Undeading Bells is the sixth, and currently the last, book in the Fred, the Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes. It was published 2009 by REUTS Publications, LLC, and narrated by Kirby Heyborne. As the last book, though I suspect it will come more in the future, I will conclude this review with a review of the entire series as I usually do, but before that, let’s focus on this book.
This book follows Fred as he tries to marry the love of his life, Crystal, but life seem to continue to get in his ways as fey queens, the blood council and the Director tries to stop the wedding as it turns out that Fred is stranger than they all first thought as he can turn vampires in higher rate than the others and not to mention that his immunity toward silver might be inherited which means that he might in the future create vampires far stronger than what they are now.
There isn’t much to say about the characters, most are old characters and the new ones such as the gargoyle Gregor or the fairy Al is not much to describe as they haven’t been given much importance in the book and the old characters are also not really developed. This book has overall very little meat on the bones. Most of it just seem to set up the next book, such as reintroducing Quinn, the fey queen hating Quinn and wants to kill him. The author is also pushing Fred’s special abilities but gives us no real conclusion on the matter and since the book focuses mostly on Fred getting married to a Crystal, and I have never really bought their romance though I liked the characters, so I cannot say the book was that interesting.
I never felt any threat in the book and since the stakes was if they would get married now or later, it never really caught my interest. Maybe because in my culture getting married isn’t a sure thing, we mostly just get engage but never married so them pushing the marriage like it is life or death makes no sense to me. There is also some weird plot points such as they have to get married magically, which they never explain why. It seems to mostly be there as a way to ensure that the Director could hinder the wedding, since she wouldn’t be able to do it if it was a normal one.
The story isn’t overall bad, but the weak plot along with no real development makes the book feel a bit faint. As mentioned, it seems to mostly set up the next book, as it leaves a lot of lose threads hanging. Which isn’t bad but I would prefer that this book had a essence of its own instead of being a part of the next book. I would give it a 7 out of 10, as it doesn’t really have something that bad to drag it down. I just felt the stakes weren’t high enough for me to care and it mostly felt like a shorter story that the author has pushed out to 400 pages to create a book.
Then for the series. This series are overall a fun, lighthearted flick with a lot of heart and some moving moments. Some of the lessons are a bit on the nose, such as Fred learning to be a leader and everyone giving the same advice only for someone a book later to just snort and say that it was all wrong, which means that the entire previous book was for naught. It has romance, but it was a first glance one and then we are expected to believe that they are having the romance of a century, despite hardly spending time with each other in the books. It is mostly done off the pages, which means that it makes the romance feel shallow. Which isn’t a good thing considering that the sixth book entire plot is dedicated to them getting married and we are suppose to root for them because they are the perfect couple.
The characters themselves are fun, most are not expanded upon but considering the vast amount of people in this series, I cannot blame it for it. The author choose quantity over quality here and it all depends on taste if you like it or not. I would have preferred less character but more development of them.
There are also some weird choices such as the author introducing Albert, the zombie who get chosen by a sword of destiny, only to be removed from the story, or everyone claiming that Gideon don’t care about anyone but Sally, but he constantly helps Fred which is claimed to be because Sally likes him but she has pretty much two scenes with him and I cannot remember if they ever spoke to each other so that makes little sense. The first one might be expanded upon in future books the latter is a bit of plot hole if the author don’t plan to fill it by telling us later that Gideon actually cares about Fred. There are plenty more of these but I will not judge to harshly on many of them since they might be filled up in future books.
Overall, there are some inconsistencies among the books. Some of the books such as the third and fifth has good plots with great structure, having a clear goal and all smaller parts connecting to that goal. The other books don’t have a clear goal, or have a vague one that won’t hold the plot together and those books just feel like fillers to the great ones.
As such, I would give the entire series an 8 out of 10, making it entertaining but varying in quality from book to book. It has interesting, but undeveloped characters and the author has a interesting style of writing, each book consisting of smaller adventures, but I can see if some might not like these. Especially since the first book leans in more on comedy while the other focuses on the paranormal aspects, creating more worldbuilding and lore. I liked it and would at least recommend trying it on if you like a easy going series.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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