Some good books. Some books are unreadable and read like self-inserted fanfiction from the early days of AO3, but even if you realize that they contain no objective literary value, you still can't stop reading and enjoying them. wake them up. Dark Moon: Blood Altar is one of them. Created by South Korean boy band Enhyphen, the story recasts the members as unusually beautiful vampire boys at an exclusive boarding school and then, to good reviews, throws a young woman Normal(ish) named Sooha entered their midst. Naturally, all the boys are attracted to Sooha, as well as rival werewolves from another school. (Werewolves are based on boy band members, because why not.) But Sooha has had bad experiences with vampires, creating an artificial obstacle that's both budding. It's silly, overblown, and impossible to ignore.

Although Enhyphen is related to the series, you don't need any familiarity with the team to understand this. I suppose there will be easter eggs for those who are fans-each vampire has a distinct look and personality that may be intended to represent some aspect of the member that inspired them . The same is true of werewolves, although we don't get to know them as well as the vampires in episode two. The boy is Heli, the gathering leader of the group. Heli (based on Enhyphen's Heeseung) has telepathy as his supernatural power, and he was the first to encounter Sooha when she arrived at Riverfield and took her under his protection. Heli is drawn to her in ways he can't explain, and to say he was troubled when she revealed her hatred of vampires might be understating the matter. It's not that he doesn't understand—her story about being ostracized in her hometown because people accused her only gets worse when the only person who believes her, a boy named Chris, is killed. by a vampire. She only knew them as murderous monsters, and if that was partly motivated by the prejudice where she grew up, then Chris's death did absolutely nothing to convince her that vampires could be quite human-like. It's true that Heli isn't in the habit of revealing his nature to everyone, but it still feels uncomfortable when the girl he's in love with hates what he loves so passionately.

That means Heli and the other boys spend a book and a half trying to stop Sooha from finding out the truth. They tell her about their various special powers, and it feels like they do so because it would be too difficult to hide some of them (especially Shion's gravity manipulation), but also because they want her to know what they are and accept them.. Heli's telepathy provides an easy path to intimacy, allowing him to continue forming a relationship with Sooha, while also helping she is used to the idea that he is harmless and is careful not to abuse, or even just abuse, this skill. What comes across most clearly in these two episodes is how much the boys want to be accepted, especially by Sooha, and know that their vampire nature doesn't mean they have to live forever in the suburbs. umbrella of society.

The more we learn about their past, the clearer it becomes why this is important to them. The group grew up in what they politely call an orphanage, but in episode two we discover it's more of a prison to hide the vampire children from the rest of the world. This does not appear to have been done for their benefit; there was a real sense that they were being kept there to prevent humans from knowing about them. Their presence in Riverfield does not mean they are released from the principal's care. That means they escaped him and his “orphanage” at some point, though exactly how is unknown. Every day was a game of hiding their vampire nature, and the temptation of having someone who knew and accepted them was too much to bear, even though they tried very, very hard. Sooha knows the truth, but not because they decide to tell her, which ramps up the tension considerably in the second half of episode two.

The last piece that author Hybe still asks us to try to rotate to fit is Chris. Sooha's childhood friend Chris was the only one who believed she was just abnormal and not a vampire, and his loss shaped Sooha's life. When she arrives in Riverfield, she begins to see someone who looks like a teenage Chris on the periphery of her life, but it's impossible: she sees him after a vampire killed him, lying in her coffin. him with a wary stake through his heart. So how could that boy wander around so young? And if he is, why doesn't he try to initiate contact more specifically? We can make some educated guesses (and I think we're right; mystery is not this series' strong point), and in volume two, he seems to exist to help Sooha with her confused with the idea that vampires are not vampires. all the same. It also raises the question of whether vampires are born or created, something Heli and his adopted brothers do not know. It's not lore deep or even particularly creative, but it's still enough to keep things interesting.

Dark Moon: The Blood Altar can feel terribly self-indulgent. The surprising variety of Sooha's suitors (although, again, Heli and the werewolf Khan seem to be the main romantic interests) smacks of self-insert fanfic, and is nothing new or interesting plot. The art is beautiful and the guys are easy to tell apart. I like how it uses blues and purples to set the mood, even though it makes some unfortunate costume choices, mainly for teenage Chris. Despite these problems, this book is almost required reading, the kind of light read you can read with a tray of brownies. If you like beautiful vampires or you just want to read professionally edited fanfiction, this is a fun series to pick up.