Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story

"It's not like I came to the City saying, "Oh, I can't wait to find a woman whose only joy in life is sucking out my bodily fluids.' Okay, well maybe I did, but I didn't mean this."This is not my first experience with Christopher Moore. I loved  A Dirty Job , and wrote up a review on it, but it never posted and I never rewrote it. Loved  Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal . I read part of  Fool  as part of a self-designed plan to really understand King Lear from different angles -- the play, different performances, the Moore book -- then I cleaned and now I can't find anything.Anyhow...Moore has a very definite outlook and it's pretty funny. People who read him are always talking about him as a great humor writer, but his strength is writing about how humor battles sadness, copes with tragedy, keeps people going. The moments when the books are just serious are pretty rare, but his topics even in his funniest books are deeper than they seem.Flood in dealing with his girlfriend being a vampire reads a lot of books, most of them fiction, although he's sure that Stoker or Rice must have known a real vampire or two.  The Vampire Lestat  is mentioned often and that book and this one don't seem all that similar. However, TVL was largely about loneliness, of losing loved ones and everything falling to ruin around you -- at least that's what I got from it when I was sixteen ::grin:: -- and this becomes one of Jodie's sources of angst too. She loves Tommy (Flood), but she can't share with him the way the world is for her now, because there are no words for it. Tommy wants to share his world with her too, but there never seems to be time, and there are so many barriers. Only Moore makes you laugh when he's sharing this in a way that Rice never does, at least not intentionally. :)I read Moore and am torn between laughter and queasiness, because some pretty grim events happen but the quips don't stop. I guess I'd like to see what he'd be like with 30% of the humor dialed back, just out of curiosity, but I think that says something about the way I handle the things Moore tackles with humor. A book as a Rorschach.Moore's best characters are lovable, er, rear holes. Good people saying weirdly inappropriate things and occasionally being pretty dumb in strangely realistic ways. See Flood's plan to stick Jodie in a freezer and how that all worked out -- but it makes a strange bit of dumb sense and anyone spending time around other people or even with an understanding of self can see how most of the crazy choices happen. I think that's one of the author's strengths -- the acknowledgment that fairly smart people do crazy things as opposed to intelligent people in books usually benefiting from the calm mind of the author as God. No, Moore's characters are just allowed to make bad decisions or not think things through. I always get the impression Moore likes people -- maybe not big crowds of them, but the individual quirks.Anyhow, all of this is a disjointed way of saying Moore is a writer that readers gush about and recommend for a reason. I've started the sequel,  You Suck  but one of my preorders showed up and is taking precedence. Besides, good authors are the ones you want to savor. :)

For those reading this review who haven't had the opportunity to come across Christopher Moore in his other outings a little background may be useful. Christopher Moore has been characterized as a "cult" author of what has been termed as "absurdist fiction." Now, clearly, when anyone uses the word "cult" to describe something that I subsribe to, then I start to get a little concerned about the future safety and well-being of me and my family. But, in this case, I think its quite okay to be part of an ever expanding cult of Moore readers.Absurdist fiction, while a rather vague characertization, roughly sums up what Moore is all about. His other offerings, Practical Demonkeeping, the Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Lamb offer an interesting perspective on the more stickier aspects of befriending a demon, conjouring forth a sex-starved ancient lizard of the Pacific, and being J.C.'s childhood pal, respectively. Thus, armed with this background, it is no small surprise that Moore finds himself devling into the world of the undead in Bloodsucking Fiends.In this novel, chronologically the third of Moore's eleven novels, C. Thomas Flood (the "C" added for hip factor) is an aspiring novelist from Indiana who comes to San Franscisco seeking literary inspiration when he happens to meet up with Jody; a newly inducted vampire. Its your basic story of small town, midwestern boy, meets big-city vampira and love ensues. Well, maybe not so basic, but the fact remains that the big-city vampira needs a day walker to assist her in the stickier points of being undead, such as finding a windowless bedroomed apartment.The story begins with Jody, after being attacked, awakens to find herself under a dumpster, armed with a wad of cash, a seriously burnt hand, heigtened senses and increbible strength. It doesn't take long for her to realize that her attacker was really a vampire recruitier. Jody, being newly undead and all, is still trying to make sense of her new "life" and adjust to a schedule dicated by sunrise/sunset, as well as coming to terms with her near immortality, when she meets Tommy and sees an opportunity to fill the recently open position of "minion." Tommy, on the other hand, is busy trying to find authorial inspiration in the new City, avoiding marriage proposals from his Chinese roommates, and ascending to the throne of turkey bowling champion, when Jody becomes the all-meaningful first relationship in his life. All seems to be progressing, until blood-drained bodies start popping up around the City. Now its up to Jody, Tommy and his wanton band of turkey-bowling, night stocking buddies to find out whose behind the attacks before one of them becomes the next victim.All in all, while not a literary masterpiece tome on the same plane as, say, War and Peace, Bloodsucking Fiends, like other Moore novels, is fun, absurd and downright hilarious! Dialogue and an interesting perspective on common, everyday occurences is what sets Moore apart from contemporary novelists, and this novel is no departure. Pick-up, read and enjoy!

I have to say first up that I am not a vampire fan boy. I don't watch the TV shows or read all the series of the genre. I do like a laugh though and I understand that Moore writes funny stories.I picked this because the reviews were promising and it seemed a decent first dive into Moore's work. My thoughts? Well it was OK. It was fine. It was engaging, I kept reading. I quite enjoyed it.Did I rush to buy the next one? No. I guess the main thing I would say is that I just didn't find it very funny. I can't remember laughing at all in fact.I don't want to say it was bad, it wasn't. It was fine - an easy, enjoyable read, no more.If you are really into vampire stories maybe you'd enjoy it more.

Excellent book from a writer who should be better known in the UK. Funny, sharp, good characters, and did I mention he is funny? A unique take and antidote to the current sentimentalised and formulaic vampire genre - a kind of literary garlic. I've read several of his books now, including the two others in this series. Recommended.

After a good review in The Guardian, I picked this book up looking for a light hearted, enjoyable and easy read which this book delivers. The dialogue is snappy and funny, the action is adrenaline packed, and the plot engages you while dragging you along for the ride.On the cover there is a comment by Carl Hiaasen who says that Moore is a "very sick man" - but the gore promised implicity in this is never delivered. For a vampire book there is a lowish body count and no where near enough gore to satisfy. The book is more like a teen book in that respect. That said I did enjoy reading it - it wasn't at all taxing, but just wish there was a little more bloodshed.

Love it! Christopher's Moore books are easy, funny read! And this one is no different. If you like vampires, and are wondering how will it be to be one nowadays - this is a book to read!

Funny, Silly, Daft and Irreverent. Just the job to cheer up a cold winter night. All three books in the set are worth reading (In my opinion) Laugh out loud books.