Customer Reviews

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(79)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Quick personal note; My wife and I have twin 18 month old boys. I stay home with them during the day and work until 1:30 AM. Time is at a premium in my life right now. There's not much to spare and whatever spare time I can get a hold of would most likely be better spent sleeping. That being said, Christopher Moore's Blood Sucking Fiends hooked me the first night I opened the cover and kept me up until nearly 4AM.

I am a long time fan of horror and it would take quite some book to unnerve me to the point of insomnia. It wasn't a late night case of the heeby-jeebies that kept me up. It was the laughter and engaging characters. Moore has a relaxed witty style that translates to a very fast read. All of the characters in Fiends are incredibly likeable (save one) and the story is humorous and engaging. This fresh take on the joys and advantages of being a vampire set in San Franscisco made me want to walk the city and see the sites. I longed to meet a vivacious red-headed blood sucker who would set me up in an apartment and treat me like a cross between Stoker's Renfield and one of Cher's boy toys. I wanted to take the emperor to lunch with his dogs and become engaged to seven Chinese brothers so they could get their green cards. I wanted to work late nights stocking shelves in a supermarket and go bowling with frozen turkeys. (Oh, wait a sec. I have worked in a supermarket overnight and Moore knows exactly what goes on there.)

Christopher Moore weaves all of the above seamlessly and with great humor and affection to create one of the most enjoyable reads of recent memory. More Moore is on it's way to my house as we speak and I can't wait to read his advice on "Practical Demonkeeping" and see what happens in his world when a giant reptile is awakened by radioactive waste in "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove". I may have a new favorite author.

This book should come with a warning label: Read this book alone! Constant chuckling and laughing out loud in public will lead people to think you are crazy!

Ostensibly, this is a spoof of a "vampire" tale. That's like saying Gone with the Wind was about farm life in the south. It utterly fails to convey the substance of the novel.

That substance is derived from the characters--the usual well defined and full blown whackos that inhabit all of Moore's novels. As with all of Moore's novels the locale is a major character as well, and while most of his work is set in small, quirky towns, this one is set in San Francisco, lending an additional element of urban wackiness to the whole thing.

The thing with Moore that most astounds is his characters are cartoons in many ways-but have no cartoonish sense about them. Instead, they remind you of all your best friends, and, like your best friends, you care about these people. That makes the story compelling and, interestingly, the humor more intense.

Make no mistake--this is light, recreational reading. But is it light, recreational reading of the highest order.

I have read all of Moore's books (save the one just issued) and while all are humorous and enjoyable, this one is his best by far.

Charmingly naive young man meets, falls in love with, and then finds it's not easy living with a gorgeous vampire. Improvisation is called for in the form of window shades, freeazer chest, and ... snapping turtles??? Angered and menacing vampire gent adds another level of challenge. Wow! This energetically hilarious story passed the ultimate test: my wife became suspicious when she heard me laughing out loud (something I do every 25,000 books or so). Then she read it and understood. Christopher Moore delivers fast-paced supernatual hijinks, with a peppering of pinpoint jabs at the inanity of modern urban living. The dialog must be among the wittiest of any American author today. It's one thing to chuckle over a funny quote; a real treat to laugh anew when deadpan rejoinders add a whole new twist to the humor. Add a host of imaginative complications, and the reader had better hang on for this wild jaunt. Like Moore's other novels (_Coyote Blue_ Practical Demonkeeping_) the satire is decidedly upbeat. He manages to let the redemptive qualities of his characters sneak through all the farcical shenanigans. As a result, you'll cheer for these night-shift kids as they stumble all over themselves (and a few bodies) to find true happiness. A book easily finished before sunrise!

Christopher Moore wanted to write horror books; he dreamed of being the next Stephen King. Unfortunately for him but fortunately for us, people laughed when they read what he wrote. Thus was born a humorist of the caliber of Dave Barry or Christopher Buckley and some have gone so far as to say he is the next Kurt Vonnegut. Now that we know a bit about our Author, what about the book?
Bloodsucking Fiends is a glorious romp through the night. We have an office worker, Jodi, who has a 9-to-5 dead-end office job in San Francisco, and wakes up one morning under a dumpster and the sun burns her and she has super human strength. She has never watched vampire movies or read the books, so she doesn't know what to do or how to do it. She is on the hunt for the man/creature who turned her.
This is where C. Thomas Flood comes in, a beatnik author from Indiana, who works midnights at the Safeway. He falls in love with Jodi immediately, and realizes that there is something strange about his love.
Follow the humorous journey through the night, the underworld, the streets and alleys of San Francisco as Thomas tries to find a way to be with the woman he loves even if she is undead. And Jodi tries to find out what being undead is all about. Can this love survive? And if you've enjoyed this one, check out his other writings: Island of the Sequined Love Nun, or The Lusty Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

Christopher Moore wanted to write horror books; he dreamed of being the next Stephen King. Unfortunately for him but fortunately for us, people laughed when they read what he wrote. Thus was born a humorist of the caliber of Dave Barry or Christopher Buckley and some have gone so far as to say he is the next Kurt Vonnegut. Now that we know a bit about our Author, what about the book?
Bloodsucking Fiends is a glorious romp through the night. We have an office worker, Jodi, who has a 9-to-5 dead-end office job in San Francisco, and wakes up one morning under a dumpster and the sun burns her and she has super human strength. She has never watched vampire movies or read the books, so she doesn't know what to do or how to do it. She is on the hunt for the man/creature who turned her.
This is where C. Thomas Flood comes in, a beatnik author from Indiana, who works midnights at the Safeway. He falls in love with Jodi immediately, and realizes that there is something strange about his love.
Follow the humorous journey through the night, the underworld, the streets and alleys of San Francisco as Thomas tries to find a way to be with the woman he loves even if she is undead. And Jodi tries to find out what being undead is all about. Can this love survive? And if you've enjoyed this one, check out his other writings: Island of the Sequined Love Nun, or The Lusty Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

I truly can't recall the last time I laughed out loud while reading a book. Smirking, groaning, eye-rolling...these yes. Laughing, no. Until I opened up Bloodsucking Fiends. A supernatural novel with plot, love, action and humor rolled up into a superb tight little package.

The Plot: Our lead female of the story, Jody, gets changed to a vampire within the first chapter. In her struggles to get supplies and a new apartment, she finds Tommy Flood, a night-shift worker who turns into her new gopher and her new roomie.

In the middle of all of this, we have Tommy's story of trying to start over, Jody and Tommy's budding relationship, Jody's struggle with trying to destroy the vampire who created her before he destroys her, and uh... oh yeah...Turkey Bowling.

This is a wonderful supernatural story that isn't completely out there. It's a solid read for fantasy/sci-fi people, run-of-the-mill fiction readers, or anybody in need of a good laugh. The characters are strong, the dialogue is brilliant, and the monkey wrenches thrown in along the way (murders pointing to Jody, a dead body in Tommy's freezer) keep you glued to the pages.

Cons: I can't really come up with any other than those who might be prudish at a few minor sex scenes or some drainage of blood. But then again, I would imagine those people would turn away from a book with the title Bloodsucking Fiends.

The Verdict: An immediate favorite. I enjoyed this so much that I'm adding it to my Love It list. When I'm running into another room every 10 minutes to share a great passage with my husband, it's a good book. When I can't put it down for such an extended period of time that my vision gets blurry when I'm done, it's a good book. Trust me. You'll like this book so much you'll be wanting to give somebody a hickey. Along with this book, I recommend THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez, another wacky impulse Amazon buy that I greatly enjoyed!

If you've never read anything by Christopher Moore, you can't possibly imagine what a trip you have in store! Forget all the blurbs you might read comparing him to Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, or Carl Hiaasen on acid. Moore is a true American original--with an imagination so wild, irreverent, hyper, sexy, and just plain wacky that it's a wonder he can discipline himself enough to sit down and actually write a book.

Anne Rice is probably rolling on the floor with laughter at this outrageous, "vampire book" send-up, which alludes to her Vampire Lestat and follows the conventions of the genre to the extent that Moore's vampires have the some of the same abilities and needs. Beyond these characteristics, however, Moore's vampires inhabit their own crazy world, a world in which there is even a good, innocent, fledgling vampire, like Jody Stroud, forced by events beyond her control to be a vampire, and an evil vampire who performs gruesome crimes and tries to frame her. Jody, the unwilling vampire, even has a lover who wants to help her and who continues to live with her, more or less taking her vampirism for granted, or at most considering it just another way in which she "does her own thing."

As would-be writer Tommy Flood tries to save Jody from blame for several murders in the seamier parts of San Francisco, described with a great deal of tongue-in-cheek humor, he enlists his buddies on the midnight to eight a.m. shift of a supermarket, who put aside their turkey-bowling (a 12-lb frozen Butterball knocks down more Ivory liquid bottles than a 14-pounder) to help out. The book is both hilarious and intriguing, with more crazy, unexpected plot twists than one finds in a whole shelf of traditional murder mysteries. The hardest part of reading Christopher Moore is rationing oneself to just one book at a time! Mary Whipple

The whole vampire-and-goth fad that has overtaken America is NOWHERE present in this book, which is exactly why I chose to try it. I've read Anne Rice and a host of other vampire-themed tales, but I've never read one like "Fiends." Jody is new to being a vampire, but she is quickly aware of some basic rules (the ones we all know: they must avoid sun, go to "sleep" when the sun comes up, and so on). She's being tailed and threatened by a stronger, much more experienced vampire, but she's not sure why. To help her figure it all out (and to handle those pesky business-hours-only chores), she finds Tommy, a would-be beat writer whose Indiana-small-town charm makes him one of the most well-drawn characters I've come across. Tommy becomes Jody's minion, and of course, they not only have to deal with the slings and arrows of a regular relationship, but they also have the problem of dealing with and hiding Jody's new afterlifestyle. Some truly funny moments in the book involve Tommy's self-study attempt at understanding this whole mess, and he tries everything from rubbing Jody with garlic to convincing her to get in a tub of ice cubes and water to see if she'll drown and/or still survive. The Animals (Tommy's crew at the Safeway) are wonderful supporting characters, and they actually do affect the plot rather than just taking up pages and filling scenery. I do agree with another reviewer who mentioned that the end was a little flat, but since the entire story is so outlandish, the ending follows along with this idea. You'll easily like Tommy's character, especially when he complains loudly to the dead body in the freezer about Jody's anger at his letting the Animals in the apartment, then getting drunk and high. This was my first Chris Moore book, and I can hardly wait to dive into my other ones. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING WHEN YOU NEED A LAUGH!

I have never been a fan of dark, "serious" vampire novels. That said, this has got to be one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. It's a quick read that doesn't take itself too seriously... although living in San Francisco makes me wonder if maybe I've met these characters before. The vivid language and descriptive scenes made me feel like I was watching a Tim Burton or David Lynch movie. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone!

San Francisco, my favorite city, is the perfect setting for this weird combination of a vampire story and a kind of Bridget Jones career-girl novel (but much much funnier than either progenitor).

Christopher Moore's books usually start off with a chapter or two establishing the premise, then he appears to eat some weird mushrooms or something and get hallucinagenically funny. "Bloodsucking Fiends" is cheerfully wacko from the get-go when 26-year-old Jodi is attacked by a vampire in the first seconds of a book, turns into a creature of the night, and still manages to find true love with the night manager of a Safeway grocery store.

In fact, the love story bit was so winsome that I was a bit disappointed when the story got genuinely macabre in the last few pages. As usual though, Moore's devotion to lunacy and his sharply-written minor characters more than compensate for a few loose ends in the plot.