SERVANT OF THE BONES, CHAPTER 3

Hello friends! This is another long one (only about 15 pages, but feels like 45) in which not too much happens, but there's also just not much to snark. One thing I like about sporking LKH, her writing and content was so bad there was generally a whole lot to pick apart with every page. Plus her chapters were on the short side too, if I remember correctly. This is a huge drag already. That said, my plan for my next book to spork will be another Rice one, either Blood & Gold or, if I get it back from my brother's house by then, Queen of the Damned.

I picked up the first book of Vampire Academy at a used bookstore because it was 75 cents and I am pleasantly surprised by it? I admit, I had some preconceived notions about how it was gonna be since it's YA paranormal romance, but I'm five and a half chapters in and not only is there nothing that thus far bothers me, I'm honestly so impressed that the primary relationship/concern of the heroine is her female best friend? Her bestie is vampire royalty that she's the bodyguard for, and they have this super special empathic bond, and the heroine lets her feed from her even though they know it would be considered super sexual kinky if anyone found out (but it's not sexual with them, just out of necessity, even though it explicitly feels REALLY REALLY GOOD and she gets jealous when she sees her vampire princess bestie feed from a human) and she genuinely cares about her thus far and thinks a lot about her and looks out for her physically and emotionally in a way that goes beyond just "well I'm her guardian so I have to take care of her" sort of way? I'm not expecting the author to spring Surprise Schoolgirl Lesbians on us, both of them chat about how hot guys are and there's already the obvious YA love interest guys introduced that both girls will obviously end up with, but I just genuinely love that there's a real bond between two women (well, girls) in this book that is treated as real and important and given attention to. One thing that has put me off a TON of the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre is that it always seems to be that the heroine only has positive relationships with men, and all other females are either antagonists or unimportant. Nothing puts me off from a book faster than "all females except me are harpies and bitches" type heroines, especially when the writer (usually a woman herself) sets that up as the objective truth and not just the heroine's personal issues. Other than that, it's nothing really remarkable or great, pretty much so far just high school clique stuff with a sprinkling of supernatural trappings, but I was impressed enough by this aspect to make note of it.

Also, who here knows about the Nagaraja clan from the "Vampire: The Masquerade" setting? I really like the Nagaraja vampires because their need to eat human flesh in addition to blood is just such a great weakness? It's truly monstrous from a cultural taboo standpoint, even if they're just stealing the meat from dead bodies. It's a very difficult weakness to get around too, as you only have so many options to do this without attracting attention, and will probably have to get creative (especially if you can't get a job in a morgue, disposing medical waste, etc.) And finally, it's gross. On an OOC level, it's gross. Drinking blood is something that I think any vampire fan is just inured to after a certain point (in fiction, of course, I think we all agree it'd be a lot nastier irl), especially since it's so easily romanticized and sexualized in vampire fiction. Like how many pictures have you seen of a "sexy" vampire with blood on their mouth? But you can't really do that with BITING CHUNKS OUT OF PEOPLE. Hannibal Lector might have made cannibalism all elegant and classy, but your average Lestat type is gonna look a lot less hot when he goes all The Walking Dead on somebody. It really makes vampirism what it should be, in my opinion---a curse. At the same time, they're not mindless like zombies or the vampires from The Strain, or souless like Buffy vamps, so they can still be, you know, CHARACTERS. Not that some Buffy vamps weren't "characters" even sans soul (Spike, Drusilla, etc) but they did always have to be evil. And I do like evil vampires, I also just like evil ultimately being a choice in the end no matter WHAT you are.

Also, I bet Limyaael would HATE Blackwood Farm:
https://curiosityquills.com/limyaael/things-that-really-irritate-limyaael

SERVANT OF THE BONES, CHAPTER 3
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