Tag: vampires

Monthly roundup – October 2022

Posted on by Traumadoll

Spooktober was filled with mostly great reads. I read horror year round, so this month wasn’t really different except that I hosted two Book Lovers Cafe group reads because my first choice didn’t win. My insistence on exposing the masses to extreme horror (and doing 31 days of horror movies) did get in the way of my usual schedule, so I didn’t get to everything I had planned. However, I did get to a bunch that have been on my tbr for a while (and they were amazing!) so I consider it a win.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️:
A Soul to Keep, by Opal Reyne
Full Brutal, by Kristopher Triana
The Troop, by Nick Cutter
Gyo, by Junji Ito
The Girl on the Glider, by Brian Keene

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️:
The Tooth Fairy, by Davide Tarsitano
The Haunting of Ashburn House, by Darcy Coates
Lil’ Bastard, by Matt Shaw
The People Look Like Flowers at Last, by Charles Bukowski
Morning Glory Milking Farm, by C.M. Nascosta

⭐️⭐️⭐️:
Against the Lockers, by Aiden E. Messner
Jokes to Offend Men, by Allison Kelley, etc
When the Dark Spoke to Me, by Christabelle Marbun
Heartstopper Vol 4, by Alice Oseman

The rest kinda sucked. Two were Halloween themed monster romances that are actually pretty well liked on Goodreads. They just didn’t do it for me. One was straight up bad. Honestly don’t even remember how I came across the Hucow stuff. I don’t think I’ll do that again. And the last one was Little Women, but with vampire references woven in. I was not impressed.

Pictured but not rated: Island of the Dead, by Brian Keene. This is not actually a book, it is a Kindle Vella series. The story was interesting, but I kinda hate the serial format.

All of my four and five star reads have been on my tbr for a while and all were amazing. Several of those authors were already on my insta-buy list and now the rest are as well. Beyond that, the only one I’m interested in reading again is Messner. I feel like they’re gonna be one of those writers who just gets better. Time will tell.

On the agenda for November? One book club read (thriller), two Cool Ghouls books, the backlog of loaners from my enabler, the next Duskwalker Bride book, and hopefully several from my NetGalley shelf. I have a few Thanksgiving themed horror books and movies to share. Holiday baking. Dragonflight! Lots of fun stuff coming up.

I read a book: Little Vampire Women, by Lynn Messina, Louisa May Alcott

Posted on by Traumadoll
Christmas won’t be Christmas without any corpses.

If you’ve read Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, you basically know what this book is all about. This is a retelling of the classic book, only the main characters are vampires and they talk about eating creatures like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Which, I suppose, in their world it is.

There isn’t a lot to say about this one that hasn’t already been said. It was published in 2010, a year into the the monster mashup trend, but is being re-released on October 25, 2022 for…reasons? It’s kind of a fun idea, but not particularly well executed. I mean, anyone can grab a book whose copyright protection has expired off Project Gutenburg, copy the text in its entirety, and stick in a vampire reference here and there.

⭐️⭐️ for me. Meh. Are all of the monster mashups like this? Maybe I don’t need to read them, no matter how entertaining they seem in theory. This wasn’t for me, but if you already like the genre, you’ll probably like this one.

Big thanks to Lynn Messina (and Louisa May Alcott?), Potatoworks Press, and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. You can pre-order Little Vampire Women on Amazon and begin reading it on October 24, 2022.

Day 18 of 31 days of horror: Bloodstone: Subspecies 2 (1993)

Posted on by Traumadoll
Spurn me and I will torment you to eternity.

I was 11 years old when this came out in 1993 and not much older when I first watched this movie. I watched this movie recorded off the TV on VHS many times in the days before DVD. If I were so inclined, I could probably dig up that old VHS from the shelf of old VHS in my living room and plug in an old VCR and relive those late night Taco Bell commercials breaking the movie tension. TACO SUNDAYYYY AT TACO BELLLLL!!

It’s been a minute since I last watched this movie. I don’t have strong memories of it, but it is all so familiar. It’s a great movie. I say that with all sincerity. It’s great. As I watch, I wonder if certain aspects were ingrained in me. I remember thinking vampire Michelle was the loveliest woman I’d ever seen in a movie. Radu was oddly appealing despite his inability to take leave me the fuck alone for an answer. Something about all the blood dripping everywhere. Michelle goes into survival mode and even saves her sister all while trying to come to terms with her new life as a vampire. And just when it seems like they get a happy ending, something happens that turns this neat little package into a mega cliffhanger. I guess I have to watch the rest of the series 🤷🏻‍♀️

I read a book: Fat Vampire, by Johnny B. Truant

Posted on by Traumadoll

I picked up Fat Vampire at the beginning of Christmas vacation December 2017. I’m not usually drawn to vampire books and I’d never heard of Johnny B. Truant, but the description, reviews, and price tag (free at the time) swayed me. The first few pages won me over.

reginald

We know vampires as eternally youthful, with supernatural strength and speed. This book poses a plausible explanation for this and tells you the story of newly turned Reginald Baskin, an overweight man who would never have been turned under normal circumstances. I tore through the first book in one sitting and have just started Fat Vampire 6: Survival of the Fattest. Reginald goes from being an overweight human who can’t catch a break to an eternally overweight, weak, and slow vampire who still can’t catch a break but discovers he has mental powers like no other. The series is a fast an easy read, but it’s entertaining and well written. Will Reginald end up fulfilling his destiny? I look forward to finding out.