An innovative take on the modern vampire story.
A vampire is stranded in the modern world in Catanzarite’s first horror-fantasy novel, the start of a series.
Gregorie Babin, originally from Saint-Suliac, France, washes up on a beach after being trapped in a waterlogged wooden trunk for a long, long time. He doesn’t remember how he came to be in there, nor does he have any idea where he is currently. It’s night, and he’s thirsty, and, for some reason, he feels compelled to drink the blood of a dying deer he finds by the roadside: “He’d never consumed anything so soothing, so satisfying. His limbs warmed, the nourishment spreading, and his insides filled near to bursting. He eased back in ecstasy and rested on the ground beside the animal while it relaxed into its last breath.” Gregorie soon discovers that the world has technologically advanced quite a bit; these automated, fast-moving carts that he sees on the road are all new to him. He notices, too, that he no longer needs to breathe to remain alive. He soon meets a trio of locals—Liam, Paul, and a young woman whom Gregorie calls “Gentille”—who see his confusion and offer him a place to stay. As Gregorie pores over his memories, attempting to figure out his predicament—a ship, a monster, and a lost love named Michaelangela are involved—his new friends start to realize that there’s something a bit strange about Gregorie. Catanzarite’s understated prose succeeds in selling Gregorie’s fish-out-of-water status and unusual perspective, as when Gentille offers him her sunglasses to protect his eyes from daylight: “Gentille removed the shiny brown thing from her face and propped it upon his nose, pressing one of its skinny arms behind each ear. Everything became soft and rosy, and the tears stopped flowing.” This aspect of the work, and the offbeat premise of a centuries-old vampire who’s unaware of who or what he is, brings some much-needed freshness to a crowded horror subgenre. That said, fans of such tales will still find plenty of familiar elements to sink their fangs into.
An innovative take on the modern vampire story.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781735952277
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Forster Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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