Vamp lit: Vampire quickie review 2

The Stress of Her Regard is a triumph of suspended disbelief. Tim Powers is the master of the seamless interface between the fictional and the non-fictional, the supernatural and the real. In Stress, Byron and Shelley become vampire hunters, desperately trying to rid themselves of the vamps that curse them and their families and bless them with the gift of poesy.




Source: Amazon.ca

 With style and magnificent attention to detail, Powers recreates and reimagines historical reality. It is as if he is literally telling us a secret history of the Romantic poets.

Powers uses the poetry of Byron, Shelley and Keats (another afflicted poet) as proof of the encounter with the supernatural. And real events from the poets' lives are given a vampy twist. So believable. So well done. Unlike so many faddy tales, vamp hunting is not tagged onto a famous life as a gimmicky story line. It is an essential detail of the biographies of Shelley, Keats and Byron. It explains them. It gives reasons for their doom.

Powers' redo of the vamp tale is based on the Biblical myth of the Nephilim. The horrifying and alluring offspring of the angels that mated with humans. The Nephilim are strange multiple identitied beings with special protective connections to certain families and love-hate relationships with particular humans. They are also very jealous. Killing anyone too close to their kin and mates. Moreover, their attention is seductive, alluring and addictive. And they have a host of groupies/servants called 'neffies'.

Stress details the involved and convoluted (in a wonderful way) struggles of Byron, Shelley and their allies with their preternatural muses/lovers/killers. It is a fantastic story. One of the best vamp tales I've ever read. Powers draws you in like a Nephilim. Read it. Not only will you believe it. You will become a 'neffie' and lust for more...

Vamp lit: pre-Halloween quickie reviews 1

October is vampire month. Well. It should be. It just feels like the undead are stalking us right now. Some thing is watching. Some thing is following. Some thing is calling us. To our doom. You can hear and feel it in the chilly wind. The swirling of dry leaves. The swishing of the decaying vegetation. The smell of the hunt...

Yes, it is time to celebrate vampires. However you want to conceive them. Sultry seductive gods and goddesses of the dark. Evil decadent elegant villains and villainesses. Supernatural heroes. Misunderstood anti-heroes. Even silly eternal teen wannabes. So many different kinds and kinks! That is the joy of vampires.

And what better way to celebrate vampire month than through vamp lit...

Over the past three months, I've read 5 vamp novels (that's not bragging, that's evidence of my non-life). So I'm offering 5 quickie reviews over the next few weeks as prep work for Halloween.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

This is the Goth novel. It has everything. Dark teen discovers he is a vampire. Named 'Nothing.' Beautiful and deadly supernatural fiends. Bauhaus. Bauhaus. Bauhaus. Black magic. Smoking dope in a graveyard. Intense, morbid relationships. Moody rock in atmospheric dives. Evil sexy twins. New Orleans. Every dark cliche you can think of...

So, it left me a little ambivalent. If I'd had the luck to discover this book as an alienated teen (and I don't know why I didn't), I probably would have loved it. It is like a textbook guide to being a Goth. As an adult, it doesn't read so well. I realize Brite invented the formula but it is still so obviously formulaic.

Lots of gratuitous sex. Which isn't a bad thing. Even though I've read better. A complex and troubling account of rape, which is also a central event in the story. But still, the female characters are disposable and 'bewitched' to strong male characters. And the novel is all about the male characters and male relationships. Which is ok sorta, but rather than really explore gay relationships Brite's portrayal seems too sensationally self-conscious to be really transgressive. She wants to offend or seduce. And over twenty years later...meh...

Her writing style is vastly superior to Anne Rice's (soooo boring...how many vamp biographies do we really need?). But she is still strapped and trapped in purple prose. There are just too many eye-rolling moments. Sigh.

But it is an easy read. And it will help set the proper tone and atmosphere for Halloween.