Short #HistoricalFiction Audiobook for #Summerween: Rhapsody in Blood

Stream "Rhapsody in Blood" now on Spotify.

For fans of historical fiction and readers of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, this vampire fantasy features fictional versions of blues singer Bessie Smith and composer George Gershwin. Vampire Bessie senses that George is not long for this world and offers to pass on her dark gift to him.

'The Last American Vampire' by Seth Grahame-Smith

(Mom, since you haven't read the book yet, do not read my review. It may contain spoilers and unduly influence your opinion.)

The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

(Heads up: I'm going to use "they" as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun.) I enjoyed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but this sequel much less so. I don't understand the plot. What is A. Grander VIII's motivation for doing all the awful things they do? I can't enthusiastically endorse a book in which the villain's actions are so nonsensical.

Seth Grahame-Smith's consistent insensitivity to the female half of the species continues to baffle and irk me. It's not only his refusal to join us in the 21st century and, in the voices of his narrators, use the inclusive word "humankind" rather than the outdated, gender-biased "mankind." On the "Facts" page that proceeds the title page in this first edition, in the voice of his narrator - not, mind you, a character from an earlier century - Grahame-Smith uses "mankind" twice in three paragraphs.

It's also a return on Grahame-Smith's part to the "I used to love her, but I had to kill her" theme I so detested in his screenplay of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp/Helena Bonham Carter travesty Dark Shadows. "But she was a witch!" and "But she was an evil vampire!" may be acceptable excuses for violence against fictional women, but such scenes are not the least bit entertaining in a world where real violence against real women is a disturbing constant.

I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but Seth Grahame-Smith disappoints me as often as he impresses me. I did like the footnote in which Emily Dickinson's reclusiveness is explained by her being a lesbian or bisexual/pansexual vampire. Alas, the women in Grahame-Smith's fiction since Elizabeth Bennet have all been footnotes, plot devices to be used at the service of the male characters' plotlines and then violently disposed of when no longer necessary. If Grahame-Smith's next book is titled Emily Dickinson: Pansexual Vampire, I'll probably read it. Otherwise, I think I'll be done with his casually sexist, anachronistic ass. I read for fun, not to be made to feel as if my entire gender is disposable.

Judging from his photo on the inside back cover, Seth Grahame-Smith is a fairly good-looking guy. He will not, however, be one of my Hanukkah Hotties, because he is a not-very-nice Jewish boy.

I checked this book out from my local library and was not obligated to read or review it any way.

WIP Wednesday ~ Status Updates, and Donna Reed is a Hooker

Authors needed - all genres! Are you an author who'd like to share a 100- to 200-word blurb about a current work in progress on a future WIP Wednesday? If so, please send an e-mail to Erin O'Riordan (erinoriordan AT sbcglobal DOT net).




Happy Wednesday/U.S. Independence Day! Today I'll be at the movies, watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.   I really liked the book by Seth Grahame-Smith - sometimes I would forget I was reading fiction and think I was reading history. Although I was severely disappointed with Grahame-Smith's screenplay for Dark Shadows, Vamchoir gave ALVH a good review. 

Here's where last week's works in progress stand:

"Sheep Shifter:" Final edits turned in. I have a release date for Breathless Press' Ravaged anthology: August 3, 2012. 

"Going Native:" Still in editing. I've got the existing material editing, but I still have to add a second sex scene. 

St. James' Day: Editing continues. We haven't written any new scenes in the past week, but we'll have to get back to it soon.

"Gold Lipstick at the End of the Rainbow" (my tribute to a now-defunct GLBTQ bar): Written, edited and sent off to my editor at SexIs. Next, I'm planning an article about the difference between bisexual and pansexual. 

Billy's Color Palette: I haven't touched it this week; I think Ken Charles is working on his next chapter. We're alternating. 

Untitled short story: I haven't done anything else with that one over the week. Between Valerie Alexander's story in Suite Encounters, working on "Going Native," doing some preliminary writing on the untitled short and reading From Here to Eternity, it seems I've been heavily into prostitutes-in-literature. I'm planning to write a blog post devoted entirely to that. I'm going to call it "Hooker Please!" in honor of Lafayette on True Blood.

300 or so pages into From Here to Eternity (weighing in at a total of 861 pages), Robert E. Lee Prewitt has fallen in love with Lorene, who is a prostitute. He only met her once before he decided he was in love - the way she held his hand convinced him he was special to her. Then she actually kissed him! Then he gambled away his entire paycheck trying to earn enough to spend another night with her! I've never seen the movie - I'll finish the book first - but I am a bit surprised that Lorene is played by Donna Reed. Donna Reed's name is virtually synonymous with wholesome family entertainment, yet here she is as a hooker.

Lorene's a good person. I like her; she's a much more sympathetic female character than Karen Holmes. Milt Warden thinks he's falling in love with Karen, but I don't know. I still say their affair is just both of them trying to get back at Karen's husband, Dana "Dynamite" Holmes. Lorene has sex for money, but Karen is just a ho. 

In her defense, though, Karen's marriage is lousy, she's been treated poorly (it's not explicitly spelled out, but she has a scar apparently from some kind of surgery she had to have after her husband gave her an STD. We know from Prew's experience with his New York society girl that antibiotics were a fairly recent development at the time. The pre-antibiotics treatment sounded fairly medieval) and she's using her sexuality as a weapon and a self-defense mechanism. 

I can't believe she slept with Maylon Stark, though. Stark, the mess sergeant from Texas, is antiSemitic (there are all kinds of perfectly legitimate reasons to hate Bloom. Bloom is a dick, but it's not because he's Jewish) and homophobic. I sincerely hope that Maylon Stark doesn't go on to become the wealthy war industrialist who fathers Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man. 

(This is how you girl it up Iron Man-style.) 

An interesting (pleasantly bizarre) crossover would be if Lorene turned out to be the same woman/immortal as Bill Compton's maker Lorena. Envision a graphic novel titled Pearl Harbor Vampire Brothel. Aw yeah.