A People's History of the Vampire Uprising
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3.3 • 7 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
'In a landscape littered with works on the undead, A People's History of the Vampire Uprising is a welcome addition. It is an accomplished book' - Weekend Australian
'The vampire novel we deserve right now' - Washington Post
A Boston Globe, New York Post and USA Today Summer Reading Pick
'I caught my breath, even from across the room. All I wanted to do was look into her eyes. It was as if she knew the reason I was there and that I was looking for her.'
The body of a young woman found in an Arizona border town walks out of the morgue. To the CDC investigator called in to consult the local police, it's a bizarre medical mystery.
More bodies, dead of a mysterious disease that solidifies their blood, begin disappearing from morgues nearby. In a futile game of catch-up, the CDC, the FBI and the US government realise that it's already too late to stop it: the vampire epidemic will sweep first the United States, and then the world.
Impossibly strong, smart, beautiful, and commanding, these creatures refuse to be called 'vampires', they prefer 'gloamings'. They quickly rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society: physically graceful at sports, endlessly enthralling on TV and incredibly intelligent at business - soon people are begging to be 're-created', willing to risk death if their bodies can't handle the transformation.
But just as the world begins to adjust, the stakes change yet again when a charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, decides to do what none of his kind has done before: run for political office.
This sweeping yet deeply intimate fictional oral history - told from the perspective of several players on all sides of the vampire uprising - is a genre-bending, shocking, immersive and subversive debut that is as addictive as the power it describes.
'solid supernatural thriller' - Publishers Weekly
'a spectacularly creepy ecosphere, not to mention some genuinely horrifying frights... The start of a vampire epic and a strong contender in the genus of apocalypse fantasy.' Kirkus Review
'relentlessly clever' - Washington Post
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This tart, satiric horror story puts an edgy twist on the bloodsucker trope: What if some people actually wanted to fall victims to—and become—vampires, given how strong and sexy they are? Told as an oral history, Raymond A. Villareal’s novel charts an epidemic of voluntary vampirism from its mysterious beginnings to a civil war between its willing victims (including a famous businessman turned presidential candidate) and those committed to fighting the immortals. Tense, violent and often unexpectedly hilarious, this is a vampire story unlike any other we’ve read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Villareal's enjoyable if derivative first novel, CDC virologist Lauren Scott travels to Nogales, Ariz., where she visits the city morgue to examine a body "exhibiting unusual hemophilia bruising and intradermal contusions." To her annoyance, the body has apparently been stolen, but another has since arrived at the morgue bearing the identical pattern of bruising. Lauren notices two puncture marks on this new body near the carotid artery. Sure enough, the evidence suggests that vampires who prefer to be known as gloamings have invaded the U.S. Lauren eventually joins Hugo Zumthor, the FBI agent in charge of the Gloaming Crimes Unit, and John Reilly, a Catholic priest, in contending with the gloamings, who are struggling for their political rights. Genre fans may have fun recognizing the influence of such notable predecessors as Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series, Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain, and Max Brooks's World War Z. That 20th Century Fox and Shawn Levy's 21 Laps have secured film rights bodes well for this solid supernatural thriller.
Customer Reviews
Great idea
What a great idea for a book. I wanted to love it, but found it impossible to connect to any of the characters. An impressive amount of research must have been done for this book, but sadly it came across more as jargon and left me feeling glazed over. I understand it’s meant to be a history, but if you can’t get invested in a story it makes it difficult to read.
Ok story, destroyed by bad writing.
So sad. This could have been for vampires what WWZ was for zombies. Dreadful writing kills it deader than a stake through the heart.