The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones

Summary:

Fans of urban fantasy should prepare for a new kind of vampire—one that feeds off of tears instead of blood. Descended from an ancient line of creatures that gain their energy from human tears, Cassandra Gray depends on human sorrow to live. Her job as a grief counselor at the hospital provides the perfect cover to keep this secret safe, and any time a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, she’s there. Only Cass has grown tired of living a lie and wants to live like a human, especially now that she’s found someone worth fighting for.

Review:

Going into The Tear Collector I wasn't sure what to except exactly. Since there has been an abundance of negative reviews for it. Sadly enough I'm going to have to agree with those negative reviews; because while I did personally find the Tear Collector to be an interesting book with an even more intriguing premise, it feel flat for me in a big way.

Cassandra was someone who I found extremely hard to like and sympathize with, which is odd for me because I can usually find the good in almost anyone I read about. Though, Cassandra felt like a complete alien to me, but I guess that kind of makes sense since she wasn't exactly human. Since not only was she an odd girl, but I hated how for 95% of the book she used people to her own benefit, pretending to be their friend so that she could get to their sadness in life, and in turn fed of the one thing she craved the most: tears. I get that was something she had to do in order to live, but the way in which she never truly cared about most of the people she fed off of bothered me. With saying that I did like the supporting characters, though, such as Robyn, Samantha, and Scott. All three where ones that I not only liked, but could feel sadness towards with the sad, lonely lives they were given.

As mentioned above, I did find the premise to be intriguing. I mean vampires feeding off tears instead of blood? I can't say I've heard that one before. Though while the book had an interesting feel to it that made it an easy read, at times the plot was predictable and the dialogue lacked emotion and feelings instead coming out in a clichéd type of way. With saying that I could still see promise in Mr. Jones' writing and because of that, I may give at least one of his books another try, even though The Tear Collector was pretty much a let down.

In all, The Tear Collector is a book that I don't exactly recommended because in all truth, it's far from being a gem. Though, if you are set on reading, I would highly suggest you pick it up from the library instead, and maybe, just maybe, you'll see the light in it that I unfortunately did not.

Grade: D+

Source: Anna at Blommsburry for review. Thanks Anna!

The Tear Collector is now out.