I am a weak, weak person. There are a million things I should be doing at this very moment, the clock is ticking down, but instead, I sit here and spend the afternoon and evening listening to an audio book… Oh how did I get sucked in?
I’m not even the audio book type of person. I like the feel of the paper and the smell of the pages. Book stores are my most favorite places in the world and sometimes I think that the only reason I go to work everyday is to finance my book collection. My living room feels somewhat like a library. But thanks to my MP3 player, it has lead to the discovery that I can somewhat safely walk and read at the same time. Quite tempting and consequently, I got sucked into this story.
Forever Fifteen is about a girl who was turned into a vampire many, many moons ago at the age of, you guessed it, fifteen. At the time, she was considered an adult, old enough to be married. But nowadays, she isn’t old enough to buy cigarettes and that must really suck. Reminds me of an old Buffy episode where Anya, a many century old demon but newly turned human, was trying to order a beer in a bar. Bartender asks for ID, she spouts off about how old she really is, undaunted he asks for the ID again, she accepts her fate and orders a coke. Just the memory of that scene makes me laugh.
But back to this story. Lucy had entered the foster care system and has spent the last many years ridding the world of lecherous foster parents, child molesters, and other bad people. She had been living with the Beck’s for awhile now and they are good people. No matter how old she really is, she looks fifteen and that means, going to high school, with all the drama that is included. A boy named John likes her and no matter what age you really are, that still brings on the angst. The story jumps back and forth, from current time to the past, where we learn of Lucy’s beginnings as a human, her turning into a vampire, and her life with Sebastian, her vampire sire/lover.
The story is explicit and nicely detailed in parts. It was read by the author, Kimberly Steele, and she does a good job. She kept the characters’ voices distinctive and kept it flowing nicely. I haven’t looked into why she has posted her story in this way but glad that she did. The only problem I had is that I thought that Lucy should have been written as more jaded or cynical. For hundreds of years, she has lived the life of a predator, living on the lowest of humans to survive. She has seen how horrible humans can be to each other but she came off as rather meek and mild. She would make Rory Gilmore look like a foul mouthed trucker. Not that there is anything wrong with being a foul mouthed trucker.
Anyway, the story did suck me in and I had to find out how it ended. Not that the ending was all that surprising or satisfying, but I really did need to know what happened to these characters. I did love the premise and for that alone, it deserves a read or in this case, a listen. Forever Fifteen can be found via the iTunes music store as a free download.
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