Reviews with content warning for Grief - Vampires, Hearts, & Other Dead Things

Great book, and a very poignant exploration of grief and the ways we try to deal with it. I will say, this book either needed more vampire stuff or less vampire stuff, and that probably won't make sense until you read it.

This book follows a teenage girl named Victoria whose father is close to passing away from pancreatic cancer. She ends up taking a trip to New Orleans that she had planned with her dad, accompanied by her estranged best friend Henry in place of said dad. Convinced since childhood that vampires are real, Victoria begins searching for a vampire who can help her save her dad from dying, and eventually becomes convinced she has found one. She's willing to jump through almost any number of hoops to prove her worthiness to become a vampire, and is assigned various scavenger hunt-esque tasks to complete in order to do so.

The part of this book that I was the most invested in was Victoria's friendship with Henry. The two of them are childhood friends who had feelings for each other, but grew apart after Henry started dating someone else. Now single again, Henry is trying to reconnect with Victoria throughout the book (primarily as a friend and as someone else who has recently experienced loss, not like in a pushy "date me" way), but she's continually pushing him away because he doesn't fully support her vampire quest. Honestly, Henry is great and Victoria is kind of awful to him at points, but I still wanted them to be together, or at least for her to let someone in. I'm just saying, if I had someone like Henry following me to New Orleans to hunt vampires, I would be a lot less interested in the vampires. This is huge for me to say, because I love vampires.

As for the vampire thing - spoilers follow.

Throughout the book, we're constantly lead to doubt whether vampires are actually real. Although Victoria meets a boy posing as a vampire, the "proof" she's clinging to that he's real is tenuous at best, and eventually falls apart, revealing how hopeless her quest has been. He was never a vampire, just a teenager who sends people on these scavenger hunts to remind them of the joys of life. I liked this. It's a very non-traditional kind of vampire story. However, it gets a little weird when Victoria suddenly figures out, the night before her flight home, that someone else she met IS actually a vampire. She goes to confront him and his vampirism is confirmed when he bites her, either to kill her or turn her. But she isn't turned, and flies home the next morning with a little less blood. I feel like I understand why Maggie Fuston would have included a real vampire at the end of this story, but as a vampire lover I respectfully think she should have resisted the urge. I think it would have been stronger to leave the reality of vampires ambiguous - maybe Victoria suspects someone of being a true vampire, but doesn't get to confirm. Victoria leaving behind her hunt for vampires (even if she has reason to believe they ARE real) could act as a metaphor for her accepting her grief and her dad's death. And yes, she does accept her grief at the end, but I think it would have been more powerful if she didn't get confirmation. For Victoria to keep looking for a vampire (no matter how dangerous the vampire in question may be) after everything she's been through and the emotional journey she's been on just felt...odd, especially at this point in the story. ALTERNATELY, for a "more vampires" option, if this was an entirely different story, Victoria becoming a vampire could be a really interesting conflict to unpack. So that's what I meant by saying this story needs more vampires or less vampires. I personally lean towards less vampires and cutting the reveal, but I'm sure some readers would have been left cold without some kind of resolution to the mystery.

Also, I wish we could have spent more time exploring Victoria's relationships with her friends and family and how she begins repairing those relationships at the end of the book, since that was the heart of the story for me. The scavenger hunt she goes on dragged out just a little too long, although I did enjoy the setting it was taking place in. Like Henry, I was getting more frustrated with Victoria as things continued.

Overall, a very good book that I really enjoyed. I'm really interested to see where Maggie Fuston will go from here, and in general I hope we get more non-traditional vampire stories in the future. I love a good vampire story, and this was a great twist on the traditional formula.

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nitya's review

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adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Read for MLIS elective

The quotes from various supernatural/vampire media above the chapter titles were a great touch.

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msjk427's review

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dark hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The title and premise of this book intrigued me. First, I will say the dad part gets me in the feel as my own dad is a cancer survivor and my best friend, so in that way I can relate to our protagonist, Victoria. While I at first enjoyed the direction of the story once Victoria and Henry get to New Orleans, about 100-150 pages in I realized I didn't really relate to Victoria, especially as I am someone who basically over feels every emotion and is very comfortable with the fact that everyone dies. At times I felt she was disagreeable and immature. I rushed through the next bit of the book just reading it to be done. I will say at the very end, I felt like Victoria came into a more likable person and had a good arc in the last couple of chapters. But honestly, I have no idea how Henry put up with her all that time.

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debussy's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Margie Fuston is the best debut I've read this year. Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things is an introspective book on living with grief, from the perspective of the eighteen-year-old Victoria, a vampire-obsessed prospective art student with a father given a terminal cancer diagnosis. Deciding she's the last best hope to save his life, Victoria flies to New Orleans in search of a vampire--one came out years ago to the national media, only to quickly go back into hiding. People aren't sure if vampires are real, but if they are? Surely they're in New Orleans. Henry, Victoria's former childhood friend and crush, escorts her, and the two are put on a vampiric quest to prove Victoria can truly live, as being a vampire does involve a lot of living. Victoria does the tasks--eat, be merry, steal things, kiss boys under the moon, but she only tailspins. Can she truly be happy--truly let herself feel any emotion at all--when her father is dying and she's the last hope to save his life?

Like I said, Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things spends a lot of time in Victoria's head. Discussions on grief, on emotional health, on coping, happiness, the future, death, what it all means if you're a vampire--it's drenched in thoughts. Victoria has to overcome her past with Henry, learn how to live without her dad, and win the vampire's game so she doesn't have to. Victoria can be a hard character to love--she's willing to believe a lot to get what she wants, and willing to put anyone around her in danger for the hope she can turn her father into a vampire. It's a hard ask for readers, but I think Fuston makes it work by relentlessly reminding us where Victoria is in the grieving process--denial, and boatloads of it.

Only two things jump out at me to make this less than a five star read--I found it difficult to believe two teenagers straight out of high school would make this major trip so spur of the moment (and that two sets of parents would be totally cool with it), and the climax felt incredibly quick given the time spent with the tasks. Some New Orleans details felt poorly threaded--the why of it all a sketch without color--but overall it's a solid addition to the vampire book crew.

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