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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vampire Haiku Diary Fun, December 31, 2009
This review is from: Vampire Haiku (Paperback)
Ryan Mecum's Vampire Haiku mixes humor and poetry in diary form for vampire William Butten, who was turned in 1620. He falls in love with a beautiful woman on the Mayflower named Katherine, who turned him into a vampire. Soon he's parted from his love to roam America on his own and make his own friends. There are tales of some well known historic figures from Davy Crockett to Amelia Earhart and famous events in history like the Civil War and Woodstock.
Readers may initialy be attracted to the cover haiku, which also appears on page 37:
"You know that your drink
is down to the last few sips
once the toes curl up."
Butten has a twisted sense of humor, but readers will enjoy is little anecdotes about becoming a vampire and bumbling around learning how to feed, etc. Mecum uses his linguistic and historic knowledge to create fun and witty haiku. Although they are not precisely haiku in the traditional sense, they mostly adhere to the form's syllable count. It is fun to see Butten reveal insider knowledge about the deaths of Davy Crockett and other major historical figures. In some cases, the poems will have readers cringing in disgust.
"Discarded band-aids
are rare unexpected treats.
My version of gum." (page 113)
There are even moments in the book where the vampire makes fun of the modern vampire crazes from the goth kids to the latest vampire movies. One of the best haiku in the book is about the Twilight movie:
"Those were not vampires.
If sunlight makes you sparkle,
you're a unicorn." (page 117)
Will Butten ever find his true love, Katherine, or will he stop searching for her and settle down? Overall, those interested in humor and vampires will find Vampire Haiku to be a treat.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hehehehehehehehe, January 2, 2010
This review is from: Vampire Haiku (Paperback)
I was fascinated with the idea of a vampire documenting bits of his prolonged life using Haiku, but I was truly awestruck with how well it was done after I had finished it. For a quick read (and I do mean quick - my only complaint), this one will have you giggling shamelessly with every page. I bought this book thinking it would be kind of a documentary-type read ("My Life As A Pilgrim Vampire" or something) with little shards of wit and humor to keep you interested; Mostly a new and creative version of how adjusting to a vampire's life (or..death? un-life?) is hard. I just didn't know you could turn all that into a comedy. This book should be on every reader's shelf. Even if you don't like vampires, if you know just one or two of the many common vampire stereotypes and/or ever heard the name Stephenie Meyer, you'll be in stitches.
Who would have guessed used Band-Aids would be the best vampire inside-joke of the year?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Unholy Marriage--What's Not To Like?, September 16, 2009
This review is from: Vampire Haiku (Paperback)
There's a lot of vampire dreck being produced in the world today, a great deal of which has taken its cue from certain very popular juvenile fiction products and films. It's hard to do vampires these days without attempting to redefine the parameters in either implausible non-traditional ways, or to simply produce something overly clichéd and hackneyed.
This book manages to stay within the pretty standard expectations of the vampire genre, and yet the most unique thing about it is not the treatment of vampires, nor even the story (despite its ingeniousness at many points), but instead the medium itself.
It might be a stretch to imagine that an early seventeenth century Pilgrim would be writing a journal in haiku (since wide Western familiarity with that poetic form wouldn't have been a reality until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), and yet the charm to this poetic form as a narrative vehicle is intrinsically appealing. Traditionally, individual haiku often have a sense of timelessness in their capturing of a single moment, transitory and yet eternal. What better medium, then, to narrate the life of a vampire, a being who lives through many ages and the changes they inevitably bring, and yet remains essentially beyond change himself? While the occasional haiku in the book is hypermetrical, this can be easily forgiven, particularly in one case, when onomatopoeia is involved.
The opportunities for humor in this book were endless, and yet tastefully exploited. Much fun is had at the expense of vampire fiction and film of the past, including using two syllables with the word "sparkle" in one particular jab at the recent Twilight franchise, and a masterful incorporation of Joss Whedon into the storyline. Wonderful stuff! Some of the other ways in which William Butten (the main character--based on an actual youth who died en route on the Mayflower) incorporates himself into American history are less subtle, and somewhat disturbing (particularly the fortunes of post-vampiric Davy Crockett; and a certain serial murderer in 1970s New York), but nonetheless intriguing.
If you'd like a fascinating, but short, read (truly, a rarity--substance and depth of nearly epic proportions in a form that can be read in the time it would take to read a short story), and a beautifully produced book, and if nothing else an enjoyable and funny diversion, I'd highly recommend picking this one up. I'd be interested to see Mecum's previous work, and to see what might be next--need I speculate aloud..."Werewolf Haiku"? ;)
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