Demon Vampire by Virgil Allen Moore

Demon Vampire by Virgil Allen Moore

My rating: ★☆☆☆☆

A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to enjoy this, especially since I received a free copy to review. But after muddling through the first seventy pages, I just couldn’t take it anymore. The slow pace of the plot wasn’t what finally made me quit; I can deal with a slow pace, and sometimes it’s even preferable. It wasn’t the amateurish writing, either; this is the author’s first novel, so it’s only fair to be somewhat forgiving. It was the editing. Or rather, the lack of it. An example from a random page:

“You know you’re a little too good at lying. It’s kind of scary.” Zack told Kyli as he slowly closed and extended his fingers.

Now, I can ignore the missing comma after “You know”. It’s not a big deal. Everyone makes typos, and even the best of editors is going to miss something. I could even forgive the incorrect formatting of the quotation (as everyone should know, it’s supposed to be “‘It’s kind of scary,’ Zack told Kyli…”)… if every single quotation wasn’t formatted that way, on top of all the other grammatical errors throughout the prose.

The only conclusion I can come to is that this simply wasn’t professionally edited, and it shows. It brings the whole book down, and that killed it for me. Amateurish writing is acceptable for a first novel. A slow pace is acceptable for any novel. But amateurish writing combined with such a slow pace that the plot can’t distract my attention away from the typos/mistakes? Nope, can’t do it. And it’s a damn shame, because I might have really enjoyed this if it’d had the benefit of a tighter plot and a firmer grasp of English.

The lesson here: always have an editor, no matter how expensive it may be, as no author can look objectively at their own work. Because the quality of the editing can make or break the book.