My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Contemporary Paranormal Romance
Published on August 29, 2023 by Berkley

Reviewed by Kate

I was so excited to read My Roommate is a Vampire. The premise, the Chicago location, the comp to Flatshare?? I was ON BOARD. Unfortunately, the execution left something to be desired, and I was seriously disappointed with the book.

I will be honest – if I had not been reading this for a review, I would likely not have finished it. My biggest problem with My Roommate is a Vampire is the writing style. It’s a little hard to explain, but it feels very flat. The characters don’t feel fleshed out, nor does the setting. I wasn’t able to immerse myself into the story, because there was very little world-building, and not much depth to the characters. Additionally, vampire details feel almost shoehorned in at times, as if they are an afterthought and not the literal entire point of the book. The climax of the plot also worked itself out so easily, it was almost a let down. I was expecting some sort of vampire showdown at the end, but it was over in a few pages! 

Cassie comes across as a total manic pixie dream girl, as she’s an artist who does “strange” art that nobody understands (except of course Frederick, the vampire main character). Frederick has supposedly been sleeping for the past one hundred years and yet knows what kiwi fruits and TikTok are somehow. I could not tell you why either of them liked each other, except that they are nice to each other (Frederick does say something about Cassie’s passion at a certain point, I will give him that). Also, there’s a part where Frederick gets so mad about a picture in which Cassie is wearing a swimsuit, and it just didn’t feel like it fit the character’s personality, and made me feel a little icky as a reader. I understand that the idea was to show that Frederick was from a different time with different morals (and how much he liked Cassie), but I don’t think it’s great that the main demonstration of that was over Cassie’s attire. I think there were plenty of other things that could have been good examples of this – the speed of cars, smart phones, the fact that the Sears Tower is literally DOUBLE in height of the tallest building in the world in 1920 – so many changes that he could have freaked out about. (And other ways he could have shown he liked Cassie, also.) 

I think what did keep me reading was the excerpts of Frederick’s communications at the beginning of each chapter. I really enjoyed those, especially the text messages. They were funny and it was nice to get a peek into Frederick’s brain, as the entire book is told from Cassie’s point of view otherwise. I wish that the vibe of those sections could have been spread out through the whole book. Additionally, I did like the detail about the vampires living in Naperville. That was very amusing as a person who lives in the Chicago suburbs herself. 

Overall, My Roommate is a Vampire felt very juvenile, and was a less than enjoyable read for me. I don’t know that I would recommend this one to most readers, but from the Goodreads rating, it does seem there are some people who have enjoyed it, they are just not me. 

Grade: D+ 

Content notes: Obviously there are references to blood and drinking blood, also a brief non-violent kidnapping at the end