The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The novel showed promise through the beginning. An Amish Story meeting non-sparkly vamps meets a coming of age story. Promise.

I enjoyed the expectations things going very wrong, and waited with baited breath. The immersion in Amish society was a pleasant diversion and I really didn't have any problems with the many references to godliness. It was what it was.

And then I became a bit annoyed with the rather one-dimensional reactions of the Bishop. The whole Amish became a caricature of itself instead of remaining human. Or, I should say, the only one who remained human was the main character. And that is so very typical for YA titles that it might as well change its title from trope to tripe.

There was, and is, still a ton of room to grow as characters while NOT falling into a Silent Hill trap. And even Silent Hill had character progression for its villains.

The vampires were all one-dimensional bogeymen. The Amish elders were pretty much the same. Which was rather sad, because, like I said, the novel showed a lot of promise in the beginning. We'd have enjoyed a thoroughly immersive look into a society-next-door who thinks very different from most of the readers who'd pick up this book, plus we'd have an adventure/survival horror so in tune with the modern bildungsroman surrounding zombiepunk.

Without zombies, of course, but the trope is part of the current zeitgeist, and I can roll with it. Still, along the same lines, I'd have preferred to roll out the man eating plants from Day of the Triffids or perhaps a plague of Hulks a-la what was implied at the end of 2008's Incredible Hulk. Alas. That would have been pretty cool surrounding an Amish community. *sigh*

The development of the novel was ultimately average and predictable. It wasn't bad, per-se, but it might be rather forgettable. I'll read its sequel out of a sense of duty, but at least the first wasn't boring.

Of course, this would have been an AWESOME book if we were dealing with a crossover-like story that used the Amish as established from TV's Banshee. Then we'd have some truly kick-ass and bloody over-the-top adventure that might just push back the vampire menace. *shiver* That would have been freaking awesome. :)

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