Anne Stinnett

You’ve watched Big Brother and Survivor but now there’s a new Reality TV show called Creature Of The Night. This show is a little different from the others as we have 12 contestants competing for the chance to be immortal. One lucky winner will become a vampire but surviving the challenges will test them to the limits physically, morally and mentally.

Each participant is coming from a different walk of life and they all have different reasons for competing. Mainly they have to impress a panel of vampire judges but they also have to entertain a live audience whose rooting for them to get seriously injured or hopefully die. It’s a rough road to be one of the undead and on that road some of the players may find out that being a vampire isn’t what they thought it would be.

While I’m not a big fan of reality shows I was drawn to Creature Of The Night by Anne Stinnett because I thought the idea of a vampire reality show sounded fun. This is a satire that pokes fun at reality tv. There are a lot of laughs to be had here but it also makes a statement about how self-absorbed people can be who are on television. For instance one of the contestants says he is on the show to make his kids proud but later we hear from the kids and they’re complaining how dad doesn’t spend enough time with them and this is only one example of how the shows contestants are superficial in thinking a TV show will change their lives. Though as the story moves along you see all the characters feelings change.

This book has a great mix of comedy and drama and towards the end it becomes an all out gory horror novel. My favorite part was finding out how all the characters are more than they appear and that includes the vampire judges. One of the challenges for the contestants is to kill a terminally ill child named Landon. Landon’s last wish is to become a vampire but the law forbids it so he has to settle for pretending to be one and get killed on stage. As this goes on there are people protesting outside, some are in favor of Landon being a vampire while others believe he should die naturally and not be killed even though it’s what Landon wants. At this point the mood of the book changes and becomes more serious but still manages to have a little humor.

If I have any complaints about Creature Of The Night it would be that in the beginning there are so many characters introduced that it was hard keeping track of them. Though even that felt like it was a good parody of reality tv, because on the season premiere of a show like Survivor they are introducing so many people who you don’t remember the details on everyone by episode 2. This is a well planned out book with a lot of attention to detail. You get opinions from the show’s producers and the vampire judges, you hear the thoughts of the viewers at home and you get to read the confessionals from each contestant. This is a great read whether you enjoy reality tv or not as it has a good story and it gives a good look at how ridiculous society can be.… (mehr)

Creature of the Night by Anne Stinnett is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. I adored this crazy book! A satire about reality shows taking it a step further. This is a world where vampires are part of the way of life. They exist and have laws to protect them and humans in the human society. But some things never change like the lust for blood, on both sides...such as reality TV. Similar to survivor shows where some contestants are voted out, challenges, chats with contestants, this is what this book is about but with the vamp holding the contest and humans wanting to be turned into one. They start with 12 contestants, and they get down to two which are turned, those two fight until there is only one. There is so much dry humor in it! It is very clever, witty, and irresistible! The people are more blood thirsty an the vamps! I had a smile on my face a great deal of the time. I could see this as a movie! Craziness and grossness but it was so true if ever happened!… (mehr)