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A review by labunnywtf
Seize the Night: New Tales of Vampiric Terror by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Kelley Armstrong
4.0
Because eternal life means eternal, whether you live inside a puppet of meat or the materials used to produce the pages of a book. Eternal life means eternal.
I could tell you so many things in this review to attempt to convince you to read this collection.
For starters, I could remind everyone that for what feels like months, I've searched for a decent short story collection. I've stumbled across some great short stories, and some decent-ish collections of 3 stars stories. But the majority have been so massively disappointing as to push me away from collections all together.
I could tell you that this collection knocked me off my feet and flat onto my ass. That some of these stories led to sleeping with the lights on, and contemplating what was lurking behind me in the dark when walking through my house.
I could point out that unlike the Emo Vampire trend of the last decade or so, these stories feature old school vampires. Vampires that hunt and feed and want blood, want to unleash pain. This is William the Bloody, not Soulboy Spike. Angelus, not Angel. Lestat, not Edward fucking Cullen.
I could pin point the lusciously written vampires of so many different worlds and cultures and mythologies. A vampire made up entirely of fireflies. A Manananggal from the Phillipines. And a teacher with just the right touch to calm hyper students.
Tales that read more like The Walking Dead than The Vampire Diaries. Stories of Vampire Kings, of plagues that leave vampires starving and alone and in search of someone, anyone. To feed, or just to talk to. And some tales that actually feature good old slayers.
I could tell you all of this.
Or I could let you know that buried in this volume is a story about a vampire book.
Not a book about vampires.
A book made of paper, like any other book. Paper made from a tree, like any other paper. But a tree planted specifically to cover a spot where ashes were dumped. Ashes that were once venomous, evil creatures that killed men, women and children. Immortal creatures, eternal. Creatures that don't die just because you stake them and torture them and burn them.
What happens when you turn a vampire into a book? What kind of monsters would be interested in a vampire book, and what kind of person would want to stop the books from doing harm?
That story in itself is reason enough for you to go now, immediately, and get your hands on this book.
Received from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.
I could tell you so many things in this review to attempt to convince you to read this collection.
For starters, I could remind everyone that for what feels like months, I've searched for a decent short story collection. I've stumbled across some great short stories, and some decent-ish collections of 3 stars stories. But the majority have been so massively disappointing as to push me away from collections all together.
I could tell you that this collection knocked me off my feet and flat onto my ass. That some of these stories led to sleeping with the lights on, and contemplating what was lurking behind me in the dark when walking through my house.
I could point out that unlike the Emo Vampire trend of the last decade or so, these stories feature old school vampires. Vampires that hunt and feed and want blood, want to unleash pain. This is William the Bloody, not Soulboy Spike. Angelus, not Angel. Lestat, not Edward fucking Cullen.
I could pin point the lusciously written vampires of so many different worlds and cultures and mythologies. A vampire made up entirely of fireflies. A Manananggal from the Phillipines. And a teacher with just the right touch to calm hyper students.
Tales that read more like The Walking Dead than The Vampire Diaries. Stories of Vampire Kings, of plagues that leave vampires starving and alone and in search of someone, anyone. To feed, or just to talk to. And some tales that actually feature good old slayers.
I could tell you all of this.
Or I could let you know that buried in this volume is a story about a vampire book.
Not a book about vampires.
A book made of paper, like any other book. Paper made from a tree, like any other paper. But a tree planted specifically to cover a spot where ashes were dumped. Ashes that were once venomous, evil creatures that killed men, women and children. Immortal creatures, eternal. Creatures that don't die just because you stake them and torture them and burn them.
What happens when you turn a vampire into a book? What kind of monsters would be interested in a vampire book, and what kind of person would want to stop the books from doing harm?
That story in itself is reason enough for you to go now, immediately, and get your hands on this book.
Received from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.