I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book through net galley. Thank you to the publisher/author/net galley for the opportunity to review this book prior to release.

Now into the novella, I want to first start off by saying the way Birss is able to describe and build the vampir is PHENOMENAL. It was a masterclass in writing vampires. Everything about how the vampir was written had me completely enraptured and captivated. It was eerie, macabre, sinister—everything a well written vampire should be. When I read the first few passages I said audibly “Dang girl, you know how to write!!” The vampire, and the premise of the story were completely captivating and I absolutely loved these aspects of the story.

Now why I am only giving the book 2.5 🌟 I started this book extremely frustrated. I found the narrator to be incredibly unlikable, there were many glaring editing errors, and the writing was shallow/underwhelming. These things made the book difficult to want to continue. There was a lot of “telling not showing” and I wish that the author could have extended out the first half of the book to give us a better glimpse into the main characters history, the setting, the romance/courting of the narrator and his wife, etc. This would have helped me to care more about the main character, who until around 65-70% I hadn’t. The premise of the book is phenomenal and what drew me to apply for an ARC (in combination with the cover—which by the way A+++), so I would have liked to see some atmosphere building/setting of the stage for the rest of the book. Getting to the vampir, I realized Hannah Birss really knows how to write which made the lackluster first half even more frustrating because I can tell just how talented she is as a writer and an artist.

I would love if there was a way to push back this release, get a new editing team (because good god), and fix the problems with the first half because the woman knows how to write and this could easily be a 5 🌟 read with more work. I also loved the little illustrations and would love to see a few more throughout the novel, they were fun and definitely added an eerie vibe as I was reading. I am not so naive or self important to think my review will inact any kind of changes but I do want to note that I think this novella has huge potential and it would be a shame to not see it be the best it can be. I

Overall I think I would recommend the book because even with its flaws, it’s so short that it’s worth getting through them to get to the good bits.