F. Paul Wilson

Dudes Rock (Derogatory). Hard DNF

*Nothing to do with the Netflix series (aside from one easter egg in the show) *

CW: Antisemitism, Islamaphobia, Sexual Assault

I made it about two hours into this, before getting some real bad vibes from what seemed to be real antisemitism and victim blaming for the suffering of the Jewish community at the hands of vampires due to refusing to wield a crucifix. That's when I went to read some reviews and get a better idea of what this book was and whether I was picking up on red flags. What I saw was that there was more antisemitism, Islamaphobia, and the lesbian anarchist feminist gets gang raped because, of course that's the kind of BS bad horror is filled with -- I'm all for pulp shlock, but this is fully the kind of 'non-political' art that very much has a bigoted Christian heteronormative viewpoint and agenda.

The fart-sniffing forward by the author should have been taken as a real warning. The weird gatekeeping around vampires and more modern, often femme and Queer created stories, is genuinely gross. Vampires come from the folklore of cultures from all over the world and have always come in different shapes and sizes. I do prefer the monstrous and smooth, calculating demons over heartthrobs, but there's more than one way to stake an undead, and getting all there's a right and wrong way to do it is, frankly, embarrassing.

The vibe I was getting was what if Salem's Lot and Dusk til Dawn were combined with the quality of one of the last dead horse sequels (No shade on Return to Salem's Lot, aside from the racism, that is gloriously awful). As you can see from many other reviews, your mileage may vary.

I generally try to be positive and I am more likely to critique something I actually enjoyed, but when you are just casually being bigoted and going out of your way to be misogynistic and queerphobic, I'm going to talk about it.… (meer)