欧宝娱乐

I found this much-ballyhooed literary vampire thriller to be a little too slow and surprisingly short on vampires: I often felt like crying out, 脿 la Milhouse, "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!" There are stories inside stories inside framing devices, and it all gets a bit too top-heavy to be hugely thrilling. The best part about it was the Eastern European scenery, not just the parts that eerily echoed our own itinerary for the trip but the parts during which the characters struggle against Communist bureaucracies as they research vampire lore. Bonus points to the author for offering a nonstereotypical librarian character and for imagining Vlad the Impaler as an actual medieval despot rather than as Bela Lugosi. This was a three-smiley book made into a four-smiley book for me based on the aptness of when and where I read it. I would look forward to reading something else Kostova writes, hopefully in partnership with a more aggressive editor.