Vampire Vic by Harris Gray
Formats: Digital, Paperback, Audio
Publication Details: March 4th 2013 by Harrisgray, 344 pages
Genre(s): Horror; Humour
Disclosure? Yep! I received a free copy in exchange for an HONEST review.
Would you give up donuts…for blood?
Fat, balding accountant Victor Thetherson hoped becoming a vampire would turn his life around. But Victor can’t stomach confrontation and gets queasy at the sight of blood. Instead he gets it from the blood bank, diluted in bloody Bloody Marys. The result: a vampire who doesn’t bite, and a man who gets no respect.
Victor’s slacking staff mockingly calls him Vampire Vic. Victor’s boss amuses his wife by intimidating Victor on video. His ex makes him stay out late while she entertains boyfriends in the house she insists they continue to share. One night it finally boils over, and Victor bites someone. And then another…and very soon, he’s no longer visiting the blood bank.
Muscle replaces fat, and his comb-forward widow’s peak takes root. Victor basks in newfound attention and respect, at the office and at home. But real vampires get hunted, and as the transformation reaches the tipping point, Victor must decide how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the power of the vampire.
Review
Victor Thetherson is the worst vampire there ever was. He hasn’t embraced his new existence and spends his days being walked all over by pretty much everyone he knows, just like he did when he was a human.
He still lives with his ex-wife who hates him, his employees are either too stupid, or simply unwilling to do any of the work he requires, and he can’t stomach the thought of drinking someone’s blood.
But even a vampire can only take so much, and eventually Victor snaps – well, bites – actually, and not only does Vic’s first success as a functioning vampire earn him some much needed respect but he also starts to notice other very welcome changes, and a couple not so welcome like his very own vampire hunter…
From reading the synopsis, Vampire Vic was everything I expected and more!
I thought it had a witty, refreshing premise in a world of regurgitated clone-like vampire stories, and it completely delivered on that front. It was so nice to read a different take on a vampire story.
Harris & Gray’s world is a modern one (although it totally screamed 80s to me?) in which vampires exist and are known, but not all that common. Nobody really knows how vampirism is passed on, or even if it means immortality or not.
One of the main things I liked about this world was how realistic it was, bordering on mundane in fact, which is where much of the humor came from.
I really loved Vic as a character too, he was surprisingly complex. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be friends with him, but I liked that he was that guy at work who everyone sees as a bit pathetic. You know, the work-a-holic type who you can never imagine having a life and then BAM! he grows some balls (and fangs) and you can’t help but cheer the guy on.
YOU GO VV!
The only bad thing about Vampire Vic was that I did get bored in some parts. Mainly the parts about office life, which I know I said made it realistic, and they did, but I felt it got a bit too bogged down in reports, phone calls and mergers in parts.
However, I finished this book with a huge smile on my face, and a need to get a #TEAMVV T-shirt made. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet, but at least there’s book 2 to be getting on with instead.
P.S I was also totally rooting for Eugene the Vampire Hunter – he was hilarious. And luckily for Vic, pretty incompetent.
Vampire Vic is out now, as is Vampire Vic 2: Morbius Reborn which will be reviewed here soon. Watch this space!
