Literally Leander discussion

Our last book of this year was Vampires, Hearts, & Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston. Expect spoilers in this thread!

This month, our discussion prompts were written by a staff member. We'd love to see any thoughts you had while reading this book, though!

1. Dissect Victoria’s relationships with her family members. How does her connection with her father differ from the other members of her family? Have you had a relationship with someone like the one Victoria has with her father?

2. Why did you think Fuston chose to set the book in New Orleans? Have you ever been there? If you were a vampire, where would you choose to live?

3. What emotion fuels Victoria the most? Is it love? Grief? Or is it something else altogether?

4. In putting together her list of vampire traits, Victoria uncovers a lot of vampire lore. Imagine that you are writing a vampire novel. What traits would your vampires have?

5. Weigh the pros and cons of being immortal. What do you think are the top pros? The top cons? After determining this, would you want to be immortal?

So, I read this back a little before December, but never got around to posting in the club. I'm rectifying my wrongs, but have definitely forgotten a majority of the novel.

This was another book that I had super high hopes for. It's a bit of a curse, really. I tend to build up books in my head, so much so that I'm usually a little disappointed when actually reading it. I originally gave the book 2 stars, but ultimately bumped it up to 3 stars for the emotional portrayal of grief (I myself was going through a rough time with the loss of a family member, so it really resonated with me then.)

I think part of my issue was going into this novel expecting it to be more of an urban paranormal romance, when it is more of a contemporary novel of grief, at least to me. I ultimately thought that the book was a little on the dry side, but it definitely managed to portray the overwhelming ache that happens when someone you love gets a bad diagnosis or passes away. As such, I actually felt let down by the romance, and instead wished that the love story/pseudo love triangle never existed.

2. Why did you think Fuston chose to set the book in New Orleans? Have you ever been there? If you were a vampire, where would you choose to live?
I like this question because I feel like New Orleans is the perfect place for an urban fantasy book. Its history is so steeped with the paranormal--in particular, stories of ghosts, the dead, and magic--that picking another city would be a hard task. NOLA has such a storied, layered history. While it's considered a party city, it's also a city that has withstood great tragedy.

Honestly, if I was in some sort of fantasy novel, I'd still probably be too much of a homebody to actively pick a city to live. Instead, I'd probably be the hermit of my home town, complete with a creepy haunted house that no one ever goes to, so I would never have to go through the headache of moving.