Reviews

Confessions of a Baby Vamp: Letters to John Milton by Ami J. Sanghvi

chaoticfall's review

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

 

Ami J. Sanghvi’s writing is fantastic in this! They shape wonderfully grotesque images with their sentences. It made reading Baby Vamp a delight. 

I loved the way these letters interacted and weaved together with Paradise Lost and John Milton. It tangles itself within the idea of art vs. artist in a way I really appreciated. Confessions of a Baby Vamp is an excellent example of what can be done with you don’t separate those two things. 

It is pointed out how Milton consciously chose how to treat Sin in Paradise Lost. The Letters both damn him and also acknowledge that such violence is systematic and runs deep.

This book is self-reflective and thoughtful. It looks at the horror of existence as it’s connected to a body. 

lydiaraebush's review

challenging funny medium-paced

fiendfull's review

5.0

Confessions of a Baby Vamp is a series of letters to "John" (Milton) that gives Milton's Sin a life beyond Paradise Lost, as the titular Baby Vamp takes in (literally) Sin and writes a new narrative for them both in unreality. It is a playful take on Paradise Lost that is surreal, funny, and grotesque - it feels like the glitched, hyperpop version of Milton's poem that also draws out some of his most horrific imagery.

As a big Paradise Lost fan who also loves weird experimental stuff, for me this was a good time.

plathologist's review

5.0

When I picked this up to read, I wasn't very familiar with Paradise Lost. I found this to be a fascinating departure from it. The way this is set up, as a series of letters over time, while the speaker comes into self-awareness, is captivating. I stayed interested the wholetime and felt I wanted to follow the thoughts of the speaker and come into understanding their intense, conflicting and devastating feelings about their existence and relationship with Sin.

The way that Sanghvi captures disgust, obsession, and loathing will stick with me for a while.

They write "You see, Sin and I are, in fact, a pair of deranged love-fiends
wandering the halls of a mortal dream. What else would you suggest
we do aside from shedding ourselves with bodily abandon?"

I feel the stickiness of the simultaneous disgust and infatuation on me, still, after reading this. In the best way possible. It made me think. I even was able to identify some of my own feelings within this, even though it's fiction replying to fiction. It was so interesting to me, unpredictable, and my favorite kind of weird.

I look forward to reading more from him the future, they have a unique language that I want to experience more of any chance I get.