I will always read a vampire book. That’s just the way it is. But Immortal Pleasures is an example of a premise that falls a bit off the wayside. I finished it and thought, huh. Keep reading my book review of Immortal Pleasures for my full thoughts.
Summary
Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche: a Nahua woman who translated for the conquistador Cortés. In the centuries since, her name has gone down in infamy as a traitor. But no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortés destroyed her people.
In the ashes of the empire, she was reborn as Malinalli, an immortal vampire. And she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands.
But she has also been in search of something more, for this ancient vampire still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love.
When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of Aztec skulls—artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history—she finds something else: two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways.
For the first time she meets a mortal man—a horror novelist—who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there is also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart.
Now Malinalli is on the most perilous adventure of all: a journey into her own desires.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Immortal Pleasures had so much promise. I loved how Malinalli is a figure responsible for her own desires, taking pleasure in pleasure, and using her immortality to try to turn the scales and exercise her agency. But the plotting was all over the place and I found myself being lost in the actual present time periods? There are sections told about Malinalli’s past and these felt actualized, but they seemed to pale and lose momentum with these present chapters.
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There was so much to love here, but the writing just fell flat. I wanted to connect more with any of the characters, but the jumps in time and pacing made it hard to figure out their motivations and desires. While I enjoy reading about this dichotomy of human desires, and insecurities, with immortal lifespans, but the themes needed more space and care to develop. I also couldn’t really get behind the love story in it, not because I didn’t believe it, I just felt like it needed a bit more depth?
Unfortunately that’s the theme of Immortal Pleasures – a premise that tripped. I wish it had a bit more room to grow and evolve, to showcase a story about immortality and turning the colonizer colonized narrative on its head with vampires and with a bit slower pace. Find Immortal Pleasures on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.