3.5/5
The Fell of Dark is one of those vampire novels that doesn't take itself too seriously. I've always found the humorous undead novels that treat everything like a joke to be fun, which is why I picked this novel up.
Delightfully gay, the book is led by August Pfeiffer, whose sarcastic and exasperated voice I enjoyed very much. Unfortunately there is a bit of love triangle, but the triangle takes on more of a threesome vibe than a one-or-the-other vibe. Although pleasantly progressive, I must admit this was a little disappointing for me because the blurb had led me to believe we were gonna get some hot action between poor, semi-closeted August and hot, brooding vampire. August is literally always thinking about how horny he is-- and that never built up to anything. Unfortunate indeed.
The next defining trait of this novel would be the sheer amount of players introduced. You've got the vampire syndicate (basically their government), the league of the dark star (small vampire group led by a witch vamp?), vampire Rasputin and his psychos (literally), and some old cronies (the witches you read about in hamlet?). It's a lot, and they're all after August. At first it's exciting to learn about each group's role, but towards the end it gets hard to keep track of. It felt like August was just being pushed around between these groups for the entire novel. I also didn't like how August didn't have a single "normal" friend; every character eventually revealed him/herself to be related to one of the groups somehow.
Caleb Roehrig did a good job of giving his vampires emotionally-complex backgrounds. I could see how a character's past experiences and emotions drove their actions, especially in Gunnar, August, and Viviane. The best character by far is August's math tutor. I might recommend The Fell of Dark for her alone. Jk. I'll recommend The Fell of Dark for those who like light vampire reads and funny narrators.
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