Requiem for Blood by Alexandra HopePublication: February 7th 2013
Genre: Upper YA Paranormal/Dark Fantasy
Seventeen year old Olivia Cohen has also had an appetite for blood and an aversion to the sun as a human and when she is killed by a mysterious young woman, she finds her appetite has heightened and her skin is now burned by the sun. Living her life in a colony with other people who live a "vampire-like" lifestyle, she has grown up hunting humans and believing there is a blood so powerful it will turn them from vampire-like into true vampires. On one of Olivia's final nights as a human she meets eighteen year old Troy Evans and is immediately drawn to the unique scent of his blood. Now as an actual vampire, she must learn how to suppress her need to hunt and kill for his sake and decide if his unique blood is worth saving from those who seek it.
Alexandra Hope was born in New York, raised in Atlanta and has lived in Germany for the past three years. She writes pretty much whatever she feels like and for her debut novel she chose ninja-like vampires. She's a (Linguistic) Anthropology major, language lover, vocalist in a Japanese band and part-time bad fanfic writer.
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What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
I would like to say that the inspiration behind my book was a deep and long tale, but it was simply me trying to answer my own question as to how the vampire came to be. Since I wasn't familiar with many vampire stories, I wasn't sure if one had spoke of vampire origins so that alone had begun to feed my curiosity. One Friday night I had been watching The Vampire Diaries with my husband and I loved that there was this believable explanation as to how a vampire bloodline began (mind you, I had never read the books before) and I guess that was the first hint of inspiration for me. So from there I set out to tell a story of how a vampire came to exist in my mind, but not only that, I wanted to tell a simple story of a girl growing up in isolation and how she dealt with it. Honestly, I would call my story less of a vampire novel and more of a life story featuring vampires. It wasn't so much about vampires and their ways but more about how Olivia interacted with others as a human and as a vampire.
I was also inspired by my one true love, Fullmetal Alchemist, to write a journey type story in which the main character grows with other people and becomes a better version of herself. I didn't want a story of selfishness where there is little growth and it begins and ends with “me”. Not giving too much away of Fullmetal Alchemist, it starts as a very linear journey with only one selfish goal and turns into something bigger than the two main characters and that was what I was trying to convey in Requiem for Blood. I'm not sure if I was particularly successful in conveying that message, but that's what I had set out to write and with those two stories as my inspiration.
Thank you for letting me share a little bit of the inspiration behind Requiem for Blood. :)
I think I would be a fox spirit.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Alexandra on the new release! Sounds great! I think I'd rather be a kitsune :)
ReplyDeleteI'd rather be a werewolf. ;)
ReplyDelete