Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

6 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book was wild. I was avoding reading it because I don't really care about vampires but holy shit, I'm glad I finally picked it up.

This book is about vampires that live in tunnels under NYC in the 70's. Our main character is a "14 year old boy vampire" named Joey. Obviously he's older than 14 but that's the age he was turned at. He lives with a group of vampires in the tunnels. Their group has a hierarchy and rules. Things get messy when Joey encounters a vampire child, triggering a wild series of events with a lot of twists and turns and wtf moments. That's all you need to know.

I loved this book because it totally defied my expectations. I didn't find it predictable. The characters were colourful and the setting was fun. The authors take of vampires was also really fun. There were plenty of horrifying moments. My favorite thing about this book is that you truly felt like the stakes were high. It was easy to feel genuinely afraid for the characters that you care about so much.

Definitely read this. Also, part way through if you feel a bit icky, just keep going. The second half of this story is a wild ride.
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imaginary_space's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

🦇🦇🦇🦇 4/5 underground-dwelling vampires

"He gets away with it because he's strong."
"This is the story of mankind."
"I thought you were going to be a priest at one point."
"Yes. But then I read the newspaper."

I love me some good vampire horror and Christopher Buehlman delivered. I wasn't sure if I would give it 3 or 4 stars, until the end, which pushed it firmly to 4 stars. 

A lot to like about this book:
  • the whole world building around the vampires, how they work as a species and (how they live in) the tunnels makes for great atmosphere from the get-go
  • the characters are very flawed and lovely
  • Cvetko
  • unreliable narrator
  • creepy kids are creepy and cute
  • the stakes exist and are very real
  • those nice scenes of real horror and tragedy in between, absolutely loved them
  • the ending really elevates the story

Why I didn't give it 5 stars:
  • Even though I liked the ending, it did feel a little like the author
    wasn't sure which ending would be best received by his audience and decided to offer all of them instead, placing the responsibility of whether you liked it or not on the reader.
  • I couldn't establish a strong emotional connection with the narrator, this might be different when I read it again in the future.
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bohboh's review against another edition

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

3.75

Wild

Buehlman did a great job keeping me guessing through the whole read. He kept teetering the line between a punk and wholesome protagonist. Themes of abuse and racism appeared and were handled brutishly but obviously as intended, which left me uncomfortable. The writing style(s) were super well executed.
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catsy2022's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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epsyphus's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts on this book. It was scary, not like can't-sleep-with-the-lights-off-for-a-couple-nights, but more like do-we-ever-really-know-anybody?? sort of thing. Even knowing before hand that the narrator was unreliable, I still found myself surprised and horrified at the end. The narrator used a lot of derogatory language commonly used in the 1970s which bugged me, but I did enjoy the book. The characters were interesting.
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e_asw_97's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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