Blood Slaves
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4.0 • 11 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Ryan Coogler's Sinners and readers of Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, this ingenious reimagining of the vampire origin story set during the early days of American slavery blends alternate history with supernatural horror, as the last surviving member of an ancient African vampire tribe meets a slave desperate for freedom, and together, they lead an army of enslaved people in a cinematically blood-soaked battle for freedom and revenge.
In the Province of Carolina, 1710, freedom seems unattainable for Willie, for his beloved Gertie, and for their unborn child. They live, suffer, and toil under their brutal master, James “Big Jim” Barrow, whose grand plantation was built by the blood, sweat, and tears of the enslaved. To flee this hell on earth is to be hunted and killed—until one strange night Willie is offered a dark hope by Rafazi, an enigmatic slave with an irresistible and blood-chilling path to liberation.
Hailing from the Kingdom of Ghana, Rafazi is the lone survivor of the Ramanga, an African vampire tribe rendered nearly extinct by plague. Rafazi has roamed the world for centuries with an undying desire to replenish the power that once defined his heritage. In Willie, Rafazi has found his first biddable subject to be turned and to help in a hungry revolt. And Willie desires nothing more than to free his people from malicious bondage. Whatever it takes.
One by one, as an army of blood slaves thirsting for revenge is gathered, the headstrong Gertie fears that no good can come from the vampiric legacy that courses through Rafazi’s veins. Willie knows that only evil can fight evil. And when the woman he loves stands between the reemergence of the Ramanga and the justified slaughter of the oppressors, Willie must make an irreversible decision. Only one thing is certain: on the Barrow plantation, and beyond, blood will spill.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Redmond's brutal and unflinching debut, it's humans, not vampires, who are the real monsters. Rafazi, the last survivor of an African vampire clan that has rapidly died out from a mysterious blood-borne disease, is kidnapped by slave traders and brought to the Carolinas in 1407. His story eventually converges with that of Willie, an enslaved man introduced to readers in 1710, when his thwarted escape attempt results in the horrific murder of his friend and a series of brutal punishments that almost kills Willie. Later, Willie's love, Gertie, learns she is pregnant with their child, and the pair are faced with the abject reality of having a baby born into slavery. So when Willie meets the enigmatic Rafazi and discovers his supernatural secret, he's primed to relinquish his human form and become something more, hoping for freedom and a chance at revenge against the plantation owner and his cronies. The revolt that follows is steeped in violence, anguish, and triumph. Redmond's seething prose elevates what might otherwise feel like tired horror tropes and his heroes are both monumental and complicated. The result is searing, tense, and unforgettable.
