Boris Krischel

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? It’s a must-read. The themes still feel disturbingly relevant, and the world Orwell built is just so bleak and believable. I expected it to go in a different direction, so the ending completely caught me off guard, and it hit hard. One of those books that sticks with you long after you finish.

I absolutely loved this. The world is disturbing and extreme, but it’s not just shock for the sake of it. The story hits hard. Even without the brutal setting, the stuff the main character goes through is genuinely emotional. I actually got tears in my eyes at one point, which almost never happens with books.

This was my first Poppy Z. Brite book, and you can immediately tell there’s real talent here. Compared to a lot of horror books I’ve read lately, this actually feels well written. The pacing is strong, the atmosphere is great, and the character/world building at the start really pulled me in. It has this depressing, dreamy road-trip vibe where a bunch of lost people and vampires are all searching for meaning, connection, and somewhere they belong. You can definitely see why this became such a cult classic in gothic horror circles.

The characters are interesting and memorable, even if the whole thing feels very edgy at times in that 90s goth way. The biggest issue for me though was how normalized the incest and underage sex felt throughout the story. Horror obviously pushes boundaries, and I can handle disturbing content, but here it rarely even felt framed as wrong or uncomfortable. It was just kind of... there, woven into the relationships like it was normal, and that made parts of the book genuinely weird to get through.

Also, despite being a vampire novel, the horror mostly came from the bleak atmosphere and broken characters rather than the vampires themselves. By the final stretch it became a bit of a slog for me, but I’m still glad I finished it.

My favorite of Stalenhag's books! It has by far the best story of the four I have read, a fascinatingly dark short story that it massively improved by the accompanying art. While the art is a lot darker, sometimes less interesting because of it, the combination with the strong story makes it fit. While sometimes with his books it feels like he draws art first, and then thinks of a story to vaguely connect the images, here it is the other way around.

Not sure what the general consesus is, but I liked this book more then the original. Really good, and with such an ending, I guess I have to read the third book as well. I have watched the movies at some point, but I barely remember them, so every twist and turn still surprised me.