| Product: |
Lost Souls - Poppy Z. Brite |
| Date: |
02/01/02 (508 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: slightly erotic
Disadvantages: Shallow, boring characters, weak story
I'm a bit of a vampire fan, particularly vampire fiction, must be a touch of the goth still left in me!!
I'm an avid reader anyway but have never gone out of my way to read Poppy Z Brites work until I found this book in a charity shop for a stunning fifty pence!!
I avoided Brites work for a reason, perhaps I should explain. I find most vampires stories set in the present tedious, stereotypical and thouroughly unoriginal, a kind of read one, read em all, kind of thing.
And Poppy Z Brite does not disappoint.
The story centres around a teenager called Nothing, his mother had sex with a vampire called Zillah, who cams back later along with his cohorts Twig(?) and Molochai. Jessy dies giving birth and Christian (another vampire) takes the baby to Maryland, leaving him on a doorstep with a simple note saying 'His name is Nothing'
We then go forward 15yrs where Nothing is called Jason and is inevitably a 'goth' replete with smoking drugs, getting drunk, wearing black and upsetting his parents Sounds shallow? well pretty much all the characters are shallow, the human goths into bisexuality, playing at vampires and cutting themselves, its been done so may times. The vampires evil Zillah who will stop at nothing and enjoys strange sexual habits while his minions Twig and Molochai follow him around.
And Christian, the oldest vampire, wise and well meaning but not happy about the life he has to lead.
Then there are Ghost and Steve who make up the band Lost Souls? who Nothing runs away to, bumping into Zillah on the way. Ghost is a psychic whos gran was a famous sorceress, I'm sure Brite intended him to play a huge goodie part in the book, but it never comes off, Steve is just his drunk friend pining over Ann his lost girlfriend who unfortunately got knocked up by Zillah.
And thats the characters, they interact along the book, you get the feeling that Ghost is supposed to save Nothing but Brite
then changes her mind. And theres the old 'is he a vampire, isnt he' cliche. (I wont tell you!).
One thing that Brite does surprisingly well is the eroticism and sensuality she puts into the book, perhaps she would do better as a Nancy Friday kind of writer. Its surprisingly sexual but again cliched, again the bisexuality, like Nothing getting oral sex from his best male friend, Ghost and Steve hugging up for a long kiss, Nothing falling in love with and having frequent sex with Zillah, this continues after he finds out Zillah is his father, even this fails to shock.
I just found this book completely boring, there was no depth what so ever, it took me all of an evening to read it and you cant even get a feel for the characters!
Vampire fiction can be written so much better than this, I suggest F.Paul Wilson, esp the Keep, Freda Warringtons 'A Taste of Blood Red Wine' and the classic Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu. In short dont go out of your way to buy it unless you also find it for 50p in a charity shop. Failing that e-mail me your address and I'll give it to you!!
Poppy Z Brite. Lost Souls. Penguin Books 1992
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