[2.75] So when I was in the 7th Grade I had a really laid back English teacher, probably a little too laid back, and she would periodically tell us about what books she was reading. It was her way of encouraging students to be interested in reading and to socialize with her students. One of those books she told us about was this book called "Fledgling." She explained that it was a vampire book, and it being the height of the "Twilight" books and movies this interested a lot of students. She had to quickly explain that this probably wasn't a book for kids our age. Now nearly a decade later, I see why she added that disclaimer. In retrospect, I now realize she probably shouldn't have brought the book up at all to the class, it's got quite a bit of descriptive violence and sexual content. And it's that sexual content that makes me deeply uncomfortable even now as an adult.

In the story, our main character is a young girl of 10 or 11 (it's been a couple weeks since I actually read it so I don't remember exactly) who wakes in a cave, badly injured and with no memories of who or where she is. She eventually finds herself walking on a road where a man in his 20s picks her up. This man is almost immediately infatuated with her and she with him, and they start a relationship...with sex (and bloodsucking). Yes, you heard me; a 20+ year old character and a ~10 year old character have sex in this book. Through the course of the narrative we later learn that she's actually 50+ years old but because vampires age differently she looks 10 by human standards, but still it's a 10 year old's body! I could not get past that element of the story, and it happens a lot, because vampires in this world essentially create a personal harem of humans to drink from and have sex with. It's really fucking gross and a big reason why I'm marking it lower despite some other interesting themes of race and belonging.

[2.4] In my opinion this is undoubtedly the worst addition of the currently existing (and supposedly final) Simon Snow books. There's little to no expansion of the world, we learn nothing new about the magical world of our characters other than the fact that goats are important to the school and there are magical surgeons I guess? So much that was built up in the previous two books was just pushed to the side and it seemingly just doesn't exist. The villain, if they can even be called that, is boring and weak (both from a magical perspective and fleshed out character perspective). Additionally, we're three books deep now and I STILL don't buy into Snow and Baz's relationship? It's so one-sided and they're so clearly two entirely different people with opposing lives; please make it end, it's not destined to be!

Cute story, I guess. Literally felt nothing about any of the characters, whether they be main characters or side ones. If you’re gonna write a romance novel you have to sell the idea of romance between your intimate characters to your readers. For me, I just didn’t buy into their romance, it just sort of happened and wasn’t rewarding in the slightest. There was functionally no conflict in either the development of their relationship nor in the broader scope of the world.

Let me tell you what, reading a book about a deadly flu virus that wipes out 99% of humanity and completely shatters society as we know it is a wonderful way to cap off nearly two years of IRL life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Themes of resilience, survival, and creating life out of loss. I enjoyed it, maybe you will too.