Vampires Need Not…Apply? by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff
Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)
I’m not sure how the author manages to produce consistently funny stories while dealing with serious issues like mass murder, torture, the end of the world and correct spelling of Mayan names but she does. I love the multiple viewpoints and frequently snarky dialogue!
This is book 4 of the series and I really can’t suggest starting here. Well, you could – the author does a fairly good job of giving you the basics of the backstory – but I can’t recommend it. There is WAY too much backstory to absorb; including the ins and outs of the various characters and how the plot has developed to the opening of this book. So back up to Accidentally in Love with…a God? and hop on the rollercoaster…
This series deals with the Mayan pantheon which is both a plus and a minus. The plus is it’s not peopled with the same Greco-Roman gods/goddesses/myths you learned about in seventh grade; the minus is the names are mentally tongue-twisting and the ‘specialties’ of the various gods are probably not familiar to the reader and frequently seem weird. For example: a major player in the story is Ixtab who we find out is the goddess of suicide. My contemporary, western sensibilities immediately kicked in with ‘Say what? Suicide needs its own goddess?’ And then there’s the whole who is related to whom issue in a ‘family’ group that puts the ‘dys’ in dysfunctional.
Like the other books in the series the immediate storyline is nicely tied up but the last page contains the requisite ‘oh my god’ teaser…
Needless to say I will be continuing this series.
