'HER SECRET MUST BE KEPT FOR ALL ETERNITY.
'Set in the otherworldly megalopolis that is today's Shanghai, Temple Drake's suspenseful first novel blends the gothic, the erotic, and the supernatural as it charts an intense and dangerous affair. One night in 2012, executive Zhang Guo Xing takes a group of European clients to a fashionable nightclub in Shanghai. While there, he meets a strikingly beautiful young Western woman called Naemi Vieno Kuusela. The physical attraction between them proves irresistible, and they embark on an intoxicating affair. But Naemi is not what she appears to be...
'To Zhang's surprise, she veers between passion and wariness, conducting the relationship entirely on her own terms. He feels driven to find out more about her, and is swiftly drawn into a web of intrigue, mystery, and horror. Is she a ghost? A demon? Do the living dead walk the streets of twenty-first century Shanghai?'
It's hard to put a finger on exactly what genre NVK fits into best. There are elements of horror, a lot of romance, and some mystery thrown in too. At it's heart I felt that NVK was a story about people, and even though it embraced the fantastical at times. The narrative follows Zhang, a Shanghai businessman, who meets the beautiful and mysterious Naemi one evening in a bar.
Zhang is a successful, middle-aged man who seems to have everything he could want; he's rich, has a great career, a wife and son, yet there's something about Naemi that enraptures him and makes him want her. Naemi also sees something desirable in Zhang, and the two of them engage in a passionate affair that begins to border on obsession for both of them.
What makes this love story different from others is that the reader is let in on the secret that Naemi is actually hundreds of years old, with the very first chapter being set in the 1500's. It's never actually stated what Naemi is, though there are several theories given forward during the narrative. She has some vampire-like tenancies, but only ever drinks her own blood and not anyone else's, it's also speculated that she might be some kind of blood drinking ghost. Naemi's true identity and her origins don't really seem to matter though, as the book sidesteps giving readers any answers or explanations in favour of focusing on the relationship between the leads.
I have to be honest, I'm not one who loves romance stories, and can sometimes get bored with them, and the main thing that kept me interested during NVK was hoping that I would get to find out what Naemi is, or that the book would take a darker twist towards the end, playing into the hints of horror that were sprinkled throughout. As this never happened, I was left contemplating the relationship between Zhang and Naemi.
I didn't like their relationship. First of all, Zhang is a married man and has a kid, yet seems happy to have a very sexual affair with a woman he thinks is close to two decades his junior. It's even suggested more than once that this is not the first time that he has cheated on his wife. Whilst you never actually see his wife during the book, and it appears that she and Zhang's son are either living elsewhere whilst Zhang works, or that they're potentially separated, the book never comes out and confirms that the marriage is bad or unhappy. As a result, Zhang just seems like a cheater who doesn't care about anyone's happiness but his own. Thankfully, he shows concern for friends later in the book that at least show he has something of a heart.
Zhang also stalks Naemi several times during the book, even before he starts to think that she might be something other than human; as such, you can't even blame him searching for answers as his reasoning. He follows Naemi from her work, stalks her across the city, and even hires someone to dig up information on her. Whilst some people might think that this is somehow romantic, I just saw it as possessive and creepy. He's a man using his wealth and power to get what he wants.
Naemi, at least, isn't some young, impressionable woman who can fall victim to such stalkerish tendencies, and thanks to her centuries of experience proves to be something of a match for Zhang, being just as deceitful and manipulative. She lies to him about her past and who she is, which is understandable, but when she begins faking international trips so that she can stalk and confront Zhang's friends she becomes just as creepy and manipulative
I don't like how the characters act towards each other, I don't like that lies and manipulation seems to be the go to tactic for everyone here, even the side characters. As such, I struggled to connect to anyone and really didn't care about the relationship between Naemi and Zhang. They were just as bad as each other.
This disappointment might come from romance not being my favourite genre, and for being disappointed that there wasn't more focus on the supernatural elements of the story. I'm sure that there will be readers who pick up the book and really enjoy it, because it is a well written piece of fiction. One of the things that I really liked about it was how Temple Drake managed to create moody and atmospheric scenes pretty much all the time. They were able to use Shanghai to craft locations that felt bright and vivid, the playgrounds of the rich and famous; yet also at times it became a dark and brooding backdrop that heightened the sense of horror and the supernatural. It was almost cinematic in its imagery, and you could easily picture these places in your head even if you'd never been to Shanghai yourself.
NVK might not be a book that set my world on fire, but it was still a well crafted and well written story that managed to keep my interest for the most part. Whilst I would have liked it to have gone in a different direction, perhaps this will be something that the writer will explore in future books featuring the character. As is, this is a story that will definitely appeal to fans of supernatural romance.
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