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buttermellow's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Infidelity, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Car accident, and Suicidal thoughts
dearvillains's review
3.25
Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Moderate: Deadnaming, Infidelity, Ableism, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts
dustghosts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Outing, Sexual content, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Blood, Ableism, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Violence, and Medical trauma
Minor: Car accident and Deadnaming
anxiousnachos's review
3.0
I thought it raised some very interesting ideas around vampirism, death and archiving. But this is unfortunately where it began to let me down because it was all just rather…shall we say it, boring? Trying to be philosophical but just losing the engagement along the way?
So I have mixed thoughts and ultimately I am settling somewhere on a mixed rating. Because whilst there are some moments of real, deep familiarity and connection, there is also a lot to swim through to reach those moments.
Content warnings: transphobia, blood, needles and other medical content, dysphoria, disability discrimination in the workplace, graphic sex, deadnaming, outing (in the workplace), vampirism as chronic illness, car accident, suicidal ideation
Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Outing, Car accident, Chronic illness, Ableism, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts
uranaishi's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Medical content, Outing, and Sexual content
Moderate: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Alcohol and Car accident
yavin_iv's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Grief, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Blood, Death, Sexual content, and Outing
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infertility
elliotvanz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
If you're looking for slick supernatural vampires doing slick supernatural vampire things that's not what this book is interested in. This one is more literary and interested in considering what vampirism might look like if it was more like an illness. I for one found it fascinating, and I was glad I went into it with very little foreknowledge nor expectations. This is a meditative and broody book, not an adventure yarn.
This story reads a bit like a noir, especially with the snappy dialogue, but there isn't really a mystery to solve in any traditional sense. It's much more of a romance than anything else, though the style and structure are not what I would call romantic. It's peppered with alternate styles of writing, like message board posts, articles, emails, and text threads, just like the archives that are so central to the story and the main character. The writing is crisp and evocative, descriptive without ever becoming flowery. The pace clips along. The real focus, though, is on character and how it feels to walk through life when you're different and the world isn't made for you, especially when you feel hollowed out and stuck. You could replace vampirism with any host of disabilities and the story remains intact.
So much of this book is about trans identity (especially trans masculine and genderfluid), disability, discrimination, being nocturnal, being in love, watching an old life and the things you cared about decay, and trying to build something new when you're scared and don't know if you can. It's about taking chances, some you should and some you shouldn't. It's about figuring out who you are and who you want to be. It's also about archives and what we leave behind. And yeah, I guess it's also about vampires.
I'm glad I took a chance on this one when the author's debut was so lukewarm for me. I look forward to future offerings.
Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, Chronic illness, Ableism, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content, Outing, Terminal illness, Grief, Body horror, Car accident, Confinement, and Dysphoria
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, and Infertility
carlyjaebee's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Dysphoria and Ableism
Minor: Transphobia and Violence
rigbees's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book also talks deeply about fandom and the ways that identity can be found in fandom. The collection donated to the archive at the start of this book is related to a show that Sol was deep in fandom over in the 90s. This is part of the initial bonding with the romantic interest, and is teased out throughout the book. At one point, Sol's teenage posts online resurface, about how he felt compelled to write m/m slash fic even though (at the time of writing) he was a lesbian.
Likewise, this book pulls in quite a bit about how trans men have historically faced transphobia from people like them. In this case, it matches my own experience as trans masc person. There is a prominent butch woman in the book who seems to think that all butch women want to be men, and Sol did the community a disservice by actually transitioning (please see the butch flight panic in the 90s!).
I'm glad I read this book, and I think that trans men/masc people who love vampires would probably find it a valuable read. I'd hesitate to recommend this book to a cis audience, but that's mostly because I feel like it would expose too many painful points of my life to people I don't trust to understand the depth of my experience!
Moderate: Transphobia and Ableism