Twelve

This book written by Jasper Kent has only one similarity with the much hyped about Twilight series - it's about vampires. That's as far as it goes because while Twilight focuses on the "forbidden love" between vampire!boy and human!girl, Twelve is about a human soldier hunting vampires.

I haven't read a lot of books set in Russia. In fact this would be my second one (the first was Night Watch). In both books, I found Russia painted to be very bleak, with especially harsh winters. But then, this is supposed to be Russia in 1812, a country at war with Napoleon. It wouldn't be right to paint Moscow as an idyllic summer retreat.

The story was divided into two parts and I think it flows well. The first part held me in suspense as the main character, Captain Aleksei, tries to discover the truth behind a band of soldiers the Russians have hired to help defeat the French. The second part is more about Aleksei becoming a vampire hunter, trying to destroy the threat against humanity.

Squeamish readers have to take note - there are several torture scenes described in great detail. One memorable scene in particular described how the vampires tortured their victim and deriving huge pleasure in it. Actually, I have no trouble in visualising this book as a horror movie with how descriptive the author was being.

On the whole, I find this a captivating read as it managed to keep me in suspense most of the time. The twist at the end also served to make it even more memorable in my mind.