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Jorie's Reviews > The God of Endings
The God of Endings
by
by
The Vampire Nanny Diaries 😬
Jacqueline Holland's debut unfortunately wasn't for me. My brain has been too rotted by reads and rereads of Anne Rice's works and those of her derivatives; perhaps if this book had come out just two or three years earlier, I might've had more patience for it. But, as it is, I just find lofty, world-weary vampiric literary fiction tiresome now.
I don't need to read about another European-descended vampire, immortality forever preserving her state of being young, beautiful, white, and able-bodied. Not after so many - most, even - of Rice's vampires were exactly, explicitly this. It's 2023, yet this book makes no comment on how these privileges aid main character Anya/Anna/Collette's navigation of the changing world.
And, regardless of these privileges, our focal vampire indulges in the same navel-gazing as Rice's vampires, as Rice established the standard that all immortals must experience ennui.
But you know who had a harder time between the 1830s-1984 than a vampire?
People of color. Enslaved people. Queer people. Disabled people. People experiencing homelessness and poverty. All the same groups society stacked the cards against from its earliest formation. The same groups still oppressed by our societal systems to this day.
So please forgive me if I'm tired of gorgeous, healthy, youthful, white vampires lamenting ~*the curse of eternal life*~; for me, it's played out.
Also, by virtue of being a vampire's biography, it is inherently a historical fiction novel. Following Anya/Anna/Collette's life from her vampiric rebirth in the 1830s to the year 1984, it has nothing to say about any particular time period, nor is any new perspective gleaned from viewing certain historical events through the lens of a vampire. History just happens...and Anya/Anna/Collette just happens to live through it.
And the 1984 timeline is just Anya/Anna/Collette looking after a particularly talented little boy - because, like many of Rice's vampires, she is both an artist and a patron of the arts. As I said, it's The Vampire Nanny Diaries, with her trying to determine how much to intervene in the little boy's troubled home life as their bond grows.
But I will say this: At least Anya/Anna/Collette wasn’t thirsting after the little kid...which is more than I can say for some of Rice's vampires...👀
Jacqueline Holland's debut unfortunately wasn't for me. My brain has been too rotted by reads and rereads of Anne Rice's works and those of her derivatives; perhaps if this book had come out just two or three years earlier, I might've had more patience for it. But, as it is, I just find lofty, world-weary vampiric literary fiction tiresome now.
I don't need to read about another European-descended vampire, immortality forever preserving her state of being young, beautiful, white, and able-bodied. Not after so many - most, even - of Rice's vampires were exactly, explicitly this. It's 2023, yet this book makes no comment on how these privileges aid main character Anya/Anna/Collette's navigation of the changing world.
And, regardless of these privileges, our focal vampire indulges in the same navel-gazing as Rice's vampires, as Rice established the standard that all immortals must experience ennui.
But you know who had a harder time between the 1830s-1984 than a vampire?
People of color. Enslaved people. Queer people. Disabled people. People experiencing homelessness and poverty. All the same groups society stacked the cards against from its earliest formation. The same groups still oppressed by our societal systems to this day.
So please forgive me if I'm tired of gorgeous, healthy, youthful, white vampires lamenting ~*the curse of eternal life*~; for me, it's played out.
Also, by virtue of being a vampire's biography, it is inherently a historical fiction novel. Following Anya/Anna/Collette's life from her vampiric rebirth in the 1830s to the year 1984, it has nothing to say about any particular time period, nor is any new perspective gleaned from viewing certain historical events through the lens of a vampire. History just happens...and Anya/Anna/Collette just happens to live through it.
And the 1984 timeline is just Anya/Anna/Collette looking after a particularly talented little boy - because, like many of Rice's vampires, she is both an artist and a patron of the arts. As I said, it's The Vampire Nanny Diaries, with her trying to determine how much to intervene in the little boy's troubled home life as their bond grows.
But I will say this: At least Anya/Anna/Collette wasn’t thirsting after the little kid...which is more than I can say for some of Rice's vampires...👀
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Reading Progress
August 13, 2023
– Shelved
August 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
August 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
vampires
August 26, 2023
–
Started Reading
August 27, 2023
–
22.1%
"How did I get here? What am I doing in 1984? What will I possibly do in the 1990s? And, dear God, the 2000s?
Don’t worry, vampire lady, I got you:
1990s - play N64 🌸🦋
2000s - get a PC and play The Sims 🌺💕
Best way to spend your decades~~~they’ll be poppin"
page
99
Don’t worry, vampire lady, I got you:
1990s - play N64 🌸🦋
2000s - get a PC and play The Sims 🌺💕
Best way to spend your decades~~~they’ll be poppin"
August 27, 2023
– Shelved as:
historical-fiction
August 27, 2023
–
52.01%
"Thing is coming from a reformed Anne Rice snob (😅):
I’m so bored with vampiric navel-gazing. I’m tired of the malaise and ennui of immortality.
At this point in my life, I want spooky ooky vampires who go “Bleh” again. My ideal is Christopher Lee in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, a movie Dracula just hissed thru cuz Lee thought the script was shit lol"
page
233
I’m so bored with vampiric navel-gazing. I’m tired of the malaise and ennui of immortality.
At this point in my life, I want spooky ooky vampires who go “Bleh” again. My ideal is Christopher Lee in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, a movie Dracula just hissed thru cuz Lee thought the script was shit lol"
August 27, 2023
– Shelved as:
2023-reads
August 27, 2023
–
Finished Reading
August 28, 2023
– Shelved as:
no
I don’t usually like to say this about authors given the time and energy they put into their novels, but I was actually a bit relieved to come back months after reading this to see it had dropped to a more appropriate rating (when I read it, it was still sitting quite comfortably in the 4.2 range or so).