ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In 2021 there was no book quite as hyped up as Empire of the Vampire.

I remember seeing it everywhere. You couldn't escape it on Bookstagram/Booktok and die-hard book collectors were scrambling to get ARCs of it. With such hype, I was a little bit worried about this book. I was worried if it would meet such high expectations or fall epically flat.

Well, let's just say this:

Empire of the Vampire takes a while to get into. Or at least for me it did.

The book starts off with our main character, Gabriel, the last Silversaint, imprisoned in a cell by vampires, telling a historian, Jean-François about his life and how he came to be a living legend. This book, just looking at form alone, astounded me at how it goes between the interview-like present, Gabriel's early days as a Silversaint, and a few years before his current situation looking for the Holy Grail.

The book's first "part" (350 pages in) was all about the world building, setting up the scene and the ambience of the novel. While it was interesting, nothing really grabbed me after the first 50 pages (in part one). I think that's mainly due to the fact that I wasn't really connecting to the characters much.

But then we got to part 2 and all of a sudden, I understood why this book got so much praise.

The book's slower beginning makes up for everything it lacked in part 2 where all the plot twists happen and all the loose ends are tied up. All of a sudden, we got that closeness/connection we wanted from the characters and I started to really enjoy my journey with this book.

Where Gabriel started off as a stoic-sort of character, by the end of the book you see just how much he has been through. Honestly, I didn't expect that ending though which I won't get into for spoilers reasons but it made me understand his character and everything he's been through. I love it when books come full circle and all the pieces of the puzzle come together, not just plot wise but character wise too.

I also liked Dior though admittedly not as much as Gabriel. I've been told book 2 follows this character as well as another so I'll be excited to discover more about Dior as the series progresses. Also, I absolutely loved the bromance between Aaron, Baptiste and Gabriel and it honestly elevated the book so much! I'm excited to see them all again in Empire of the Damned.

This book was unlike any other books I've read before: it was dark, moody, bloody and hugely atmospheric and while I've read darker fantasy before, none were as gothic as this one. It also was the thickest book I've read in a long time, which for a person like me who read 300-400 paged books, this was basically double my regular length. That being said though, I would be very excited to read book two and I hope Gabriel gets his revenge on Voss. He really has been through hell and back.

ACTUAL RATING: 4.4 STARS

I have been a fan of Jay Kristoff since Illuminae, and this book didn't disappoint. The best fantasy book I have read in years and firmly in my Top 5 favourites.

I have read all of the other works by Kristoff so I was very excited to read a sampler of his latest release. Let me tell you it left me intrigued and wanting more. I am anticipating to get the full copy in my grasp!

Only being a sampler of 'Empire of the Vampire' i can already tell it's going to be a 5 star read for me. Super excited to dive into the full book!

Wow just wow! Jay can do no wrong. Not that I expected anything less than 5 stars but this just knocked it out of the park

What a ride!

I love the story telling style of Gabriel and Jean-Francois’s conversation, enhanced by the intermissions and illustrations. I love the world that is so vividly built around a story of love, brotherhood, and family, yet marred by betrayal, death, and vengeance.
If you love books that will tear your heart out and laugh at your feeble hopes that it’ll get better, then this is for you!

This first bit of the book was INTENSE! Definitely hit with the adult fantasy, but I can tell why everyone’s loving it! So far it’s a 4 star read, I’m hoping it’ll increase as I read more of it!

Also the f bomb rate is very very high 😂

I absolutely loved this excerpt of Empire of the Vampire. The writing style feeds the reader's curiosity brilliantly and I definitely need to pick up the full version of this book asap. I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Well, well, well.

In true kristoff style, EOTV will draw you in, make you fall in love and then cut your heart out and set it on fire. And you’ll love every freaking moment.

I didn’t realise this was only a teaser and not the actual novel, therefore I won’t be posting a review for this.

This is my first read of Jay Kristoff's work and I have to say I am now a huge fan. I enjoyed this sampler so much I have now purchased two physical editions of this book. His writing is captivating, dark yet humorous. I'm excited to read more.

This book was so bloody (wink) good! Even though horror/gothic isn't really my genre, the story had me hooked from the first page. The book jumps between different points of Gabriel's life, which I ended up really enjoying as it added a lot more suspense to the book. There are lots of twists and surprises that had me gasping out loud and by the end, I was staring at the wall in shock. The plethora of amazing characters are all so well written - I especially loved Gabe and Dior's relationship (and their sarcasm). The worldbuilding was phenomenal too! It's woven into the story in a way that makes it easy to understand and hints at bigger things to come. If horror fantasy isn't really your thing, I would implore you to consider this anyway!

Since last time, I heard so many people talk about it and I ordered myself a hardcopy.
I wasn't disappointed, in fact this was one of the best books I've read in a long time. It had everything going for it. I loved the Illuminae series and really disliked Nevernight, but it turns out that sometimes you shouldn't write off an author because you didn't like one of his works.
I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, which at this stage will be released in 2023.

Filled with enriched lore and delightfully menacing characters. I loved every minute of this and wish that there was a sequel already.

Quick Points
- This chunk of a read was enthralling (pun intended) from beginning to end.
- The emotional devastation in this book is skyscraper high but worth it.
- Gabriel is the perfect protagonist, with enough dry sarcasm to drain a river dry & enough cussing to make a pirate blush.
- This story harkens back to more traditional evil vampires
- The artwork on every single different edition of this book is absolutely stunning, & the artwork throughout the book is exquisite.

The fact that we may have to wait a year or two to continue Gabriels story is going to be tough. While it didn’t end on a massive cliffhanger like some of his other works (cough Godsgrave cough Auroras Burning cough ‘shakes fist’) it without a doubt leaves you hanging for more more more! It’s a story you don’t want to stop reading until the very end.

Jay Kristoff once again shows why he is one of modern Masters of Fantasy (and Sci-Fi) with this brilliant & masterful tale filled with everything from love, courage, arrogance, bloodlust, vengeance, loss, flawed characters & a dash of heroism.

The characters relationships with Gabriel (& with each other to a lesser extent) really drove this novel more than anything else & you were in for some big twists throughout it, never trust first impressions good or bad, & never assume even the smallest details are insignificant is all I can say! This book was everything I was hoping for from a vampire book, taking it back to more traditional vampires as opposed to pretty boy sparkly ones, I have no doubt it will be classed a must-read classic before long. It was worth every scream of anger, all the tears, all the clenching the book until my knuckle were white & I lost feeling in them, and all the times I wanted to throw my book across the room. I will say, the book is an emotionally tumultuous & I recommend having something (preferably alive) you can snuggle with, & have a nice hot beverage next to you to ease the pain.

Jay did an incredible job with the world building of this vampiric world that is both original & gives wonderful Medieval French/Celtic/Gaelic vibes. I find the theology in the story incredibly fascinating & while this church (& it’s most devout Silversaints) may be fictional, it clearly has so many parallels with a certain church in our world it was interesting to see how Jay moulded it into his own. You can’t help but love Gabriel despite everything that happens, & there are others I thought I’d hate but ended up endearing themselves to me, & more that I liked to begin with (or was neutral about) & ended up wanting to throw them on the wheel to be flayed. Once again, my biggest advice with any Jay novel is to never get attached to anyone, Jay may be a brilliant author but he’s a bastard to his characters lol! The action scenes are sit on the edge of your seat stressful, the adventure is wondrous, there are plenty of sweet moments, BUT be warned, this isn’t a children’s book & it is a Jay Kristoff novel so happy endings are as rare as hedgehogs in Australia. Bring on book 2!

I ended up reading the full book before I got to this sampler, but will say that Empire of the Vampire is a 5 star read for me. The characters plot and pacing are all fantastic and there is a definite sense of mystery that runs through the book developed by the changing timelines. Jay Kristoff’s writing style is never going to be my favourite however even so I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait for the sequels.

I am very must invested in the dual timelines. Each were at such pivotal moments in Gabe’s life that there wasn’t one over the other that I preferred which is usually what happens. I was both equally invested and eager to find out what was going to happen to all of the characters in each period.
The world building was pretty epic and descriptive and the scale is definitely shown through the amount of time it takes the characters to traverse the country throughout the course of the storyline. The magic system surrounding the vampires and their hierarchy is fascinating and unlike anything I’ve read before. The whole history of the Silversaints and how they control their urges and the seductive nature of smoking and how debilitating it can be when they go without was a unique twist and I certainly can’t wait to see what is going to happen next.

Jay Kristoff gives us such Interview with the Vampire vibes while mixing it with a high fantasy world he's created. I love this world but I wouldn't want to live in it! I see the number seven comes up a lot in the religion he's created (yes, it's clearly based on a real world religion we have in our world) and in the architecture of the world.

I love our main character. Gabriel was such a great name choice - it reminds me of the film Van Helsing where Dracula is singing 'Gabriel' to the protagonist. The name in a vampire novel will always give me chills because of that. It's a beautifully angelic name that Kristoff has given to the biggest prick in the book! And I am here for it.

Astrid was great, despite being a bit strange. She didn't really interest me to begin with - while I'm usually partial to bitchy characters, nothing about her pulled me in. However, as the book continued I began to love her as well and looked forward to her scenes.

Chloe! What a dark horse! I loved that while she was dedicated to her religion and serving her god, she still picked up a sword, she fought for women's education and equality, and worked hard for change. She let nothing hold her back. Just because men might be in charge of a religion and tell women one thing, doesn't mean they can't change it and evolve the beliefs of others around them. You can be religious without letting it tell you what you need to desire in life or let it hold you back.

Dior was also a bit of a dark horse. Dior started off a bit weak in my mind with not a lot to do. To be fair, by the end of the book they didn't have a lot to do either. Things kept happening to them rather than them impacting the world with their choices. I really like Dior and their story. It grew as the story went on which caught my interest midway through their plot.

So now the reason it lost a star. Honestly, it was for the language. Kristoff has always been a silver tongue author to me. He captures language beautifully and I've read books where he's created new words, sayings and slang which makes perfect sense somehow. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if one day Kristoff pulls a Tolkien and creates a popular language people want to learn.

Now, the reason I bring this up is because I feel like he let himself down with the language in this book. Kristoff did warn that it would have swear words and such (big deal - I honestly prefer a character who swears rather than a dishonest one that says 'shoot' if they step on a lego) but the language in this actually became cringey. I'm not going to lie, I had some moments where I physically cringed reading this book because I was thinking 'it's trying too hard to be edgy'.

Like I said, I love a character who swears, but this was just random and it pulled me out of the story whenever it was forced. For example, Astrid was referred to as a woman who had a bit of a mouth on her. I grasped that from when she was speaking. She swore a bit, spoke her mind and was openly opinionated. But then all of a sudden when someone is brought up she spews out a sentence that's so over the top it made me physically cringe and wonder why it was trying so hard - then she goes back to normal straight after.

Sometimes the characters would argue and if you take away the swear words they were literally saying "you smell of poo" "no, you smell of poo" "I'm going to sleep with your mum". No joke. 10 year old insults but done in an even worse way.

So, while I loved this book, I really hope Kristoff tones down the language and makes it more natural. I don't want my reading flow interrupted because I'm wincing or being pulled out of it because I'm thinking "here it comes again, another poo insult".

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I didn't realise this ARC was a 400-page sampler. You know what that means? I'm rushing off to purchase the full.

Empire of the Vampire was my introduction to Jay Kristoff, and boy was I impressed. I was captivated by this dark, bloody, and vulgar tale from the very first page.

FYI, this was so much more than just another vampire story.

Amazing book, I've been stuck in a world of vampires and Silversaints, that I have loved, I haven't wanted to put this book down.