Customer Reviews

Predatoress

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Emma is a typical Hungarian teenage girl. She lives at home with parents and has a few girlfriends she is really close to. While her pals are already interested in the opposite sex, Emma is more interested in her studies. Then one night she is awoken by a stranger in her room, he takes her blood and the life as she knows it and turns her into a Predatoress.

Emma reluctantly embraces her new lifestyle as a Vampire and although she wishes she were mortal she selfishly turns her best friend Kati into a Vampire, and then the two of them turn their other two friends, Gizi and Eszti, into Vampires. Soon this foursome is terrorizing their hometown on their quest for blood to sustain a life none of them is completely comfortable with.

This book reads like a memoir, told from the viewpoint of Emma, the friend that starts it all. The book summary promises an interesting and unusual vampire tale that pulled me in immediately. Unfortunately, the actual story fails to pick up speed until the book is about half of the way through. The storyline gets bogged down with Emma's ramblings of genetics, DNA, Hungarian histories and delicacies, and the repetitious fights and feedings between the 4 friends. It made it difficult to weed through the prose to get to the heart and vitality of the story, which ends up being Emma's quest for a cure for her, her friends and the other Vampires out there.

The main problem I had was with Emma herself. She is not a likable heroine or villain. Her bossy, know-it-all and selfish behavior makes it really hard for the reader to care about what she has to say. She comes off as immature one moment and pompous the next. When Emma is only a few hours old in her new vampire persona, she begins to speak, act and dictate as though she is lifelong authority on Vampire etiquette and ethics. If I had been one of the three friends she had turned, and then ordered about and lectured relentlessly, I would have staked her in the heart after about 5 minutes.

I was really looking forward to this tale, but ultimately found myself disappointed. The marketing campaign for this book is brilliant, and I have no doubt it will be a success because of it. Reader's can also visit Predatoress dot com and purchase a bottle of Emma's own Blood wine; a luscious and fruity Red Zinfandel, with a bite. Perhaps I should have drunk the bottle of wine whilst I read?

Cherise Everhard, July 2009

I never got into vampire movies or books, I honestly thought it was stupid and not a genre I liked. Then with all the hype about Twilight, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and read it and from there I got hooked. Then I read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, which are the basis for True Blood on HBO, and now I just loved and finished Predatoress by Emma Gabor.

Predatoress is a vampire book based in September 2003 in Sopron, Hungary, when Emma was changed forever. Emma, 18 years old, had a bright future ahead of her as a scientist until one night when she was bitten. In order to survive, she vampirizes her three best friends and they all go out together every night to feed. Well you know when girls get together there is always trouble and of course there are disagreements and love problems.

Without giving away too much of the book, Emma realizes she can't live that way forever, obviously who would want to. One night while she is out clubbing with the girls, she meets Zoltan who is a genetic scientist that every girl is practically in love with. First, Emma could care less, but the she falls for him, even though he two girlfriends have feelings for him. Then Emma realizes that with her knowledge and Zoltans, maybe they can work together on curing Emma's condition.

I really enjoyed this book. It was different and it is interesting to see how different authors create their vampires. The Predatoress vampires have their own ways of doing things and surviving. This book though does get into some blood detail, so if that grosses you out too much skip over those sentences. I also loved the turn at the end, you may think the book is over and then "pow" something happens!

Predatoress was released on July 4th and is a 390 page paperback. It is a quick read though and kept me reading!

You can also check out the Predatoress website to read more about the book and author!

Predatoress is an unreadable, obviously self-published book. Ignoring the pixilated cover image, the first major problem is the formatting. This is not a book that has seen an editor's desk, let alone an editor. The grammar is childish at best and punctuation is scattered at random throughout. There are no indents whatsoever. The author uses page-breaks to separate her massive block paragraphs and the margin is Word's standard 1.5 inches--totally inappropriate for a 5.5 x 8.5 inch book.

The plot is slow and stilted, the characters flat, cardboard cut-out support for the obnoxious lead, the writing itself miserable to wade through. After less than a few hours as a vampire, the lead starts preaching about vampire decorum to her attentive audience of best friends who, as it so happens, are hardly upset the main character has turned them into undead, bloodsucking monsters for her amusement.

One of the major problems I have with this book is that even when you ignore the fact her main character is generally unlikable, you have to deal with bricks of unrealistic dialogue. For instance:

"Though he's thin, at least he's not drunk, so his blood is not diluted with alcohol, which is rare for us these days," I said. "I like his spiciness. I think I taste a hint of saffron. I'd go for another Indian any day, even if I had to get two to satisfy the quantity of blood I need. But Indian tourists aren't that common here in Sopron, or in Hungary in general. We just got lucky tonight. I think we need to re-evaluate. There's nothing wrong with good old Hungarian blood. And tomorrow night, when we go to Club Colosso, that may be all that will be available to us."

Notice that after the main character wastes nearly a minute of your life telling her best friends (who, being her best friends, should know everything she's just spelled out), the other characters in the scene are allotted exactly three sentences. Another example of the sheer lack of writing skill displayed in this book is the random occurrences of poetry.

"Blood

A woman talks of blood
Like some aphrodisiac
She stands in its ruby flood
Like an amnesiac
Her blood is ripe and red
Young and fervent
Her body leaps from bed
She is your servant."

All in all, if you must read this book, get it from the library. It's not worth a quarter at a garage sale, let alone $17. Even the cheap wine they're giving away with it cannot salvage this wreckage of a novel.

Vampire myths have been around and in many cultures for countless years. The word "vampire" is relatively new but the age old stories relate the same experiences - nocturnal creatures who must drink other human beings' blood in order to live or perhaps rather than a monster who has been blessed or cursed with eternal life a vampire may be a more romantic hero. Whatever the case and for whatever reason vampire stories are enjoying an amazing renaissance, especially among younger readers.

Predatoress joins this lengthy and growing list. The story is told in the first person by Emma, a bright 18-year-old Hungarian student with an interest in genetic research. Until she is visited as she sleeps Emma has felt safe in her family home in Sopron, a small town known primarily for its music festivals. Entering through an open window her intruder is a "well-groomed immaculate youth" who "oh so gently inserted his fangs into my carotid artery." The transformation was immediate.

Almost before she knows it she has snuck out of her parents' home and into the dark streets searching for the sustenance she needed. In short order Emma has turned her three best friends, Kat, Gizi, and Eszti into vampires, too. What a quartet they are as they plot their next feasts, going to dance halls, restaurants, and eventually to other cities because they fear they will be discoverd if Sopron is suddenly awash in vampires. After all, if they're caught it's stakes in their hearts and beheadings.

Her poor parents are concerned by the change in their once obedient, studious daughter. But then she meets and falls in love with Zoltan Szabo who shares her interest in genetic research. He is unbelievably handsome and soon proposes marriage. However, she loves him too much not to tell him what she really is. Can anything be done that will enable this star-crossed couple to have a normal life together? And, what of her friends and all of the others they have turned into the Population of the Night?

Sound a little kitschy? Well, it is. However,, if you're a vampire fan it may be just your cup of red body fluid. Only a 3 as it needs more careful editing.

- Gail Cooke

Written as a memoir by the author, Predatoress tells the tale of 18-year-old Emma Gabor, who is turned into a vampiress, and her adventures. Turned into one of the undead at the start of the book, Emma begins feeding on innocent victims, but chooses them carefully, such as homeless people that would not be missed. She quickly becomes bored with running around at night alone and decides that turning her best friend into a vampiress as well will help keep her company. This turns out to be both good and bad for young Emma, as her friend is upset with being turned into a vampiress, and also makes things more complicated for Emma in the long run. Later, they turn two more of their girlfriends and start hunting as a group of four. Emma soon meets Zoltan Szabo, a genetic researcher her girlfriends have lusted after for years, and he immediately falls for Emma, unaware that she is one of the undead. Emma is hopeful that once she tells Zoltan of her condition that they can come up with a cure for vampirism so that she can fix all the damage she has done. Of course, she doesn't think too much about what will happen when a non-vampire finds out her secret!

Predatoress appears to be the first book by Emma Gabor. Honestly, it felt like the author was haphazardly throwing down as many thoughts as she could before forgetting them, but unfortunately she forgot to add in a really good plot or to flesh out the story. I wouldn't say Gabor doesn't have a future as a writer, as I think with practice she could easily turn her ideas into a well-written story. However, many scenes within this novel I couldn't see possibly happening in real life, and even fiction should be believable to the reader. For example, Zoltan invites Emma to a dance. While there, Emma gets hungry, and corners someone in the ladies' room. Yet, nobody notices the other girl's absence from the dance until it is over. Once the dance has concluded, Zoltan takes Emma back to his place where she loses her virginity to him. He then returns Emma to her parents' house, where her mother has fallen asleep downstairs while waiting for her. Emma's mother is upset that she has been brought home at six in the morning. She asks Zoltan why he brought Emma home so late, and he proceeds to tell her that they fell in love and then made love, and tries to comfort the mother by telling her that they used protection. Then Emma's father joins the room, Zoltan proposes to Emma, and everyone is so excited by the prospect of a wedding that the trouble Emma was in is forgotten abruptly. For me, anyway, this scene just seems bizarre. I mean, what parents in their right mind would handle a scenario like this in this fashion? This is just one of many examples of such things in Predatoress. I did find myself enjoying the book at times, j ust because the scenes struck me as so absurd they were laughable. For those who don't care as much for plot and just like to gobble up as many vampire titles as possible, I'd recommend this book, but for anyone else... do yourselves a favor and pass over this title for one of the several thousand other vampire titles on the shelves today.

Contains: Adult Situations, Blood Sucking

Review also posted at monsterlibrarian dot com

Undeath cannot quell the most powerful of emotions. "Predatoress" tells the story of Emma, a young woman who finds herself a young vampire. Embracing the vampiric lifestyle with only some remorse, she soon finds herself conflicted when she meets a man who she doesn't want to simply feed on, but instead love. It takes all of a vampires power to resist such things, but Emma must find a way... "Predatoress" is a psychological exploration of the emotions of what many dismiss as a soulless monster, highly recommended.

NOTE: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher.

I fully admit that I did not expect to like this book. I have had no interest in the recent vampire crazy and in fact have never read a vampire book before (well, with the exception of Stephen King's 'Salem Lot, which of course was great). But I received a very nice review request offering to send me a gift package including both the book and a bottle of the book's own wine, Blood (available on the book's web site), and so I agreed. I received the package (beautifully done), drank the wine (good if you like dry reds), but didn't actually READ the book. I was a bit put off by several factors: first, as other reviewers have suggested, the book has an obviously self-published look to it, with extra spacing between paragraphs substituting for the usual indents and just an amateurish overall appearance. Furthermore, upon browsing through the pages, I realized that the author, Emma Gabor, was also the main character--was this a novel or a memoir? And if the latter, was I expected to believe that this was a TRUE story?

Well, despite my reservations, I finally picked up the book to begin reading it just a few weeks ago. Emma is an 18 year old girl living in modern-day Sopron, Hungary. In the opening scene, she is sleeping peacefully in her bed at home with her parents when a stranger, her "initiator," enters her room, inserts his fangs into her neck, and drains her blood. This turns Emma into a vampyr (the Hungarian spelling), compelling her to seek her own first victim that very same night. The following night, Emma decides to prey on her best friend, Kati, so as to have a companion for her late-night outings, and the two in turn then decide to recruit their friends Gizi and Eszti. Unfortunately, the foursome quickly comes to realize that the life of the undead is not a pleasant one, and so Emma in particular begins devoting her time to finding a solution to their plight.

Surprisingly, I quickly found myself to be engaged in this story. As some of the other reviewers noted, the dialogue had a tendency to be a bit overdone at times--but what would "true" dialogue between vampyrs be like, exactly? I probably would have felt differently if this was a more serious novel, but it wasn't--to me, this was pure entertainment, and I enjoyed it. Although, as I said above, I haven't read any of the vampire stories that are currently on the market, I could see why fans of that genre might be disappointed in this book. However, if you are a classic science fiction enthusiast and who doesn't mind things getting a bit on the cheesy side occasionally, I think you will find this novel to be surprisingly entertaining, and I would recommend it.

Emma's life is changed in the blink of an eye. One minute she is asleep in her bed. The next minute someone is sucking her dry. Literally. She knows right away that her life will never be the same. She leaves her home in the middle of the night on a desperate search to fulfill her body's craving for blood. She happens to spot a homeless girl sound asleep and decides to sink her teeth into this poor girl's throat.

Emma decides that she can not live for an eternity alone and decides who she would like to transform her best friend so that they can live together forever. After this Emma isn't quite satisfied with the results and decides to recruit two more friends into this immortal club.

She is constantly battling with herself. Emma has embraced what she is but not with open arms. She is confused and ashamed even though she did not have a say in the path her life has taken. She is an extremely lovable vampire who had me rooting for her even when she wasn't rooting for herself. I can't wait to see what other wonderful stories this author will put out there but I know that I'll be waiting. Somewhat patiently (lol).

If you're a vampire fan, then this is a must read. And guess what? Emma fights Dracula - how's that for inticing the audience?

[...].

I don't usually write reviews, but this book was so bad I had to write something.

The first thing that struck me about the book was how self-published it looked. The margins are too large and instead of indenting there are page breaks. The grammer is bad and the dialog meandering. This book could have used a real editor.

The story is terrible. It falls completely flat.

In 2003 Sopron, Transdanubia in Hungary, the vampyr bit into Emma's neck turning her from a hard working college freshman into a compulsive yet reluctant blood seeking Undead. After dining on a homeless girl, but not wanting to be alone, Emma visits her BFF Kati so that the "forever" becomes real. After converting Kati, they visit Gizi and Eszti to convert them too.

The quartet paint the town red though Emma also feels shame for subjecting people she has known for years to a bloody terrorist attack each night. At a ball at Frakno Castle, Emma meets genetic research scientist Zoltan. For the first time in her life, she understands why her three buddies enjoy the guys rather than the books. As they fall in love, her friends fights with her and each other over their nocturnal desires.

Predominantly told by Emma who speaks to the reader in a sort of memoir format, vampyre fans will enjoy her exploits and that of her three friends. In spite of their conversion into immortality, the four best friends act like the teens they are, arguing who knows best with Emma claiming she is not just their "mom", but fifteen minutes older and so much smarter when it comes to Vampire 101 and advanced knowledge. Although Emma can over prattle re sidebar related topics like Hungarian history, teen readers will enjoy the battles between the four BFFs who differ on whether they want to go back or not.

Harriet Klausner