The Making of a Monster by Gail Petersen (1993)
3 out of 5 stars
The Making of a Monster follows Kate, a twenty-something who moves to Los Angeles with her husband. Struggling to settle in to the city, she decides to take up acting classes where she meets the alluring Justin. Kate soon becomes obsessed with this mysterious guy and the idea of having an affair with him. But she gets more than she bargained for when he turns her into a vampire.
What Petersen does really well is delve into the existential and psychological aspects of becoming a vampire. We spend a lot of time in Kate's head as she tries to navigate this new world that she has unwittingly found herself in. I thought these moments were really interesting, well written, and ended up being my favourite parts of the book.
Some of the characters' actions and dialogue were a bit unrealistic but it was still very readable. The story has some romance, some action, some blood-sucking (of course!) but I felt that it didn't seem to go far enough in any one direction and I was left wanting a bit more.
I was also hoping for more about the music scene, since the author was in a band (The Catholic Girls) and I thought that some of her personal experience would make its way into her writing, but unfortunately this side of the story felt very surface level.
Overall this was a good read and one that I would recommend to fans of vampire fiction looking for something a bit different.
The Making of a Monster follows Kate, a twenty-something who moves to Los Angeles with her husband. Struggling to settle in to the city, she decides to take up acting classes where she meets the alluring Justin. Kate soon becomes obsessed with this mysterious guy and the idea of having an affair with him. But she gets more than she bargained for when he turns her into a vampire.
What Petersen does really well is delve into the existential and psychological aspects of becoming a vampire. We spend a lot of time in Kate's head as she tries to navigate this new world that she has unwittingly found herself in. I thought these moments were really interesting, well written, and ended up being my favourite parts of the book.
Some of the characters' actions and dialogue were a bit unrealistic but it was still very readable. The story has some romance, some action, some blood-sucking (of course!) but I felt that it didn't seem to go far enough in any one direction and I was left wanting a bit more.
I was also hoping for more about the music scene, since the author was in a band (The Catholic Girls) and I thought that some of her personal experience would make its way into her writing, but unfortunately this side of the story felt very surface level.
Overall this was a good read and one that I would recommend to fans of vampire fiction looking for something a bit different.
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