REVIEW: Vesper by Jeff Sampson

Title: Vesper (Deviants, #1)
Author: Jeff Sampson
Format: hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: January 25, 2011 by Balzer + Bray

Emily Webb is a geek. And she’s happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she’s never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she’s definitely not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls’ boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that . . . the same night one of her classmates—also named Emily—is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn’t know why she’s doing any of this. By day, she’s the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it’s no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. And soon Emily realizes that she’s not just coming out of her shell . . . there’s something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely— something not human?

As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she’s not the only one this is happening to—some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters—and how many people will they kill to get what they want?

Why I Read this Book: I only just heard about Vesper about a couple weeks ago. Then it showed up in the mail. The cover is captivating and the blurb sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.

What I Liked: Vesper’s set-up was interesting and different. The first thing you read is a transcript of the interrogation of Vesper 1 (Emily). The book then takes you through Emily’s retelling of the events that lead her to that interrogation room. Every so often there is a break from Emily’s flashback with an update on the interrogation progress.

Emily is an interesting character, one with a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde complex. During the day she is geeky, fly-under-the-radar Emily. At night, her kick-ass side comes out and she’s like a super hero with special powers.

What I Didn’t Like: The book is told in first person narrative, from Emily’s POV. While I like enjoy knowing what the protagonist is thinking, in this case it felt like there was too much thinking. It felt like Emily was over-analyzing everything.

Vesper is a very slow paced read, too slow for me. I kept waiting for something to happen, something that would give me a hint as to what is going on, but I just couldn’t wait any longer. I got half way through the book and I still had no idea what was going on with Emily or why.

For the most part, reading a book from a 16-year old female’s POV written by a male author went unnoticed. The author created a female character that would be easy to portray from a male writer’s standpoint, by making her a geek and not a girly-girl. The only thing that sounded strange to me was Emily’s use of the word “décolletage” to describe her chest. I didn’t use the word when I was a teenager, let alone know the word existed. But that was the only thing that felt out of place from what part of the book I did read.

Overall Impression: While Vesper was well-written and the writing style was fluid, it’s snail-like pacing just didn’t work for me. If you don’t mind a slow build up that takes up more than half the book, then Vesper might be for you.

The Book Vixen’s Rating:

DNF