A Self-Made Monster

The dead too have hopes...


And among the hopeful dead is Alex Resartus: obtuse professor, obscure novelist, schizophrenic...and vampire. As an obtuse professor, he bewilders and frustrates his bored students; as an obscure novelist with a once-promising reputation, he desires to recover his creative powers, but his shattered mind stands in the way. As a schizophrenic, Alex's mind is "broken", and in this most unusual novel, A Self-Made Monster, Alex plans to reorganize his broken mind with whole blood. For Alex's special quirk–both his blessing and his curse–is that he takes on the traits of his victims in most surprising ways.


Alex sees the brilliant and socially backward student, Edward Head, as his savior: Edward's disciplined and powerful mind is just the tonic Alex needs to rejuvenate his creative powers.


But Alex is not the only one with hopes. The living among him have their own hopes.


Edward's hopes are carnal. He desires both Holly Dish, an amalgam of sweaty undergraduate daydreams, and Claire Sweet, a returning adult coed who is both cool and mysterious. Holly and Claire too have their own hopes, as does the short and cynical Jimmy Stubbs, who hates to study and loves to drink beer and scheme. The hopes of each character intersect and eventually violently knot-producing a twisting climax that leaves some characters dead and others about to savor an astounding financial windfall.


By turns violent and funny, A Self-Made Monster is one of the most unusual vampire novels ever published. It strips away the tired clichés and purple prose of the vampire story and replaces them with dead-on characterizations, a galloping plot, and a new conception of the vampire itself.