more midget heroes in romance? That’s discrimation, I tell you! I’m writing somebody a letter.)

[Ed. Note: Well, you keep calling ‘em midgets. They prefer the term “little people,” you insensitive bitch.]

So Dawn returns to LA from a movie shoot to find her dad, Frank, missing. They had a weird relationship and are none too close, but apparently he started working as muscle for this enigmatic group of private investigators. Yep, that’s how she meets the midget and the Voice. It was all very Charlie and Bosley from Charlie’s Angels except Charlie never rogered Sabrina with his mental phallus (well, maybe in fan-fiction he did, I’ll Google it later). She’s drawn into this underworld that includes vampires and undead child actors (which explains Macaulay Culkin. Tell me he doesn’t look creepy in that pic, I dare you.) Dawn never seems to question what’s going on, though, and she’s just along for the ride, no matter how far from shore shet gets.

However, despite an interesting heroine, this book bored the shit out of me. We don’t need another vampire series and Ms. Green doesn’t do much to develop her vampires. Nothing on social status, nothing about the way their world works. The worldbuilding in this sucks ass. Now I realize it’s a series, but she could’ve laid the groundwork. As it stands, I do not care enough about this series to read another book, not even if somebody gives it to me. I can’t rate it an F because the writing is fine. The story is just comatose, which is fitting, I guess, since it’s about the undead.

The writing isn’t bad; like I said, she shows sparks now and then. I think the problem is, she wrote to the market. Ms. Green probably figured, “Vampires sell, so I’ll write about vampires.” Well, she’s right. The book sold, but I’ve had more fun watching my cats play tag than trying to wade through this story. I’m sorry, honey, this thing is DOA, not even the angry midget could save it.

Y’all, you can buy this book here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Books, Grade: C, Suspense/Horror, Reviews by Annie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

9 Responses to “Night Rising by Chris Marie Green”

  1. L.E. Bryce
    Posted: Mar 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
    1

    Vampires might sell, but I won’t write ‘em. Never cared for them, and the world hardly needs yet another vamp book. Speaking of which, have you seen Lady Aibell’s catalog lately? They’ve got vamps coming out the ass.

  2. Ann(ie)
    Posted: Mar 22nd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
    2

    Vamps coming out the ass? I thought vamps wanted to get into the ass. There’s a vampire anal penetration craze taking the literary world by storm. Maybe that will be my next work, right after Fairy Bukkake Gangbang 2007.

  3. L.E. Bryce
    Posted: Mar 22nd, 2007 at 5:47 pm
    3

    Annie, you gotta stop torturing yourself with this shit. Seriously. Go read yourself some Dead to the World and get lost in manlove, intrigue, perfumed harems and excessive angst. Or the Snake Bite collection. Bam hasn’t dumped that one in your lap yet, has she?

  4. SharpBluntBimbo
    Posted: Mar 22nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
    4

    I’m going to be in the minority here, but I hate novels with midgets. Freaks me outta my skin. I read one by Theresa Medeiros, and thank god the midget died in the end.

  5. dl
    Posted: Mar 22nd, 2007 at 9:48 pm
    5

    I’m going to agree with you on this review, the cover is the best part. The story isn’t bad, it also isn’t real good either. So, that makes it similar to The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Petterson…and that Mona Lisa stuff by Sunny (is it difficult to make a vamp queen sound prissy and goody two shoes while doing two men?).

    Annie, I want to read your next book. A suggestion, more than a menage seems to be making the rounds lately. Haven’t read one yet, but do they all do it at the same time (& what do they do?), or just make a line outside the bedroom door and take turnes?

    Is is just me or are there alot of immature writers getting published recently? I’ve known Jr. High students with better writing skills than some new authors.

  6. L.E. Bryce
    Posted: Mar 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 pm
    6

    Do you mean immature as in poor writing style, or poor grasp of character? I know I’ve seen a lot of typos getting through. Even when I as an English teacher pore over my manuscripts trying to catch everything, I don’t always manage to get it all.

    I find that some editors really go over the text and comment, but some don’t, and in the end it’s really up to the writer to have a good grasp of grammar, spelling, and mechanics.

    It isn’t just the writers, btw. I’ve seen some reviewers that were utterly incomprehensible.

  7. December Quinn
    Posted: Mar 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 am
    7

    Macauley Culkin always looked creepy.

    And I still love vampires and always will–but I do prefer them as erotic romance heroes, and not as ongoing characters. Vampire sex is hot.

    I used to be frightened of little people. Really, genuinely scared. I’ve forced myself to get past it (because it is a really offensive fear) by watching lots of Discovery specials. Then I watched Nip/Tuck and realized that although the mechanics might still make me a little uncomfortable, Peter Dinklage is kind of sexy.

    And so I consider myself cured.

  8. Angie
    Posted: Mar 23rd, 2007 at 5:55 am
    8

    I read this book last weekend, I’d agree with this review. Two things I didn’t like about this book: One, there’s a lot of mystery built up, many questions introduced but no real answers given to anything. Like major sequel bait for the next book. As an example, it’s like watching a season of Lost. You get a lot of shit thrown at you but you’re left wondering about all of it.

    The second thing I didn’t care for is something only authors and editor would probably notice. The limited omniscient POV used in a book written in 3rd person narrative. We get two POVs. The heroine’s and the “bad guy’s” but at the end of many of Dawn’s chapters, we get “she wasn’t aware that someone was watching” type of sentences. That’s limited omniscient POV and it’s irritating to me. It’s an example of how the author works to introduce mystery and suspense but provides no follow-up.

    It’s dark and the narrative occurs in a Film Noir/graphic novel kind of way (think Sin City) but not as compelling as Sin City.

  9. Ann(ie)
    Posted: Mar 23rd, 2007 at 10:02 am
    9

    dl said: Annie, I want to read your next book.

    That can be arranged. It’s coming out from Loose Id on April 17.

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