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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Officially, I give this 2.5 stars. While a lot of the humor in it was funny, there wasn't much else to it. The plot didn't always make sense to me, and the characters definitely left something to be desired. This is the first book I've read by Christopher Moore, but it may very well be the last.
Jody is a young investment banker living in San Francisco just trying to make ends meet both professional and personally when she finds herself the victim of a mugger on the streets late at night. When she awakens the next night, she discovers that she is in a dank back alley stuck underneath a dumpster with a painfully burned hand and a thirst for blood. C. Thomas Flood is an Indiana boy who moves to San Francisco with the dream of working as a writer. However, he winds up as the night manager at a local grocery store. When he meets Jody, he feels he has found the ultimate soulmate, even if she does insist she is a vampire. Together, they provide each other with just what they both need. To Jody, Tom is a link to the world of the living; someone who can go out during the day and obtain things that she needs. To Tom, Jody represents the freedom he so desperately desires from his farm-town life; and the sex isn't bad, either. However, the situation becomes difficult as both Jody and Tom wind up the targets of a much older and more experienced vampire intent on exterminating them both. This book is absolutely hilarious with an innovative take on the vampire phenomenon and the incredibly witty banter that Christopher Moore is renowned for. According to a book signing with Moore in April 2006, a sequel to Fiends is his next project.
2.5 stars
This is the first book I’ve read by Moore, and I’m not sure I will continue on reading any more of them. Although I found Bloodsucking Fiends to be amusing throughout, I don’t know how emotionally connected I ever felt to the principal characters, Jody and Tommy, and that’s because it is never totally clear to me that they genuinely feel emotionally connected to one another.
Although the events of the novel deal several times with literal life and death scenarios, all of the characters are so flippant and irreverent toward everything, including murder in most cases that occur, that I, as the reader, didn’t particularly care, either. Plus, the book traffics so heavily in stock characters and stereotypical characterization (e.g. nasty uptight mothers-in-law, jealous girlfriends, horny-to-the-point-of-debilitation boyfriends, etc.) that most characters felt pretty hollow, including the two principal ones. Nobody makes a decision based on complex emotions, they just act out of immediate jealousy or impetuousness like children, and nobody really grows as a person in any meaningful way; they just coast through the narrative, mocking it as they go, and some of them die.
All of that being said, the book was not a slog to get through. For its superficiality, it is very punchy and readable, and admittedly some sections are good fun—my favorite was Tommy trying to figure out which vampire abilities Jody had.
Evidently, this book is many people’s cups of tea, but it is not mine.
This is the first book I’ve read by Moore, and I’m not sure I will continue on reading any more of them. Although I found Bloodsucking Fiends to be amusing throughout, I don’t know how emotionally connected I ever felt to the principal characters, Jody and Tommy, and that’s because it is never totally clear to me that they genuinely feel emotionally connected to one another.
Although the events of the novel deal several times with literal life and death scenarios, all of the characters are so flippant and irreverent toward everything, including murder in most cases that occur, that I, as the reader, didn’t particularly care, either. Plus, the book traffics so heavily in stock characters and stereotypical characterization (e.g. nasty uptight mothers-in-law, jealous girlfriends, horny-to-the-point-of-debilitation boyfriends, etc.) that most characters felt pretty hollow, including the two principal ones. Nobody makes a decision based on complex emotions, they just act out of immediate jealousy or impetuousness like children, and nobody really grows as a person in any meaningful way; they just coast through the narrative, mocking it as they go, and some of them die.
All of that being said, the book was not a slog to get through. For its superficiality, it is very punchy and readable, and admittedly some sections are good fun—my favorite was Tommy trying to figure out which vampire abilities Jody had.
Evidently, this book is many people’s cups of tea, but it is not mine.
Nope. Way too campy and trite with irritating characters. Fit the theme for the month and been on the list for years.
dark
funny
fast-paced
Christopher Moore never fails to entertain and I absolutely love the crossover characters from A Dirty Job! Phenomenal audio book for a long drive.
No todos los libros tienen que ser best-sellers ni todas las lecturas tienen que ser complejas, esto se demuestra en este refrescante libro, cortito, te ries un rato con el estilo del autor, y además no te tienes que quebrar la cabeza en historias rebuscadas, esto es lo que es "la sanguijuela de mi niña", lo aconsejo para cualquiera que busquen pasar un buen rato sin iniciarse en grandes aventuras.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
So, this is the third book by Moore I've read in about two weeks, and I'm definitely done with him for a while. Douglas Adam's protagonists manage to at least be flummoxed by the world around them. As far as I can tell, everybody just shrugs their shoulders and goes on with their lives when they discover *random-pseudo-supernatural-thing-here*.