Review: A Long Time Dead

 

So I’ve been thinking about this book for a week now and I just don’t know what to make of it.

On the one hand, there were elements I adored – Valentin and Carmen were wonderful characters

(Carmen was some of the best casual transfemme representation I’ve ever seen), and there were some

really beautiful found family moments. On the other hand, the actual plot felt kind of unnecessary, and

seemed to resolve too fast – like there was never a real point to it anyway. The vignettes of Poppy’s life l

earning to be a vampire were far more interesting to me, and I would have liked to see more. But on the

other hand, without a plot to anchor it I think it would have felt adrift and meandering. Which is something

I know some readers enjoy, but I personally don’t. I realize this doesn’t sound like much of an actual

opinion, but like I said – I just don’t know what to do with this book. I think it will appeal to a certain kind

of reader, and I happened to like plenty of it, but I definitely don’t know that it will appeal to everyone.

Yet I still think from a craft perspective, it’s very well done.

Side note: I can only assume the person on the cover is meant to be Poppy, who is canonically not delicate

and skinny like this art. Please put plus-sized art of plus-sized characters.

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