NVK

July 1, 2019
The listless day-by-day narrative of Drake’s debut purports to give a glimpse into immortality but unironically feels like it drags on forever. Blond-haired, dark-eyed Naemi catches the attention of Zhang Guo Xing, a businessman passing through Shanghai in 2012. An air of mystery envelops Naemi, and soon Zhang is deep in an affair with her. Alternating points of view from Naemi and Zhang slowly reveal the simultaneous tension and tedium of Naemi’s unnaturally long life. Naemi leaves a trail of heartbreak and pain, and superstition leads Zhang to fear her, but he nonetheless finds her irresistible. The final revelation is disappointing, and the bland, straightforward writing undermines the narrative’s insistence that Naemi is mysterious and unknowable. Gothic and paranormal fans will appreciate some elements of this cryptic story, but overall it’s a letdown.

September 15, 2019
In 2012 Shanghai, a steamy affair turns supernatural. Naemi Vieno Kuusela has seen a lot in her four-plus centuries on Earth. She hasn't always had the same name but has always kept her initials--NVK--as a way of grounding her: "There had to be something to hold onto, some faint trace of continuity, or she would fall apart." Naemi meets Zhang Guo Xing, a married businessman, in a hip Shanghai nightclub; Zhang is drawn to her, a mysterious blonde foreigner who speaks perfect Chinese. The first time they meet, Zhang notices "a light round her, a kind of shimmer" that was "something he could feel, though, rather than see." Drawn together by desire and something more mysterious, they begin an affair which starts to envelop them both. Naemi lets him get closer than anyone has gotten before, and Zhang begins to realize she isn't who--or what--he thought she was. Switching between Naemi's and Zhang's points of view, the novel builds tension through their mutual secret-keeping. Whether it's NVK's past as a fisherman's wife in Finnmark or as a young woman drinking in a 1970s London pub, the portions about her former lives and the ways she navigates immortality are the most interesting in the book. After she escapes a mob without a trace, NVK realizes that "no one would ever know what became of her. She would be a story that was told to children. A cautionary tale. A fable." A perfect encapsulation of her life. One of the novel's biggest problems is that it's the first in a series and is written as such. It has a hard time standing on its own: It meanders too much, gets lost in minutiae, and reveals too little. That said, the ending subverts expectations and provides a perfect springboard for NVK's next adventure. A gothic supernatural tale that needs more thrills.

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November 1, 2019

DEBUT Zhang Guo Xing, a prominent Shanghai businessman, enters a sizzling nightclub and encounters a young Western woman whose glow suggests that she, Naemi Vieno Kuusela (for now), may be more or other than she seems. But he ignores his suspicions, and they begin a torrid affair. Both keep secrets, but hers is the bigger. Mad Dog, Zhang's blues-band bassist friend, is conveniently an expert on the supernatural, and from a scar on her inner elbow he immediately deduces that she is a blood-drinking ghost. Her account: she is an "auto" vampire (she drinks her own blood), and she has been around for 400 years, her name always a variation of NVK. Never changing, she can never stay in one place too long, and trouble always trails her. The book proceeds apace between the two narrators; tension mounts along with Zhang's suspicions, but although something momentous always seems about to happen, it really doesn't. An unexpected ending--though Naemi leaves, of course--sets the stage for a follow-up, forthcoming. VERDICT A pleasurable if weird stroll through familiar grounds, vampire lite.--Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2019
Drake sets her first novel in Shanghai, where executive Zhang Guo Xing meets and quickly falls under the spell of an alluring, mysterious Finnish woman named Naemi Vieno Kuusela. In the first few pages, the violent tragedy that shaped Naemi's early years is detailed, but over the course of the story, readers are granted clues to Naemi's otherworldly nature: she siphons off blood from a perpetual wound in her arm; a Finnish professor recognizes her as a young woman he knew decades ago when they were both at university; and one of Zhang's closest friends, an eccentric older musician known as Mad Dog, catches a glimpse of a frightening visage beneath Naemi's lovely features. Zhang is torn, uncertain what to believe, until Mad Dog goes missing and he begins to fear that Naemi could have something to do with his disappearance. An atmospheric and evocative tale buoyed by a sensual affair, Drake's debut is a compelling read that might leave some readers, like Zhang, craving more details about Naemi and her supernatural existence.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)