DNF @ 65.4%

I really was so excited for Vampires of Portlandia. It sounded amazing--Filipino mythology and vampires, magic, Pacific North West vibes. And I do think that the things I was excited for were still exciting, but I hit some road blocks while reading that made me ultimately DNF this book.

I almost never DNF ARCs. It's not an action I do lightly, but as my time is more and more precious in college and because it's become increasingly important for me to find joy in fiction and not drag my feet about reading, I've DNF'd Vampires of Portlandia. I tried very hard to give it my best shot, and it's been hindering my reading for more than two weeks at this point.

The writing style is different than I am used to, but I don't actually think it's inherently bad. It's more roundabout and measured than the direct type of writing I am used to, but I don't think that makes it bad. Tanamor uses third person in a very distinct way that's like a narrated script, but also not. There's changing POVs, little details that a narrator wouldn't know, and things slipped in that you should be paying attention to. It just meant that for me personally, I had a hard time getting absorbed into the story from the writing. I think if I was a different reader, I could absolutely enjoy the writing style more, but ultimately that's not me.

What was ultimately a deal breaker for me was the writing style in combination with the way Vampires of Portlandia framed victims of the murders happening. To be completely honest, I feel like the way the story talked about homeless people, the elderly, people who are struggling with drug abuse, was callous. One line (from the e-ARC, mind you) read

"Thus, they [the ghouls] added a new clientele to their repertoire [the people they preyed on & killed], one who had also contributed very little to society--the elderly."

I personally disagree, and I think elderly people, although not perfect, are still important members of society? I think they do hold a lot of wisdom. I dislike this framing a lot and I don't enjoy it being used so casually. I think we can absolutely examine sentiments like this critically, but I personally felt like it was an offhand comment that was meant to be more stylistic, rather than critical of the ghouls.

We see the same thing with the treatment of homeless people, as the story reduces them, who are the predominant population being murdered in Portland, to a faceless aggregate. There were anti-homeless sentiments being expressed, as well as really suspicious lines about drug use.

It made me uncomfortable enough that I DNF'd the book. I just grew so tense with how the story used homeless people as faceless victims of these murders, but used the writing style and narrative to push the readers away from empathizing with the people affected by the murder, and instead read about the vampires and werebeasts and ghouls and witches and viscera and their conflict.

I don't think my priorities matched with the priorities that Vampires of Portlandia had, and it's honestly a huge relief to be able to put this down.

I think readers who are more persistent or less sensitive than I can find something to like in this. The beginning where an anti-homeless sentiment wasn't so strong was interesting. I liked the folklore and the aswang. I liked the idea of a murder mystery. But I hated the framing, and that's ultimately what made me set this aside.

I've thought quite a lot about this, and I didn't make the decision to DNF lightly. I just can't bring myself to read more of this because I am quite frankly, very tired. There was so much potential, I can't help but feel left down.

"Vampires of Portlandia" had a very interesting premise. Bonus for the cover which is mind blowing! There's also Filipino culture and mythology and I've never read a book based on that, so I was excited!
All in all it was just a good read, I don't really have strong feelings about this; it's just okay.
It probably had the chance to be better, but still good.

3.5 stars--VAMPIRES OF PORTLANDIA by Jason Tanamor is a paranormal/ urban fantasy story line based in the Filipino folklore focusing on the aswang-an all encompassing term for shape-shifting vampires, ghouls, witches, viscera suckers, and werebeasts (dogs and crows).

Told from several third person perspectives bouncing between several time lines and perspectives, VAMPIRES OF PORTLANDIA follows the Filipino-born Leones family of vampires to Portland, Oregon where they learned to blend into the human population. Upon the matriarch Marcella Leones’ death, a new leader for the aswang world must be born, and Percival, as the eldest of the surviving vampire becomes their reluctant leader by accepting the amulet of power. A series of grisly murders in Portland becomes suspect in the mind of Percival Leones, and his brother is about to become his number one priority until he meets PJ, a twenty-something sensie with the ability to feel other people’s emotions, and the supernatural community is pulled together for a potential civil war. With the aswang community focusing their anger at the family of vampires, it is another shapeshifter that focuses its’ malevolence on the Portland nightlife.

VAMPIRES OF PORTLANDIA is a story of betrayal and vengeance; death and destruction; power and control. The supernatural creatures of the aswang have set up their communities in Portland Oregon but one of the shapeshifters believes they should no longer follow the covenant written by the God Asuang but take control of the world in which they now live. The slow building premise is interesting and entertaining but it was difficult at times to hold my attention- the back and forth between timelines revealed the backstory and history but I think if the history and events had been revealed in order, the story line may not have felt so disjointed ; the characters are numerous, curious and intriguing. VAMPIRES OF PORTLANDIA is NOT a comedic story of fun and adventure but a story about vying for control of the supernatural world.



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GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3554015030

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I found this book to be a very interesting read. It was fresh and offered an original tale. I liked how it fully embraced Portland's weirdness. The Grimm references were amazing and as a fan of the show made me happy. I liked the book, my only issue was the pacing and the romance aspect.

<b>DNF 12%</b>

<b>Vampires of Portlandia lost another reader.</b>

My goodness, I do not like this book. The characters are flat, the story is uninteresting, the dialogue is cliché and cringey. But what really pushed me over the line of "NOPE" was a scene where a woman agrees to go to an empty bar with a man she exchanged literally maybe 20 words with because it was pouring rain and she couldn't open her umbrella. Did any women proof read this book? WHO WOULD DO THIS? No woman would go to an unknown location with an unknown man (literally, less than 20 words exchanged) in the middle of the day. And of course she was killed, but the rape implications of that scene... It was gross and unnecessary. Maybe the author didn't mean it that way, but it is how it came through to me (it is at the end of Part I).

That whole scene could have been taken out. Super awkward how we went from following the MC to suddenly following a random man. Just, not for me.

PS; I was intrigued by the setting of the novel, Portland, but there is a way to write a love letter to the city of Portland without shoving it down the reader's throat. I felt like there was a pile up of "Portland this and that" but barely any personal or interesting character development. By 11% I am expecting to be at least interested in SOMETHING in the novel. Sadly, I really wasn't.

Overall, this book was a bit rough to get through even with my love of vampires. Rough to read due to pacing and writing. Rough due to treatment of characters and the romance. Just rough.

I love aswangs. They're one of my favorite types of vampires! Unfortunately, Vampires Of Portlandia is an awkward, amateurish book that's cringeworthy when not merely bland. Tanamor repeats himself often, and he makes the baffling decision to refer to his characters as "the (noun)" for most of the novel even after we know their names.

A chore to read, this book needed a lot more work.

As much as I want to promote the book because it features Filipino folklore by introducing aswang in the international scene, I'd be honest and say that I feel disconnected with the entirety of the book.

This is another case of "It's not you, it's me" and I know that somewhen in the future, this will be an amazing read that I'll enjoy.

Vampires of Portland by Jason Tanamor was one of my highly anticipated releases of September. It's not often you get to see the aswang of Filipino mythology in fiction of any kind so I jumped at the chance when I saw it on NetGalley. For the most part, I liked Tanamor's story and getting to know the characters and urban fantasy world he's created here. There's so much potential for this to great, but it never quite manages to hit and hold its stride. It certainly has its moments and it's definitely a solid fantasy, but that said it can really drag. When it drags, it was very easy to lose interest. There were several scenes where I wished the cast and world was a little more fleshed out, particularly the secondary characters. In the long run, though, I'd say it's still worth your time even it never quite fulfills its promise. I have a feeling you'll want to give this a try if you also enjoy the tv shows Grimm and Supernatural.

I did not get a chance to download and read this book before it was archived, but I will definitely check it out after it is published.

Thank you Netgalley and The Parliament House for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Man, when it first got announced I was so bloody excited to read this. As cliche as it is, I'm a large lover of vampiric mythology, so seeing a book about the aswang myths grabbed my attention so dang quick.

Unfortunately I struggled to get through majority of the book due to the characters and writing style. There were chapters where we'd follow the MC and mid way, it'd jump to a werebeast instead. Or introductory chapters for a secondary character which we wouldn't see again for 5 or so chapters. This and repeated iterations of "The vampire....." "The young vampire...." through me out of the story for a bit.

The plot felt jumbled for a bit and I actually tabbed sections so I could reread them and remember what was going on for particular characters. Though I think this was also a mix of 'past' and 'present day' chapters suddenly happening with no warning. For instance the addition of Part 2 happened and it wasn't till halfway through a chapter that I realized it was a past event. Some addition to maybe "years earlier" in the page break would help a lot in this scenario.

This said, oddly, the past event portions of the book were my favorite. It was mostly the modern day stuff that just lowered my interest completely.

There's a group of Fillipino vampires, aswang, living in Portland. The matriarch feels that soon the eldest of the four children will have to take care of them. Meanwhile, an unusual high number of unusually committed murders take place - so unusual, in fact, that they might be related to the paranormal community.

DNF at 20%. I really wanted to love this and get to know more about the folklore it's based on. Crime and fantasy is a mix I tend to enjoy, and this cover? Neat.
Sadly, it proved to not be for me. I couldn't shake this feeling that the author is relatively new to this, and has to do a whole lot of writing on their journey before them. There was stuff I usually see in fanfic authors who just have started, like the tendency to use different descriptors to avoid saying a characters name. In this case, I felt that if I should have to read the terms vampire or sensie one more time, I'll scream. Another problem is that all the characters are very two dimensional, and there is a lot of telling going on, without any showing. The reading flow is bumpy in a lot of instances.

And sensie - first I thought this is a misspelling and it's sensei, but no. Then it's explained said character is kind of an empath, without using the term empath. What the heck is a sensie? Googling didn't help, because, you know, I got hits for sense and sensei.

While all these are very good reasons to decide you don't want to read more than 250 pages of this, it is not a reason to discount this person as a writer. I might come back in a few years if they should happen to write more, and see what happened in the meantime.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

What I found really interesting in this book is the Philippine folklore and all the creatures of the Aswang portrayed in modern day characters. I'd really love to know if there's any truth to the government tricking the poverty stricken people into culling their population. I found the throwbacks to Marcella's journey in the Philippines, the most interesting part of the book. This novel is perfect for the young adult/new adult audience. It is so fun to read a story based on myths from the Philippines. I was not aware of these myths before and this book makes me want to do research about it. The story was a bit slow, with things starting to come alive in the later part. I also really enjoyed the city of Portland playing a big part in the story, I always love it when a location is almost a character itself.

I think this book would be really enjoyable for a young adult audience, and people who enjoyed the Twilight Saga or the Vampire Diaries.

I'm grateful for the ARC I got through Netgalley, but his book wasn't for me. The whole plot hung on the plot device of Marcella not preparing Percival for what awaits him. It was a repetitive book with stilted dialogue and flat characters I couldn't care about, as much as the author told us to. The story had a great potential, it was quite interesting learning more of Filipino mythology. But the execution killed it for me.

For an interesting premise and world, this way really disappointing.

There are creatures from the Philippines called aswangs. There are five breeds of them: vampires, werebeasts, witches, ghouls, and viscera. A family of vampires flee to Portland where they hope to blend in. Unfortunately, their matriarch never tells them about the existence of other aswangs or the rules they must follow.

I didn't care for any of the main characters. The plot lasted as long they are ignorant. As soon as they are informed the book ends anticlimactically. The romance was horrible but since the main characters are one dimensional, it wasn't a surprise that the romance is just there to exist.

The folklore is very interesting. Anytime the book deals with the politics of the other aswangs, I had a peak of the potential of this book.

This review is based on an advanced reading copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Parliament House for this copy of Vampires of Portlandia by Jason Tanamor in exchange for an honest review. It publishes September 29, 2020.
First off, I have to say, this book is completely out of my wheelhouse. I don’t particularly like vampires or Portland, so why did I even choose to read this? Because the Filipino folklore of the Aswang is so fascinating to me! I’d never heard of it before reading this. I truly enjoyed learning about this mythology.
I just personally had a hard time getting into the story itself. But the writing is decent.
If you like vampires, gore, are interested in learning about Filipino culture, and want to go on a tour of Portland (but stay safe!), this is for you!

Sadly this was not the book for me. I was excited about finally reading about Filipino folklore, and the idea sounded very appealing to me. And yet, the execution felt flat.
I considered to stop reading the book multiple times, but, after more than a week, I managed to finish it. It did not get better. I can not pinpoint what did not make it for me. There were just too many characters we did not get to know, recognising them only for their names, which made it extremely confusing. More importantly, upon finishing the story, I still did not know or understand the plot.
And, in the end, the strongest point, which was the mythology behind it, felt unexploited.

I really thought I'd love this one. Unfortunately, it didn't match my expectations.

The book was very repetitive, if I didn't remember something the first time it was said then no worries, it would be mentioned again and again and again...

I didn't much care for the "past" chapters, I kept wishing for them to end quicker so I could get back to the real action.

In the "present" chapters what I liked was the family bond, I felt it. Percival is a good big brother who would even sacrifice himself to save everyone else. PJ is pretty cool in her own way too. But my favourite has to be Geena, she's adorable, and all the cooking made me hungry.

The civil war...that was the biggest let down of all. It wasn't as exciting as it was supposed to be. Especially the way it got started - by Roger just wanting a little flying snack - give the kid a break why don't you?

All in all, it was a pretty quick read and decently enjoyable.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I have tried to read this three times now and reach time I only mange to get through one to two pages so I give up. I can't get past the amount of times they mention he's a vampire (in third person no less so it comes across as 'new information' as if we didn't get it when he said that one line ago). I don't like a lot of the lines of the writing style. if someone can find enjoyment out of this then I am extremely happy for them up this was just not for me

I really wanted to like this book about aswangs and Filipino folklore set around a family of adopted vampires in Portland. Everything about the idea spoke to me! But the execution just fell flat. I couldn't find any depth to the story or characters, and at almost halfway into the book, I'm still not sure what the plot actually is. Sadly, this one wasn't for me.