This book has left me with mostly a vague sense of discomfort and of seeing something I wasn’t supposed to see, like a close relative’s genitals or an entry in your big sister’s diary describing her experiences with heroin. Maybe it was all that vampiric father-son incest, or maybe it was that the only time opposite sexes had sex in the book, the reader wasn’t shown it. I try to be as liberal and tolerant as possible, but…when I read for pleasure, I guess what I really want at heart is a fairy princess being rescued by a charming handsome prince who fights off evil monsters in his quest to find some magical talisman….know what I mean? Vampiric incest just isn’t what I’m looking for. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more without all the incest.

I know, I’m bad…I’ll never be goth. As much as I have tried lately, I just can’t get into Poppy Z. Brite and Clive Barker and others like them. Yet I have read most everything Stephen King has put out, and Jhonen Vasquez’s Johnny The Homicidal Maniac is one of my favorite things ever. O_o What’s the deal?

Tags: dark, Poppy Z. Brite, sex, vampires