Blog this item

13 Bullets

By David Wellington

(2)

| Paperback | 9780307381439

Like 13 Bullets?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Book Description

All the official reports say they are dead-extinct since the late ’80s, when a fed named Arkeley nailed the last vampire in a fight that nearly killed him. But the evidence proves otherwise.

When a state trooper named Caxton calls the FBI looking for help in the middle of the night, it Continue

3 Reviews

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Vampires who behave like vampires

Looking for vampires who behave like vampires and don’t whine over their having to drink blood to live, I got to Wellington’s second book.
I got my ruthless vampires. They’re interesting, alien (meaning different) creatures. In the book they say they’re violent animals, and then you meet them and ye ... (continue)

Looking for vampires who behave like vampires and don’t whine over their having to drink blood to live, I got to Wellington’s second book.
I got my ruthless vampires. They’re interesting, alien (meaning different) creatures. In the book they say they’re violent animals, and then you meet them and yeah, they’re actually that. So that aspect was great.
What didn’t work, for me, was her – Laura. Stumbling from here to there without a clue, saying she doesn’t want to do something and then doing it without any real psychological struggle or debate, bursting randomly into tears, being generally dumb when she’s supposed to be leading things, and on and on and on. Sorry, this character stayed just that: something written on a piece of paper and stayed there. Some dialogues felt like a repetition of information already established, and others got dangerously close to the “As you know, Bob” type of conversation. Which irks me immensely, because that’s lazy writing. Also, since the story is told in third person limited, I can’t understand the need to repeat Caxton’s name every single time when a simple “she” or “her” would have gotten the job done.
On the other hand, the narrative line set in the past was a couple of points above the main one. It was original and interesting, and I liked it. The only exception I had with this is in the format they chose: you get a short (usually, scene-length) chapter in the present narrative, and then a two/three page excerpt in the past. To me it fragmented the novel’s rhythm too much, and I would have preferred to have longer chunks of narrative stringed together in both cases rather that alternate them zapping-style. But it’s just me.
All in all, not a fantastic read, but worth the effort for the way it stands out under some aspects.

Is this helpful?

Erialti said on Apr 22, 2011 | Add your feedback

I normally don't read vampire novels, but since I enjoyed Wellington's zombie trilogy, I thought I should give 13 Bullets a try. At first, I was really pleased. There is a strong female protagonist, and I liked the way that Wellington portrayed the vampires. The ending was a big disappointment, t ... (continue)

I normally don't read vampire novels, but since I enjoyed Wellington's zombie trilogy, I thought I should give 13 Bullets a try. At first, I was really pleased. There is a strong female protagonist, and I liked the way that Wellington portrayed the vampires. The ending was a big disappointment, though. His surprise ending made me feel cheated as a reader, and I won't be reading another one of his vampire novels.

Is this helpful?

Serena Freewomyn said on Nov 1, 2010 | Add your feedback

13 Bullets

A horrific thrill ride - kind of like Dracula meets Silence of the Lambs. I love that the vampires are actually portrayed as monsters (and nearly indestructible) instead of the charming, sexy vamps that are so in vogue in popular literature today.

Is this helpful?

Readingrat said on Nov 27, 2007 | Add your feedback