Over the years I’ve read and enjoyed several books that had vampires as characters. In the spring of 2006, I picked up Undead and Unwed, the first book in a series by Maryjanice Davidson about the Queen of the vampires. I really enjoyed the book and have since picked up the rest of the books in the series. In June of 2006, Undead and Unpopular, the fifth book in the series, was published.

Maryjanice Davidson created a unique vampire world for her Undead series. I do think it would be best for the books to be read in order. Davidson has also written a few short stories featuring vampire characters. Only one of those, A Fiend in Need from the book Dead and Loving It, had some sort of major development that fans of the Undead series will probably want to read. Before talking about Undead and Unpopular, I want to share a little bit of information about the series in general. The books have been about Elizabeth - Betsy - Taylor, an expensive shoe-obsessed woman who died on her birthday in a strange accident only to wake up in a funeral home wearing a tacky suit and cheap shoes. It took her a while to figure out that she was a vampire. Holy water, crosses, and even wooden stakes didn’t hurt her. She didn’t need to feed as often as most vampires. She met Eric Sinclair, a very powerful vampire, who helped her defeat Nostro, the cruel vampire that had been in charge. Betsy later learned that because of her uniqueness, she was to be the Queen of the vampires and Eric her consort. They had disagreements before finally working things out and getting formally engaged. While getting that sorted out, Betsy learned that she had a half sister who was the daughter of the devil.

Undead and Unpopular started several months after the end of Undead and Unreturnable. According to a note from Davidson, this book took place about two months after the events in the short story A Fiend in Need. Betsy was making guest lists for her surprise birthday party even though she’d spent weeks telling everyone who would listen that she didn’t want a party. She came up with the idea that she should give up blood completely. She was also trying to plan the wedding with no help from Eric even though he’d finally given her an engagement ring. A group of very powerful vampires from Europe was finally coming to pay their respects to Betsy and Eric and Betsy didn’t want to deal with them. Betsy had other vampire issues to try to deal with. She was very upset when she found out why her best friend Jessica hadn’t been herself.

Betsy had adjusted fairly well to being a vampire by the time Undead and Unpopular started. She’d had some trouble before accepting her new life and dealing with a few certain things about being a vampire. Drinking blood has grossed Betsy out from the beginning and she had developed a habit of going as long as she possibly could without doing it. All the other vampires needed blood every day. Drinking blood was how vampires got their energy to heal and was basically their own form of nutrition. Betsy got the idea that she could give up blood as a perk of being the Queen, never mind that she couldn’t eat actual food anymore. I didn’t think that was one of her brightest ideas. It didn’t add anything new to the series because Betsy has always complained about having to drink blood. I think she had talked about giving up blood before as well. The way Betsy reacted to being blood free wasn’t surprising either. I’m really not sure what it was supposed to add to the book unless it was some conflict between her and Eric since her decision impacted him as well.

After Betsy and Eric became the vampire King and Queen, vampires were turning up for a while to pay their respects. Not all of the vampires were happy about the new rulers and Eric had been concerned about just what the powerful European vampires were going to do. They finally turned up almost a year later. The visit did add some complications and even a small amount of mystery to the book. The mystery wasn’t that strong, which may disappoint some readers. The book was too short for there to be a fully developed mystery included. Another vampire felt that she deserved justice for something one of the European vampires had done. Betsy found herself stuck in the middle of the situation with both sides looking to her for a resolution. To further complicate things, Betsy was told that there was a zombie in the attic. The whole zombie episode received very little attention and really served no purpose.

There really wasn’t much attention given to the wedding plans. Betsy made a few remarks about the plans the engagement ring that Sinclair had surprised her with and that was really it. Betsy and Eric did seem happy together. They’d had a complicated courtship and Betsy had spent a lot of time fighting her attraction to Eric. The two of them only shared a few scenes alone together in Undead and Unpopular. Those scenes did include some sexual situations and acts between them. The scenes were descriptive without being graphic. I did like that they weren’t fighting all the time like they seemed to do in the first few books. It would have been nice if they’d had a few more scenes together.

Several characters have returned for each of the books in the Undead series. Betsy has been the main character in every book. All of them have been written in the first person point of view from her perspective. That did help to make her more developed since all her thoughts and feelings were shared. Betsy had a very unique thought process which provided humor for the book. Eric hasn’t been in as much of any of the books as Betsy even though he’s important to the plots of the books. Most of the characters were underused. Jessica was dealing with something very serious and she still didn’t get much attention. Marc, the doctor that also lived at the house only turned up briefly in a few short scenes. Betsy’s sister Laura was hardly around after being set up to be such an important character in previous books. Concerns had been brought up about her in previous books that seemed to have just been dropped and forgotten about. Betsy’s mother and evil step mother Antonia turned up for a scene at the end of the book. A second character named Antonia, who was introduced to the series in A Fiend in Need, and George/Garrett were mostly missing. It would be nice if the characters received more attention. I’m really not sure why Davidson keeps introducing new characters when some that have been around since the beginning are all but ignored.

Undead and Unpopular was entertaining even though I did feel like it had a few flaws. People that have read and enjoyed the previous books in the series will probably want to pick this one up since it does continue the exploits of Betsy.

www.maryjanicedavidson.net

Undead Series
Undead and Unwed ~ Undead and Unemployed ~ Undead and Unappreciated ~ Undead and Unreturnable ~ A Fiend in Need (short story in Dead and Loving It) ~ Undead and Unpopular ~ Undead and Uneasy ~


Recommended: Yes