How do you like your love, Horrorble People? Consensual, possessive, treacherous, and with a splash of demonic spice? What's that you say in your head (because I can read your mind)? Will it offer me some goths? Yes. Will it offer me some death? Yes. Will it offer me some knife copulation? Yes. Again, will it offer me some knife copulation? YES! And will it throw up on my boss’s shoes? YES! And does the demon love me?...yes?...Well, you guessed it, I'm reviewing Starblood (2012), written by Carmilla Voiez. The first book in the Starblood Trilogy. Who else forgot they liked Dead Can Dance? What is the best response to finding human bones under the floor when trying to bury different human bones? Where can you go where everyone knows your goth name? When did the goth council decree Blondes are not true goths (looking at you, Raven)? Why turn yourself into a dog when you could have been a giant squid swimming in the dark void? How do demons occupy their time before cutting through portals? Should fairy tales have a clear message? Would you let a twenty-something, sloven, unkempt, unemployed, lives-with-mom-and-eats-her-food-magick-practitioner date your child? Wiggle your naked body on over here and let Lilith keep you warm, never mind the knife at her thigh.
Starblood presents a simple, every day, everyone can relate, who hasn’t been there premise: attempting to force his ex-girlfriend Star/Sarah to come back to him, Satori/Steve screws up his summoning ritual and out walks Lilith, first of her name, sister and lover to Samuel, fashion pioneer, first wife before Eve, molder of flesh, speaker to snakes, castrater of the cock and balls, and had-it-up-to-here-with-your-shenanigans. Lilith comes into our world, takes one look at pathetic Satori and decides to torment him with the long game: seducing and corrupting Star. Turns out Lilith is easily bored and the only cure? No, not more cowbell, my sweet summer Horrorble People. It's copulating and killing. But mostly killing.
In addition to this lover's triangle, we also have: Star's roommates Donna and Raven, Raven's side piece and Satori's friend Ivan, Ivan's younger sister Freya, and old man Paul whom I read in the voice of the old creepy guy from Family Guy. This is a confined, personal story, with Lilith acting much like the demon in Fallen in that she/it does not have world ending plans but rather decides a good time is tormenting arrogant magician Satori. Goth culture, feeling like an outsider in a hostile world, betrayal, being in over your head, self-destructive behavior, these elements permeate the background and give insight into character actions.
Moving at a pace somewhere between a snail and a tortoise, the writing feels description heavy. At times this reinforces the mundane and uneventful flow of a day. Other times it highlights the dreadful experience of going from point A to point B in an environment where others will knock you out and worse for being different. And then sometimes it just feels slow. Interestingly, most of the characters we follow cannot be described as "good". They do petty things to each other, are possessive and obsessive, use sex as bragging rights, and by the end of the book I was hoping everyone would be dead. This story does have the Necronomicon and a flowerpot named the vessel of Balon, so magical items do exist and magick is all true. Satori really screwed it up for everyone here. I appreciate Voiez does not go full splatter in describing acts of violence and sex. Sure, sometimes they are described in detail but do not cross into cringe, and other times they are presented matter-of-factly, and we move on.
For me, Starblood is an up and down book. There are times when I'm very engaged: yelling at the characters for their choices, enjoying a divine description, feeling uncomfortable at the violence, getting hot and bothered and then WTF by some of the sexual encounters. But there are also times when I wish the story had done away with descriptions and chapters on other characters which did not affect the main storyline. More than once I became impatient and just wanted the story to get on with it. I will say however, that once I finished Starblood I immediately went and listened to Dead Can Dance, Siouxie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy, and more! It was nice spending time with old friends. Also, I started thinking about shooting stars (you'll have to read the book to figure out why). – Ryan