Review: Vesper

Title:  Vesper
Author:  Jeff Sampson


     From GoodReads, "Emily Webb is a geek. And she’s happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she’s never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she’s definitely not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls’ boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that . . . the same night one of her classmates—also named Emily—is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn’t know why she’s doing any of this. By day, she’s the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it’s no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. And soon Emily realizes that she’s not just coming out of her shell . . . there’s something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely— something not human?

As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she’s not the only one this is happening to—some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters—and how many people will they kill to get what they want?"

     I was really excited to read this book because it seemed that it was going to be a unique book in the science fiction/fantasy realm.  It is unique, however, I don't think that it is unique enough to stand out when there are so many awesome book offerings out there.

     The main character, Emily Webb, is the sort of girl that I normally like to read about.  She's shy, kind of geeky, and really only has one close friend.  If the whole story was just written in this perspective, I might have liked it more.  Unfortunately, there are multiple aspects/characters to Emily's personality.  There is the Nightime Emily persona, which is the daredevil, try-anything-once, kind-of girl and there is also the other side of Emily, which isn't exactly human side.  The problem with the multiple personalities thing was.. that most of her personalities really annoyed me.  

     The story itself was also confusing.  Even reading the last pages of the book, I still found myself asking, "What is going on here?" and although there will be at least another book, I am honestly not interested in reading it at all.  In fact, there were times throughout the story when I found myself wishing that the killer had better luck in offing Emily... Daytime, Nighttime, or otherwise.