Book Quote of the Day

“Now is the zwoddery time when you wish that you had invested in thicker curtains, for the sun is insistent, and you are one of those lucifugous creatures that avoids sunlight like a vampire, or a badger. Lucifugous (or light-fleeing) is a word that is usually applied to sins and demons, but it can just as well refer to somebody making a tactical retreat beneath the duvet because they cannot endure the gaze of heaven.”

- The Horologicon: A day’s jaunt through the lost words of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth

Book Review: The Nightlife – New York

I have just finished reading “The Nightlife – New York” by Travis Luedke.

“The Nightlife – New York” – Travis Luedke (via Amazon)

This novel is the first in The Nightlife Series about vampires. The book description reads as follows:

“Vampires, strippers, escorts, night clubs, gangs, pimps and corrupt cops, the Nightlife of New York is never boring.

Is she a beautiful blond guardian angel as he imagined, or something else entirely? When Michelle saves Aaron’s life she shares the benefits of her blood––after getting him shot accidentally. He awakes a changed man, living in a purgatory of eternal night, never to see the sunrise again.

Michelle drags Aaron through a hardcore learning curve of vampiric slavery. Forced to adapt to servitude, he is subject to her authority of compulsion. She orders him around like a puppet on a string, a dog on a very short leash. First things first, he must learn to feed properly without creating bloodslaves (humans addicted to the powerful drug-like effect of their venomous bite).

And then she puts him to work––a male escort in the sex trade––same as Michelle. Aaron walks a tightrope of strictly controlled feeding regiments and intensely erotic sexual adventures while catering to the neurotic control-freak tendencies of his new master. It’s do or die, Michelle vows to eliminate him if he proves too difficult to control. Amidst all these shocking and degrading adjustments, Aaron finds he’s falling in love.

Can he maintain her rules and keep a sliver of his humanity intact? Innocence is a luxury few can afford in the decadent nightlife of New York. In a world where sex, blood, and power over women is so readily accessible, Aaron struggles against the predatory instincts deeply rooted in his new psyche. He must find his way quickly, practicing rigid self-control, or risk the consequences of Michelle’s wrath.”

Aaron is a genuinely nice fellow, still hung up on his ex-girlfriend who recently left him, working in a diner and living with his typical laddish flatmate. Then his life changes rather abruptly and suddenly he finds himself living as a vampire under the control of the incredibly sexy French vampire, Michelle. Michelle has a troubled past, knowing what it is like for Aaron being new to the life of a vampire and having to succumb to her commands. She struggles to let anyone in, but in Aaron she finds a new friend who shows her that things don’t have to be the way she thinks they should be.

There is a layer of tension built up from the incident at the beginning with two cops who want to find the pair and punish them, and the cops track them down and there is a rather horrific showdown which changes everything. I really hated the cops and really hoped they would get taught a lesson!

The vampires do adhere to the stereotype with being immortal, beautiful and indestructable, and needing to sleep during the day so they don’t burn in the sunlight. However, the difference in this novel is that the vampires’ sexuality is exaggerated with the orgasm-inducing properties of their venom when they bite other vampires and humans. There is a LOT of sex in this novel, with Michelle showing Aaron all the benefits of being immortal and almost indestructable, and several scenes of sexual contact with the more breakable humans as escorts. After a while it gets a little bit boring. However, it’s interesting to see how the boundaries between lust and love are stretched through the novel.

There are a few things which i didn’t like about this novel. I really hated a scene near the end which is really shocking and kind of put me off liking vampires! Also, there are a few too many clichés in the book, they’re not really necessary to the plot!

I give this book 6/10 because, despite the original and gripping plot, the constant sex scenes started to grate on me and the scene with Aaron’s ex-girlfriend at the end was a little bit too disturbing. It is a good novel, don’t get me wrong, but i’m not sure i could read it again. If you like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey, then this might be a good novel for you to read, as it’s a bit of both!

Note: I read this in ebook format. The next book is available now, “The Nightlife – Las Vegas”.

Book Review: The Finno-Ugrian Vampire

I have just finished reading “The Finno-Ugrian Vampire” by Noémi Szécsi, translated from the original Hungarian. I won my copy in a competition (See my recent post: My latest book stuff), which was good because i had discovered the novel not long ago and was eager for the English translation to be published!

My shiny new copy of “The Finno-Ugrian Vampire” by Noemi Szecsi!

This is one strange, yet fascinating, novel!

I loved the refreshing take on vampires, going back to a more traditional view of bloodsucking and coffin-sleeping creatures who, against tradition, go out in the daylight and work meaningless jobs and live in less than privileged circumstances despite being rich.

Jerne is interesting as she is a graduate of the arts who wants to be a writer but ends up moving further away from this. She obsesses over her animals in her stories and you can tell she studied literature from the way she talks about them. I get the impression that she has a independent streak, but still lets her grandmother take care of her (in the only way a vampire guardian can!) and give her advice.

Her grandmother is a fascinating character, who is over 200 years old yet still glamourous. She bosses Jerne around, giving her advice which isn’t always taken, and telling stories from her past, many of which Jerne knows off by heart! She is a fabulous example of a meat-grinding vampire, whose age has helped contribute to her vast fortune accumulated over her afterlife. She is caring though, looking after her granddaughter from the moment Jerne arrived in an unexpected parcel. However, she is determined to make her  into a proper vampire and basically acts like a vampiric life-coach (or after-life-coach!).

The first half of the novel is about Jerne and her writing and her job at a small publishers. She doesn’t like the sight of blood and her grandmother despairs at her lack of vampiric desires. Jerne tries to get her animal stories published but is knocked back by her boss and sets about re-writing them. Her boss’ partner sets his sights on Jerne and this develops into a strange sort of relationship.

The novel shifts rather suddenly into Jerne’s death and reincarnation as a vampire, although the change is fairly subtle and i wasn’t sure what and how it had happened at first read. It all happens rather matter-of-factly: no big fuss  is made about the change. Jerne gets a new job and leaves behind people in her past, but meets a bunch of new people, and also develops a relationship with a woman who teaches her Hungarian.

The ending is somewhat surprising, but i won’t spoil it!

The mood of the novel seems to change with Jerne’s ressurection, with her grandmother being adamant that she doesn’t write anymore until she gets more life experience. I do think she is just being a little bit selfish towards her granddaughter though. Jerne has all these possibilities as a young woman: she could still want to marry and have children, and maybe actually make it as a proper writer as she wanted to be at the start of the novel. She seems to lose interest in her old career choices (maybe it’s her grandmother’s influence, or just the after-effects of her change into a vampire) and seems to settle for more mundane jobs. I had expected more exciting things to happen, thinking that the change into a vampire would be the focal point of the novel but i’m not sure if this novel has a proper climax because it seems to plod along. It’s not hard to follow or read, but it’s not the best novel i’ve ever read, although it has its merits!

I give this novel a 7 out of 10 because it is interesting to read about vampires in a different way, the grandmother is a fabulous character, and the Hungarian aspect is totally different to anything i’ve read before. It reads like a more literary novel than contemporary in some places but it’s a really good piece of writing. Worth a read if you fancy something different to the normal and current trend of pathetic vampires!

Book Review: Vampire State of Mind

I have recently finished reading “Vampire State of Mind” by Jane Lovering.

Vampire State of Mind – Jane Lovering (via Amazon)

The blurb reads:

“Jessica Grant knows vampires only too well. She runs the York Council tracker programme making sure that Otherworlders are all where they should be, keeps the filing in order and drinks far too much coffee. 
To Jess, vampires are annoying and arrogant and far too sexy for their own good, particularly her ex-colleague Sil, who’s now in charge of Otherworld York. When a demon turns up and threatens not just Jess but the whole world order, she and Sil are forced to work together.
But then Jess turns out to be the key to saving the world, which puts a very different slant on their relationship. 
The stakes are high. They are also very, very pointy and Jess isn’t afraid to use them – even on the vampire she’s rather afraid she’s falling in love with …”

You might think, oh no, not another vampire novel, another Twilight. Well, you are wrong! This is an awesome book, with the whole new idea of vampires being fully integrated into normal human society and accepted by humans (for the most part). There are also zombies, werewolves, ghouls and other supernatural creatures, all of whom have equal status in the human world. The laws and rights regarding all species are interesting to discover, as humans have never really liked sharing their planet with other dominant species.

The book is set in York, which is great because i used to live there and i can mentally picture all the places it mentions! It brings across a whole new side of the city, besides the tourism side, describing what it is like living there with all these Otherworld creatures. York has plenty of ties with different times in history, from Romans to Vikings and beyond, so why not bring it up to date with these supernatural creatures living there too!?

Humans have created a synthetic blood in order to keep the vampires satisfied and to protect the humans. New laws are enforced in order to keep the peace, as obviously there is always someone who will turn against the others. No-one wants a repeat of the early violence described when the Otherworld creatures were trying to be recognised as equal and so on.

Jessica is a fascinating character, tasked with enforcing the laws and tracking down the creatures to make sure they toeing the line. Her uncanny knack for identifying creatures, which puts her in the 5% of humans who have this ability, hints at a deeper part of her own identity, which comes under conflict after a few home truths come to light, changing her life forever. Her relationship with the vampire Sil is interesting, and she tries to ignore the fact she is falling in love with him, but as the novel progresses it becomes clear that there is something between them, shown in their behaviour towards each other. Jessica is feisty and fiercely independent, and constantly uses “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as her bible for keeping tabs on the Otherworlders, which is amusing!

I give this book 8/10 because it breathes new life into the sub-genre which has been taken over by sappy vampires brought about by Twilight and brings the Otherworld creatures firmly onto the world stage as equals to humans. The book is witty and clever, with a great paranormal romance story but with enough sci-fi elements and real issues to make it a really great read. The setting of the book and the characters themselves make up a great plot, and the climax is really good. Totally worth a read if you want real vampires!

Note: I read this on Kindle.

Book Review: “Let the Right One In” by John Ajvide Lindqvist

I have just finished reading ”Let the Right One In” by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and i have to say it was one gripping novel!

It seems to be about Vampires, and believe me it is, but it also has themes of bullying, murder, revenge and so on. The two young protagonists Oskar and Eli are both equally intriguing characters, who despite being very different are drawn together in a sort of friendship which isnt always easy to define.

As well as this main plot, we have several other subplots where we meet several very difference characters who all have important roles in showing the reader the community-spirit and how it deals with the murders and so on.

The novel jumps around a bit, focusing on different characters and telling the story from their point of view. This makes for interesting reading, as we slowly piece together the storyline from each viewpoint.

The novel is brilliant, and unlike comparably pathetic Vampire novels like Twilight, it has much more darkness and depth to it, focusing more on the traditional vampire characteristic and twisting it a little bit. The novel is a little graphic in places and can be quite disturbing, but generally i think it is very well written and i definitely recommend it!

I give it 9/10, as it is totally original and has such a brilliant plot and fascinating characters. I suggest that if you like traditional vampire stories, mystery, fantasy and a bit of darkness, then you will love this nove. But if you are looking for another Twilight-type novel then you probably won’t like it so much, but if you want something deeper than that, then i’d say try it!