Category: VamPullet
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Night’s Edge (2023) by Liz Kerin
Vampires have always been a device for probing cultural anxieties, and this tradition continues in Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge (2023). Exploring pandemic paranoia, domestic abuse, and political violence, the novel uses bloodsuckers to exacerbate social problems and expose their dynamics. It’s clear and insightful but also depressing. Night’s Edge is like the music of Radiohead:…
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Live Girls (1987) by Ray Garton
Does it matter what part of the body a blood sucker bites? I asked myself this question after reading Ray Garton’s Live Girls (1987). If we consider the OG vampire, Dracula, the answer is a resounding “yes.” He leaves visible neck wounds to claim the women he wants and challenge the men who would stand…
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I, Vampire (1990) by Michael Romkey
Review by guest commentator VamPullet I, Vampire (1990) by Michael Romkey avoids the potential challenges of organizational vampirism by giving us monsters with big personalities. Their nearly unlimited power poses a plot problem, but not one glaring enough to diminish my enjoyment of the book. The novel purports to be the personal journal of David…
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How Dear the Dawn (1987) by Dave Pedneau
Review by guest commentator VamPullet In How Dear the Dawn (1987) by Dave Pedneau (aka Marc Eliot), a slaveholding vampire from the Antebellum South terrorizes a beach town. While this sounds like a mashup of Interview with the Vampire and The Lost Boys, it isn’t nearly as good as either one of these works. Still,…
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The Fifth House of the Heart (2015) by Ben Tripp
The Fifth House of the Heart (2015) by Ben Tripp should have been a series. The success of a book series hinges on a strong main character, who is compelling enough to carry a readers’ attention from one adventure to the next. Asmodeus Saxon-Tang is that kind of character. Smart, witty, and a master of…
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Blood Kin (1996) by Ronald Kelly
Ronald Kelly’s Blood Kin (1996) is an 80s-style vampire romp complete with uncomplicated bloodsuckers who relish their power, stakes galore, and, of course, flashbacks from Vietnam. For a Gen X’er like me, it’s a nostalgic comfort read. Part of this pleasure comes from the novel’s self-consciousness. Kelly makes vampire fiction itself part of the story…
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The God of Endings (2023) by Jacqueline Holland
The God of Endings (2023) by Jacqueline Holland loses its momentum in the middle but makes up for it in the end. It’s the 1830s and Anna, the daughter of a tombstone maker, struggles as her New England Village is decimated by disease. Dying of the illness that has carried away her family and friends,…
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Progeny of the Adder (1965) by Leslie H. Whitten Jr.
Some of the language in Progeny of the Adder (1965) can be hard to take: Women are “hysterics” and “bimbos,” black men are “obedient” “boys,” and gay men are “perverts.” Still, for those who love vampire fiction and its history, Progeny is a must read. Published in 1965, the novel places a classic vampire, who…