Staked by JF Lewis
Series: Void City
Publisher: Pocket, 2008
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Paranormal, Urban fantasy
Read the full (spoiler-free) review here.
For those who haven't heard, JF Lewis was kicked out of his church and had his membership renounced because he wrote this book. No, really. Apparently the church leaders had difficulties understanding the key differences between fiction and reality, and writing a novel about a vampire who runs a strip club clearly means you are too evil to hang out at church. There seems to also have been some confusion over people thinking this book was aimed at children, which I'll confess makes my head hurt. Because, y'know, kids totally relate to stories set in strip clubs.
This is a brutal, gutsy novel. The fight scenes are vividly violent, and there's no shortage of sexing going on. Of course, the same could be said for the Bible, so let's not get too judgemental on that score. Staked is a complex, action-packed story, dark and occasionally gory but with a sense of humour.
The book flips between Eric's perspective and Tabitha's, both written in the first person. I really enjoyed Eric's voice, both with the insights of someone much older than he appears to be and the sarcastic humour threaded through most of his thoughts. He makes for a really neat protagonist, perhaps not always relatable, but someone you can sympathize with anyway. I also really liked Marilyn, who had been Eric's fiance before he was turned 40 years earlier. She's now an old woman, and has refused to have any romantic relationship with Eric since he died, but there's still a strong connection between them.
Which brings me to one of my biggest annoyances: the abrupt ending. It's meant to be a cliffhanger (the sequel is due out in March), and I know some people love these kinds of endings, but I'm not personally one of them. The book looks like it's about to wrap up, until with two pages left to go another crisis hits. The pieces are still falling (literally, actually) when the book runs out of pages to turn.
There was enough in here that was different from the general vampire fare to warrant a read, particularly if you like vampires who actually have to kill people to survive and don't spend a lot of time angsting about it.
Publisher: Pocket, 2008
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Paranormal, Urban fantasy
Read the full (spoiler-free) review here.
For those who haven't heard, JF Lewis was kicked out of his church and had his membership renounced because he wrote this book. No, really. Apparently the church leaders had difficulties understanding the key differences between fiction and reality, and writing a novel about a vampire who runs a strip club clearly means you are too evil to hang out at church. There seems to also have been some confusion over people thinking this book was aimed at children, which I'll confess makes my head hurt. Because, y'know, kids totally relate to stories set in strip clubs.
This is a brutal, gutsy novel. The fight scenes are vividly violent, and there's no shortage of sexing going on. Of course, the same could be said for the Bible, so let's not get too judgemental on that score. Staked is a complex, action-packed story, dark and occasionally gory but with a sense of humour.
The book flips between Eric's perspective and Tabitha's, both written in the first person. I really enjoyed Eric's voice, both with the insights of someone much older than he appears to be and the sarcastic humour threaded through most of his thoughts. He makes for a really neat protagonist, perhaps not always relatable, but someone you can sympathize with anyway. I also really liked Marilyn, who had been Eric's fiance before he was turned 40 years earlier. She's now an old woman, and has refused to have any romantic relationship with Eric since he died, but there's still a strong connection between them.
Which brings me to one of my biggest annoyances: the abrupt ending. It's meant to be a cliffhanger (the sequel is due out in March), and I know some people love these kinds of endings, but I'm not personally one of them. The book looks like it's about to wrap up, until with two pages left to go another crisis hits. The pieces are still falling (literally, actually) when the book runs out of pages to turn.
There was enough in here that was different from the general vampire fare to warrant a read, particularly if you like vampires who actually have to kill people to survive and don't spend a lot of time angsting about it.