Empire of the Vampire

I liked the book well enough. I think it's the best vampire book I've read so far, though I haven't read a lot of those.
It had a great atmosphere - gloomy and depressing.
Some good character work and nice plot twists.

And it didn't get 5 stars, because it was so damn long for no damn reason.
This was 750 pages long book to tell 3/4 of an eighth of a story. The author threw endless hints and mentions of things that supposedly happened, but barely showed any of it at all. The story he told could've rested comfortably in 500 pages, if that.
There was so much repeating of scenes, of feels, of descriptions, of metaphors... like a dear friend who came to visit and overstayed his welcome (see, we can all do it).
By the time I reached 80%, I was tired of metaphors and “the taste of blood in my mouth” and just wanted it all to end. And that kind of ruined the moment of the big reveal... which at that point I had guessed 200 pages ago.

Regardless, I recommend and will look forward to the next book, which will hopefully tell more story and describe less feelings.