Customer Reviews

At The End of Church Street

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I picked up At the End of Church Street by Greg Hall because of the hook:

Live forever young. Every night is an adventure--hunting down tourists, challenging the local police, screaming to the world vampires really exist.

The book sounded a little like Peter Pan with vampires...

Who wouldn't want to read that?

Church Street keeps you running the back alleys of Orlando with homeless kids who live together in an abandoned theater as family. They claim to be vampires and live as such until someone, who evidently believes they are vampires, begins killing them with the age-old vampire slaying favorites: a stake through the heart and beheading.

There are twists and turns through the full-throttle narrative which keep the reader propelled toward the "turn it up to eleven" conclusion.

Greg Hall has added some nice layers to the vampire mythos and, instead of playing pansy with his teenaged protagonists, he gives them real life and death choices to face. This isn't a bloody climax slapped on to the end of a sappy love story; Church Street is all climax, all life and death and love.

And in the end, vampires are badass again.

Gregory L Hall's AT THE END OF CHURCH STREET is an adept and novel imagining of the age-old vampire story. Hall offers a gritty portrayal of life on the streets where the shadows conceal much more than petty criminals. His eye for observational detail masterfully places the reader in his bleak but believable settings. In the end CHURCH STREET is a stark, intelligent and thrilling depiction of the seedy (and supernatural) subculture lurking within Orlando's darker places.

At The End Of Church Street is a well written, fast-paced, suspenseful tale that pulls the reader effortlessly into a dark, gritty world of wayward adolescents who gave up their normal lives in favor of a fantasy-land of immortality. In an abandoned theatre, the gothic family revels in the euphoria of youth and the thrill of hunting tourists for screams and laughs down the dark alleys they call home.

Rebecca Anne, a young run-away, desperately clings to the shadows of Orlando's downtown. She can't even recall the last time she had a proper meal. That's until Renfield, the faithful servant of the faux-vampire clan, offers her a new life she openly embraces. After purchasing her some proper Goth attire and buying her dinner, she is introduced to the children of Orlando's night and a new alter-ego: Lilith.

Properly christened, she becomes friends with the vamps and acclimates to their rules, which are few, if any. When the kids return from a night out "hunting", meeting the new girl takes a back seat to the realization that one of their own is missing. "People come and go here," Adam, (the leader of the vampire clan) reminds them. But as time passes, the status-quo doesn't seem to be the case.

Adam desperately tries to hold his family together and get to the bottom of the murders while their numbers dwindle. He even reaches out to the police - already engrossed in the media frenzy that ensued. Bonds of friendship, love and ideologies are tested. But can Adam and Lilith, or even those they call brothers and sisters, be trusted? Who can help when the hunter is the only one taking the vampires seriously?

At The End Of Church Street resonates with a fierce intensity that masterfully taps every emotion we have. Hall gives us people, not characters; weaving the reader into a tale with an eerily relatable, palpable atmosphere. Multi-layered and multi-faceted, with high suspense, Hall's powerful voice blends these elements together, giving us a riveting novel that leaves the reader spell-bound.

Orlando is infested with vampires, homeless kids with a vivid imagination. They live in an old theater at the end of Church Street and scare the tourists as they wander the back alleyways. They are family, lovers and friends. Everything changes when a killer decides to take them seriously. He hunts them down one at a time and kills them with stake and sword, but who is he. It's someone they know, someone who stays to the shadows.

I have to say that I absolutely love this story. It's sexy, scary, heartwarming and funny. A completely different sort of vampire story. The characters were solid and as a reader I soon bonded with most of them, even the vicious Timmy who is the meanest vampire of the bunch. There was a lot of sex scenes in the novel, but they weren't gratuitous. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

"At the end of Church Street" is more than a book. It's an amazing balancing act. Honestly frightening, legitimately funny, and compellingly sexy with no one element dominating.

Greg Hall supplies the reader with characters who are individual, not interchangeable. And even in the worst of them, he gives us reasons to care. The environment is real, and the situations never veer into empty contrivance.

Hall's acheivement with this book goes far beyond an arch "Twilight" satire. He has done something three decades of city administrators could not do- create an interesting Downtown Orlando.

For any reader who has waited in vain (or vein) for an original approach to a well-worn genre, your paitence is now rewarded. a truly satisfying experience awaits you "At the end of Church Street".

"At the End of Church Street" is a blast of a story, and not what you'd expect in a novel about vampires. It's a gritty portrayal of Orlando and a tough life on the streets with several Goths who live without rules, until they begin to die --- horribly. With so many sexy vampire stories out there lately, it is refreshing to read one that goes back to the roots of the vampire, with plenty of blood and horror. CHURCH STREET is a great read.

Gregory Hall is a man with some serious balls. I'm normally not a fan of vampire novels, as they generally fall in either the Rice or Meyer camp, neither of which I'm particularly fond of. But with "At the End of Church Street" Mr. Hall takes a bold stand and says, "Ok guys, here's your vampire novel. I've just decided to leave out the vampires." Instead, we follow a group of homeless goth kids, themselves obsessed with vampires and vampire culture, as they are stalked by a mysterious character who mistakenly believes their charade.

Now, goth characters often run the risk of being written as stereotypes or broad caricatures. But not here. The characters are fully fleshed-out, well-written and easily identifiable. Some of them could easily have been my classmates in high school. Mr. Hall displays a genuine understanding of these kids and who they are which makes it that much easier for you to get emotionally involved. You come to know the cast quite well, so that when they're having a good time, you're having a good time, and vice versa. That takes skill, folks, particularly with the subject matter.

Overall, I'd say that "At the End of Church Street" is a great read, full of suspense, tension, blood, and a healthy dose of dark humor. If you're in the mood for a good time, look no further.

Vampires, man. Their popularity constantly ebbs and flows, but they never really go away. If there's a problem it's that there are countless vampire novels. Literally, is it even possible at this point to count them all? Well, here's a novel that isn't the same old song and dance.

Greg Hall's At the End of Church Street isn't a supernatural tale, though. This one has its feet firmly planted in the real world. Think The Lost Boys if Keifer Sutherland et al weren't really vamps, but instead were a motley crew of disaffected youths with a penchant for all things vampiric. Then, place that group of teens in a setting like Orlando, the land of Mickey Mouse.

The Zombie Zoo, as they affectionately call themselves, call an abandoned theater home and spend their time foraging for food and getting their kicks by spooking tourists and pissing off the police. Otherwise, they're pretty harmless and get by on what little reputation they have. When a runaway, Rebecca-Anne, winds up alone and desperate in Orlando, she finds herself welcomed into their underworld. She gets a new wardrobe, new attitude, and even a new name. Lilith.

But her arrival comes at a time when they are under threat from a killer in the city. Someone is killing the wannabe bloodsuckers, and apparently going about it as if they really were vampires. The novel is not without a number of suspects, either. The question is whether they can survive long enough to find out who is responsible before they're all killed, or the police crack down on them as tourists seem to become targets as well and they become a reviled target on two fronts.

The cast of characters is varied and some are genuinely likable. Wolfy was a particular favorite of mine, a boy among the older kids who gets by as a would-be werewolf, replete with fake claws and mask which he dons during theatrical fits as if summoning Lon Chaney. Rebecca/Lilith was a bit harder to like, with her constant insecurity and rather wild swings in temperament when in the company of her love interest, Adam the leader of the pack. But, despite some jumpy switches in point of view, the cast of characters are rather easy to go along with and react in genuine ways to the ordeals thrown at them.

It's not even close to your conventional teen vampire romp. This one approaches some subject matter than I doubt many of the more popular books would be bothered to tread. It's not a perfect book, but it's an impressive debut novel and a commendable switch in tone from Greg Hall's jovial personality. The man can make you laugh, but it looks like he can also dish out the horror too.