Customer Reviews

Bound In Blood: The Erotic Journey of a Vampire

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I read most of these other reviews before I read BOUND IN BLOOD. I'm glad I did. It was because of the weak reviews that I picked it up.

The book's a shocker.

For many year's we've been treated to humanized vampires who have retained their human emotions and with them cluttering displays of pathos and bathos. David Thomas Lord did none of that. His vampire, Jean-Luc, is the second most evil monster I've ever come across. His mother, Noel, comes in first!

This novel comes closer to true art than any horror novel ever has, and it's his first book! Horror literature! Who'd have thought it! If it is to become a series (as was hinted at), I can't wait.

In a time when horror has become either splatter-punk, gangsta nonsense or simply horrified romance novels, BOUND IN BLOOD soars above the pack. Lord's characters, notably Jack, Noel, Claude and Laura, are timeless. Their commentaries on the mortal world around them are bitingly true and murderously satiric.

Lord's prose is absolutely top-notch. No contemporary horror writer can touch him. The book is a marvel of information. Lessons on art, music, theater and fashion only add dimension to the underlying story of betrayal and revenge between lovers and between mother and son.

It is a violent book. Violence in the most cruel and most surprising ways. It is full of sex too. Some readers may not be up for the amount of sex and violence in this book. But it's not gratuitous. Jack lures his victims with his sexuality. Or, perhaps, with theirs. As for the violence? Well, it's a horror story involving a creature who drinks the blood of mortals. He's not Mary Poppins, or for that matter, Lestat.

I've been a lifelong fan of horror stories and horror writers. David Thomas Lord has more than justified my addiction. I only wish that there were more stars to give this guy.

Jean-Luc (Jack) Courbet seems to be your average wealthy 27-year old Greenwich Village inhabitant with the tall perfectly muscled body of a gay Olympic God. Fortunately he hasn't aged a day in almost 130 years --- ever since his late stepfather, the Marquis de Charnac, provided him with the opportunity to be reborn as an undead. In other words, Jean-Luc was wooed, used and vampirized by daddy dearest.

Now, as Jack searches the Village haunts and meats racks for his next meal (he has a taste for only the finest "beefboys" on display) he realizes that his mother, the Vampiress from Hell, has again tracked him down. And, as she has done before, is adding her own victims to his normally discrete dining choices in order to create a public panic and media circus about the "Horror Of West Street," which she would like everyone to believe is non other than her son Jack. Well, at least some of the victims on the rapidly growing list were objects of his "love and lust" but not all of them. Besides, his victims were politely offed in a loving and gentlemanly way, while the strange kills were brutally slaughtered.

Unlike the "straight or somewhat straight" vampires that populate the writings of Laurel Hamilton, Jack is a totally repulsive gay vampire with no redeeming human qualities (probably because he is a vampire) and you're sure to hate him like I did. Actually, he reminded me of the way a lot of gay men use and abuse their love/lust choices in real life. So maybe the author wrote Jack the way he is as a social commentary.

Fortunately, that didn't keep me from rapidly turning the pages to see what happened next. And hopefully it will be the same way for you. Unfortunately, too many loose ends are left dangling at the end of the book, which means that a sequel is undoubtedly on the way.

Over a century ago in Paris, Jean-Luc Courbet and his mother became vampires when his stepfather the Marquis de Charnac converted them. In the present, Jean-Luc, known as Jack, lives and stalks mortals in Greenwich Village, a place where the evening always has delightful morsels.

However, the active gay community notices Jack's appetite. They raise the alarm through the gay media that a serial killer, dubbed as the "Horror of West Street", hunts his prey amidst their people. Besides the rage of the gay press, Jack's mother demands he provide her with Charnac's grimoires. As Jack deals with the gay community warnings and his mother, he thinks he may be in love as he finds model Claude Halloran a bit more appealing than just a late night snack.

David Thomas Lord shows he is a writer with tremendous abilities yet the first "erotic journey of a vampire" tale centers on the kill way too much as opposed to Jack's seduction of his victim. The premise of a gay vampire is quite intriguing and works in a fresh manner while Jack is a fascinating character whose morals fit a creature hunting humans as food. However, the support cast, especially Jack's targets, never feel developed enough so that the audience doesn't empathize with their deaths but instead thinks of them as statistical counts of cannon fodder. Still, the potential for a great series is here if Mr. Lord allows the audience time to digest the nuances that make the victims human.

Harriet Klausner

David Thomas Lord does a sensational job on his debut novel. Sexy and violent, it's the best vampire book I've read in many, many years. The central character, the vampire Jack, is a cold-hearted monster, a handsome sex-machine and also glib and witty. Unlike the current vogue of humanizing vampires, Lord unleashes a true monster on the mean streets of New York City, one without pity and remorse. It's great to see that somebody remembered what vampires were supposed to be about! While tearing down some of the overused elements of the traditional vampire legend, Lord creates lots of new lore and new ways of looking at vampires. Alternately sexy, funny and horrifying, you'll want to keep the lights on for this one. I've heard that it's the first in a series. Can't wait for his new one! If you like your horror hot and chilling, you'll want to read this one too.

I loved this book.. I don't have anything bad to say about it.. The end did make me stress a bit.. but It will all be okay if there is a Sequel.. and I've HEARD it's out of print already.. but it was only just released.. which irritates me..
I encourage anyone to read this book who's in for a good 'gay' vampire story... it hot, and a great read that keeps you interested.. He's a different 'more hip' version of Lestat..
I WANT THE SEQUEL.. I hate that I can't know what happens next..

I'm a tried and true Anne Rice fan to the point of collecting first edition hardcovers. As a gay man I love the pansexuality of her characters in both the Witch series and Vampire Chronicles. I can find it frusterating that the homo-eroticism in Rice's books never goes into the physical realm, but that's just me. In this novel, the Vampire characters are fully fleshed out and rather than the esoteric sensuality of Rice's work, these Vampires not only fall in love, they go headlong into the world of sex and eroticism. The descriptiveness is satisfying but not overblown and is clearly the work of a mature storyteller. I am surprised not to find other works by this author. The story line is interesting and compelling. Hopefully there will be more books to follow these battling mother and son vampires in the near future. Anne Rice this isn't, but if you like your Vampires hot, sexy, and frequently naked, this is your book.

I enjoyed this book. It was so completely different than anything else I've read. It's about a vampire who preys on gay men. It's really a very clever and devious notion. Men generally are not as cauteous as women, and thus Jack (Lord's vampire) uses that lack of fear to seduce and kill his victims.

But different isn't what made me really enjoy BIB.

Lord's use of description is excellent. He's done his research and places his reader into his vampire's haunts. You "feel" like you've wandered the streets of both Paris and New York. Also, the book is very hot. IOW, lots of great sex.

The piece that I most admired, though, was Lord's ability to make you root for Jack. Let me back up. Jack is a monster. No doubt about it. He's not "Angel" or any of the other good blood suckers out there. You will wince as he seduces and kills his victims. Then, something happens, very slowly and subtly, and you'll begin to worry about him. When I realized this was happening, I couldn't believe it. As I said, it's subtle and it's incidious, and very skillfully done.

So, will I read Lord's next book, BOUND IF FLESH? Definately.

BOUND IN BLOOD is a metaphorical glimpse into the struggles of a man cursed by a secret and driven by an uncontrollable need for pleasure, love and revenge.

Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet is a cultured, charismatic and intellectual being who must conceal his true identity in order to protect both himself and his secret life.

After arriving from France, hoping to escape a haunting past, Jack blends auspiciously into the unwary and hedonistic world of the Greenwich Village nightlife. And, like so many of his victims, Jack becomes the hunted being stalked by a merciless predator from the past that will stop at nothing to destroy him.

BOUND IN BLOOD brings an alternate lifestyle into the mainstream horror genre and illustrates that love, lust, need and fear are emotions that do not discriminate...even against the undead.

David Thomas Lord writes with the proactive intensity needed for such a heady plot. He teases the reader's imagination without going overboard.

A good read. Though the sex isn't that much explored, the story moves along.

After reading this book I wanted so much to reach into the story and be with Jean-Luc. The ending is a shock and leaves you wanting more,I can hardly wait for another book by David Thomas Lord. I want the next book to get me hooked and drawn into the world of Jean-Luc as much as this one did. I have given this book to some of my best friends and they are enjoying it as much as I do.