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A Blood as Bright as the Moon
A vampire, desperately torn between worlds, is hunted down by a secret society bent on his destruction, in this elegiac and unsettling queer gothic horror, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Frankenstein, Germany. Ambrose, a young vampire, lives a life secreted away from the modern world with the rest of his clan, all of them under the spell of the charismatic Regina, who spins stories of salvation for their kind. Their grand plan? To build makeshift wings and fly to the moon where a safe haven awaits for all vampires.
But Ambrose harbours a secret: he is not ready to abandon the earth, and he is in contact with a human who believes he can be saved. As the rest of his kind prepare to flee their home, Ambrose is torn between loyalties.
However something else is on the horizon – the Royal Diurnal Society – a group with sinister plans for vampires, are closing in, and if Ambrose isn't careful, he could find himself right at the centre of a terrifying and mysterious experiment.
Frankenstein, Germany. Ambrose, a young vampire, lives a life secreted away from the modern world with the rest of his clan, all of them under the spell of the charismatic Regina, who spins stories of salvation for their kind. Their grand plan? To build makeshift wings and fly to the moon where a safe haven awaits for all vampires.
But Ambrose harbours a secret: he is not ready to abandon the earth, and he is in contact with a human who believes he can be saved. As the rest of his kind prepare to flee their home, Ambrose is torn between loyalties.
However something else is on the horizon – the Royal Diurnal Society – a group with sinister plans for vampires, are closing in, and if Ambrose isn't careful, he could find himself right at the centre of a terrifying and mysterious experiment.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 2, 2025
28 people are currently reading
2072 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Morstabilini
10 books14 followersAndrea Morstabilini was born in Lodi, in the misty middle of the Po Valley, in Northern Italy, in 1983. He studied Modern Literature at the University of Milan with a thesis on the Fantastic in late 19th century Italian literature. He (predictably) loves Gothic novels and architecture, the theatre, cats, and cemeteries. A Blood as Bright as the Moon, forthcoming from Titan Books, is his English-language debut. He is the author of two previous novels in Italian and various essays and short stories. He also works as an editor. He lives in Milan, and sometimes Kraków, with his husband.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
Want to read
February 5, 2025Someone at Titan Books keeps designing covers showing skinned people surrounded by flowers and I am a little grossed out by that but I will also buy.
Read
January 23, 2025Queers and goths, this is the book for you.
Here is the blurb I wrote:
"A BLOOD AS BRIGHT AS THE MOON holds multitudes. It is a dark fairy tale, a gothic play, a queer romance, and so much more. This exquisite novel is sure to haunt readers long after they have finished the final page."
Here is the blurb I wrote:
"A BLOOD AS BRIGHT AS THE MOON holds multitudes. It is a dark fairy tale, a gothic play, a queer romance, and so much more. This exquisite novel is sure to haunt readers long after they have finished the final page."
July 8, 2025
A cover this beautiful meant I went into this blind. I rarely do this, but I love the publisher.
Dnf at 60%.
I did not realise this was a new take on a vampire book. Vampires of the moon who believe in a better after life or other life.
Nothing is really made clear to you and I kept reading hoping something would make sense at some point.
Everything changed at the 50% mark which is where it felt like the story’s point got started. However, after reading a few chapters of part two, I still couldn’t click with the story.
Especially after already pushing through:
He pushes a finger inside your anus, palpates the prostate.
The writing was beautiful, but the story and characters just were not for me.
Not counted towards Year Wrap Up.
Arc gifted by Titan.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
Dnf at 60%.
I did not realise this was a new take on a vampire book. Vampires of the moon who believe in a better after life or other life.
Nothing is really made clear to you and I kept reading hoping something would make sense at some point.
Everything changed at the 50% mark which is where it felt like the story’s point got started. However, after reading a few chapters of part two, I still couldn’t click with the story.
Especially after already pushing through:
He pushes a finger inside your anus, palpates the prostate.
The writing was beautiful, but the story and characters just were not for me.
Not counted towards Year Wrap Up.
Arc gifted by Titan.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
August 13, 2025
Great prose, story that bored me to tears AND managed to be extremely disjointed.
Rtc
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~broken snowglobes as a threat
~the moon’s not an escape
~never trust a cult leader
:be warned of spoilers ahead! see the end for trigger warnings:
I have no idea what the point of that was.
This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, but it ended up being a disjointed snoozefest.
It really doesn’t help that the synopsis is wildly misleading: Ambrose isn’t ‘hunted’ in any way you’d expect from hearing that he is – isn’t aware he’s being hunted, so there’s no plotline where he knows he’s in danger, and who he’s in danger from. Which means that functionally, in term of it affecting the story the reader gets, he’s not being hunted. The secret society isn’t ‘bent on his destruction’; it’s being torn apart by its internal politics, only one faction of which wants vampires wiped out. And referring to Ambrose’s family as ‘the rest of his kind’ is just flat-out lying; Regina’s ‘clan’ is made up of FOUR vampires, including her and Ambrose. There is in fact a whole WORLD of other vampires out there, none of whom are involved in this nonsense at all.
I’d like to file a complaint with whoever wrote the synopsis and whoever approved it. Gah.
The first third or so of Blood as Bright is perfectly fine, sometimes rising to good: Ambrose and his bizarre little family live in a ruined castle until the day Regina leads them to the moon, where, she claims, Ludwig 2nd, himself a vampire, rules a beautiful realm that’s a paradise for vampires. It’s a cult, basically, with Regina as obsessed cult leader, telling them parables and holy stories of Ludwig’s vampiric life, with all sorts of rules that must be followed to prove themselves worthy of Ludwig. (Bits of vampire!Ludwig’s life are interspersed throughout the book, jarring and adding nothing at all to the book.) Ambrose feels oddly ambivalent about all of it, but he’s very close to another of the vampires, Agata, and their friendship seems to be the main tether keep Ambrose in place. When he can sneak out from under Regina’s eye, he goes into the nearby town to spy on the doctor Martin, who Ambrose is attracted to – but more importantly, he harbours a hope that Martin might be able to cure vampirism if Ambrose ever reveals himself to him.
The prose is lovely, but there’s a very Literary Fiction (derogatory) feel to it all – introspective in a way that feels pretentious and over-indulgent, kind of rambly, with zero impetus driving the story forward. The story drifts, barely disturbed by the strange broken snowglobes that appear around the vampires’ castle, and the murder of the sacred-to-Ludwig swans. So I was very surprised that near the 33% mark, Regina announced it was time to head to the moon, and everyone started strapping their wings on.
(They do not, alas, have their own biological wings like the figure on the cover. These are mechanical, vaguely steampunk-y wings.)
But! Catastrophe! Ambrose’s wings break. And when he crashes to earth, he is staked by a vampire hunter who comes out NOWHERE, narratively. It’s a painfully random, jerky series of events, but for a second I thought Morstabilini had gone where few authors dare to tread and killed off her main character!
She didn’t, though. Ambrose isn’t dead. Instead he’s paralysed, unable to move or react to stimuli, but still aware of what’s around him and, unfortunately, very able to feel pain.
Part two opens with Ambrose laid out on an operating table. He’s ‘examined’ (read: tortured) and then a bunch of men arrive – the Diurnal Society – and gather around him to debate what to do with him.
I’m not kidding: the whole second part (no longer in first-person, by the way, switching between second-person and formatted-like-a-script third-person) is these mostly awful men, who are all COMPLETE STRANGERS TO US, enumerating on how great they are (and how awful their political rivals within the same society are), how it’s high time they Do Something after only studying vampires from afar for centuries, and what the different factions within the society are. Oh, and how gross vampires are, and Ambrose in particular, since he’s also gay as well as being a vamp.
It is stunningly boring. Everyone is despicable (the one guy who calls the rest of them monsters leaves without trying to get Ambrose free, so yeah, I’m counting him as despicable too), everyone is long-winded and grandiose, most of them are clearly narcissists, and hi, I don’t care about the internal politics of bigots actually??? Or their history??? Never mind their completely ridiculous, zero-evidence-for opinions on vampires??? And you’ve given me NO REASON TO???
The ending of this part would be satisfying if, you know, I had any emotional connection to any of it. As it was I kept turning pages in a haze of outrage, waiting for the moment it would all click together and I’d understand what the fucking point was.
Alas, no point ever manifested.
Part three shifted gears: I went from bored to furious. Because finally, at last, Morstabilini starts giving us the most tantalising glimpses into the wider magical world: it’s revealed that vampires have their own culture (none of which we’ve seen before) and their own dialect/language; there are vampire-adjacent beings who can talk to the dead, and magical spiders who can recreate buildings that have been lost to fire. It’s extremely cool! But these are just glimpses: a sentence or two about each thing, and then it’s gone, never brought up again.
THE FUCK. Why weren’t we seeing all of this from the beginning?! You made me read through vague plotless rambling in the first part, boring and disgusting bigots pontificating in part two, and only at the END prove you had the good stuff all along, but I can’t have it???
Oh, and the moon was a total disappointment: Ambrose doesn’t get there, but we do see it, and it’s just like our moon – ie barren and white and dusty – except the vampires can somehow breathe there. And there are probably monsters. But I was hoping for some fantastical weird realm like the not-Earth planets in Radiance by Catherynne Valente, and nope! That did not happen! Because of course it didn’t.
The first two parts should have been cut, and part three should have been expanded into its own novel. Show me the rest of the vampire world! Why do some vampires set jewels in their teeth? Explain the taboos around speaking to the dead! I want more of the spiders! Plus, you know, the whole travelling quest-of-vengeance thing (even if I’m still mad about how that went down) and the love story that’s so fast it’s practically instantaneous. BUILD IT UP AND MAKE IT A FULL NOVEL. It could have been amazing!
So I’m enormously frustrated. There was so much potential here, but it was let down at every turn – so thoroughly that it almost feels purposeful. The synopsis is a lie, but in complete fairness I don’t know what else the publisher could have written, since there isn’t really anything coherent enough to be a story here. I cannot wrap my head around why the choices that were made were made; I don’t know what Morstabilini was trying to say, or do, but I’m pretty sure the intent wasn’t to entertain (if it was, it failed miserably). The torture and bigotry felt gratuitous at best; you wrote vampires that don’t need to drink blood; every time something cool was held out to us, it was snatched away. The whole book’s wishy-washy and vague, jumping from Thing to Thing at random, pulling 180s and flip-flopping all over the place. The tone is pretentious (see: the whole narrative thread of the freaking tarot cards)(and I say that as a tarot reader!) and there’s no meat to it.
Just. Wow. Absolutely not.
Don’t waste your time.
trigger warnings: torture (graphic), dehumanising treatment, homophobia, leeches, cults, animal death (off-page), graphic mass-murder, lobotomies (off-page)
Rtc
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~broken snowglobes as a threat
~the moon’s not an escape
~never trust a cult leader
:be warned of spoilers ahead! see the end for trigger warnings:
I have no idea what the point of that was.
This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, but it ended up being a disjointed snoozefest.
It really doesn’t help that the synopsis is wildly misleading: Ambrose isn’t ‘hunted’ in any way you’d expect from hearing that he is – isn’t aware he’s being hunted, so there’s no plotline where he knows he’s in danger, and who he’s in danger from. Which means that functionally, in term of it affecting the story the reader gets, he’s not being hunted. The secret society isn’t ‘bent on his destruction’; it’s being torn apart by its internal politics, only one faction of which wants vampires wiped out. And referring to Ambrose’s family as ‘the rest of his kind’ is just flat-out lying; Regina’s ‘clan’ is made up of FOUR vampires, including her and Ambrose. There is in fact a whole WORLD of other vampires out there, none of whom are involved in this nonsense at all.
I’d like to file a complaint with whoever wrote the synopsis and whoever approved it. Gah.
The first third or so of Blood as Bright is perfectly fine, sometimes rising to good: Ambrose and his bizarre little family live in a ruined castle until the day Regina leads them to the moon, where, she claims, Ludwig 2nd, himself a vampire, rules a beautiful realm that’s a paradise for vampires. It’s a cult, basically, with Regina as obsessed cult leader, telling them parables and holy stories of Ludwig’s vampiric life, with all sorts of rules that must be followed to prove themselves worthy of Ludwig. (Bits of vampire!Ludwig’s life are interspersed throughout the book, jarring and adding nothing at all to the book.) Ambrose feels oddly ambivalent about all of it, but he’s very close to another of the vampires, Agata, and their friendship seems to be the main tether keep Ambrose in place. When he can sneak out from under Regina’s eye, he goes into the nearby town to spy on the doctor Martin, who Ambrose is attracted to – but more importantly, he harbours a hope that Martin might be able to cure vampirism if Ambrose ever reveals himself to him.
The prose is lovely, but there’s a very Literary Fiction (derogatory) feel to it all – introspective in a way that feels pretentious and over-indulgent, kind of rambly, with zero impetus driving the story forward. The story drifts, barely disturbed by the strange broken snowglobes that appear around the vampires’ castle, and the murder of the sacred-to-Ludwig swans. So I was very surprised that near the 33% mark, Regina announced it was time to head to the moon, and everyone started strapping their wings on.
(They do not, alas, have their own biological wings like the figure on the cover. These are mechanical, vaguely steampunk-y wings.)
But! Catastrophe! Ambrose’s wings break. And when he crashes to earth, he is staked by a vampire hunter who comes out NOWHERE, narratively. It’s a painfully random, jerky series of events, but for a second I thought Morstabilini had gone where few authors dare to tread and killed off her main character!
She didn’t, though. Ambrose isn’t dead. Instead he’s paralysed, unable to move or react to stimuli, but still aware of what’s around him and, unfortunately, very able to feel pain.
Part two opens with Ambrose laid out on an operating table. He’s ‘examined’ (read: tortured) and then a bunch of men arrive – the Diurnal Society – and gather around him to debate what to do with him.
I’m not kidding: the whole second part (no longer in first-person, by the way, switching between second-person and formatted-like-a-script third-person) is these mostly awful men, who are all COMPLETE STRANGERS TO US, enumerating on how great they are (and how awful their political rivals within the same society are), how it’s high time they Do Something after only studying vampires from afar for centuries, and what the different factions within the society are. Oh, and how gross vampires are, and Ambrose in particular, since he’s also gay as well as being a vamp.
It is stunningly boring. Everyone is despicable (the one guy who calls the rest of them monsters leaves without trying to get Ambrose free, so yeah, I’m counting him as despicable too), everyone is long-winded and grandiose, most of them are clearly narcissists, and hi, I don’t care about the internal politics of bigots actually??? Or their history??? Never mind their completely ridiculous, zero-evidence-for opinions on vampires??? And you’ve given me NO REASON TO???
The ending of this part would be satisfying if, you know, I had any emotional connection to any of it. As it was I kept turning pages in a haze of outrage, waiting for the moment it would all click together and I’d understand what the fucking point was.
Alas, no point ever manifested.
Part three shifted gears: I went from bored to furious. Because finally, at last, Morstabilini starts giving us the most tantalising glimpses into the wider magical world: it’s revealed that vampires have their own culture (none of which we’ve seen before) and their own dialect/language; there are vampire-adjacent beings who can talk to the dead, and magical spiders who can recreate buildings that have been lost to fire. It’s extremely cool! But these are just glimpses: a sentence or two about each thing, and then it’s gone, never brought up again.
THE FUCK. Why weren’t we seeing all of this from the beginning?! You made me read through vague plotless rambling in the first part, boring and disgusting bigots pontificating in part two, and only at the END prove you had the good stuff all along, but I can’t have it???
Oh, and the moon was a total disappointment: Ambrose doesn’t get there, but we do see it, and it’s just like our moon – ie barren and white and dusty – except the vampires can somehow breathe there. And there are probably monsters. But I was hoping for some fantastical weird realm like the not-Earth planets in Radiance by Catherynne Valente, and nope! That did not happen! Because of course it didn’t.
The first two parts should have been cut, and part three should have been expanded into its own novel. Show me the rest of the vampire world! Why do some vampires set jewels in their teeth? Explain the taboos around speaking to the dead! I want more of the spiders! Plus, you know, the whole travelling quest-of-vengeance thing (even if I’m still mad about how that went down) and the love story that’s so fast it’s practically instantaneous. BUILD IT UP AND MAKE IT A FULL NOVEL. It could have been amazing!
So I’m enormously frustrated. There was so much potential here, but it was let down at every turn – so thoroughly that it almost feels purposeful. The synopsis is a lie, but in complete fairness I don’t know what else the publisher could have written, since there isn’t really anything coherent enough to be a story here. I cannot wrap my head around why the choices that were made were made; I don’t know what Morstabilini was trying to say, or do, but I’m pretty sure the intent wasn’t to entertain (if it was, it failed miserably). The torture and bigotry felt gratuitous at best; you wrote vampires that don’t need to drink blood; every time something cool was held out to us, it was snatched away. The whole book’s wishy-washy and vague, jumping from Thing to Thing at random, pulling 180s and flip-flopping all over the place. The tone is pretentious (see: the whole narrative thread of the freaking tarot cards)(and I say that as a tarot reader!) and there’s no meat to it.
Just. Wow. Absolutely not.
Don’t waste your time.
trigger warnings: torture (graphic), dehumanising treatment, homophobia, leeches, cults, animal death (off-page), graphic mass-murder, lobotomies (off-page)
August 15, 2025
Well... that was something. I absolutely adored the premise of this - vampires that want to fly to the moon because King Ludwig II, also a vampire, has built a castle up there? That's just so strange, I NEEDED to know more.
I also genuinely enjoyed the first act. The prose is a bit pretentious, the author clearly wants to sound lyrical, but I liked the vibe, the mysteries, the protagonist's yearning for so many things - happiness, most of all. It was an interesting take on vampire culture focused on a very small cult, strongly believing in aforementioned premise. They even built wings in order to fly to the moon, and while I have no idea how they actually manage to do so (as vampires apparently do breathe and all in this version), it was interesting on a conceptual level. Then Act II changed things up dramatically, including turning from first to second person narration (which I admittedly rarely like) and with our protagonist stripped completely of agency, trapped in the role of suffering observer - but I still was kind of intrigued by it. It's mostly one long discussion between vampire hunters, but I liked the differences of approach to dealing with vampires and it always felt like it was leading to something big.
Then that big thing happened and it was GLORIOUS, and it promised more things to come.
And then came Act III. And nothing really happened. It was basically an entire act of meandering, with some antagonists that were built up dying off the page, with big anticipated confrontations turned into short conversations. The world finally opens up and we get little glimpses into the supernatural societies, be it vampires or otherwise, but they are just... glazed over. Little breadcrumbs here, some mentions there. It felt weirdly disjointed, like it was teasing us with greatness, and left me wholly unsatisfied.
So yeah, interesting premise, intriguing world, beautiful prose - but in the end the concepts failed to deliver anything truly meaningful and exciting. Still, 2,5 stars rounding up to 3 because I did enjoy the first half for what it was.
Many thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the arc!
I also genuinely enjoyed the first act. The prose is a bit pretentious, the author clearly wants to sound lyrical, but I liked the vibe, the mysteries, the protagonist's yearning for so many things - happiness, most of all. It was an interesting take on vampire culture focused on a very small cult, strongly believing in aforementioned premise. They even built wings in order to fly to the moon, and while I have no idea how they actually manage to do so (as vampires apparently do breathe and all in this version), it was interesting on a conceptual level. Then Act II changed things up dramatically, including turning from first to second person narration (which I admittedly rarely like) and with our protagonist stripped completely of agency, trapped in the role of suffering observer - but I still was kind of intrigued by it. It's mostly one long discussion between vampire hunters, but I liked the differences of approach to dealing with vampires and it always felt like it was leading to something big.
Then that big thing happened and it was GLORIOUS, and it promised more things to come.
And then came Act III. And nothing really happened. It was basically an entire act of meandering, with some antagonists that were built up dying off the page, with big anticipated confrontations turned into short conversations. The world finally opens up and we get little glimpses into the supernatural societies, be it vampires or otherwise, but they are just... glazed over. Little breadcrumbs here, some mentions there. It felt weirdly disjointed, like it was teasing us with greatness, and left me wholly unsatisfied.
So yeah, interesting premise, intriguing world, beautiful prose - but in the end the concepts failed to deliver anything truly meaningful and exciting. Still, 2,5 stars rounding up to 3 because I did enjoy the first half for what it was.
Many thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the arc!
September 17, 2025
Review originally on JamReads
A Blood as Bright as the Moon is a queer gothic horror novel, written by Andrea Morstabilini and published by Titan Books. An interesting and different take on vampires, with a lyrical prose that uses each one of its acts to experiment with the narrative in a different approach, all to deliver a powerful piece with an excellently fleshed main character enveloped into a world that spirals out of his control.
Ambrose, a young vampire, lives a secreted life with the rest of his clan, isolated from the modern world in a castle, under the direction of Regina, who also spins stories about how their group will get redemption; a sort of religion articulated around flying to the moon with makeshift wings, a safe heaven for the vampires. However, Ambrose is not ready to abandon earth, being torn between loyalties, as he's in contact with a human that thinks he might be saved; a first act that reaches its conclusion with the appearance of the Royal Diurnal Society, and with Ambrose being captured.
A first act that in, terms of structure, atmosphere, and tropes, fits well with the gothic genre, developing Ambrose as a character, and putting us in the shoes of this vampire that is still doubting about his beliefs; how being queer in this world brought pain to him, but there's still hope for his salvation.
A second act that shifts to the second person, following the Royal Diurnal Society and their deliberations after capturing Ambrose; by moments, using a theatrical approach to the narration. A part that tries to mimic the Illumination, their approach towards medical science with a certain amount of flawed takes; the conflict between rationality and religion, all while inflicting more pain to Ambrose. An act that ends with a glorious conclusion to this discussion among vampire hunters.
And again, the third and final act changes the paradigm, divided between how Ambrose finally passes to be the hunter, but also accepts how he is, but also we get to know the foundational myths of the cult lead by Regina: a new gothic tale inside our own novel. It's not as powerful as the previous acts, but there's still interesting passages, and Ludwig's story gives Morstabilini's prose an opportunity to shine.
Overall, A Blood as Bright as the Moon is a really different proposal, and that's partly why it's such an excellent novel; a new take on a classical motif as the vampire while still having that heavy gothic atmosphere engraved into the text. A memorable debut that puts Andrea Morstabilini as a voice to watch.
A Blood as Bright as the Moon is a queer gothic horror novel, written by Andrea Morstabilini and published by Titan Books. An interesting and different take on vampires, with a lyrical prose that uses each one of its acts to experiment with the narrative in a different approach, all to deliver a powerful piece with an excellently fleshed main character enveloped into a world that spirals out of his control.
Ambrose, a young vampire, lives a secreted life with the rest of his clan, isolated from the modern world in a castle, under the direction of Regina, who also spins stories about how their group will get redemption; a sort of religion articulated around flying to the moon with makeshift wings, a safe heaven for the vampires. However, Ambrose is not ready to abandon earth, being torn between loyalties, as he's in contact with a human that thinks he might be saved; a first act that reaches its conclusion with the appearance of the Royal Diurnal Society, and with Ambrose being captured.
A first act that in, terms of structure, atmosphere, and tropes, fits well with the gothic genre, developing Ambrose as a character, and putting us in the shoes of this vampire that is still doubting about his beliefs; how being queer in this world brought pain to him, but there's still hope for his salvation.
A second act that shifts to the second person, following the Royal Diurnal Society and their deliberations after capturing Ambrose; by moments, using a theatrical approach to the narration. A part that tries to mimic the Illumination, their approach towards medical science with a certain amount of flawed takes; the conflict between rationality and religion, all while inflicting more pain to Ambrose. An act that ends with a glorious conclusion to this discussion among vampire hunters.
And again, the third and final act changes the paradigm, divided between how Ambrose finally passes to be the hunter, but also accepts how he is, but also we get to know the foundational myths of the cult lead by Regina: a new gothic tale inside our own novel. It's not as powerful as the previous acts, but there's still interesting passages, and Ludwig's story gives Morstabilini's prose an opportunity to shine.
Overall, A Blood as Bright as the Moon is a really different proposal, and that's partly why it's such an excellent novel; a new take on a classical motif as the vampire while still having that heavy gothic atmosphere engraved into the text. A memorable debut that puts Andrea Morstabilini as a voice to watch.
September 17, 2025
This is a slow paced vampire reimagining. I thought it had a great setting, set in a small town, surrounding castle Frankenstein somewhere in Germany and somewhere around the end of the 19th century. The author draws from the innovations and medical advancements of this industrial time which sets the mood as dark. I enjoyed the pacing even though it was slower than I normally prefer, and my one disappointment was that the climax was a major let down. The author built it up nicely but then rushed through it too quickly. Overall there can be some brutal body horror parts but still a decent read.
December 8, 2025
whole third act was 100 pages of nothing and however much breastfeeding you think is in this book, triple it
lovely prose and an original take on vampires though, which you don’t hear often. but god at what cost
lovely prose and an original take on vampires though, which you don’t hear often. but god at what cost
October 21, 2025
This was not proofread due to sheer anger.
Book's bad and I have a lot of gripes with it.
1. The characters are flat, uninteresting and detailed while not being detailed. The protagonist gets sassy at some point and you might think that the content of the book explains it, but it doesn't feel right. More like a fanfiction author writing their SLAYYYY BESTIEEE side character.
2. The story itself has a lot happen(technically) but the writing makes it all seem inconsequential und like something happening far away. I care more for the kids from my Latin Excercise book than these ones.
3. It suddenly changes to a theater writing style with overly long stage instructions that sometimes happen in the middle of the dialogue. The dialogue looks like something from a 2015 Wattpad Fanfiction.
4. The narrative situation changes constantly as there are multiple narrators, with the protagonist once even being addressed as "you". Technically, dear reader, this might make you feel closer to the book. But you know where that happens? Right in the middle of the theatre section. It's as if the author couldn't manage writing about more than three characters at once and had to change to that. (Which considering that there's never more than three characters in a normal scene... HMMM).
5. Grand amounts of German ✨ being sprinkled in, that just feel cringe and out of context, DESPITE THE BOOK BEING SET IN GERMANY. Is this how Japanese feel, watching a white guy put on a Kimono and a Fedora? Also, the cases are almost wrong so you keep getting banger (wrong) lines like "The Chest belongs to Herr Klockner" not "Herrn Klockner". You might be saying that this is complaining for advanced people - to that i say: shut up. If you start using so much German, mark your cases right. The author knows 5 german things: Ludwig II of Bavaria, Wagner, Lohengrin specifically, Bösendorfer Pianos which are actually Austrian and the Rhineland.
6. Last but definitely not least: WHY THE FUCK IS LUDWIG OF BAVARIA AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER AND THEME. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU APOLOGIZING HIM. AND WHY THE FUCK DO YOU, AUTHOR, CARE ABOUT THAT GUY. Genuinely, when i first read "the king" and "Bavaria", the disbelief on my face was one of a kind. That's like writing a novel 50 years in the future where someone prays to Trump and (trys to) turn him into an apologetic figure (and doesn't succeed). Genuinely, Dear Author, even after reading your afterword, why the fuck.
The messages this book tries to send fall as flat as as a sourdough starter that was left in the Sahara. Dont read this. It might sound funny but it isn't. It's just meandering along.
Book's bad and I have a lot of gripes with it.
1. The characters are flat, uninteresting and detailed while not being detailed. The protagonist gets sassy at some point and you might think that the content of the book explains it, but it doesn't feel right. More like a fanfiction author writing their SLAYYYY BESTIEEE side character.
2. The story itself has a lot happen(technically) but the writing makes it all seem inconsequential und like something happening far away. I care more for the kids from my Latin Excercise book than these ones.
3. It suddenly changes to a theater writing style with overly long stage instructions that sometimes happen in the middle of the dialogue. The dialogue looks like something from a 2015 Wattpad Fanfiction.
4. The narrative situation changes constantly as there are multiple narrators, with the protagonist once even being addressed as "you". Technically, dear reader, this might make you feel closer to the book. But you know where that happens? Right in the middle of the theatre section. It's as if the author couldn't manage writing about more than three characters at once and had to change to that. (Which considering that there's never more than three characters in a normal scene... HMMM).
5. Grand amounts of German ✨ being sprinkled in, that just feel cringe and out of context, DESPITE THE BOOK BEING SET IN GERMANY. Is this how Japanese feel, watching a white guy put on a Kimono and a Fedora? Also, the cases are almost wrong so you keep getting banger (wrong) lines like "The Chest belongs to Herr Klockner" not "Herrn Klockner". You might be saying that this is complaining for advanced people - to that i say: shut up. If you start using so much German, mark your cases right. The author knows 5 german things: Ludwig II of Bavaria, Wagner, Lohengrin specifically, Bösendorfer Pianos which are actually Austrian and the Rhineland.
6. Last but definitely not least: WHY THE FUCK IS LUDWIG OF BAVARIA AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER AND THEME. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU APOLOGIZING HIM. AND WHY THE FUCK DO YOU, AUTHOR, CARE ABOUT THAT GUY. Genuinely, when i first read "the king" and "Bavaria", the disbelief on my face was one of a kind. That's like writing a novel 50 years in the future where someone prays to Trump and (trys to) turn him into an apologetic figure (and doesn't succeed). Genuinely, Dear Author, even after reading your afterword, why the fuck.
The messages this book tries to send fall as flat as as a sourdough starter that was left in the Sahara. Dont read this. It might sound funny but it isn't. It's just meandering along.
July 23, 2025
this wasn’t a “bad” book.. it’s just not something I think I can describe to anyone nor recommend it
October 7, 2025
For fans of ST Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood and VE Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, A Blood as Bright as the Moon had moments of being almost poetic, while also giving me all the gothic dark romance vibes.
Something that was really intriguing about this version of the vampire myth is that while they feed off of others, they also allow them to feed from them by basically suckling from their nipples. I don’t remember the terminology that was used, but all I could think about after hearing it was “as enticing as a witches tit!” Like their nipple had some kind of hypnotizing effect. At one point in the story, Ambrose is being pierced through his nipple to try and lessen the effectiveness, which turns into it being cut off. 😱🤯🤢
I chose to read this as an audiobook, mainly for the actor who was cast. Michael Crouch has such a wonderful voice. While I know that the majority of the roles and characters he portrays are for queer MC’s, his voice has become one that really soothes me and makes me lock in. He could read me anything and I’d be happy.
I’m always down for a vampire story, especially when it’s queer. So that definitely made the story even more enjoyable for me.
Something that was really intriguing about this version of the vampire myth is that while they feed off of others, they also allow them to feed from them by basically suckling from their nipples. I don’t remember the terminology that was used, but all I could think about after hearing it was “as enticing as a witches tit!” Like their nipple had some kind of hypnotizing effect. At one point in the story, Ambrose is being pierced through his nipple to try and lessen the effectiveness, which turns into it being cut off. 😱🤯🤢
I chose to read this as an audiobook, mainly for the actor who was cast. Michael Crouch has such a wonderful voice. While I know that the majority of the roles and characters he portrays are for queer MC’s, his voice has become one that really soothes me and makes me lock in. He could read me anything and I’d be happy.
I’m always down for a vampire story, especially when it’s queer. So that definitely made the story even more enjoyable for me.
October 1, 2025
Picked this book up on impulse based on the striking cover. In A Blood as Bright as the Moon, Ambrose has been ostracized all his life for his shining blood and need to drink from others to stabilize his moods. He's found a home in a ruined castle with the charismatic Regina--but Regina is fixated on prophecying their flight to the moon to find the haven for their kind.
This is a book with many disparate elements: a vampire cult centered around veneration of Mad King Ludwig, building mechanical wings to fly to the moon, a society of bloodthirsty dissectioners. Not to mention the setting, which must be at least in the fifties, matched with characters who feel much more archaic. It's a weird mix, and the lovely ornate prose mostly glues it together, although the plot still feels a bit surreal and hallucinatory. Here, the vampirism is not so much the classic Dracula as it is a clear allusion to a painful alienation, one rooted in Ambrose's queerness and his turbulent moods.
A weird little book. I'm not sure it quite cohered, but what an ambitious and interesting premise.
This is a book with many disparate elements: a vampire cult centered around veneration of Mad King Ludwig, building mechanical wings to fly to the moon, a society of bloodthirsty dissectioners. Not to mention the setting, which must be at least in the fifties, matched with characters who feel much more archaic. It's a weird mix, and the lovely ornate prose mostly glues it together, although the plot still feels a bit surreal and hallucinatory. Here, the vampirism is not so much the classic Dracula as it is a clear allusion to a painful alienation, one rooted in Ambrose's queerness and his turbulent moods.
A weird little book. I'm not sure it quite cohered, but what an ambitious and interesting premise.
December 6, 2025
That was the worst book I’ve ever read.
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??? I’m so confused.
It’s like you took the beginning, middle, and end out of three random books and put it together.
The end??? Was 60 pgs of nothing…. Of literally nothing?? I’m so confused.
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??? I’m so confused.
It’s like you took the beginning, middle, and end out of three random books and put it together.
The end??? Was 60 pgs of nothing…. Of literally nothing?? I’m so confused.
August 20, 2025
“Vampires want to fly — but only maybe to the moon.”
🗓 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: September 2, 2025
✨ 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 & 🍵 𝗧𝗲𝗮 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
Ambrose and his vampire clan are tucked away in a creepy Frankenstein-style castle with big dreams — like building wings and literally flying to the moon for safety. But Ambrose isn’t fully on board. He’s got secret ties to a human, and when a sinister group known as the Royal Diurnal Society shows up, things get launched into all-out chaos.
This one is gorgeously atmospheric and often a total mind-bender. The setting is creepy Gothic perfection: moonlit castles, queer undercurrents, and scheming cult vibes all in one. The prose? Lush and deliciously weird. But I will say, just a bit — the narrative sometimes spins out of control in the best and most confusing way. It’s so rich that hours later I’m still trying to sort through whether I’m in the 1800s or some fever dream. The emotional core is there, but it can feel foggy when the symbolism speeds ahead. Still. Those visions of moonbound vampires? Absolutely unforgettable.
🫶Thank you to @titanbooks for this gifted copy!
🏰 Gothic atmosphere
🌈 Queer vampire lore
🌙 Moon-bound dreams
⏳ Foggy time vibes
🌌 Cult tension
💫 Dreamlike prose
🗓 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: September 2, 2025
✨ 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 & 🍵 𝗧𝗲𝗮 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
Ambrose and his vampire clan are tucked away in a creepy Frankenstein-style castle with big dreams — like building wings and literally flying to the moon for safety. But Ambrose isn’t fully on board. He’s got secret ties to a human, and when a sinister group known as the Royal Diurnal Society shows up, things get launched into all-out chaos.
This one is gorgeously atmospheric and often a total mind-bender. The setting is creepy Gothic perfection: moonlit castles, queer undercurrents, and scheming cult vibes all in one. The prose? Lush and deliciously weird. But I will say, just a bit — the narrative sometimes spins out of control in the best and most confusing way. It’s so rich that hours later I’m still trying to sort through whether I’m in the 1800s or some fever dream. The emotional core is there, but it can feel foggy when the symbolism speeds ahead. Still. Those visions of moonbound vampires? Absolutely unforgettable.
🫶Thank you to @titanbooks for this gifted copy!
🏰 Gothic atmosphere
🌈 Queer vampire lore
🌙 Moon-bound dreams
⏳ Foggy time vibes
🌌 Cult tension
💫 Dreamlike prose
October 23, 2025
2.5
???
Warum die Obsession mit Nippeln??? Und Blutsaugen durch Nippel???
???
Warum die Obsession mit Nippeln??? Und Blutsaugen durch Nippel???
Read
August 5, 2025I’ve left the stars blank cause I don’t like to rate books I haven’t finished reading and as much as it pains me to say I quit this at 50%.
Unfortunately the author started losing me somewhere around 35% but I kept going hoping it would get better and wanting to give this a fair chance. After all I did find the protagonist Ambrose an interesting character and the overall take on vampires fairly fresh.
The premise is intriguing and the writing atmospheric if a little too self indulgent. It was charming to start with as it fit with the melancholy and ennui going on in the protagonist’s mind. But it ended up becoming tiring. There’s lyrical writing and there’s verbose and I’m sorry to say Morstabilini fell into the latter for the sake of vibes(tm). The switch up in the narration tense also jarred with me. I understood the stylistic choice but I didn’t feel like it worked well enough to get me through and pull me into continuing the story just now.
There were also instances of really peculiar and random focus on details I found either redundant or hilariously out of place which broke me out of the narrative on more than one occasion.
Finally I’m pretty versed in Italian literature having grown up studying it and I could appreciate the author's influences and subconscious homages but that’s as far as my appreciation went.
This story will find the right audience for it, I’ve no doubt. And perhaps in a future I’ll pick it up again, but for now at least, I’m setting it aside.
Until next time,
Eleni A.E.
Unfortunately the author started losing me somewhere around 35% but I kept going hoping it would get better and wanting to give this a fair chance. After all I did find the protagonist Ambrose an interesting character and the overall take on vampires fairly fresh.
The premise is intriguing and the writing atmospheric if a little too self indulgent. It was charming to start with as it fit with the melancholy and ennui going on in the protagonist’s mind. But it ended up becoming tiring. There’s lyrical writing and there’s verbose and I’m sorry to say Morstabilini fell into the latter for the sake of vibes(tm). The switch up in the narration tense also jarred with me. I understood the stylistic choice but I didn’t feel like it worked well enough to get me through and pull me into continuing the story just now.
There were also instances of really peculiar and random focus on details I found either redundant or hilariously out of place which broke me out of the narrative on more than one occasion.
Finally I’m pretty versed in Italian literature having grown up studying it and I could appreciate the author's influences and subconscious homages but that’s as far as my appreciation went.
This story will find the right audience for it, I’ve no doubt. And perhaps in a future I’ll pick it up again, but for now at least, I’m setting it aside.
Until next time,
Eleni A.E.
July 4, 2025
Andrea Morstabilini’s Blood as Bright as the Moon is a haunting, lyrical foray into the gothic tradition of vampire literature. It is steeped in atmosphere and vivid prose that often reads like poetry. Morstabilini’s command of language is undeniable—there are passages so rich and strange, I found myself rereading them just to savor the cadence.
The novel’s early chapters bristle with promise: an eerie setting, complex queer undercurrents, and characters who seem poised to unravel something dark and meaningful. It’s clear that the author has deep reverence for the gothic genre, and for much of the first half of the novel, I was fully immersed.
Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I found myself drifting. The narrative momentum began to falter for me in the second half, and the emotional grip I’d felt early on loosened. While the prose remained beautiful, I struggled to stay invested in the plot and characters as they moved toward the novel’s conclusion.
That said, Blood as Bright as the Moon will no doubt find its ideal readers, and I genuinely admire its aesthetic boldness. Though it wasn’t ultimately a match for me, Morstabilini’s talent is clear, and I’ll be keeping an eye on what they do next!
..: Disclaimer :..
I received an ARC of A Blood as bright as the Moon by Andrea Mostabilini, published by Titan Books via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Many thanks to the author and publisher for the trust!
The novel’s early chapters bristle with promise: an eerie setting, complex queer undercurrents, and characters who seem poised to unravel something dark and meaningful. It’s clear that the author has deep reverence for the gothic genre, and for much of the first half of the novel, I was fully immersed.
Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I found myself drifting. The narrative momentum began to falter for me in the second half, and the emotional grip I’d felt early on loosened. While the prose remained beautiful, I struggled to stay invested in the plot and characters as they moved toward the novel’s conclusion.
That said, Blood as Bright as the Moon will no doubt find its ideal readers, and I genuinely admire its aesthetic boldness. Though it wasn’t ultimately a match for me, Morstabilini’s talent is clear, and I’ll be keeping an eye on what they do next!
..: Disclaimer :..
I received an ARC of A Blood as bright as the Moon by Andrea Mostabilini, published by Titan Books via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Many thanks to the author and publisher for the trust!
October 30, 2025
There were some interesting ideas, but the author did not go deep enough into the lore for me to be truly interested in what was happening. I wish we could have learned more about second-mouther, for example and just about what was Ambrose. I get the point that he's not defined by being a creature; however, since we did not know more about the lore, I couldn't get myself to care about the characters that much.
I liked the way the second part was written, not saying Ambrose's name and only saying "you" to strip him of his identity.
However, the pace was weird, and it was quite boring. It also felt like, at times, the author was trying to be deep, but it did not translate well, and the writing felt uninteresting.
Also, why are we introducing completely new concepts and new characters in the last chapters?
I liked the way the second part was written, not saying Ambrose's name and only saying "you" to strip him of his identity.
However, the pace was weird, and it was quite boring. It also felt like, at times, the author was trying to be deep, but it did not translate well, and the writing felt uninteresting.
Also, why are we introducing completely new concepts and new characters in the last chapters?
October 15, 2025
This is one of the most unique vampire novels I’ve ever read. I really enjoyed it. It blends several different elements spanning across horror and fantasy well and introduces a few new concepts to classic vampiric stories! This is a creative strange little world that I loved! It did take me a couple chapters to feel fully invested but once it grabbed me it did so fully and I was committed. This is very worth the read if you’re a fan of vampires. Without giving anything away it truly is a memorable, creative, and unique story that left me intrigued and satisfied.
January 23, 2025
4.5 stars
The only reason I'm not giving this a full five stars is because the ending dragged a little bit, but for the rest, I swear this book was written with me in mind. It is weird, it is gay, it is gothic, it is full of longing, it has vampires, it has interstitials, it's obsessed with Ludwig von Wittelsbach (a.k.a. the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King), it even manages to include bog bodies (as an aside, but still!); there really isn't anything more I could ask for!
The only reason I'm not giving this a full five stars is because the ending dragged a little bit, but for the rest, I swear this book was written with me in mind. It is weird, it is gay, it is gothic, it is full of longing, it has vampires, it has interstitials, it's obsessed with Ludwig von Wittelsbach (a.k.a. the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King), it even manages to include bog bodies (as an aside, but still!); there really isn't anything more I could ask for!
September 3, 2025
It took me a while to decide how I wanted to rate this book. I enjoyed it but I was also confused…..
The story and the writing was easy to follow but I just didn’t know what was going on. I still enjoyed it though and read it in one day. So there was definitely things about it I enjoyed.
The story and the writing was easy to follow but I just didn’t know what was going on. I still enjoyed it though and read it in one day. So there was definitely things about it I enjoyed.
September 28, 2025
Why is this five stars for me?
This ticked most of the boxes for my personal enjoyment of a book.
The writing was metaphorical, lyrical and not overly simplistic. If that is not your thing, you'll probably dislike it. The metaphors on top of that were thought through as they stemmed from the obvious research done by the author and were not just random prettily sounding words or images. They connected and were prevalent throught the story, so that you could understand their meaning at different stages depending on your own knowledge, attention you pay and being given more i sight steadily by the author. They also worked with each other and lend themselves well in my opinion with the actual themes of the story.
The story made me feel deeply, as it painted a picture that is well known for many reasons. Wether you read it as something that resonates on more personal level or a cautionary tale/reminder due to the LGBTQAI+ main persecution theme and fight for survival and how the world treated such people/treats them/us in the past with clear references to how the pre Holocaust agenda grew into itself and what parallels we can observe nowayds that should be worrying. It had many smaller themes interwoven e.g of shame, self-acceptance, betrayal and found family, some cult adjecent themes, eugenics - with side theme within of it being disguised as compassion and willigness to 'heal' and others while not feeling overwhelming, but cohesive as they were all stemming from the central story.
The overall interpretation of the vampire mythos with more research put into it was felt great as well.
That it was written in such way it made me want to do more research and readi g, giving morsels but not boring me of a topic was what tipped it into the 5 star territory. Not only am I going to be reading more about King Ludwig II, but also about operation Wisła in Poland - which I was sorry to lear they didn’t teach us at school. I had no idea the book had any references to Poland and related history and traditions cliser to the end, so that was a bonus as it also made me interested in delving back into my own country's history.
I understand why it may not be for everyone if you don’t like metaphorical writing style, some gore, historical references and having to infer meaning rather that having it from the get go more directly shared with the reader. I think having some basic knowledge of the Ludwig II and Wagner can enhance the reading experience and if you have none and also know nothing or little to nothing about the German state in the 30s and the II World War atrocities this may be a challenging read and perhaps not that easy to interpret.
I think it is very timely given current worldwide situation. I shall be bying s physical copy to annotate.
This ticked most of the boxes for my personal enjoyment of a book.
The writing was metaphorical, lyrical and not overly simplistic. If that is not your thing, you'll probably dislike it. The metaphors on top of that were thought through as they stemmed from the obvious research done by the author and were not just random prettily sounding words or images. They connected and were prevalent throught the story, so that you could understand their meaning at different stages depending on your own knowledge, attention you pay and being given more i sight steadily by the author. They also worked with each other and lend themselves well in my opinion with the actual themes of the story.
The story made me feel deeply, as it painted a picture that is well known for many reasons. Wether you read it as something that resonates on more personal level or a cautionary tale/reminder due to the LGBTQAI+ main persecution theme and fight for survival and how the world treated such people/treats them/us in the past with clear references to how the pre Holocaust agenda grew into itself and what parallels we can observe nowayds that should be worrying. It had many smaller themes interwoven e.g of shame, self-acceptance, betrayal and found family, some cult adjecent themes, eugenics - with side theme within of it being disguised as compassion and willigness to 'heal' and others while not feeling overwhelming, but cohesive as they were all stemming from the central story.
The overall interpretation of the vampire mythos with more research put into it was felt great as well.
That it was written in such way it made me want to do more research and readi g, giving morsels but not boring me of a topic was what tipped it into the 5 star territory. Not only am I going to be reading more about King Ludwig II, but also about operation Wisła in Poland - which I was sorry to lear they didn’t teach us at school. I had no idea the book had any references to Poland and related history and traditions cliser to the end, so that was a bonus as it also made me interested in delving back into my own country's history.
I understand why it may not be for everyone if you don’t like metaphorical writing style, some gore, historical references and having to infer meaning rather that having it from the get go more directly shared with the reader. I think having some basic knowledge of the Ludwig II and Wagner can enhance the reading experience and if you have none and also know nothing or little to nothing about the German state in the 30s and the II World War atrocities this may be a challenging read and perhaps not that easy to interpret.
I think it is very timely given current worldwide situation. I shall be bying s physical copy to annotate.
September 10, 2025
I want to thank Charlotte Kelly, Publicity and Marketing Executive at Titan Books, who so kindly included the physical ARC for A Blood As Bright As The Moon with the initial request I did for another title by a different author. She strongly encouraged me to check it out and let her know what I think. Charlotte, thanks for the nudge!
"If you've ever seen a spider trying to trap a hornet in its web, you know what it's like to inhabit my mind. I'm the hornet, and the spide trapping it."
One of the things I loved so much about this book was that it defies the traditional vampire mythos. Ambrose (vampire) was able to enter Hunger's home without permission. Most vampire stories would not ever subscribe to this notion that a vampire can enter homes without admission from the human inhabitants. Further, there's the concept that the vampires bleed pink, instead of red.
"...(F)aith, without money to sustain it, is often called delusion."
This brings me to one issue I had with this novel, that vampiric blood is pink. I consulted with my sister who is a nurse, and asked her what colors she would say blood are. She said typically red or black. I mentioned to her that the vampires in this book bleed pink. My sister then informed me that depending on the way flourescent lights hit, the blood can be considered pink. So is this a concern for the novel, absolutely not. But I will explain that the pink blood was not described, but there was an allusion that might possibly be due to the pink moon?
"You don't ask myths to make sense of cartography."
The novel is set in Frankenstein, Germany. It is a little ironic as the story reads as an insane doctor does medical expirements on vampires. This irony is explicitly stated by the author at the introduction to the story.
"Obscurum per obscurius..." (Translation: explaining the obscure by means of the more obscure.)
This was one of the many quotes I loved throught ABABATM. Shortened to an acronym that makes me think of batman by the amalgamation of the title. I will include a collection of favorite quotes at the end of this review.
While reading the novel, I kept bouncing back and forth with deciding if Regina, Ambrose's maker was a savior, or a torturor. I would lean more towards his savior, but she certainly did tortur Ambrose and others in differing ways depending on the individual.
"We were kin, joined by something deeper than the colour of our blood--by the history we shared."
Ambrose lists three things that made me think of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles:
1. Nosiness--This made me think of the vampire Claudia.
2. Eagerness to please-- This made me think of the vampire Lestat. He was always trying to please everyone despite being the most entitled, selfish vampire in history.
3. Misery-- This made me think of the vampire Louis. He suffered from a lifetime of misery when he was alive, and then immediately followed with misery that lasted for an eternity when he was turned by Lestat.
In reference to the above, I can see some potential influences for this novel stemming from Rice's famed vampire series.
The final page in the Pelican chapter was so well written. THIS!!!! This is the vampire story that I have been searching for. While Rice's literary famed novels alluded to homosexual vampires, Morstabilini explicitly details the gay vampires without sacrificing the story, without making it such a focus (gay sex), and ultimately explores the idea of the humanity still within the vampires throughout his novel.
"Ask yourself a question long enough and it loses its meaning, until you no longer know what it is that you are questioning, and it is the act itself--the endless rumination, doubt upon doubt upon doubt--that becomes the subject of your every thought."
In Part II The Operating Theatre, this reminded me of a mix between Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory, and Rice's Lestat's "Theatre de Vampires". Personally, I was not a fan of the way this section was presented, but I loved the contents nonetheless. Doctor Hunger, such a befitting name, was a character that I thought I would love from the beginning but ended up resenting well before the novel even concluded. What I did appreciate was the fact that these characters were not teenage annoyances that were somehow imbibed with adult characteristics. Doctor Hunger is in the same age bracket as I am, and that is so beyond refreshing to read about characters that I can actually relate to. If this were a medical appointment, it checked all the boxes for the demographics for me: age, sexual orientation, obscure curiousities, sex (minimally--not the main focus of the text), blood, guts, and more! Whether this was done consciously or subconsciously, it does not matter, what matters is the author providing an authentic, original, and storyline that was relatable for myself, and I imagine many fellow queer readers. But it doesn't stop there. Andrea's talent has scripted a novel that even with homosexual characters, their sexuality is NOT the focus, for heterosexual readers, I can imagine that this story can be read by them without offending fragile toxic masculinity prototypes.
"Your pink blood is made for the lips of lovers and the wounds of friends."
Manfred, Ambrose's familiar, is a cat. In one scene, Ambrose is breastfeeding Manfred but it's not milk, it's Ambrose's pink blood. Whether it was milk or blood is irrelevant, whether or not that Ambrose is a human, or a vampire is irrelvant. What is relevant, is why is a man breastfeeding at all? To a cat, not even to a human child? I think this particular part of the story definitely required a bit more detail to why it is even relevant to include in the story. Well, I suppose Ambrose's "pink moon blood is made for the lips of" Manfred? I don't even know. I have nothing! Lol!
"You will stop when you are happy. If you can remember what happiness feels like."
One thought that crossed my mind while reading Andrea's novel, which never crossed my mind before, is the concept of race relations in vampire novels. If vampirism can cure other health issues within humans after they've been turned into vampires, could vampirism possibly cure racism? This is a good concept that Markus Redmond wrote about in his novel "Blood Slaves". This is not necessarily a comparison of the two vampire books, but is certainly a concept I wished to read about in a future novel(s).
The joy of reading books will always educate consciously/subconsciously with unfamiliar words, themes/concepts etc. On page 174, "Egyptian faience" was mentioned. While I knew of this art medium, I had no idea of its historical significance. This does not have any direct impact on the story one way or another, it has made an impact on my life, as now when I see this art, I can thank Morstabilini, for educating me with Egyptian faience.
In closing, I would say this book is Interview with the Vampire meets Frankenstein meets Star Trek. I want to read more about Ambrose, Agata, and Mikolaj. I hope Andrea will come out with a sequel, or a novel continuing in this specific, beautiful, and weird world that I have come to love so much!
Additional favorite quotes:
"In time even gold can rot..."
"Can you conjure up a picture more repugnant than a man feeding a child from his breast."
"Perhaps it is best to live in a perhaps."
"Where do I go now that my loose ends are tied, now that I know there is no castle waiting for me on the moon?"
"It's just death, senseless and meaningless like every other death."
"We all fight the same battle...(W)hat we lose in the fire must not be lost forever. Everything--and everyone--is worth salvaging."
"Why live your life as if there is a castle up there, when there's so much down here?"
"If you've ever seen a spider trying to trap a hornet in its web, you know what it's like to inhabit my mind. I'm the hornet, and the spide trapping it."
One of the things I loved so much about this book was that it defies the traditional vampire mythos. Ambrose (vampire) was able to enter Hunger's home without permission. Most vampire stories would not ever subscribe to this notion that a vampire can enter homes without admission from the human inhabitants. Further, there's the concept that the vampires bleed pink, instead of red.
"...(F)aith, without money to sustain it, is often called delusion."
This brings me to one issue I had with this novel, that vampiric blood is pink. I consulted with my sister who is a nurse, and asked her what colors she would say blood are. She said typically red or black. I mentioned to her that the vampires in this book bleed pink. My sister then informed me that depending on the way flourescent lights hit, the blood can be considered pink. So is this a concern for the novel, absolutely not. But I will explain that the pink blood was not described, but there was an allusion that might possibly be due to the pink moon?
"You don't ask myths to make sense of cartography."
The novel is set in Frankenstein, Germany. It is a little ironic as the story reads as an insane doctor does medical expirements on vampires. This irony is explicitly stated by the author at the introduction to the story.
"Obscurum per obscurius..." (Translation: explaining the obscure by means of the more obscure.)
This was one of the many quotes I loved throught ABABATM. Shortened to an acronym that makes me think of batman by the amalgamation of the title. I will include a collection of favorite quotes at the end of this review.
While reading the novel, I kept bouncing back and forth with deciding if Regina, Ambrose's maker was a savior, or a torturor. I would lean more towards his savior, but she certainly did tortur Ambrose and others in differing ways depending on the individual.
"We were kin, joined by something deeper than the colour of our blood--by the history we shared."
Ambrose lists three things that made me think of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles:
1. Nosiness--This made me think of the vampire Claudia.
2. Eagerness to please-- This made me think of the vampire Lestat. He was always trying to please everyone despite being the most entitled, selfish vampire in history.
3. Misery-- This made me think of the vampire Louis. He suffered from a lifetime of misery when he was alive, and then immediately followed with misery that lasted for an eternity when he was turned by Lestat.
In reference to the above, I can see some potential influences for this novel stemming from Rice's famed vampire series.
The final page in the Pelican chapter was so well written. THIS!!!! This is the vampire story that I have been searching for. While Rice's literary famed novels alluded to homosexual vampires, Morstabilini explicitly details the gay vampires without sacrificing the story, without making it such a focus (gay sex), and ultimately explores the idea of the humanity still within the vampires throughout his novel.
"Ask yourself a question long enough and it loses its meaning, until you no longer know what it is that you are questioning, and it is the act itself--the endless rumination, doubt upon doubt upon doubt--that becomes the subject of your every thought."
In Part II The Operating Theatre, this reminded me of a mix between Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory, and Rice's Lestat's "Theatre de Vampires". Personally, I was not a fan of the way this section was presented, but I loved the contents nonetheless. Doctor Hunger, such a befitting name, was a character that I thought I would love from the beginning but ended up resenting well before the novel even concluded. What I did appreciate was the fact that these characters were not teenage annoyances that were somehow imbibed with adult characteristics. Doctor Hunger is in the same age bracket as I am, and that is so beyond refreshing to read about characters that I can actually relate to. If this were a medical appointment, it checked all the boxes for the demographics for me: age, sexual orientation, obscure curiousities, sex (minimally--not the main focus of the text), blood, guts, and more! Whether this was done consciously or subconsciously, it does not matter, what matters is the author providing an authentic, original, and storyline that was relatable for myself, and I imagine many fellow queer readers. But it doesn't stop there. Andrea's talent has scripted a novel that even with homosexual characters, their sexuality is NOT the focus, for heterosexual readers, I can imagine that this story can be read by them without offending fragile toxic masculinity prototypes.
"Your pink blood is made for the lips of lovers and the wounds of friends."
Manfred, Ambrose's familiar, is a cat. In one scene, Ambrose is breastfeeding Manfred but it's not milk, it's Ambrose's pink blood. Whether it was milk or blood is irrelevant, whether or not that Ambrose is a human, or a vampire is irrelvant. What is relevant, is why is a man breastfeeding at all? To a cat, not even to a human child? I think this particular part of the story definitely required a bit more detail to why it is even relevant to include in the story. Well, I suppose Ambrose's "pink moon blood is made for the lips of" Manfred? I don't even know. I have nothing! Lol!
"You will stop when you are happy. If you can remember what happiness feels like."
One thought that crossed my mind while reading Andrea's novel, which never crossed my mind before, is the concept of race relations in vampire novels. If vampirism can cure other health issues within humans after they've been turned into vampires, could vampirism possibly cure racism? This is a good concept that Markus Redmond wrote about in his novel "Blood Slaves". This is not necessarily a comparison of the two vampire books, but is certainly a concept I wished to read about in a future novel(s).
The joy of reading books will always educate consciously/subconsciously with unfamiliar words, themes/concepts etc. On page 174, "Egyptian faience" was mentioned. While I knew of this art medium, I had no idea of its historical significance. This does not have any direct impact on the story one way or another, it has made an impact on my life, as now when I see this art, I can thank Morstabilini, for educating me with Egyptian faience.
In closing, I would say this book is Interview with the Vampire meets Frankenstein meets Star Trek. I want to read more about Ambrose, Agata, and Mikolaj. I hope Andrea will come out with a sequel, or a novel continuing in this specific, beautiful, and weird world that I have come to love so much!
Additional favorite quotes:
"In time even gold can rot..."
"Can you conjure up a picture more repugnant than a man feeding a child from his breast."
"Perhaps it is best to live in a perhaps."
"Where do I go now that my loose ends are tied, now that I know there is no castle waiting for me on the moon?"
"It's just death, senseless and meaningless like every other death."
"We all fight the same battle...(W)hat we lose in the fire must not be lost forever. Everything--and everyone--is worth salvaging."
"Why live your life as if there is a castle up there, when there's so much down here?"
Want to read
February 11, 2025"A vampire, desperately torn between worlds, is hunted down by a secret society bent on his destruction, in this elegiac and unsettling queer gothic horror, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Silvia Moreno-Garcia."
a queer gothic horror comped to two of my fave authors? sold
a queer gothic horror comped to two of my fave authors? sold
June 30, 2025
★★★ ¾
what an interesting title this was! filled with lush prose and a unique take on the vampire stories we all know and love (i wasn't expecting a book about a vampire cult building wings to fly to a castle on the moon to work as well as it did) and absolutely teeming with magic, this book so easily drew me in. with its mythology, side characters that felt like three-dimensional figures that could really exist rather than being used simply as vehicles, and a parable that felt reminiscent of classic gothic literature but that did not draw away from the story at hand, this book felt like a fairytale in all the best ways—a world that i could enjoy delving into and savoring—and i appreciated all of the historical references to help cement the world into being, even if i didn't understand all of them (and i think i may benefit for a reread to put together all of the threads i missed the first time around).
the main things that drew me away from the immersion were firstly that the historical elements were expected to be known by the reader, which—though not necessarily a negative—expected a certain amount of knowledge that the reader may not initially possess or know to cross-reference, what with the fantastical feel of the rest of the novel. a bit of extra telling to clarify which parts of the story are myth and which are not so that the reader can truly immerse themselves into the experience may be to the work's benefit. furthermore, i simply wish the title was longer. the author did a wonderful job packing a story that felt so rich and full of love into under three hundred pages, but i think the underlying story would move from "great" to "perfect" if just a little bit more meat was included to tie all the different threads together.
thank you to titan books and netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review! all opinions are my own.
what an interesting title this was! filled with lush prose and a unique take on the vampire stories we all know and love (i wasn't expecting a book about a vampire cult building wings to fly to a castle on the moon to work as well as it did) and absolutely teeming with magic, this book so easily drew me in. with its mythology, side characters that felt like three-dimensional figures that could really exist rather than being used simply as vehicles, and a parable that felt reminiscent of classic gothic literature but that did not draw away from the story at hand, this book felt like a fairytale in all the best ways—a world that i could enjoy delving into and savoring—and i appreciated all of the historical references to help cement the world into being, even if i didn't understand all of them (and i think i may benefit for a reread to put together all of the threads i missed the first time around).
the main things that drew me away from the immersion were firstly that the historical elements were expected to be known by the reader, which—though not necessarily a negative—expected a certain amount of knowledge that the reader may not initially possess or know to cross-reference, what with the fantastical feel of the rest of the novel. a bit of extra telling to clarify which parts of the story are myth and which are not so that the reader can truly immerse themselves into the experience may be to the work's benefit. furthermore, i simply wish the title was longer. the author did a wonderful job packing a story that felt so rich and full of love into under three hundred pages, but i think the underlying story would move from "great" to "perfect" if just a little bit more meat was included to tie all the different threads together.
thank you to titan books and netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review! all opinions are my own.
November 28, 2025
Not your standard vampire fare. It’s stranger, moodier and far more interested in the things we hide from ourselves, and others too. It exposes a particular kind of dishonesty. Not the flashy, villainous kind, but the intimate sort. The kind where someone hides pieces of themselves from everyone and calls it protection. Whether that is safe or smart or fair, I’m not sure, but the book gets the damage that creates.
Ambrose lives under a cultish vampire matriarch selling moon-salvation, but what the book really tracks is the slow cracking of that belief. His longing for freedom, for truth, for a human man he’s not supposed to want, gives the story a steady, haunted pulse. His arc is really about reconciling himself: vampire + queer + yearning for human connection, and so shifting from passive to active as he finally accepts who he is.
The prose is beautiful yet the structure jumps, the perspective shifts, and the book does not care if you want tidy. It can lack clarity and narrative cohesion. For me, the disorientation worked. It mirrors Ambrose’s unraveling and the gradual move from obedient follower to someone who chooses his own life.
It’s gothic and moss-and-stone cold, think ruined castle, night patrols, wings built out of desperation - the atmosphere is excellent. Beneath it all is a sharp look at identity and indoctrination: what happens when the story you’re handed stops fitting and you see and accept your true self?
Read it if you love: queer gothic tales, haunted ruins, cult dynamics, characters quietly rebelling against fate, and that pull toward freedom and truth.
This is not a light read; it demands patience and rewards mood over momentum. If you expect pure vampire action, it may frustrate. If you want atmosphere, metaphor, texture and a touch of existential ache then it delivers.
Ambrose lives under a cultish vampire matriarch selling moon-salvation, but what the book really tracks is the slow cracking of that belief. His longing for freedom, for truth, for a human man he’s not supposed to want, gives the story a steady, haunted pulse. His arc is really about reconciling himself: vampire + queer + yearning for human connection, and so shifting from passive to active as he finally accepts who he is.
The prose is beautiful yet the structure jumps, the perspective shifts, and the book does not care if you want tidy. It can lack clarity and narrative cohesion. For me, the disorientation worked. It mirrors Ambrose’s unraveling and the gradual move from obedient follower to someone who chooses his own life.
It’s gothic and moss-and-stone cold, think ruined castle, night patrols, wings built out of desperation - the atmosphere is excellent. Beneath it all is a sharp look at identity and indoctrination: what happens when the story you’re handed stops fitting and you see and accept your true self?
Read it if you love: queer gothic tales, haunted ruins, cult dynamics, characters quietly rebelling against fate, and that pull toward freedom and truth.
This is not a light read; it demands patience and rewards mood over momentum. If you expect pure vampire action, it may frustrate. If you want atmosphere, metaphor, texture and a touch of existential ache then it delivers.
September 14, 2025
Ambrose is a young vampire living with the rest of his clan under Regina's rule. She plans to make wings and fly to the moon, where a safe haven awaits for all vampires. Ambrose isn't ready to leave and has contacted a human who feels he can be saved. As the other vampires prepare to flee to the moon, the Royal Diurnal Society is on its way to conduct its terrifying and mysterious experiments.
In this world, vampires have pink blood and are born with it. Even as a child, Ambrose had pink blood, liked men, and craved red blood. He ran away from home and lived on the streets, never quite fitting in. Regina gave him a home and purpose, but he hoped there was a way to cure the vampirism so that he could be normal and not have to fly to the moon. His anxiety and the terrible way the Royal Diurnal Society treated him and others like him can be seen as a direct allegory to how anyone different gets treated: called monstrous for even existing, that survival is an attack, and that they must be eradicated so that their "normal" can be preserved and they can feel like strong men in their own minds.
There's a quiet hurt throughout the story. Ambrose is hurt in so many different ways, his anxiety a close companion even when he doesn't think of himself as a person. The shift in POV is an interesting way to show that, and I love how badass Agata was. In the end, Ambrose found what he was looking for all along, even if it wasn't what he expected. While initially it was a story that tied the four vampires together under Regina, it was a story that also allowed him to heal and find what he needed.
In this world, vampires have pink blood and are born with it. Even as a child, Ambrose had pink blood, liked men, and craved red blood. He ran away from home and lived on the streets, never quite fitting in. Regina gave him a home and purpose, but he hoped there was a way to cure the vampirism so that he could be normal and not have to fly to the moon. His anxiety and the terrible way the Royal Diurnal Society treated him and others like him can be seen as a direct allegory to how anyone different gets treated: called monstrous for even existing, that survival is an attack, and that they must be eradicated so that their "normal" can be preserved and they can feel like strong men in their own minds.
There's a quiet hurt throughout the story. Ambrose is hurt in so many different ways, his anxiety a close companion even when he doesn't think of himself as a person. The shift in POV is an interesting way to show that, and I love how badass Agata was. In the end, Ambrose found what he was looking for all along, even if it wasn't what he expected. While initially it was a story that tied the four vampires together under Regina, it was a story that also allowed him to heal and find what he needed.
October 4, 2025
This is one of the those books that vampire fans like me are constantly searching for; a story that uses the 'vampire' as an archetype to explore something much larger. A Blood as Bright as the Moon is best experienced rather than explained, but can be described as a story in three parts. Ambrose is a vampire (or something unnamed that might resemble a vampire, but is uninterested in any specific labelling) that has found himself in a small but fanatical vampire cult that plans to 'fly' to the moon and live in a castle with the mad King Ludwig. It has a vaguely surreal and anachronistic setting that seems to take place in the modern day.
Without wanting to spoil too much of the story, the second act of the book (and my favourite) takes a large detour into anatomical horror, wherein an uncomfortably masculinised sect of humans pick apart the concept of the male vampire through reference to the Malleus Maleficarum, and their own misguided prejudice and homophobia. It is a truly astounding piece of writing that weaves themes often adjacent to vampire narratives in a way I have never seen before. Perhaps my only criticism is that the second act of this book was so strong to me, that I found the third comparatively slow (though also superbly written).
The overall book feels dream-like, and as others have pointed out, has a beautifully superannuated sense of aesthetic. Arcade Fire is played on a gramophone, Victorian medical theatres are in use, and a pair of mechanical wings can fly a person to the moon. 'Vampires' at their most cerebral.
*Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy of this book for review*
Without wanting to spoil too much of the story, the second act of the book (and my favourite) takes a large detour into anatomical horror, wherein an uncomfortably masculinised sect of humans pick apart the concept of the male vampire through reference to the Malleus Maleficarum, and their own misguided prejudice and homophobia. It is a truly astounding piece of writing that weaves themes often adjacent to vampire narratives in a way I have never seen before. Perhaps my only criticism is that the second act of this book was so strong to me, that I found the third comparatively slow (though also superbly written).
The overall book feels dream-like, and as others have pointed out, has a beautifully superannuated sense of aesthetic. Arcade Fire is played on a gramophone, Victorian medical theatres are in use, and a pair of mechanical wings can fly a person to the moon. 'Vampires' at their most cerebral.
*Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy of this book for review*
November 18, 2025
I badly wanted to love this book- the whimsical premise of a vampire cult who want to fly up to the moon, only to be captured and experimented on, is exactly up my street, but unfortunately it failed to deliver any sort of narrative pay off.
There is a dreamy quality to the writing which I enjoy, and this really works for the first third of the book, but becomes tedious for the last third, which I struggled to get through. It's not bad, but poorly utilised, in my opinion. There were ideas here which were interesting but the exploration was far too shallow, I found myself unsatisfied by the conclusion of the book.
I would have loved to have seen more of how 'out of time' the vampires were - it never felt like the time setting made sense, which worked when the story was contained in castle Frankenstein, but didn't once it moved out of it. The mention of Agata and Ambrose enjoying an Arcade Fire record in the first few pages was so delightful that I was excited to see more allusions to the modern world just beyond their circle, but this was a thread left untouched.
A lot of people seem to have a problem with the breast feeding thing, which I disagree with- it suits the tone of the book. What I would have liked is more lore or even just understanding of what the vampires were and how they worked. The book seemed uninterested in exploring any of that, favouring vague flair, and I felt it suffered for it.
Really disappointed in this one, to be honest. 2⭐️
There is a dreamy quality to the writing which I enjoy, and this really works for the first third of the book, but becomes tedious for the last third, which I struggled to get through. It's not bad, but poorly utilised, in my opinion. There were ideas here which were interesting but the exploration was far too shallow, I found myself unsatisfied by the conclusion of the book.
I would have loved to have seen more of how 'out of time' the vampires were - it never felt like the time setting made sense, which worked when the story was contained in castle Frankenstein, but didn't once it moved out of it. The mention of Agata and Ambrose enjoying an Arcade Fire record in the first few pages was so delightful that I was excited to see more allusions to the modern world just beyond their circle, but this was a thread left untouched.
A lot of people seem to have a problem with the breast feeding thing, which I disagree with- it suits the tone of the book. What I would have liked is more lore or even just understanding of what the vampires were and how they worked. The book seemed uninterested in exploring any of that, favouring vague flair, and I felt it suffered for it.
Really disappointed in this one, to be honest. 2⭐️
September 3, 2025
I'm not 100% sure how to rate this book. On one hand, I enjoyed the different elements of the story, on the other hand I think I was confused at least half of the time.
I followed the story well enough to be able to read it but also felt like I didn't know what was happening. Like the book was keeping secrets it kept eluding to and if I just kept reading id find them out. I'm not even sure if I did or not.
The intertwined stories changed perspective and weren't always clear they were a side step or addition to the main story. They were melancholy and beautiful, dark and unhinged.
Could I stop reading despite my ongoing confusion? No.
It felt a bit like I was watching a film with sunglasses on, I could follow along mostly but I felt like I was missing a lot, straining to see. Or like someone dropped an unbound book and put it all back together as best as they could, maybe slightly out of order, missing a couple of pages and adding in a few stray ones from elsewhere.
The story was certainly gothic and some would say horror too. I enjoyed the LGBTQ representation.
If this review is a bit all over the place it's because I'm baffled.
Perhaps I'm just not the right audience. I think I liked it. Not sure I would read it again.
I followed the story well enough to be able to read it but also felt like I didn't know what was happening. Like the book was keeping secrets it kept eluding to and if I just kept reading id find them out. I'm not even sure if I did or not.
The intertwined stories changed perspective and weren't always clear they were a side step or addition to the main story. They were melancholy and beautiful, dark and unhinged.
Could I stop reading despite my ongoing confusion? No.
It felt a bit like I was watching a film with sunglasses on, I could follow along mostly but I felt like I was missing a lot, straining to see. Or like someone dropped an unbound book and put it all back together as best as they could, maybe slightly out of order, missing a couple of pages and adding in a few stray ones from elsewhere.
The story was certainly gothic and some would say horror too. I enjoyed the LGBTQ representation.
If this review is a bit all over the place it's because I'm baffled.
Perhaps I'm just not the right audience. I think I liked it. Not sure I would read it again.
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