A bizarre love story follows the experiences of a rock musician whose career and girlfriend were destroyed by his enemies and who became the plaything of Justine, an age-old being with a woman's body and a cold heart. Reprint. NYT.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Are vampires played out as subjects for fiction? The misfortune of this deft, appealing little novel is that this may be an inopportune time for another tale of rock stars, slackers, and vampires in a wealthy-but-seedy California setting. If you can get past that problem, though, you'll find much to admire in Stainless: spare, lyrical prose; a refusal to glamorize empty lifestyles; a vampire-human love relationship that reaches for, but never achieves, real connection. Douglas Winter, in the Washington Post, calls this "an intriguing alternative to the usual suspects of the vampire set."
From Library Journal
Until the vampire Justine met Keith, a rock star whose career ended when he lost the use of his hands, she regarded humans only as prey. Now on the verge of discovering love, Justine finds herself stalked by an unknown enemy, and the fragile pretense of normality she has created threatens to crumble. Grimson pulls no punches as he explores the bloody, amoral world of the undead in this grim portrayal of impossible love and undying loyalty. Fans of graphic horror will appreciate this stylish addition to vampiric fiction.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Todd Grimson was born in 1952 in Seattle and moved to Portland, Oregon at an early age. At the age of 22, having gone through all kinds of dead-end employment, Grimson took a civil service exam and ended up working at the VA Hospital in its surgical intensive care unit, which he found highly educational. He went on to work nightshift in the emergency room at Emanuel Hospital, where most local victims of violent crime were seen--an intense experience informing his first novel, "Within Normal Limits," which he wrote under the mentorship of Paul Bowles, whom he had met and studied with during a summer writing workshop in Tangier, Morocco. Published in the prestigious "Vintage Contemporaries" series as a trade paperback original, "Within Normal Limits" earned critical acclaim and was the winner of the Oregon Book Award in 1988.
It was shortly before the publication of this first novel that Grimson was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable, degenerative disease. However, his symptoms went away and did not reappear until the summer of 1991. Stricken suddenly, housebound and incapacitated, Grimson found himself having vivid and surreal dreams, which later became the source and literally a part of the novel, "Brand New Cherry Flavor," (Schaffner Press: Oct. 2011) which blends this phantasmagorical dreamscape with the innovation of "cinematic realism." Critically acclaimed both in the US and in the UK, this novel was followed by "Stainless" (Schaffner Press: Feb. 2012), an urban noir vampire novel set in late 1990's L.A.
In 2011 Grimson was called "The Greatest Horror Writer You've Never Read" by Damien Walter of The Guardian in the UK.
In recent years, Grimson has been writing and publishing short fiction online under the nom de plume "I. Fontana," appearing in such literary reviews as BOMB, Bikini Girl, Juked, New Dead Families, Spork, Lamination Colony and Spork, while working on a new novel, "sickgirl101," a thriller which delves into the online Alt Sex underworld, exploring and exposing the darker side of contemporary sexuality as perhaps no one else has done before.
It was shortly before the publication of this first novel that Grimson was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable, degenerative disease. However, his symptoms went away and did not reappear until the summer of 1991. Stricken suddenly, housebound and incapacitated, Grimson found himself having vivid and surreal dreams, which later became the source and literally a part of the novel, "Brand New Cherry Flavor," (Schaffner Press: Oct. 2011) which blends this phantasmagorical dreamscape with the innovation of "cinematic realism." Critically acclaimed both in the US and in the UK, this novel was followed by "Stainless" (Schaffner Press: Feb. 2012), an urban noir vampire novel set in late 1990's L.A.
In 2011 Grimson was called "The Greatest Horror Writer You've Never Read" by Damien Walter of The Guardian in the UK.
In recent years, Grimson has been writing and publishing short fiction online under the nom de plume "I. Fontana," appearing in such literary reviews as BOMB, Bikini Girl, Juked, New Dead Families, Spork, Lamination Colony and Spork, while working on a new novel, "sickgirl101," a thriller which delves into the online Alt Sex underworld, exploring and exposing the darker side of contemporary sexuality as perhaps no one else has done before.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Heartbreaking Tragedy,
By "charism_x" (Rialto, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stainless (Mass Market Paperback)
Never in my life have I read a book that has managed to embrace so much pain, longing, and beauty in my entire life. The protagonist, broken rock musician Keith, is symbolic of the heavy hearted, hurting soul in all of us after the rejection and aftershocks of the cruel thing called Love. Set against the underside of L.A.'s music scene, "Stainless" tells the story of a talented man broken by the suicide of his girlfriend and the loss of the use of his hands (which were cracked one by one in a Venezuelan prison). Enter Justine, the soul sucking vampire with a sensitive side who can't save Keith, so she merely drags him further into a bleak, dark world of misfits, abuse, and lost denizens filled with longing. Through his beautiful descriptions, dream like visions, and painful metaphors, the author manages to present the reader with a raw view of life, unapologetic is its grief and sorrow. If you're looking for a book that touches your soul and brings you to tears, look no further. This is a definite masterpiece that will haunt the depths of your consciousness.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Vampire Novel Ever Written,
By Eli M Dapolonia ""Seachnaíonn súil ní nac... (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stainless (Paperback)
Stainless is brilliant. Find a copy anywhere you can and read it. You will be blown away.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than blood and fangs: it reaches your soul.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Stainless (Paperback)
I passed Stainless to a friend who at first wasn't that enthousiastic about reading "another vampire novel". She was blown away.It was so deep and moving that she didn't want it to end.Stainless goes way beyond the genre. While keeping the codes of the vampire fiction, it transgresses its clichés and makes it a truly deep literary novel, brilliantly served by Grimson's poetic and original prose. A romantic tragedy (in the best highest sense) for both vampire lovers and lovers of contemporary literature.
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