Shannon Miz's Reviews > Thirst

In Thirst, we follow two characters: One, a vampire, over a century ago as she moves from Europe to Buenos Aires; the second, a modern woman struggling with a lot of current-day problems like single motherhood, the illness of a parent, and general dissatisfaction with life. While I did appreciate a lot of the things this book had to offer, a few left me wishing for more. So, as I love to do, let's break it down!

What Worked For Me:

►The location and time periods! I do wish we'd gotten to see a bit more of Buenos Aires, though I was quite excited to be there! I also loved that we got to experience it in two very different time periods (technically, even more I suppose, but two for sure), which showed two very different examples of the city. I mean, did you know about the Paraguayan War? I didn't, but now I do! There was also a plague, and to the best of my sleuthing, it seems to have been yellow fever? Regardless, I know now quite a bit more about the history of Buenos Aires than I did before, and that is a win.

►I quite enjoyed the character of Alma. I mean- don't get me wrong, the vampire part was fascinating, too. I just liked the character of Alma more. (Interestingly, I read plenty of reviews that felt the opposite, so do with this what you will!) I did enjoy the journey to see how these two very different women, with stories vastly differing from each other, would connect. (As you'll see below, I did not enjoy the way it all went down, but I did enjoy trying to figure out how it would all happen.) I felt a lot for Alma, and her current life situations. She was compelling, for me, and I was eager to see what would happen next.

►The atmosphere was on point. This definitely had a gothic, vampiric feel to it, which I definitely appreciated!

What I Struggled With:

Okay here's the thing, my biggest issue with this book: the character development is completely incongruent with the choices they make. I am keeping this vague, but I will do spoiler tags to explain more. But look- I actually liked the character development, especially that of present-day Alma, like I mentioned. But then some of the things that end up happening make absolutely no sense to who the book has been making her out to be all along! It could be that something is lost in translation here, but I can't say for sure, as me and my very basic Spanish can't exactly translate it ourselves. It just kind of made me feel like the whole of the story is pointless, if nothing that Alma said or felt was genuine, if that makes sense? (view spoiler)[We spend literally half the book learning about Alma, her son, her dying mother. We hear about her past, her present, her fierce love for her son and her parents. And then the vampire comes along and she just... dips, leaving her young son and grieving father to their own devices. WHAT!? How?! How can you tell me that this protective, loving mother and daughter just decided to hop on down to the cemetery to spend eternity with a vampire that she met like, twice!?I maybe could have bought it if there was an actual relationship between them, but it was a brief infatuation/lust at most.  No. Nope, nope, fucking nopety nope. And if she IS that kind of person, why'd you spend hundreds of pages convincing me otherwise?! I get that vampires have some sort of... glamour, or something, to use to lure people in, but this was not framed that way at all- it was made to seem like a very cognizant choice that was made. For reasons? (hide spoiler)]

Also, I didn't fully understand what made the vampire character tick. Bloodlust, obviously, as the title implies, but little else. As such, I could not understand fully the appeal of her, as a character. That part may be on me, as I said above, others seemed to quite enjoy her character, even if she didn't do it for me.

Bottom Line: A dual-timeline, dual-character POV story that I enjoyed but also felt let down by.

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight