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When Vampires Attack!
When Glenna Norcross's father turns into a vampire and slaughters a diner full of people her life takes a turn for the worse. Old trauma is stirred back up and new danger emerges. Will she ever be able to escape the shadow of death?
82 pages, Paperback
Published October 13, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 31, 2023
I read this book about 2 weeks ago at this point and I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to reviewing it, especially as I absolutely adored it, just as I expected I would.
I really liked Glenna, not only is she endearing and funny but she's also a pretty solid representation of an autistic adult something that I'm always thrilled to see in books.
In the world that Gleason created you can just become a vampire out of a sudden and once you do the people who share your gene pool are treated almost as second-class citizen since they might also carry the gene for vampirism (this entire aspect of the story reads as an excellent metaphor for disability in general in the world we live in). The character grappling with that part of things and their relationship with their family members who have become vampires was interesting and eminently compelling.
Lastly, I'm both surprised and delighted by the amount of world and character building that Gleason managed to fit in so few pages while never coming across as rushed or forced.
I really liked Glenna, not only is she endearing and funny but she's also a pretty solid representation of an autistic adult something that I'm always thrilled to see in books.
In the world that Gleason created you can just become a vampire out of a sudden and once you do the people who share your gene pool are treated almost as second-class citizen since they might also carry the gene for vampirism (this entire aspect of the story reads as an excellent metaphor for disability in general in the world we live in). The character grappling with that part of things and their relationship with their family members who have become vampires was interesting and eminently compelling.
Lastly, I'm both surprised and delighted by the amount of world and character building that Gleason managed to fit in so few pages while never coming across as rushed or forced.
December 31, 2023
Edit to round to a 4 star rating.
This novella is rough around the edges but it has good bones and I wasn’t disappointed. I love all things vampires and I enjoyed the fresh ideas on vampire lore. Although the content is supernatural, you’ll find very relatable themes.
3.5 stars.
This novella is rough around the edges but it has good bones and I wasn’t disappointed. I love all things vampires and I enjoyed the fresh ideas on vampire lore. Although the content is supernatural, you’ll find very relatable themes.
3.5 stars.
October 13, 2023
When Vampires Attack is Matthew J. Gleason's debut novella and it will definitely leave an impact on you after you finish reading.
The main character is Glenna, a young woman whose life was just upended by her father's sudden transformation into a vampire, tells you her story in a conversational style that lulls you into complacency before attacking you with surprising plot points.
Life has not dealt Glenna the easiest hand. In her short life, she has already faced tragedy and has to deal with being neurodivergent and overweight in a society that isn't kind like it should be. Then one day, her father "goes leech" which is the term used to describe a sudden transformation into a vampire.
"Going leech" is the most interesting part of this book. In this world, vampirism is a gene and those who have it can turn at any moment without warning. There is no specific trigger or anything to predict it. As soon as they turn, the vampires engage in a brutal killing spree until they are either captured or killed. The turning scenes are the scariest part of When Vampires Attack, leaving the reader with some truly chilling images. The scene in Birthday chaos is especially scary.
Glenna is a sympathetic, well-developed character. If anything, she is too hard on herself and I often wanted to just stop her and give her a pep talk. This made me care about her more and I wanted her to find some happiness, especially with all the chaos she has to face.
Suddenly turning into a vampire is the most interesting part for me. In other vampire stories, someone else makes them into a vampire. This could happen at any time, to pretty much anyone. I would have liked to have seen more of the worldbuilding around this concept. Gleason does address this with their prison and other aspects, but I wanted to see more of this and the impact it has had on the world.
Overall, in When Vampires Attack, Gleason gives us a compelling world state, a sympathetic character, good representation, and a story full of surprises.
The main character is Glenna, a young woman whose life was just upended by her father's sudden transformation into a vampire, tells you her story in a conversational style that lulls you into complacency before attacking you with surprising plot points.
Life has not dealt Glenna the easiest hand. In her short life, she has already faced tragedy and has to deal with being neurodivergent and overweight in a society that isn't kind like it should be. Then one day, her father "goes leech" which is the term used to describe a sudden transformation into a vampire.
"Going leech" is the most interesting part of this book. In this world, vampirism is a gene and those who have it can turn at any moment without warning. There is no specific trigger or anything to predict it. As soon as they turn, the vampires engage in a brutal killing spree until they are either captured or killed. The turning scenes are the scariest part of When Vampires Attack, leaving the reader with some truly chilling images. The scene in Birthday chaos is especially scary.
Glenna is a sympathetic, well-developed character. If anything, she is too hard on herself and I often wanted to just stop her and give her a pep talk. This made me care about her more and I wanted her to find some happiness, especially with all the chaos she has to face.
Suddenly turning into a vampire is the most interesting part for me. In other vampire stories, someone else makes them into a vampire. This could happen at any time, to pretty much anyone. I would have liked to have seen more of the worldbuilding around this concept. Gleason does address this with their prison and other aspects, but I wanted to see more of this and the impact it has had on the world.
Overall, in When Vampires Attack, Gleason gives us a compelling world state, a sympathetic character, good representation, and a story full of surprises.
January 4, 2024
This book is not my typical genre, however, I was in a reading slump during a really rough time in my life. Reading is normally my way to escape my own problems but since I was in a slump, alas there was no escape. Then I picked up this book and tore through it in three days. It was an enjoyable read that took me into the story quite easily. Would definitely recommend to others.
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October 13, 2023Funny, Quirky, and Brutal!
I LOVE this book!!! The characters are loveable. The horror is gory and brutal. The comedy is spot on. Matthew's imagination is second to none. The moment I finished the last line I wanted the sequel.
I LOVE this book!!! The characters are loveable. The horror is gory and brutal. The comedy is spot on. Matthew's imagination is second to none. The moment I finished the last line I wanted the sequel.
November 14, 2023
This was a fun little story about a world where vampirism is spontaneous and can happen to anyone at anytime anywhere. I thought the concept was really unique and I would love a whole book about it. This one is almost written more in vignettes which still works for the story. I just wanted more from the world.
October 15, 2023
When Vampires Attack is the story of a young woman whose life is ripped apart by vampiric violence that hits very close to home. She grapples with the complex morality of these attacks and her feelings about them as she struggles to put her life back together.
The stream of consciousness style is a bit hard to get into at first, but it provides an important window into the jumbled uncertainty of the characters’ traumatized minds.
The strongest part of the story is the main character’s relationship with her father. It’s messy and heartbreaking in the ways parent-child relationships often are in addition to the highly unconventional ones.
The weakest part of the story, in my opinion, is the climax. It doesn’t quite land as hard as it could have, and it could have been slightly better earned, but it’s still a valuable part of the narrative.
Overall, I’d say this is well worth a read for anyone who loves horror, is comfortable with gore, and will resonate with depictions of trauma.
The stream of consciousness style is a bit hard to get into at first, but it provides an important window into the jumbled uncertainty of the characters’ traumatized minds.
The strongest part of the story is the main character’s relationship with her father. It’s messy and heartbreaking in the ways parent-child relationships often are in addition to the highly unconventional ones.
The weakest part of the story, in my opinion, is the climax. It doesn’t quite land as hard as it could have, and it could have been slightly better earned, but it’s still a valuable part of the narrative.
Overall, I’d say this is well worth a read for anyone who loves horror, is comfortable with gore, and will resonate with depictions of trauma.
August 23, 2026
The premise of this book was interesting but I felt that the story didn't live up to its potential. The central focus should have been the relationship between Glenna and her father, Paul. Glenna struggles with the fact that she still loves her father but that he has become a monster who has ruined a lot of lives. It's not his fault, but that doesn't fix the damage that he's done. Paul still loves Glenna too. But he is no longer in a position to be in her life the way he had been before. I would have liked to see more chapters with him narrating.
I wish Gleason had expanded more on the world of this book. People spontaneously turn into vampires. It is suggested that this is something that runs in families, but you may not know that it runs in your family until someone turns. Has this been happening since the beginning of time or is it a more recent thing? If it runs in families, is there genetic testing that can be done to determine if someone has the vampire gene? Considering that most turnings result in mass casualties, I would imagine that the government would be looking at family trees of people who had turned and requiring mass testing and segregating those with the genes. Vampires lose their personhood, so it's not a stretch that those related to them would too. Yes, this segregation is unethical, but I still think it would happen. And many may actually choose it for fear that they may someday turn and kill the people they care about. They also may choose not to have children for fear of passing on this gene.
Showing more about the prejudice that people related to vampires face would have also helped flesh out this world. After all, it makes sense that there would be a lot of societal resentment. The fear that people walking free could one day turn into murderers out of nowhere is a legitimate concern. Making it all go back to Verlin is the least interesting thing that could have been done with this subplot.
Verlin's villainy would have been more interesting if it had been more insidious. He used terms such as "beta cuck" in his narration. While there are some online influencers who use this kind of language, it felt kind of on the nose. Like it was just there in case the audience was too oblivious to know he was evil otherwise.
Lastly, I really disliked Glenna as a narrator. Some of her narration was extremely cringy. My least favorite parts were her telling us that Verlin had a "rideable face" and that after Caren shot a werewolf that was breaking into her house, that she wanted to offer to eat her out. We also have to constantly have Caren referred to as Caren with a C.
Despite everything that happened, Glenna really had no character arc. Before the events of the story, she was a 29 year old woman who performed poorly at her job, didn't have a driver's license, lived with her father, was fat, and had no other friends. Considering the trauma she experienced at age 12 when her friend turned into a vampire and killed everyone at her birthday party, it's understandable that she was struggling in life. We learn that she is in therapy but all we hear about that is that she is trying to overcome internalized fatphobia. Does she have goals? Does she want things to be different and to become more independent from her father?
She never gains independence because she jumps straight into a relationship with Verlin and from there jumps straight into another relationship with Caren. She chooses to stop seeing her father in prison. Her reasoning is that he "reminds her of what's inside her and broken." So clearly her flaws bother her. Yet she never confronts that in herself and tries to improve. We never even learn what she believes is broken inside her. This could be an interesting conversation about nature vs nurture. Does she feel that she was born broken because of this vampire gene? Does she desire to do good in the world but feel that it is beyond her capabilities?
Later in the book, it seems that she discovers that she likes killing. She killed Verlin in self defense and I think it was justified. But it still seems odd to take such pleasure in it. She ends the book by not caring that her dad killed a jogger and not caring that she might one day start massacring people. Considering her condemnation of violence perpetrated by misogynistic men and by the police, Glenna's acceptance of her own homicidal nature seems pretty hypocritical.
It's not a good sign when the reader wants to side with the in-universe hate groups, yet here we are.
I wish Gleason had expanded more on the world of this book. People spontaneously turn into vampires. It is suggested that this is something that runs in families, but you may not know that it runs in your family until someone turns. Has this been happening since the beginning of time or is it a more recent thing? If it runs in families, is there genetic testing that can be done to determine if someone has the vampire gene? Considering that most turnings result in mass casualties, I would imagine that the government would be looking at family trees of people who had turned and requiring mass testing and segregating those with the genes. Vampires lose their personhood, so it's not a stretch that those related to them would too. Yes, this segregation is unethical, but I still think it would happen. And many may actually choose it for fear that they may someday turn and kill the people they care about. They also may choose not to have children for fear of passing on this gene.
Showing more about the prejudice that people related to vampires face would have also helped flesh out this world. After all, it makes sense that there would be a lot of societal resentment. The fear that people walking free could one day turn into murderers out of nowhere is a legitimate concern. Making it all go back to Verlin is the least interesting thing that could have been done with this subplot.
Verlin's villainy would have been more interesting if it had been more insidious. He used terms such as "beta cuck" in his narration. While there are some online influencers who use this kind of language, it felt kind of on the nose. Like it was just there in case the audience was too oblivious to know he was evil otherwise.
Lastly, I really disliked Glenna as a narrator. Some of her narration was extremely cringy. My least favorite parts were her telling us that Verlin had a "rideable face" and that after Caren shot a werewolf that was breaking into her house, that she wanted to offer to eat her out. We also have to constantly have Caren referred to as Caren with a C.
Despite everything that happened, Glenna really had no character arc. Before the events of the story, she was a 29 year old woman who performed poorly at her job, didn't have a driver's license, lived with her father, was fat, and had no other friends. Considering the trauma she experienced at age 12 when her friend turned into a vampire and killed everyone at her birthday party, it's understandable that she was struggling in life. We learn that she is in therapy but all we hear about that is that she is trying to overcome internalized fatphobia. Does she have goals? Does she want things to be different and to become more independent from her father?
She never gains independence because she jumps straight into a relationship with Verlin and from there jumps straight into another relationship with Caren. She chooses to stop seeing her father in prison. Her reasoning is that he "reminds her of what's inside her and broken." So clearly her flaws bother her. Yet she never confronts that in herself and tries to improve. We never even learn what she believes is broken inside her. This could be an interesting conversation about nature vs nurture. Does she feel that she was born broken because of this vampire gene? Does she desire to do good in the world but feel that it is beyond her capabilities?
Later in the book, it seems that she discovers that she likes killing. She killed Verlin in self defense and I think it was justified. But it still seems odd to take such pleasure in it. She ends the book by not caring that her dad killed a jogger and not caring that she might one day start massacring people. Considering her condemnation of violence perpetrated by misogynistic men and by the police, Glenna's acceptance of her own homicidal nature seems pretty hypocritical.
It's not a good sign when the reader wants to side with the in-universe hate groups, yet here we are.
June 7, 2024
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review :)
This is a really quick read that vampire fans will be intrigued by!
Glenna Norcross loves her father, and the two have a sweet relationship played out on the page. Unfortunately, her dad turns into a vampire and is sent away, but that’s only the beginning of Glenna’s misfortune. She’s in for a wild thrill ride full of blood and betrayal sure to leave horror fans wanting more!
Gleason’s small cast is filled with wonderful inclusivity. Glenna is a fat autistic protagonist who explores her sexuality. Some readers may feel conflicted by Glenna’s negative self-talk in terms of her weight. She once describes herself as feeling like an “overly microwaved hotdog exploding out of its casting.” Glenna is insecure about her weight, so this type of damaging self-talk fits with her body image issues; however, it would have been interesting if she explored self-love not only in terms of sexuality and coming to grips with who she blossoms into on an emotional level but also in terms of her inward dislike of her body.
The writing style will please those who enjoy quick tempo wit with a side of irreverent sass! The tone works well overall, and those who enjoy exposition and “telling” versus “showing” will sink into this narrative.
While this is a really imaginative and unique premise, some readers may feel the plot races towards the conclusion with too much velocity. This may lead some to feel as if there were missed opportunities to properly set up scenes or dive deep into character development. Still, the plot has fantastic twists in such a short word count, and while it could use one more round of developmental and grammar edits, readers will find it a rapid read that they can sink their teeth into!
This is a really quick read that vampire fans will be intrigued by!
Glenna Norcross loves her father, and the two have a sweet relationship played out on the page. Unfortunately, her dad turns into a vampire and is sent away, but that’s only the beginning of Glenna’s misfortune. She’s in for a wild thrill ride full of blood and betrayal sure to leave horror fans wanting more!
Gleason’s small cast is filled with wonderful inclusivity. Glenna is a fat autistic protagonist who explores her sexuality. Some readers may feel conflicted by Glenna’s negative self-talk in terms of her weight. She once describes herself as feeling like an “overly microwaved hotdog exploding out of its casting.” Glenna is insecure about her weight, so this type of damaging self-talk fits with her body image issues; however, it would have been interesting if she explored self-love not only in terms of sexuality and coming to grips with who she blossoms into on an emotional level but also in terms of her inward dislike of her body.
The writing style will please those who enjoy quick tempo wit with a side of irreverent sass! The tone works well overall, and those who enjoy exposition and “telling” versus “showing” will sink into this narrative.
While this is a really imaginative and unique premise, some readers may feel the plot races towards the conclusion with too much velocity. This may lead some to feel as if there were missed opportunities to properly set up scenes or dive deep into character development. Still, the plot has fantastic twists in such a short word count, and while it could use one more round of developmental and grammar edits, readers will find it a rapid read that they can sink their teeth into!
March 14, 2024
first-person books are often a turn-off for me. while i don't expect anyone to agree with me or even that my general opinion is completely rational, first-person books come across as restrictive in a way that inhibits all that a novel can or should be. this is absolutely not the case with "when vampires attack!" matthew j. gleason has a unique voice that comes through with their first-person point of view as glenna norcross. the style of writing lends itself superbly to this story where it almost feels like a conversation with glenna. it reminded me much of "the alienist" by caleb carr, a well-written first-person novel where the narrator, john schuyler moore, is recalling a case after the death of teddy roosevelt.
i adore the author's detail-oriented style, they completely pulled me into the world they've created. their characters, never lacking personality, were as rich as the mc herself. i also can't properly express just how much i loved the names in this book. so often, in my opinion, authors pick the easiest (and frankly the most boring) names for their characters leading to my forgetting them after i pick the book down. but i can promise that i will remember sweet caren with a c. most importantly, as an autistic woman, the positive and realistic representation of autism can't be understated. i loved the way matthew wrote glenna's autism and wish more authors could do the same.
now this is a horror story and a great horror story isn't without its scares. the bloody gore in the novel is exactly what it needs to be. it's grotesque but never gratuitous. it's not gore for the sake of gore, and i loved that the author knew when to pull back.
10/10 i've already shoved "when vampires attack!" onto my roommate
i adore the author's detail-oriented style, they completely pulled me into the world they've created. their characters, never lacking personality, were as rich as the mc herself. i also can't properly express just how much i loved the names in this book. so often, in my opinion, authors pick the easiest (and frankly the most boring) names for their characters leading to my forgetting them after i pick the book down. but i can promise that i will remember sweet caren with a c. most importantly, as an autistic woman, the positive and realistic representation of autism can't be understated. i loved the way matthew wrote glenna's autism and wish more authors could do the same.
now this is a horror story and a great horror story isn't without its scares. the bloody gore in the novel is exactly what it needs to be. it's grotesque but never gratuitous. it's not gore for the sake of gore, and i loved that the author knew when to pull back.
10/10 i've already shoved "when vampires attack!" onto my roommate
October 16, 2023
There are no sparkly vampires or avenging biker babes. Vampires are leeches. This book takes us to a grittier, scarier world that skips the sexy and slams us with reality. It brings it right to our homes and family. The lead is a young woman Glenna, who describes herself as fat, with a small chest and Asperger's. She doesn't ride a motorcycle or snark at the bad guys. She works at a call centre and tries to exist in a world where the vampire gene can pop up unexpectedly in anyone. Its already in the blood. The author, through Glenna, explores what this world would be and takes us on a dark, explosive experience of betrayal, hope and humanity. If vampires are your thing then you need to read this fresh take on the mythos.
November 13, 2023
Read the book! It's an incredible page turner that you'll only need about two hours to finish. It's gritty without being needlessly gory, it's upsetting without being intentionally triggering, it's horror with a nice bow on it at the end, which is so often skipped in this genre. Read the freaking book!
September 18, 2024
A fun ride through a unique vampire story; one that’s disgusting yet delightfully (almost) wholesome! Great read, will look for more by this author.
April 22, 2025
In a world where vampirism is genetic and that switch can turn on anywhere, Glenna’s life gets complicated when her father turns and eviscerates a diner full of people.
A messy, flawed and utterly three dimensional character, we follow along as she tries to navigate life. Joining a support group for familial survivors of vampirism she begins to make friends and even a budding romance… but things have never been all sunshine and rainbows for Glenna, and she finds herself the target of one of Dads victims enraged family members.
I really enjoyed this one.
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