Vampire State (Vampire State Book 1) by Alexander Charalambides – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.
Vampire State by Alexander Charalambides
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is all about fitting in, or is it more not fitting in? This is what Rowena is thinking about, she lives at home with her mum, her dad is a volunteer in the armed forces and she is attending school in her home in Estovia, a place of natural beauty, covered in pine forests with bright sunshine which has been invaded by the Sanguinians. They have grey skin, yellow eyes and pointy ears and they look like something out of a nightmare, but this is no nightmare, it is her reality and it is about to change again, when she returns home from school where she is already feeling oppressed by them, they have changed her school to force them to engage with the Sanguinian curriculum and they watch over them like hawks and when they are old enough, they are drafted into their army.
When Rowena’s mum picks her up from school, something is different and Rowena has to remind her mum about the rules the Sanguinians have put into place and when they get to their house, the black cars which are parked in her driveway mean her mum says to stay in their car until she knows what is going on, but when she says it is safe to come in, but to be careful, then she is extra aware of her surroundings. When Rowena goes in though, she is surprised to see that her father has returned home and he isn’t alone, he is accompanied by a Pale called Legatus Valtiere, it turns out that her dad has saved his life and that they are being given the opportunity to live as his guests in Sanguinia with the added bonus of the opportunity to become citizens of Sanguinia as well. Rowena and her mother are extremely surprised by this news and ask the Legatus for some time to think about his offer and discuss it as a family, especially as becoming a citizen means that they must become Pales themselves, her dad is all for it, but her mum isn’t, but she knows how it will end and resigns herself to the fact that they will be leaving everything she knows for a land which she knows nothing about.
As they pack up their belongings and are taken to the underground train, Rowena is very aware that she hasn’t been able to sleep, but is determined to look on the bright side and the fact that this move will be a lot of firsts, this includes the underground train, she can only tell when daylight ends and night begins by the clock in the carriage, they are the only ones in there, but she can’t sleep, unlike her parents. As she looks out of the window, she gets her first glimpse of the city without a sun and can understand now why it is called that, everything is in shades of black and grey and there are giant columns of smoke which have merged with the storm in the sky. As they leave the station, they are picked up by Quintus, a human who serves the Legatus and are taken via the scenic route to their new home, where they learn a bit more about the family of the Legatus, some of the traditions in Sanguinian society and what some of the more important buildings are. Later on in the evening, Rowena hears someone in the house and goes to investigate, it turns out that it is the Legatus’s son and he has come to take some photographs of the view now that he won’t be staying in the house again, Rowena politely asks him to leave and then tries to get some sleep.
It is the next day when the Legatus and his family arrive with servants in tow for a meal with Rowena’s family to talk more about thor way of life, this is when she officially meets Vincenzo, the Legatus’s son and as their parents start to discuss things, they are allowed to leave so that Vincenzo can go and attend to something, he takes Rowena with him and they see a whole different side to the city revealed, as is the fact that Vincenzo is something of a revolutionary in his spare time, but after a few days pass, nore of the attitudes of the Pale’s is revealed and through circumstances out of her control she meets Luka who is another revolutionary, but a completely different one to Vincenzo and has some rather illegal and dangerous ways to get his message across.
This is where Rowena discovers the reality of being a human in Sanguinia, the dangers associated with it and what the Pale’s really think of them, so as well as having to make the decision of whether to go through with citizenship or not, she also has to contend with a decision between the two men she has met and when the Emperor Dominus and his underlings throw their weight around in the background, will the pressure become too much, or will Rowena be able to stay herself and remain an inidividual?
Reviewed by @roxsannel
