A Review of Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

3 Fangs for Death's Daughter by Amber Bensen

If you are a fan of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (sadly in rerun land now) you probably know Amber Bensen best as Tara, Willow's witchy girlfriend. I had to get this book just because of that, well that and it's a paranormal read. I guess Bensen has been pretty busy since leaving Buffy but this is the first time she's popped into my radar so I haven't read any of the series of novels she co wrote with Christopher Golden.

I started Death's Daughter several times but it didn't hold my attention so I kept putting it down as new more exciting books fell into my hands. It's not that it's a bad book, because it's not, the writing style isn't bad either. I just think the voice didn't fit into my head very well. The protagonist was not a fit for me as an older woman (and by older I don't mean ancient, I'm only in my 30s but I am nowhere close to being so self absorbed and materialistic as the young 20 something Calliope Reaper-Jones).

Death's Daughter opens with Calliope Reaper-Jones a normal young woman living in New York City (yuck) hoping to work her way into the the fashion world but is instead stuck in the Home and Garden sector. She bemoans her fate the whole time, complaining about her life with interspersed longing for shopping trips to buy trendy high fashion clothing. She rambles (and I do mean rambles) on and on about her everyday life...blah. blah..blah. Then suddenly there's a dragon guarding the entrance to her building....what??? Then other weird things happen and suddenly there's a half man half goat (?) joining her in the ladies room at work telling her that her father has been kidnapped.

Suddenly it all comes rushing back to her, thanks to goat boy-Jarvis. She is Death's Daughter and now it's her job to take over Death Inc, deal with the devil and find her father. She had placed a forgetting spell on herself so she could live a normal life and not be part of her magical one. Boo Hoo. God, Calliope she bitches about her normal world and about her real one. She isn't happy with anything. Oh boo hoo I am immortal and it sucks! I am sick of that shtick. That got old after the 7th or 8th Anne Rice vampire novel (and no I am so NOT dissing Anne Rice, that is where my whole obsession with vampires started).

The whole book is a bit wishy washy in that teenager-young twenties melodrama stuff. All the things that make glad I am not that young anymore (if I ever was) and makes me want to stick a fork in my eye instead of dealing with many young people like that. Anyway, that's how the character in this book comes off with a little more substance and backbone but still not someone I'd want to hang with.

I think the whole New York, materialistic, label name dropping, and designer crap turned me off.

I did finally finish the book though. Pretty standard finish, kinda expected most of it. A few twists and turns I didn't see coming but the rest was uh huh and?

To be fair I think I am in a totally bitchy mood today because I don't feel good and I am taking it out on this poor book. Sorry, Amber. Sorry book.

To be honest I did not totally hate it. I finally got engrossed in it about half way through it just took longer than usual to hook me. I love books that grab me on the first page. To be really candid though, Kim Harrison's first Rachel book, Dead Witch Walking didn't grab me right away either. It took a chapter or two to pull me in, thankfully I kept at it because now the Hollows is one of my most favorite series ever.

Anyway, back to Death's Daughter. It was worth the read, but I won't be scrambling to read the rest of the books in the series. I am sure many die hard Buffy fans will probably skewer me for this review. Sorry guys. I love Buffy but I can't totally love the book just because an actress that played a role on the show wrote it.

OK, I am off to take more medicine and work on not being cranky. Fat chance at that today.