THE VAMPIRE WITH THE PINK HANDBAG sharee greene

I wanted to like The Vampire with the Pink Handbag, I really did. It is gay fiction, it has vampires--two of my favorite things. Oriole, a unfeasibly gorgeous male teenage vampire is going to a school specifically for vampires for the first time. He immediately becomes friends with two vampire girls, Jamie and Pear. He also immediately gets caught up in a tumultuous romantic relationship with another boy called Josh, and entangled in Josh's mysterious connection with two other powerful teen vampires, Roland and, um, Rayon. (Yes, a sexy mind-reading vampire named after a cheap synthetic fiber).

My first stumbling block was that none of the characters are very nice. They behave erratically and several of the 'love interest' males are extremely abusive, violent, judgemental, unfaithful and controlling. But that's fine so long as they love you, apparently. I get that vampires in this world are slow to mature and at the mercy of a turbo-charged form of adolescence, but that doesn't mean I find their melodramatic dialogue and sexual violence acceptable and entertaining. (By contrast Edward Cullen starts to look like a sensitive new age metrosexual.)

I suppose I could have gone with the premise and content of the book if the writing and formatting had allowed me to get swept up in the hyper-hormonal world of vampire college. Unfortunately Ms. Greene's prose is feels like it needs some time to mature. The narrative seems more focused on costume than motivation, and is rife with shifting points of view and jarring word choices. Add to that the lack of right justification and spacing between paragraphs that ranges from none to four of five lines for no apparent reason, and reading this book became something of a chore.

The Vampire with the Pink Handbag is a reasonable and timely idea for a teen vampire novel but it fails in the execution, quickly becoming a mire of head hopping and bed hopping lacking either the style or narrative momentum needed to make this a book a pleasure to read.

2/5

Cross-posted with POD People

THE KEEPER Armstrong & Piet

THE KEEPER by SL Armstrong and K Piet is an a novella that puts a new twist on the gay vampire romance. There is a pretty common story type where a mortal meets a vampire, works out exactly what he is, angst ensues, and they end up together. In this case the mortal is Hadi, a 24-year-old involved in the world of high fashion who is sent to a remote household in Algeria to fulfil a family obligation--being 'the keeper' for the mysterious Dhakir. 

The basic plot of THE KEEPER is as I described above, but the novel aspects are a convincing back story for the 'vampire' and his feeding representing a real imposition on the donor.  The angst, reversals and obstacles to the relationship make sense for both characters. The limitations, at least for me, are that the the outlook and expression of the vampire do not fit someone who has lived for so long. Also, once the obstacles to the relationship are resolved the story continues too long in my opinion.  But I am notorious for losing interest during HEA sex scenes, which other people thoroughly enjoy.

THE KEEPER puts enough of a twist on the familiar vampire/mortal romance story to make it interesting without undermining the cozy trajectory of the trope.

3/5

See also:

• Smashwords
• Storm Moon Press

THE VAMPIRE'S HEART mark a roeder

The Vampire's Heart is a very creditable young adult story.  It would be rather glib to refer to it as a 'gay twilight', especially as this book came out (so to speak) in 2002--but there is an element of truth in the comparison. Graham is a puny thirteen-year-old with a crush on a arrogant high school jock. A gorgeous but strange new arrival at his school, 15-year-old Josiah divides Grahams loyalties. In a newly discovered world of vampires, it is hard to find out who he can trust--and making the wrong choice is likely to cost Graham his life.

Graham is a likable but rather self-obsessed and self-pitying first person narrator and quite a lot of the text his devoted to his musings rather than directly reported action.  Even so, the story is an easy and engaging read, perhaps more suited to a reader still in his or her teen years. Older readers shouldn't be put off too easily by the first few chapters.  Mainly of the plot elements that might seem implausible (such as why a nine-hundred-year old vampire would need or want to attend a high school) are convincingly explained as Graham gradually uncovers the truth of what is going on.

For me this book is an 4.5 out of 5, but for a reader more in the target audience I don;t think 5/5 would be out of the question.

RUNNING DRY by M Christian

This post is part of the book review blog chain. The previous post is [Review: "Equus"] and the next post is [Review: Dewey].

When asked to post a review of the book I loved, I decided to talk about Running Dry. A full review of the book can be found here on my personal blog. The executive summary is that Doud and a female friend are involved in a chase-slash-road trip-slash-memoir dealing with a monster who is tracking Doud down.

The story, to be honest, is no longer all that clear in my memory. But to me the idea of the vampire is not about the plot, or even about the character, is is about the dilemma. You see Doud is also a monster, the same kind of life-force sucking monster as the man that is hunting him--the only difference is that he has a conscience.

When it comes to vampires it seems that there are two main camps. Some people like horror with the vampire as the cursed, evil monster. Some people like romance or adventure with the vampire as the handsome hero with supernatural superpowers. But, to me, both of these concepts completely miss the essence of the modern vampire.

And by modern I mean over the last 150 years or so. You see it in Varney, Dracula, Carmilla... the vampire is a deadly, ambiguous, baffling combination of of libido and thanatos. He (or she) can be powerful, seductive, influential and irresistible--and in equal parts vulnerable to simple light or water, hideous, soulless and murderous. The best vampire stories to me are about trying to resolve that enigma.

M Christian rediscovers this storyline from the point of view of the vampire who tries not to abuse his powers, and who tries not to harm others. But Doud cannot help reaching out to others any more than he can avoid destroying them, and that is the theme that turns yet another adventure story into a new vampire classic. That is why, more than two years later, I chose to revisit this book from hundreds of vampire tomes I have read, and in most cases forgotten.

This book struggles with the essential conflict at the heart of the vampire archetype and does not evade or glibly resolve the unavoidable tragedy that flows from the contradictions of undeath.

BOYS OF THE BITE: A GAY VAMPIRE ANTHOLOGY Cecilia Tan (ed)

This is an anthology by new e-publisher Ravenous Romance. I accepted a review copy based largely on the strength of Tan's reputation as an editor. As is often the case with anthologies, Boys of the Bite includes stories of mixed tone and quality.

Wanting Having Needing by R R Angell has excellent contemporary world building and a believable protagonist, but the plot--such as it is--depends on a twist that is broadcast well in advance.

To Be Beloved by Pepper Espinoza is a Dracula-esque historical story with a very appealing first-person protagonist. This story updates the Victorian approach by more strongly evoking the the morbid pleasures writers of that time could only elude to--as the victim sinking all to willingly into the the fatal embrace fo a vampire.This story is exquisitely well written but without the moralist ending that would once have resolved the tale it feels rather unfinished.

Lost in Translation by Tammy Jo Eckhart is well written but essentially just a story of a modern surfer becoming the slave of a vampire scholar, which is not the sort of story I enjoy.

The Love of a Faithful Servant by Teresa Noelle Roberts is again wonderfully written but basically a 'being made into a vamp' story. At this point I am beginning to wonder why so many authors write a wonderful vignette and so few produce a fully plotted (beginning-middle-end) short story.

The Cold Color of the Heart by Eric Del Carlo and Amber Jane Dodd is a emo first love story with a well-imagined vampiric twist.

The Sin Eater's Prince by Keta Diablo is another first time story combined with strong high fantasy world building.

The Conservative Dark by Connor McKay is yet another first time story with the standard OMG-what-if-I-hurt-my-mortal-lover plot.

The Last Brother by Ken Panadero describes a high fantasy order of vampire monks, but is also yet another falling in love story. I support this is a romance publisher, but in the absence of other plots the stories are starting to feel monotonous. Each is in a different world, a different culture, a different kind of vampire, a different kind of man, and a different writing style, and yet.... it is not just that each story is a vampire and a human, but the human is a nervous virgin etc. Perhaps I am too demanding having been raised on classic collections of sci fi short stories which each made a different kind of conceptual point rather than the same basic point ('love redeems') in different ways.

The Devil's Half Acre by Ryan Field introduces a world weary vampire moving into a town, segues to a pick up and sex scene and then ends. Of all those stories it has some of the best erotic content but is the furthest from really being a fully realised story.

VAMMP: Conquerring Dissension by Bryl R Tyne was a story I found very hard to follow and make sense of. The editing also seemed a little off; there were many awkwardly constructed sentences. For example: "Alan sensed the scrutiny tossed at his still-booted feet and warmth flushed his face." And only in this story did the intricate world building seem really rather supernumerary to the plot of (surprise surprise) lust and longing finally requited (the ol' destined life mates thang).

Based on her previous anthologies I know Tan knows good writing when she sees it. However I think the last story ends this collection on a low note. The world building the writing style of each writer is excellent and idiosyncratic, but the old vampire and M/M tropes become repetitious by the end. It might be best read in snatches rather than in one sitting. A reader who has read these two genres less exhaustively might not feel the same ennui.

Overall I would rate Boys of the Bite well worth the price of entry, and a nice sampler of gay erotic romance stories that put a twist in the old tropes but never escapes or subverts them. I would certainly be interested in reading longer works by most of the authors included in this collection.

4/5

See also:
BOYS OF THE BITE Receives Great Review From the Fleam

MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH Wendy Pini

MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, Volume 1
Wendy Pini
Go! Cmi
graphic novel: $19.99
2/5

This graphic novel is the first in a series (very) loosely based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. While not about vampires per se, it does concern a quest to achieve immortality--so I am going to consider it "close enough". The creator, Wendy Pini, is most famous for her work on Elfquest.

This graphic is a hybrid comic/manga with strong yaoi (gay erotic) themes. Some commenters have been a little shocked by that--unused to comics with adult material. However these kinds of themes are entirely welcome to me as a fan of similar work by the likes of Donna Barr and Coleen Doran.

The main characters are the reclusive Anton Prosper who embarks upon a secret scientific project, and the gorgeous Steffan Kabala, soon of a preeminent geneticist and a scientist in his own right. Both characters are rendered as a cross between an Olympic swimmer and an anorexic model. The general styling of the world and people seems exotic but haphazard.

However in this case I was disappointed. The plot is slow moving, the art work suffers from a lack of distinct line work and is weighed down by amateurish digital techniques like filters and gradients. While this is obviously a work of love Pini has spent a lot of time on it simultaneously seems thin and poorly worked out.

For example, Prosper effectively tortures himself in penance for using a single lab rat (at least I think it was a rat) yet provides his pet black panther with flocks of goats to recreationally hunt and kill. Ultimately, Masque of the Red Death had some charming moments and clever conceits, but equally deep flaws in rendering and general lack of engaging plot. I think this graphic novel may amuse Pini's more established fans but it is too self-indulgent to win her any new followers.

Masque of the Red death . com

Other Reviews:
Deb Aoki [About.com]: [3/5] "While there are a few missteps, such as the garish costumes, the long-winded dialogue, and a more 'grown-up' plot than most yaoi manga, it does accomplish something unexpected...."
ComicsBulletin: [5/5] "Taken all together, Masque of the Red Death is a superb opening volume."

See also:
GoodReads : Wikipedia

DESMOND Ulysses G Dietz

DESMOND: LOVE AND THE MODERN VAMPIRE
Ulysses G Dietz
Alyson Books
4/5

In Desmond a brooding older vampire has his life profoundly changed by a young unemployed museum creator. A Gaywyck-style gothic tone makes this a pleasingly predictable romance. Fine details in the descriptions reflect the author's 'day job' as decorative arts at the Newark Museum. Overall the book definitely has a first novel feel to it with some wordy sections and a certain self-consciousness of style, but if you like a vampire-with-heart-of-gold meets intelligent-twink-who-really-loves-him story this is an archetypal example.