I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love this book. I am dying for a book that spills real love and real heart. This book was trying so hard to be Anne Rice. Katsu begins her book by going down that road, but ends up with a sad mimicry of a Rice's connection between immortality and sadism (something that could not have been avoided by the characters even if Katsu had a better writing style). The characters were flat and apparently incapable of making sound or selfless decisions. There is never any explanation of why or how they are this way. ***Spoilers following (kind of b/c Katsu made a kitschy show of "shocking" the reader about the immortality of the characters)*. One would think that after hundreds of years, a person would develop some sort of personality. According to Katsu, this does not happen; unless, of course, you count the last two chapters where Jonathan (presumably a cousin of the Twilight clan, based on his exceedingly good looks with nothing to hold his head on) magically develops personality, just in time for a dramatic exit. Besides that, NOTHING effects the characters decisions or personality, and I do mean NOTHING.