Scan barcode
A review by katieheartless
A Love Like Blood by Marcus Sedgwick
4.0
Most people don't know this, but vampires are MY JAM. Ever since devouring Midwinterblood, I've been putting off A Love Like Blood, because I full well knew that it would be worth savoring. Setting Sedgwick's prose aside--which is, incidentally, CRAZY good--this hits SO MANY of my buttons. Claustrophobic, broody, Gothic atmosphere? Check. Uncanny doppelgangers? Check. Labyrinthine, unspooling timeline? Check. Revenge quest? Check. Obsession that devolves into madness? Check. Tongue-in-cheek humor (our protag is a hematologist for fooks sake) that betrays a mind well-steeped in lore? Check. Delightful tangents down psychological, theological, etymological avenues? CHECK CHECK AND CHECK.
This is a rather more nuanced approach to vampires than I'm used to, and Sedgwick adroitly extracts what is monstrous about vampires from the purely supernatural and places it firmly within the bounds of the human grotesque. For such dark fare, it was pure delight. I can't recommend this enough.
This is a rather more nuanced approach to vampires than I'm used to, and Sedgwick adroitly extracts what is monstrous about vampires from the purely supernatural and places it firmly within the bounds of the human grotesque. For such dark fare, it was pure delight. I can't recommend this enough.