I Vampire

by Carole Gill

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“…You may think of it as le theatre de la mort. I myself think of it merely as a club that held special entertainments--the entertainments consisting of a deliberate murder which would be witnessed by an individual who had expressly requested the honor…”

Genres: Vampires, Paranormal

Nook

First published February 6, 2011

About the author

I am the author of the acclaimed Blackstone Vampires Series.
THE BLACKSTONE VAMPIRES OMNIBUS:
2014 - Amazon Bestseller in Dark Fantasy
2015 - Amazon Bestseller in Vampire Horror
AWARDS:
eBook Festival of Words 2014
Best Horror: The House on Blackstone Moor and
Best Villain: Eco
Top 10 Books - 2013 - The House on Blackstone Moor
Aoife Marie Sheridan - ALL THINGS FANTASY
Publisher, Ultimate Fantasy Books
'92 Horror authors you need to read right now,
Carole Gill - The Blackstone Vampires Series. ~Charlotte Books Examiner,

Justine: Into The Blood Book One - Blood and Passion Series has just been released. There is a second novel following that and a third.

I am a member of the Horror Writer's Association.

I live in Yorkshire.I love history and reading. That is why much of my fiction is historically based. Most days you will find me writing or planning what I am going to write next.

I am published by Creativia http://www.ctivia.com/

Reviews

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories about the Demon Spawn. I enjoyed how background information was given on the character while a story was taking place. They were short and to the point, not too much fluff in between that took away from the story.

[Danielle (Dannie) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good for a short book. It did have some delightful twists to each story & each story was inter-related. I would love to read a longer novel based upon this book.

[Tarl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I waffled between one and two stars for this for some time. I ended up giving it a two, as the storyline saves it from being a complete write off and does contain some merit.

Carole Gill has presented a very interesting tale with this book. Her concept of vampires and how they came to be is an interesting one and I generally like the direction she takes it. At a time where there is a need for fresh vampire origins and tales, Gill has managed to find a fairly unique one and ran with it.

Unfortunately, her main character is Mary Sue type character. He is immortal (though he obviously was born, had a childhood, grew to his present state, and now can not die, which is more eternally young than immortal), he can not be harmed (thus, we never fear for his safety at all during any of the conflict of the story), and has a bunch of powers granted to him by his father's angelic/demonic heritage. This creates a character that the reader can not relate to. Unlike other classic vampire characters, such as Lestat, Jean Claude or even Dracula himself all have flaws. This makes them believable characters and creates good story telling. Louis has no flaws, not one. Thus he becomes quite boring to read extremely quickly despite his adventures.

Louis' adventures are quite interesting, and the idea of showing him coming across figures from the past is a neat idea. Each one is a believable setting for the characters are shown and facts correct or not (I am not going to bother they are, I will just assume), they come across as fairly realistic for the most part. However, due to the nature of Louis' tale, there is a fair amount of jumping around haphazardly from the past, then forward in time, then back and then forward. Had the tale been told in a more chronological order, it would have come across far more streamline and enjoyable.

One of the nice things was the inclusion of Eco, another of Louis' kind. The chance to see the interaction of two of these beings, and their unique histories, was ripe with possibilities and possible conflict. However, when the time came, Louis' defeat of Eco was anti-climactic (as they couldn't harm each other) and felt rather like two children arguing rather than immortals who hate each other coming to blows. (one thing I didn't understand was Louis' threat to destroy all of Eco's vampires if he went near the girl again. Yet here was Eco, meekly agreeing like a whipped dog when, though he could lose his coven, could not be harmed in the slightest. And what was a mere loss of his vampires if he could simply just remake more since the 'difficult' method of doing so seemed so easy? He did create hundreds of them afterall...)

The writing for this story was sub-par. The author uses -- far too often within his story where simple commas or rewriting the sentences would have been better. There was also a distinct lack of commas where there should have been, and an over use in other areas. This became jarring, as more than once I was forced to backtrack to figure out who was talking or what they were making reference to. One such example is Eco stating: “Children! Show your love; kill for me your father!”
Read as it is, Eco is asking his vampires to attack their father, which is him, not Louis. There are more than a few spread throughout this book which should have been caught in editing or reading it aloud.

Another issue is the change in point of view. The story is first person, though suddenly at one point it changes to first person of another character. This is not only not needed, but also detracts away from the story. It could have been easily left out and the story itself would have been unaffected. We do, after all, already know who the Ripper is thanks to the poor foreshadowing earlier on in the story. As it is, it's jarring, and kills the story at that point.

Lastly, there's Van Helsing. Gill has a young Stoker witnessing Helsing losing his mind with anger while confronting Louis. This inspires him to include a vampire slayer in Dracula. This is unrealistic as the Van Helsing of Dracula is a doctor, calm headed, and a hero. Not exactly something one would write basing it off a raving lunatic that you have had an encounter with in the past. I could have believe it more if they had different names, but alas, as they share the same name it seems unrealistic.

Overall, though a wonderful idea, a unique take on vampires and their kin, and a tale that contains so much possibility, this tale requires more work. From all the high ratings that this book has received, Gill has created a memorable tale that a lot of people enjoy despite its issues. This should show that despite its rough edges, Gill has created a gem. Had it been edited and polished more, it would have sparked far, far brighter.

If you enjoy paranormal vampire stories, are willing to overlook a main character with no flaws and writing fraught with errors, then I suggest you pick this up. Otherwise, I would suggest passing this story and finding something else that has spent a bit longer under the editor's knife.