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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
My discovery of Christopher Moore's vampire novels actually began with Bite Me: A Love Story. Not realizing it was part of a series, I picked it up at the library, read the first chapter, and was thoroughly confused. A friend pointed me to the two books that preceded this one, which I dutifully read so that I could tackle this one with some clue about what is going on.
::: The Plot :::
Continuing where You Suck: A Love Story left off, Bite Me: A Love Story begins with the intrepid vampire minion Abby Normal, who has moved into her vampire master and mistress' very cool apartment with her grad student boyfriend who's found a cure for vampirism. Let's ignore the fact that she's a high school student (and a minor) and somehow shacked up with her boyfriend.
Abby has bronzed the vampires, determined to find a way to make sure their love survives, since Jody wants to remain a vampire while Tommy wants to go back to being human. While the vampires are bronzed, we learn that a cat has been turned to a vampire, and he has, in turn, changed tons of the city's cat population. The cats are decimating the homeless population and only the homeless Emperor seems to know what's going on.
The rest of the novel is a confusing mix of new characters, a mutant vampire/human cat bent on taking over... something, and changes to vampire canon that leave the reader confused and, to be honest, annoyed.
::: Bite Me Is My Sentiment :::
It's a good thing I'm down for the count while recovering from surgery, or I'd honestly be annoyed with myself for the time I wasted reading these books. From the first book to this one, the amount of nearly unintelligible slang ramps up, the cast of characters appears to be a last-ditch writer's effort to keep the story going. Stuck? Toss in a new character. We have three new vampires introduced briefly at the end of the last book that we never learn enough about to actually care what what happens to them, a swordsman we met briefly in the last book as well who suddenly plays a huge part in how the story ends, and a Caribbean-patois-using wannabe Hawaiian minion.
If you manage to keep the characters and the ridiculous plot straight to get through to the ending, you'll find yourself wanting to throw the book against the wall when you find out how it ends. Love story? Not even close. While some of the moments and dialogue were laugh-out-loud funny, even over the course of three books, I never felt like anyone in the story was someone I cared about. The "shocker" ending seems like a desperate ploy, but never at any point did I feel like these characters cared about each other enough to have fallen in love. All I know is that I sure didn't love any of them.
This review was originally published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Bite_Me_Christopher_Moore/content_514535820932
::: The Plot :::
Continuing where You Suck: A Love Story left off, Bite Me: A Love Story begins with the intrepid vampire minion Abby Normal, who has moved into her vampire master and mistress' very cool apartment with her grad student boyfriend who's found a cure for vampirism. Let's ignore the fact that she's a high school student (and a minor) and somehow shacked up with her boyfriend.
Abby has bronzed the vampires, determined to find a way to make sure their love survives, since Jody wants to remain a vampire while Tommy wants to go back to being human. While the vampires are bronzed, we learn that a cat has been turned to a vampire, and he has, in turn, changed tons of the city's cat population. The cats are decimating the homeless population and only the homeless Emperor seems to know what's going on.
The rest of the novel is a confusing mix of new characters, a mutant vampire/human cat bent on taking over... something, and changes to vampire canon that leave the reader confused and, to be honest, annoyed.
::: Bite Me Is My Sentiment :::
It's a good thing I'm down for the count while recovering from surgery, or I'd honestly be annoyed with myself for the time I wasted reading these books. From the first book to this one, the amount of nearly unintelligible slang ramps up, the cast of characters appears to be a last-ditch writer's effort to keep the story going. Stuck? Toss in a new character. We have three new vampires introduced briefly at the end of the last book that we never learn enough about to actually care what what happens to them, a swordsman we met briefly in the last book as well who suddenly plays a huge part in how the story ends, and a Caribbean-patois-using wannabe Hawaiian minion.
If you manage to keep the characters and the ridiculous plot straight to get through to the ending, you'll find yourself wanting to throw the book against the wall when you find out how it ends. Love story? Not even close. While some of the moments and dialogue were laugh-out-loud funny, even over the course of three books, I never felt like anyone in the story was someone I cared about. The "shocker" ending seems like a desperate ploy, but never at any point did I feel like these characters cared about each other enough to have fallen in love. All I know is that I sure didn't love any of them.
This review was originally published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Bite_Me_Christopher_Moore/content_514535820932
This book features vampire cats who operate as a misty mob. One of the main characters is blogging/journalling as part of the story and it gets a little old. On the whole it was a fun read and I was sorry to see it end - took me awhile since we were in the middle of moving while I was reading this one.
funny
This was just for the witty dialog. And it’s what I wanted.
An action-packed ending to Moore's "Love story" vampire trilogy.
What's not to like about another episode in the vampire series with Jody and Tommy? Except for the relentless bubblegum-goth Abby, who takes over too much of the book. I'm pretty sure her parts were fun to write, but they got a little tedious after a while.
In the meantime, the Emperor got more interesting and vampire cats? Nice touch. And Kona washes up at the marina...nice to see him, brah, after so long.
I enjoy Moore's loopy humor (reminds me of Thorne Smith, who wrote some great screwball stuff), but I hope this is the last book in this arc. If he does another Jodie book, fine, but she'll have to go to the Island of the Sequined Love Nuns or somewhere, anywhere but San Francisco.
In the meantime, the Emperor got more interesting and vampire cats? Nice touch. And Kona washes up at the marina...nice to see him, brah, after so long.
I enjoy Moore's loopy humor (reminds me of Thorne Smith, who wrote some great screwball stuff), but I hope this is the last book in this arc. If he does another Jodie book, fine, but she'll have to go to the Island of the Sequined Love Nuns or somewhere, anywhere but San Francisco.
In this third installation to his vampire series (following Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck) Moore wraps up the story of Jody and Tommy, the young couple who have become San Francisco’s newest vampires. In this novel, however, they are not alone, because the city’s population of undead is increasing rapidly. Chet, the fat, shaved cat, returns to roam the streets as the first vampire kitty. He’s got the bloodlust of Jody and Tommy, but none of the conscience to prevent him from infecting anything in his path. Soon the city is overrun with bloodsucking felines and it’s up to Jody, Tommy, teenage goth girl Abby Normal, her scientist boyfriend, Steve, and of course The Emperor of San Francisco to stop them. Fans of Moore will find Bite Me as hilarious and touching as all his other novels and will be delighted to revisit some of their favorite characters, but may be disappointed at the quality of the plot. While the author’s quirkiness and unique storylines are what attract many of his readers, this novel goes a bit too far and almost crosses the line into ridiculous. This book would be best for diehard fans of Christopher Moore, rather than first time readers, who may find it quite bizarre.
This is a third book. The first two are Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck.
The series started as a romance between an aspiring writer the never writes, C. Thomas Flood, and a newly turned vampire, Jody. The seemed at once star-crossed and charmed, and has been the centerpoint of the stories to date. This latest installment develops a lot of the side characters and takes the main couple through an amazingly well-motivated transformation.
The obligatory uncontrollable escalating catastrophe blew up so fast that Moore had to force a lot of scenes that didn't quite work. One character who is sick to the point of not knowing who he or she is nor being aware of his or her surrounding suddenly makes an inspired, brilliant, decisive, timely solution to save a major supporting character, then goes back to being hopelessly lost and weak because the timing didn't work out for that to be when the character recovers. To wrap up the middle-to-ending, the overuse of time and place coincidences gets obnoxious.
The ending itself is clearly designed to leave room for another sequel, but the trailing hook doesn't dig in the way You Suck managed to.
The series started as a romance between an aspiring writer the never writes, C. Thomas Flood, and a newly turned vampire, Jody. The seemed at once star-crossed and charmed, and has been the centerpoint of the stories to date. This latest installment develops a lot of the side characters and takes the main couple through an amazingly well-motivated transformation.
The obligatory uncontrollable escalating catastrophe blew up so fast that Moore had to force a lot of scenes that didn't quite work. One character who is sick to the point of not knowing who he or she is nor being aware of his or her surrounding suddenly makes an inspired, brilliant, decisive, timely solution to save a major supporting character, then goes back to being hopelessly lost and weak because the timing didn't work out for that to be when the character recovers. To wrap up the middle-to-ending, the overuse of time and place coincidences gets obnoxious.
The ending itself is clearly designed to leave room for another sequel, but the trailing hook doesn't dig in the way You Suck managed to.