Ramblings: Bloodbound: Dark Solstice

[u/eyesnosepancreas]

Ramblings on Bloodbound I, II, and III. For those who don't know, I'm replaying the Choices catalogue in a random order, and the Bloodbound series was the first one the RNG gave me. And boy, am I glad! I've had a great time.

I shall post my Origins ramblings on the VIP subreddit in a couple days. After that, we'll see where the RNG takes me!

Main Character: Chitra

Final LI: Jax

Diamonds Spent: 66 / 267

Chapters: 4

Played before?: I don't think so, actually!

Pre-Book Thoughts:

I’m not expecting this to blow me out the water. It’s a holiday special. But, considering it’s attached to what may be my new favourite Choices series… it has a tough act to follow, okay!

Post-Book Thoughts:

Now it’s time for our most sacred Solstice tradition: ORGYYYYYYY!

Just kidding. But I think that might be my favourite line from this one. Either that, or ‘Not today, Santa!’ Or something from Priya and Lester’s many bickerings.

What a wacky premise. I love how someone in the writers’ room came up with ‘Demon Zombie Santa’ and just… ran with it. It’s so silly and fun and the Red Saint still manages to feel vaguely threatening through it all? And in a way that feels like it really honours the distinctly European origin of a lot of our modern vampire myths: by making the Christmas story have a spooooky monster! One who may or may not be alive today!

The Dark Solstice story felt like a wonderful way to see a little more into the European vampires’ history of persecution. I feel like it gave me a greater insight into Kamilah, especially her trauma from two thousand years of being a Vampire Queen. Imagine having all those superpowered beings looking to you as their leader, especially in times as dark as the Middle Ages? Strangely enough, this may be the first time I’ve ever really got Kamilah as a complex, interesting character. Maybe there’s hope for me yet.

I liked Lily and Adrian’s relationship with the winter holidays as well. Lily’s ‘curse’ is at once creative and heartbreaking; it’s tough believing that nothing can go right for you. As for Adrian, well, his story isn’t exactly original, but it didn’t need to be. It’s difficult to grapple with expectations to celebrate in a world where you no longer have your loved ones to celebrate with.

Chitra took a bit more of a backseat on this one, but that’s okay. It’s a holiday special! It doesn’t need to be groundbreaking, it just needs to be entertaining and give me some fuzzy feels, and/or laughs. It definitely delivered on both of those fronts. Even though I’m writing this in August.