| Title | : | Vampire's Kiss |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0061061778 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780061061776 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 211 |
| Publication | : | First published July 7, 1994 |
Vampire's Kiss Reviews
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OMG another YA vampire horror on KU? YAAASS
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Minor spoilers, but you probably already know how this book is going to end if you've read any YA novel from the 90s.
Why do I keep reading 90s teen novels? They're all the same. Yet I plan to add more to my to-read list after I write this review. (I found them advertised in the back of this book. That was how you found out about books before Goodreads.)
The summary for this book is so incredibly misleading. Drew is the love interest of Susan, the bland MC. On the back of the book it talks about him arriving in town. The Goodreads summary says Susan meets Drew. However, he neither arrives, nor do they actually meet in real life until literally the last couple of pages.
Susan is a good girl. It never actually says that, but she's a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the apartment above her brother's garage, and she uses place mats when she has company. With matching napkins. The real good girl role is reserved for her friend Angie, who only wants to wear her skimpy red bikini for her sexist boyfriend Brad, because she doesn't want people to get the wrong idea about her. (She wears it anyway, in case you were wondering.)
This is such a weird setup. I mean, Drew appears to Susan on her TV (or television set, as the novel quaintly puts it). He was killed by vampires and now he's warning her about a local band called the Blood Brothers. His being on the TV is sort of explained by him being a reporter, but really, what the hell is this? He's dead, a ghost, and the TV is his medium. But like I said, he and Susan meet at the end of the book and he's randomly alive. No explanation.
But there were some really good parts. One night the characters go to the Blood Brothers' club to hear the band. After the set, Susan dances with Bishop, one of the band members. It was a short scene, but it was so good and surreal. Later that night, Bishop shows up at Susan's door on a vampire errand (I'm not joking, TV Drew actually calls it a "vampire errand," haha). Anyway, the brief scenes where Bishop tries to seduce Susan are awesome. Obviously she should have given in to him and let his bad boy vampire self sweep her off her feet. God, what a wet blanket. (They say things like "wet blanket" in the book, too.)
This book just had so many open ends and random shit happening all over the place to make up the shitty mythology: a Mexican white witch, blue electric power that comes out of nowhere for no reason, vampire-made music that appears to suck out the listener's life force. There was so much potential for creepiness and sexiness, and creepy sexiness. Each of the three friends (Susan, Angie, and Freddie) are sort of paired up with a gorgeous vampire dude. There are five vampires in total, including Angie's boyfriend Brad, who's the new guy among them. And we still couldn't get some action out of all those hot vampire guys.
In short:
- bland, one-note characters
- cheesy dialogue ("Boy, we got out of there just in the nick of time!")
- woefully underdeveloped mythology
- a sexist boyfriend
However, I do think this would make a pretty cool movie. Complete with an awesome old school goth soundtrack, of course. -
Very predictable. Dialogue was very.... weird. Did not flow. Absolutely no twists at all in this book, although pretty suspenseful. I’ll still give this author another go.
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First thing first: You have to read fiction and have a suspension on disbelief. Since it is dealing with vampires, that is to be suspected but we go above and beyond in this book.
Second thing second: Reading the back of the book if you have the first edition printing like I do (not in mint condition but good enough) you may just be intrigued because you like vampires and horror and romance or only one or two of the three.
The story within the pages does involves vampires, a girl named Susan and a guy named Drew but that is where all of that ends...
Susan Scott is seventeen and has just graduated from high school. She lost her parents when she was just a freshman and has been living with her brother Mack, his wife and two boys during that time.
Being an adult, she has moved into an apartment above Mack's garage to have her own space. Her two friends who work with her at the local pizzeria, Angela and Frederica aka "Freddie" helped pick out things to spruce it up and Susan is happy with it.
Mack is also a police officer so Susan knows to be careful and while he and his family are in El Paso, Susan sits to enjoy the news and have dinner to herself. There is a small glitch but the power doesn't go out and a reporter is out on the beach of Galveston with a breaking news story.
The police have been called because the dead body of a young man has been found in a shallow grave. The reporter, Drew Morris, is very solemn-faced in delivering the news but it doesn't stop Susan from noticing how handsome he is. She is drawn into the story by the gravitas in his voice and the spark in his gray-green eyes.
Susan can't get the story out of her head and the next day at work she tells Angie and Freddie about the story. Neither girl knows nothing about this story and they find that there is nothing in the paper about a dead body being found. Susan knows she isn't crazy but they soon talk about other things...like guys.
Well Freddie wants to talk about one because she sees a handsome guy with dark hair wearing dark clothes sitting in the corner, wearing sunglasses at night. Do tell us more about him that isn't so obvious...
Susan isn't really interested in the guy and Angela has been dating her boyfriend Brad for awhile but Freddie does have another interest in the guy when she goes to wait on him and they talk.
Freddie wants to be a rock star, a singer like Madonna, but she hasn't heard anything from her last audition. Serendipity because the guy, named Flint, and his bandmates have just come into town and they need to audition a new lead singer and a new lead guitarist.
Well isn't it convenient that Angela's boyfriend Brad is looking to find a band to join because he happens to be a guitarist? His reasons of fortune and fame do seem to have a real purpose so he can get his own place and have Angela move in with him.
Brad is introduced to Flint and he is invited to come to an audition on the same night Flint and Freddie are planning to have a date so it soon becomes an invitation to have a party on the beach with Angela and Susan invited to come.
Angela still lives at home with her parents and it is supposed to be her sister Juanita's sixteenth birthday that day. They come from a strict Mexican family with traditional values but Angie is sure that she could come for a little while because she really likes Brad.
Oh and the name of Flint's band is Blood Brothers...can you give us any more obvious hints about vampires?
Freddie comes over to Susan's apartment for a bit to have something to eat because Susan is wanting to watch the news for very obvious reasons. Freddie dozes a little bit but when the electricity glitch happens again, she is fully awake and both girls see Drew Morris reporting on another breaking story.
Drew just happens to be standing in front of the motel that Freddie's mother runs and the story is that the body of a teenage girls was found in one of the rooms on the second floor!
Freddie rushes straight home and then let's Susan know that her mother told her...there was no news crew at the motel. So at least Susan isn't completely crazy because Freddie saw the story too but both girls are left puzzled about the story and maybe a little concerned...
The next night at the beach, Susan learns from Freddie that she got the singer role and that Brad is auditioning later that night for the guitarist spot. Angela is a little nervous because Brad asked her to wear the red bikini he likes and she had to hide it under her clothes, very shy and nervous by nature.
One of Flint's bandmates, Bishop, came to the beach to meet Susan. There really isn't a love connection between the two and it is more on Susan's end so the girls end up leaving to have Brad get some time to himself before auditioning before the band since there are two more members, Sid and Russel, who didn't feel like coming to the beach.
We switch P.O.V. to Brad at his audition and well he aces it but not in the way he probably wanted...
When Susan return home, Brother Mack has just gotten off work and comes up for a glass of tea so Susan won't miss the news. Good natured talk about the El Paso trip and then Mack talks shop saying that the news should be busy tonight thanks to the body found on the beach and the call about the dead girl at the motel...
Susan is stunned as she sits there with her brother and watches the main news anchorwoman give out the information of the beach body identified as a local newsman from Dallas named Drew Morris...
When Mack leaves, the electricity does the glitchy thing and Drew Morris appears but this time not as tall, dark and handsome as Susan remembers. The stubble of a beard, a gaunt face and a haunted look in his eyes as he seems to be talking to Susan directly but only knows her name and that she is in danger.
Susan is almost in total meltdown when Drew says Freddie's name along with the name of a woman named Sara but then the phone rings and it is good old Freddie. There was a reporter at her mother's motel interviewing her about the body of the dead girl and he obviously wasn't so hush-hush about details. There were marks on her throat and her name just happened to be Sara Robertson...
That following Saturday night, The Blood Brothers make their music debut at a new club they have opened with Susan, Angela and her sister Juanita in the audience. Susan isn't really impressed but it seems that she isn't the only one because other people leave the club and have the same confused look while everyone else, Angela and Nita included, seem hypnotized...
What a way to pull in an audience and it seems to work because we as the readers will begin to learn even more information about the sinister plans The Blood Brothers have been weaving...
There is a whole lot to take in and accept but hey...it is different! There is a really big twist at the end of the book and it just kind of blew my mind a little but in a good way honestly.
You get invested in the characters and learn to love them or hate them which seems to be a big theme plummeted onto your head towards the last act like an anvil: love works against evil and hate does nothing.
I like the dynamic between Susan, Angela and Freddie in their friendship and I am getting so many vibes of other books and movies as I read Vampire's Kiss that it is just too much to mention everyone but mostly Mystic Pizza meets The Lost Boys.
If you know then you know but if not, you can check them out for yourself as well as adding Vampire's Kiss to your own bookshelf alongside those Blu-Rays and DVDs... -
Some rock-musician vampires come to town, Susan isn't taken in by them, but her friends are. Susan gets some strange reports on her TV that nobody else gets, and they later turn out to be true. Susan has to defeat the vampires with love, using a blue glowing light from inside her to blast them.
This was okay, nothing amazing though. The story didn't really feel well-fleshed out, and some of it was a bit cheesy. -
You couldn't call this a good book. It isn't well written or surprising or clever. But it is exactly what you expect when you open a Nightmares book or a Point Horror. Nineties teens in spooky predicaments, that only take an hour to read. They're like cheap made-for-tv horror films designed for sleepovers.
I read this one wrapped up in a blanket listening to a storm blowing outside. It was exactly what I expected and exactly what I wanted. -
This book reminded me a bit of the movie 'The Lost Boys". It was fun, a little spooky and a quick read.
