Billed as a "vampire opera in verse," Jessica Lévai's debut novella is a deliciously swoony melodrama of star-crossed lovers told in five acts of Onegin sonnets.
In 1960s Germany, 19-year-old Kunigunde Heller yearns after books, magic and the Graf, a 400-year-old vampire lord with "a graceful, noble bearing." However, "the Heller clan, for generations/ Had hunted such abominations," and Kunigunde will one day succeed her grandmother Luzia as family head. Despite a fragile treaty in which the vampires swore not to kill humans if the vampire hunters would not hunt vampires, a relationship between the maiden and the monster is unthinkable. Nevertheless, with Luzia out of town, Kunigunde uses a request to visit the Graf's library as a pretext to see him, and maiden and monster strike up a passionate romance.
As dramatic and pathos-inducing as any plot Puccini or Verdi could have conjured, The Night Library of Sternendach has its own brand of enchantment. Its distinctive format raises the beauty-and-the-beast trope to deliriously romantic new heights. Despite the Hellers' family business, readers should expect the vibe to echo Romeo and Juliet more than Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lévai mentions training, but all vampire hunting takes place offstage, and the narrative focuses primarily on relationships and emotional awakenings.
Occasional sly or self-aware asides contrast with the romantic angst and add to the impression of an authorial voice in total control and having a wonderful time. Paranormal romance fans longing for new blood will thrill to see fresh life breathed into the vampire/mortal pairing subgenre in such imaginative packaging. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads