The Red Sacrament

by Sara Hinkley

A savage, hypnotic dive into the lives and deaths of a coven of vampires living in 19th Century Paris, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Laura Purcell and Elizabeth Kostova

Paris, 1869. The Théâtre Saint-Siméon is the place to be, if you can get in. The black slips of paper that guarantee entry are rare and highly desired, and given only to certain persons. The actors on stage are magnetic and ageless, performing only at midnight and never seen during the day…

Arnault and his clan of vampires have survived for as long as they have by observing a rigid set of rules. At night, they perform on stage at the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, picking off just enough people in the audience to survive. But they understand the city, and how to live in it without being noticed.

Their peace is shattered first with a visit from Béatrice, a witch who forms a strange connection to Arnault; then with the arrival of Victor de Rouvray and his sister Françoise, vampires from a very different world. And, as Arnault grows closer and closer to the beautiful, enigmatic Victor, he risks becoming distracted from the constant bickering of his immortal friends, from the daily running of the theatre, and worse, from the premonitions of blood, death and starvation that he receives at night.

For a terrible change is on the horizon, revolt and revolution are brewing in the streets and soon, the city, and Arnault will never be the same again.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Gothic, Historical, Queer

512 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2026

About the author

I'm a costume designer and writer living in Brooklyn, NY. I work primarily in TV & film, with a background in theatre, dance, and opera. I started writing during COVID when the industry shut down, and I'm still at it! :)

The Red Sacrament is my first novel. See my bookshelves 'the-red-sacrament-research' for what i read to write it, and 'the-red-sacrament-inspiration' for some of my favorites that lit a spark, or showed the way.

Reviews

[kathrine]

they could've at least tried to file the serial numbers off. arnault sounds an awful lot like armand 🤔🤔

[❁lilith❁ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.
____________

I think people might pick this up for the description and possibly not entirely gel with the actual story inside. This book has my favourite writing style: evocative, atmospheric, and probably considered 'purple' prose, but I loved it and it really made the book for me.
I loved the ensemble in this, the theatre troupe of vampires. Not all of them are fleshed out, but the ones that are feel very real (as real as vampires can be) and their interactions with each other are amazing. Our main guy is great to read from the perspective of, sometimes he comes across so cool and ancient and impressive to the troupe, and then other times he's being the biggest idiot of all time. I really enjoyed his character and how he basically ends up ruining his own (after)life.
Preventing this from getting five stars was a lot of the business with the witch, including the ending. I just didn't care as much as the other more vampire focused parts, and I preferred the story happening in Paris.

PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 07 2026

[Erin Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

✨✨✨1800s Paris, theater, and vampires!!! 🧛 ✨✨✨

I went into The Red Sacrament pretty blind to be honest. I saw 1800s Paris, theater, and vampires and that was a wrap. I’m in! 🤓📖

After finishing this book, I looked into it a little and it appears that this book was inspired by Interview with the Vampire. Or maybe the tv show? I haven’t seen the show yet, but I can definitely see some Interview with the Vampire inspiration here.

I am an huge vampire fan and really love the vibe of The Red Sacrament! I thought the theater aspects were so cool!! I wish I had connected a little bit more to the characters. Also, some of the book felt a little too bulky, slow, long, and dragging for my taste. The writing was definitely very descriptive. Overall I absolutely enjoyed this one. It was very atmospheric and lush which I loved that!!🧛

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is expected to be released July 7, 2026 .

[johnny dangerously · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two people cannot write the same book. We talk a lot about tropes on this website, but tropes are meaningless for real analysis, because no two authors are going to write the same idea the same way, even if one is substantially in conversation with the other. Sara Hinkley could not have written Interview with the Vampire; Anne Rice could not have written The Red Sacrament. Rice's book is not about Marxism or political upheaval; Hinkley's book is not about the loss of a child. What Hinkley has done with the skeleton of Rice's first novel is wholly original, fully confident, and an astounding display of skill from a debut author. It is, simply put, not fanfiction, because fanfiction is an attempt to reheat an original work; fanfiction can be excellently written, but from a mechanical standpoint it just isn't meant to establish anything foundationally new, and relies on the framework of the original to function. None of the enjoyment I found in The Red Sacrament relied on prior understanding of Interview with the Vampire, and I know this because I don't… really like that book.

Don't get me wrong. It's a great novel, an important work, but it's just not for me. I can acknowledge that John Everett Millais is a talented and important painter, even though I don't really dig any of his paintings, because the Pre-Raphaelites just aren't painterly enough with their brushstrokes to get my engine going. Ultimately, a lot of what excites us about art is in the little details like that, the brushstroke, the grammar, the tense, the lighting. To say Sacrament is identical to Interview is like saying milk snakes are the same as corn snakes; you could confuse the two, if you only have very incomplete, surface-level knowledge of either. And Interview with the Vampire just doesn't have the little fine details that grab me, despite the fact that in theory it should.

The Red Sacrament is, if anything, the inverse of that: even though I don't usually gravitate toward what Sacrament is concerned with (vampires, this period of French history, the theatre) or made up of (lush descriptions of opulent dress, present-tense prose), I loved this book and found every chapter of it thrilling. This largely thanks to Hinkley's clear ear for prose: I never felt like her present-tense writing was too sparse or awkward, and her poetic descriptions never got in the way of clarity. I always knew what was going on, and was entertained by the way she told me. She also has a fantastic sense of pacing. Even though this novel creeps along rather slowly (the plot has barely started by the 100 page mark), I was so entertained by her sentences, her characterization, her deft hand for metaphor and analysis that I didn't mind, and honestly barely noticed until I wrote down my page count for my tracker. If you go back through my reviews, you'll notice the #1 thing I complain about is pacing. The fact that Hinkley, a debut author, has managed to capture something so many more experienced authors struggle with has made me a fan forever. She can take as long as she needs to perfect her next novel, but when it's out, I'm snatching it hot off the press so fast I might burn my fingers.

Hinkley has done something really dynamic here, using a small part of Rice's novel as a scaffold to make a story entirely different and entirely her own. This is a story with capital-B Big themes, but subtle enough about it to treat the reader like an adult-- we can figure it out as we go along, it's never didactic or scolding. It wants to talk about sexual assault, about theatre, about unbalanced dynamics of power, about industrialism, about immortality and the nature of metaphor, about history and empire. It does all these things, and with an incredible level of respect for the reader. This book is lush and open, yet it's got secrets hidden for anyone who wants to dig a little deeper. It's got everything I want when I opine for the crossroads of literary heft and genre fiction. You don't want to miss this.

If you like Interview with the Vampire, check this book out, but not because it's similar. No, read this novel because, like Interview with the Vampire, it's a good book. It's a really good book. We're going to be talking about it for years and years, and you will want to be part of that conversation.


(Thank you, Netgalley, for an advanced copy in return for a fair review.)

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars ✨

Honestly, this was a little hard to rate. I didn't hate it nor did I think it was bad. I just found the problems I had with it outweighed what I enjoyed about it.

The writing was very beautiful and lush. I think Sarah Hinkley is a strong writer, but I don't think she's a strong storyteller. The writing started to feel more like the author was trying to flex their writing skills rather than tell a coherent and cohesive story.

Purple prose is fine to a point, but when the plot get's confusing and lost because overly descriptive and flowery language is used it's a problem. I honestly can't tell you what the story / plot was because I became so confused. It was just a bit of a bloated mess.

Unfortunately, I can't even speak on the characters and their strengths. They all felt very flat to me, and again, I think it was because of the writing.

It felt very more little snapshots into these characters lives rather than anything else, but unfortunately that made it rather a boring story. And for the length of this book, a lot of that should have been cut. We don't need 500 pages / 18 hours for the same thing over and over and over.

It's also very clear this was heavily inspired Interview with the Vampire, so if you enjoyed that and more of a slow meandering story, you might like this.

AUDIO: the production was great as was the sound quality. I think the only issue I found was that, while the narrator was great, they didn't fit the story to me.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media & netgalley for the audio arc.

[quillnqueer]

Absolutely fascinated that this is so blatantly plagiarised Armand but sure I'll read it

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

In the heart of 1869 Paris, a hidden theater opens its doors only at midnight. Behind the curtain is a coven of vampires who have survived for centuries by following one simple rule: never draw attention to themselves. But when new arrivals disrupt the delicate balance they've built, old loyalties are tested, dangerous desires emerge, and the future of their world begins to unravel.

I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The premise immediately caught my attention, but it was the writing that completely pulled me in. It was rich, atmospheric, and absolutely beautiful. Every page felt like I was stepping into another time, and I found myself slowing down just to soak it all in.

The characters were another highlight for me. They didn't just exist on the page, they felt alive. Each one had their own personality, motivations, and complicated relationships that made me genuinely invested in what would happen next. I especially enjoyed watching the dynamics shift as new characters entered the story and everything became more unpredictable.

This isn't a fast paced vampire horror novel, and I think that's exactly why it worked so well. It takes its time building the atmosphere, developing the characters, and immersing you in this haunting version of nineteenth century Paris. If you're looking for action on every page, this may not be the book for you. But if you enjoy gothic horror with gorgeous writing and unforgettable characters, it's absolutely worth the journey.

**Would I recommend it?**

Yes! If you love gothic horror, historical settings, beautifully written prose, character driven stories, and vampires with depth, I definitely recommend adding this one to your reading list.

[Becky Spratford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading for review in a future issue of Booklist

Three Words That Describe This Book: theatrical, confessional tone, lush

Interview with the Vampire fans rejoice. This is the book you have been longing for.

This is a debut set in Paris beginning in 1869. It is all narrated by Arnault, the leader of a clan of vampires who also run the most exclusive theater in Paris. You cannot buy a ticket. You must be given a black invite. All the performers are vampires. The "action" surrounds putting not he shows, how the vampires feed themselves, and the incursion by other vampires and a witch.

That is all I will give about the plot because you don't read this for the plot. You are reading it for the theatrical nature-- of the storytelling and the putting on plays. The plot is a slow burn, but the details of the setting and the characters and their interactions/relationships is why you read. It is everything about the plot you should know.

This story is atmospheric, detailed, and sensual. It reads like a play as well, brought to the reader in 5 Acts with some "inter-act" breaks which work very well. This is all the drama you would expect from a HUGE 5 Act opera.

Paris at a time where wealth is being accumulated and with it, power, the beginning of major industrialization which will change the city and its workers, it is all here. You can feel the tension, the huge change that is about to come for everyone, not just the vampires. And it seeps through the story.

Arnault carries the story. It is third person omniscient through him and the reader is invested. He is clearly going through it in this book and we are with him. But again, slow burn. I think saying it is for Interview with the Vampire fans makes that clear, but don't come to this book for fast paced, vampire action. The right readers will LOVE this book. I could see a BookTok thing happening here. We will see.

Obviously for fans of Interview with the Vampire by Rice but also the slow burn, lush details of time and place with a confessional tone is similar to The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Also I thought of the faster paced but lush and theatrical Below the Grand Hotel by Cat Scully. This one also has to to with excess, power, and unaging, nonhuman performers.

[Dustin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNF'ed this about 50% of the way through.

Let's get the obvious out of the way, yes, this book is very blatantly inspired by Interview With The Vampire. I don't really mind that and I think the general premise of the book is great. In fact, I really enjoyed the first 1/3rd of The Red Sacrament. It serves as a pretty compelling look into this vampire theater troupe's daily unlife. Plus, Béatrice and Victor's introductions added some turmoil to the troupe's life and - more importantly - Arnault's life that promised some interesting storylines.

After that first 1/3rd however, the book really started to drag for me and I found myself only picking it up when I was forcing myself to do so in hopes something exciting would happen in the following pages. As someone who's not really a big theater kid, the endless descriptions of specific French plays, the individual roles, the set dressing, the production, rehearsals, etc. just ended up feeling like bloat getting in the way of more compelling character and story. Everyone in the troupe outside of Arnault feels, somewhat ironically, like set dressing in his life. They're there, give some texture and context, and maybe offer a tiny bit of spectacle every now and then, but I never really felt that they were interesting as people. I expected Béatrice to have a more forward role in the story, but she was very much WAY in the background in the portion that I read, which was a let down. The book ended up feeling more like a slice-of-life, which just isn't really what I'm looking for. I will say, I did enjoy Arnault and Victor's relationship and interactions. The prose is also quite beautiful.

If you're down with just peering into these vampires' messy lives and you're a big theater-head, this book will probably be fantastic for you. If you're looking for a gripping plot and something a bit more fast paced, this probably won't do it for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC!

[Carly (Sad Autumn Girl Version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She glances at this mirror, in mild curiosity. "You are long-lived, your kind?"
"Yes," he says, showing her to a chair.
"And yours?" "No. A moment ago I was pulled from the womb. In another moment I will be in the ground." A little smile lifts the corner of her mouth. "When you think of me next, even the worms who chewed through my flesh will be dead."”

The Red Sacrament is, without a doubt, one of the most well-written books I have had the pleasure of reading in my thirty-nine years of life, & I am simply not capable of producing a review that will do it justice.
Whilst the novel might seem at first like a fairly traditional take on the vampire myth, there are subtle distinctions marking Hinkley's creations. These vampires are at once behemoths—"the most fearsome thing in any given place"—& impotent creatures: they are confined to the darkness, their dirt-filled coffins hidden belowground, but whilst their bodies are not subject to the ravages of time, their minds are. What others may see as a curse, they see as a Sacrament, but it is one without consummation. They are more than men, but they are also less.
The pacing of the story is slow, but this enables you to properly savour Hinkley's decadent prose. Every line is brimming with meaning, the lifeless juxtaposed with the grotesquely visceral, or mundane experiences given a sense of holy ritual. A combination of language—Latin, Italian, French—as well as adding to the otherworldliness of the prose, serves to show the the age of the characters, their myriad histories, & the complexity of the setting: 19th century Paris gloriously rendered.
A fascinating, heartwrenching story that, despite the fact I’ve only just finished, I can’t wait to read again.

The Red Sacrament is out July 7th. Thank you so much to Sara Hinkley, Titan Books, & NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[ellie ♈︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

A slow-burn novel focusing on a troupe of vampires in Paris in 1870 as they conduct operas for the general public. When a new vampire duo arrives in the city, their fragile ecosystem is turned upside down.

This was a good read! It was very slow and more introspective than I expected, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. The writing was beautiful and florid and the characters were interesting. I loved learning about the lore of vampirism and Arnault's 500 year-old life and how the world has changed through his many centuries. The slow-burn ultimately pays off with a heart-wrenching ending that I loved.

Definitely recommend for fans of Interview with a Vampire and old French Operas (I'm sure there's someone out there that is super excited for those lol)

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for an ARC! Releases 7th of July, 2026!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is a vampire novel set in Paris. It’s a historical novel that celebrates the beauty of the Parisian theatre scene whilst also being bracketed by the horrors of war. My two main takeaways were, the writing is lovely, there wasn’t as much vampirism as I’d expected.

The novel is a slow burn. We meet a lot of characters as part of the theatre troupe and peripheral people. There’s a lot of set up at the start, and I didn’t really start to get into it until about half way through when the pace picked up as the situation changed. The novel has a bit of a dreamlike quality to it and things often run into each other. The early part feels more focused on the logistics of running the theatre and managing the clashing personalities and egos of the performers, although there is an interesting undercurrent with a visiting witch.

In the second half of the book things pick up at speed and this is where I found the narrative to be more compelling, it’s also where we see more around the vampirism come to light.

The writing in the book is beautiful and brings the historical setting to light. I enjoyed the parts relating to the vampiric sire and the witch in particular.

[Reading Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ive been waiting for a good vampire book. The writing in this book is gorgeous. I went into this book wanting vampires but I got a more intense and emotional story than I had imagined. This is a slow and in depth book about a troupe of vampires and how they survive and live.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fucking exactly what I was hoping for when the author mentioned she was inspired by the theater coven in season 2 of Interview with the Vampire. We get the messiness of a theater troupe trying to survive on the ground as the political upheaval of 1800s Paris unleashes itself, and while they're at it, they're also vampires trying to keep from being hunted and killed. Great ensemble work, some absolutely killer lines, and the high drama of immortal theater kids as the absurdity of the political situation unfolds. Comes out in October, and highly recommended when it does.

[калинка · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! I took my sweet time reading this but I feel like this is one of those books that aren't meant to be pushed and time slows down as you read it. I normally HATE when it takes me a long time to finish a book, it's a me thing, nothing to do with the quality of writing or the story. With "The Red Sacrament" my slow reading progress kinda matched and synced with how things were dragging and slow for the narrator, right until the last few chapters. It did take me a bit to get used to the style and voice of the narrator, and how similar both the setting and the MMC were to IWTV's Armand and the Theatre des Vampires. I didn't enjoy how the start of the book is more a copy, rather than "inspired by", maybe because at least for me, the vampire theatre in IWTV is so iconic and unique. But the more I read TRS, the more it started to brake away from being a copy and turned into its own thing. I actually liked that in Arnault we have a vampire who's tired, melancholic, going through the motions, passive, and slowly becoming unraveled. He's obsessive and makes grand plans and schemes but he doesn't get to act on them no matter how much the storyline pushed him towards action. Even the end of the book (SPOILER) was so good because he didn't get to have his revenge. He didn't go on a hunt that would further destroy him. Man was in the dirt and life kept kicking him. I especially loved the whole "history happens in the daylight" which of course it does, and of course vampires get to miss the big moments and wake up in the dark in the middle of sieges and horror, and have to adjust to changes and humans. I also liked the witches and how they tied in with Arnault, and how eerie and at times horrific the witches scenes were. TRS can very well, and rightfully, find its place in the vampire canon and be a must read for vampire lovers.

The few things I didn't like were how the vampires in the theatre were so many, and names and persons get thrown in there without enough description and context. It took me until the end of the book to be able to distinguish one performer from another. Which is a shame since they all sounded like interesting characters....but don't ask me anything about them, unless it's Alix or Clotilde. And even then I'm not 100% confident.

Another thing I found a little frustrating was the vampire lore. There were hints and thrown in bits of what they can and can't do; what their abilities and limitations are. The reader has to basically piece it together based on their prior knowledge of vampire myth, so this might not be a good place to start if you want to get into vampires.

[Madeline Elsinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating is 4.75 stars but rounded up

Thank you NetGalley and Titan books for the eARC!

This is one of those rare books where I feel like my words just can’t do it justice for how much I loved it 😭

The writing was atmospheric and lush in its descriptions! Some lines literally made me pause and think: "oh this is so good I could cry.” I was rapt by the imagery and characters that no other book could hold my attention while devouring The Red Sacrament!

While the pacing had its slow moving ebbs and flows, I still enjoyed every minute of it. Getting to know these characters was such a treat, I mean vampires in Paris who put on a show every week and are like a family to one another; What could be more intriguing!

I will say the ONLY thing that kept this from being 5 stars is a very personal reading preference of mine, and that was the long chapters. Even when I was thoroughly enjoying the novel, seeing another long chapter coming up did make it difficult to read for longer/more than one or two chapters a day.

Overall a smashing debut that is perfect for lovers of vampire stories, historical & gothic horror, queer characters, and vivid world building! For now I will be ravenous as I await Hinkley’s secondary novel.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked The Red Sacrament!
It was a beautifully written book and the descriptions and atmosphere that the author created were so vivid and everything just came to life.
It was great and definitely one of the strongest parts of the book!
The story is a slow burn and it's definitely not one to read if you are looking for a fast paced action story with vampires.
The writing, the characters and the setting are what carry the story and they carry it well!

The book is recommended for fans of Interview with the Vampire and while i haven't read it or watched it yet, but from what I've heard about it that description feels pretty accurate.
This was also a good debut novel and I'm curious to see what the author will write next!
I'm actually thinking of rereading this book at some point as I just have a feeling that I may enjoy it even more!
All in all The Red Sacrament was a beautifully written story that i recommend checking out especially if you are a fan of gothic horror amd vampires!

[Anni · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a slow, meandering story that felt heavier on description than substance. I was shocked that the audiobook was 18 hours long, and honestly, it didn't need to be.

Sara Hinkley's writing is beautiful, but unfortunately the story just didn't grip me. I never felt invested in the characters, so when significant events occurred, they had very little emotional impact.

That said, the setting was wonderfully atmospheric. 19th century Paris, with its theatrical backdrop, was vividly brought to life. The depictions of famine and wartime were beautifully written, but the plot itself felt overly drawn out.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator was a great fit for the story. However, the French phrases sprinkled throughout were sometimes confusing without the accompanying text.

Overall, I don't feel I got much out of this book. Its length was a major drawback for me, and despite the beautiful writing and immersive setting, the story lacked the momentum, grit, and structure I was hoping for.

[Sennehs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I read and fell in love with “Interview with the Vampire” as a precocious teen. This feels like a fanfic of that classic, and it was a letdown for me. I wanted something fresh with its own vision and direction, which isn’t what I got in “The Red Sacrament“.

The prose is atmospheric and at times beautiful, but comes across as extremely heavy-handed. The setting of the story (a Paris theater) is a lush backdrop for a book with vampires, and I enjoyed the plays they put on and the descriptions of the characters and visuals for them. On the flip side, the actual characters in the book are at times less substantial than those they act out on the stage.

In general I found the storyline itself not to be that enthralling, and I desperately wanted to skim pages. I think the author is wanting the tome (yes, it’s unnecessarily long) to be a modern historical epic, and overall the story is fairly cohesive, but I was just supremely bored.

[Pudsey Recommends · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paris, 1869. There's a theatre on the Rue Saint-Siméon that only the right people ever hear about, and the black slips of paper that get you through the door are rarer than they look. What's on stage is magnetic, ageless, and only ever performed at midnight. You can probably guess the rest.

The book opens with a full Dramatis Personae, bass, tenor, soprano, harpsichord, right down to the box office and the dresser, and you know immediately this isn't going to behave like a standard novel. It reads like the cast list of an opera you're about to watch rather than a book you're about to read, which sets the tone perfectly, because theatre isn't just the setting here, it's the engine of the whole thing.

Arnault runs this troupe of vampire actors with a set of rules so rigid they've kept everyone alive for centuries: feed carefully, leave no mark, never draw attention. As he puts it himself, it's "discretion... discretion or nothing at all." It's a peace that's held for a long time, until a witch turns up with an unsettling pull on Arnault, and then Victor and Françoise de Rouvray arrive, vampires from a completely different world, wealthy and modern in a way Arnault's ageing troupe simply isn't. As Arnault falls for Victor, the daily running of the theatre starts to slip, right as the city outside starts sliding towards revolution, siege, and starvation.

The gothic sensuality, the centuries-spanning melancholy, the queerness that's simply present rather than justified all place the novel firmly in conversation with Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. But Hinkley takes it somewhere much more literary and daring. Where Rice's vampires are lonely, brooding individuals wrestling with what it means to live forever, Hinkley's are a whole community trying to keep a company together. Arnault isn't a tragic antihero so much as an exhausted stage manager: mediating squabbles, teaching restraint, apologising on behalf of people who don't mean it, because that's simply how you live together.

This is one of those books you can't rush. Every paragraph is thick with sensory detail, scent and colour and texture layered on top of each other until a single ballroom scene can take you three pages to get through. It's the kind of writing that rewards slow reading, like a good glass of something dark left to breathe. If you like your gothic fiction lean and propulsive, this might test your patience, but if you love a sentence that takes its time, this is a feast.

The vampire mythology gets some genuinely clever reworking too. The bite here leaves no mark at all, a phenomenon Hinkley calls miraculum miraculorum, "the miracle of miracles". It's a total flip of the usual vampire fiction logic. Instead of the wound being evidence, it's invisible, almost sacramental, closer to an exchange of memory and feeling than an act of violence. Churches offer no protection either, and Arnault, a former monk, moves through them freely. His morality is self-imposed rather than religiously enforced. The effect is vampires who feel less like monsters at war with humanity and more like a very old, very tired guild of artists who've simply learned how to blend in.

The rehearsal scenes, particularly those from Mary Stuart, aren't just texture, they're doing proper thematic work, reflecting questions of performance, power and identity that ripple through the novel itself. They stage temptation, damnation and the gap between public performance and private truth right alongside the characters living out exactly those tensions. There's one gorgeous passage about the rare nights a role stops feeling like work and simply "drops over you", not a costume pulled from a hook but something closer to possession. It's one of the loveliest descriptions of creative flow I've read in ages, and it doubles as the book's whole thesis on what it means to keep performing across centuries.

A small extra treat with my ARC. It came with a little sample of Théâtre Saint-Siméon, a fragrance created by niche brand Jean Robert in collaboration with Titan Books to mark the book's release, plus a scented bookmark. Reading with that perfume actually in the air, because Hinkley writes constantly about scent, added a whole extra layer to the experience. A lovely, unexpected touch from the publisher.

Where the book gets properly devastating is the back third, once the Siege of Paris sets in. Hinkley's choice of 1870 and the Siege of Paris feels entirely deliberate, because Haussmann's newly rebuilt city, all wide boulevards and modern light, is itself a performance of progress, one that's about to be stripped away completely. Watching centuries-old vampires try to hold a community and an art form together while the city runs out of food, then law, then mercy, is the sort of writing that stays with you. The Commune's fall in particular is handled with a coldness that suits it. There's very little more chilling in the whole book than the mundane bureaucratic language of tying up loose ends.
I won't spoil where Victor and Françoise's storyline goes, but I will say the ending is cruel in a way that felt inevitable rather than gratuitous, and sadly, boringly human, which might be the most quietly brutal choice Hinkley makes in the whole novel.

A few things worth flagging for anyone picking this up. It's a slow, dense read, full-bodied rather than plot-driven, so go in ready to sit with the atmosphere rather than race through it. There's also attention paid to the economics of empire, coffee, sugar, silk and lace, that stopped me in my tracks more than once.

The Red Sacrament isn't really interested in frightening you. It's a historical Gothic novel about art, memory, performance and the fragile communities we build to survive history, with vampires as its lens rather than its destination. Come for the gothic atmosphere, stay for the theatre, and don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking about it long after the curtain falls.

Thank you to Titan Books for the ARC of this one; all opinions are, as ever, my own. #pudseyrecommends

[Jenna G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have liked to have had known Arnault in a previous life. His character had depth, grief, a feel of wanting to keep his "family" together. This novel was so well written. What worked for me here was the atmosphere. The theater setting is decadent, over the top and at the same time eerie. The coven dynamics was gloriously messy yet I still had empathy and great care for some of them while loathing others (here's looking at you Beatrice). If you're looking at a novel that will make you feel like you've been here before while still offering something new, then this is for you.

[Siavahda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t let BookTok anywhere near this one!

By which I mean, this is dark and messy and absolutely none of it is Unproblematic. The relationships, especially, are…so complicated. Hinkley writes about horrors in lush, silky prose, mercilessly contrasting the crude and brutal with beautiful language – which is one of my favourite Horror techniques and is done so well here. And it means that for most of the book, reading it was a pleasure, solely for that lovely writing.

The problem is that…there isn’t really a plot. For the most part, Red Sacrament is almost a slice-of-life story following a vampire theatre troupe (clearly inspired by the vampiric theatre troupe in Interview With the Vampire, but Red Sacrament never felt derivative or anything to me) in 1800s Paris. A brother-and-sister vampire couple comes to Paris, and Arnault, the troupe’s leader, is pretty dazzled by the brother; the two of them have an almost romantic relationship. Then Paris comes under siege, and the vampires suffer alongside the city’s humans. It’s not a story, it’s just a bunch of things happening, the way real life just happens without a plot. There’s no forward momentum; every time I set the book down, it took ages for me to remember it existed and pick it up again, because it’s just…not very compelling?

There are a whole bunch of incidents that feel like a climax, but aren’t; it makes the last 20% very waffly, full of random and disjointed bubbles of could-have-been-plot, all of which immediately pop and go nowhere. Up till that point, Red Sacrament was a strong four stars, but that last chunk of book…ruined it for me, honestly. The actual ending is incredibly abrupt, in the manner of deus ex machina – something I always hate, and hated here.

The lack of plot makes Red Sacrament feel…lazy, not as a pejorative but in the way that a sated predator is lazy: lingering, savouring. It’s a book about relationships: Arnault’s with his troupe, Arnault with his (going senile) sire, Arnault and Victor, his kinda-sorta boyfriend. And (most interesting, and most fucked-up), Arnault and the witch who sexually assaults him via magic right at the start of the book. Over the course of the book, Arnault has…dream-visions of the witch that are actually real, in which they can talk to and interact with each other, and their shifting dynamic is fascinating and horrible and believably…realistic? In the sense that in real life, people and the relationships between them can be so incredibly weird and messy and complicated?

The relationship between Arnault and Victor is the next-most interesting. Hinkley’s vampires can’t have sex, and don’t seem to feel sexual desire – but they can still fall in love. And yet, this isn’t romance in the way asexual people do it, because vampires seem to…feel the desire to feel desire? Arnault thinks on how romantic love for vampires is an exercise in frustration because of this, and his and Victor’s romance is a good example: Hinkley does an excellent job at making the relationship feel like it’s building up to something, to what would be sex for an allosexual couple – to make it feel like it needs a consummation that is impossible for these characters. I’m not smart enough to tease out all the ways this contrasts and mimics and is in conversation with the queerness in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, but I do think some kind of conversation is happening.

Romance aside, it felt to me like Hinkley was trying to do or say something about – capitalism? There are multiple instances of some of the vampires railing against the ways in which the rich make use of an oppress everyone else, and it seemed like Hinkley was working hard to – humanise the poor to the reader? That vampires are a good metaphor for rich capitalists isn’t a new idea, but if Hinkley was trying to use it then it didn’t really come through for me.

More than anything else, this is a Horror story, and it’s Horror because of the way Hinkley zooms in on and lingers over the crude, the brutal, the visceral viscera. Almost every aspect of the book is twisted into ruin by the final pages; every relationship, every part of Arnault’s life, even his own mental health and self-image. It’s awful and bleak and depressing, grimdark in quite a few senses, and when you combine that with the lack of plot…I was left wondering what on earth the point was.

And I cannot overstate enough how much I despised that ending.

So it’s not really a book I’d recommend to anyone, honestly. The prose is lovely, and that’s it. I’ve seen other early reviews that praised the depiction of the theatre-stuff, and maybe if you’re interested in France in this historical period you might get something out of Red Sacrament. Otherwise…it’s a plotless exploration of vampiric relationships that collapses in the last 20%. I don’t know who this book is supposed to be for.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘What does Arnault know about witches? Nothing or nearly nothing. Only the stories he heard as a child, long ago, and very far from here: riding of broom, eating of flesh, carving of children. And later, when he became more learned: congress with the Devil, drinking black spittle from his cup.’

Dark, haunting and eerily hypnotic ‘The Red Sacrament‘ is a novel that seems to mesmerise readers before unexpectedly going for the jugular; much like vampires themselves. Its a novel that bewitches and beguiles, drawing you in slowly then dousing you in horror and despair just when you least expect it. It’s a novel to be savoured, rather than simply devoured in a rush, and one that will haunt my mind for quite some time.

From the start, when you’re first introduced to the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, you know as a reader, that you’re in for something special. The scene is set in a vividly immersive manner, pulling you in and capturing you under its enchanting net. The writing is evocative and richly textured, practically living and breathing the time and place that it presents. Arnault is an ancient being, around five hundred years old, and the story is shown mostly through his eyes. He’s embroiled in the theatre and acting, and resides in 1869 Paris. All of these factors come across in the writing style which I’ll admit did occasionally mean bits and pieces went slightly over my head. But, just like with a rich fantasy tale that throws you in at the deep end, you just have to go with the flow rather than get caught up on any snippets that lose you; somethings that’s easy enough to do as the story truly does seem to engulf your senses, pulling you into the pages and immersing you in its world.

For me the horror seemed to come from two very different angles. Firstly there’s the expected one – the bloody desire of vampires, broken flesh, gristly remains, the eerie, almost unholy feel, of the catacombs beneath their home and the disturbing theories surrounding witches. This is a novel that definitely painted them in a manner that left me shuddering. It leans into the darkness of it all, the bleakness, the crude and gristly details that can’t help but make you shiver.

Then there’s the unexpected side to the horror – the real, historic one. Last year I was utterly blown away by ‘The Buffalo Hunter Hunter’ and in some ways ‘The Red Sacrament’ makes me think of that. The two are very different stories but both have the feel of a future classic about them and both also shine a light on some atrocities from the past. I won’t go into details but the past that is depicted in these pages – the starvation, the desperation, the advancing horror of weaponry and the scale of bloodshed – makes your blood run cold. There were scenes that honestly left me a little bit queasy.

Although the bulk of the story is told in Arnault’s voice each ‘act’ ends with a scene from a vampire’s victim. Seeing these death scenes, and getting a glimpse of the lives and struggles of a variety of people, was simultaneously chilling and fascinating. They definitely added to the overall effect of this novel.

For me there was a slight undercurrent of mystery running through the story. Horrific deaths start happening around the time that a new pair of vampires roll into town and the logical conclusion to draw is that they’re at fault. Yet there are little hints and teases that seem to throw smoke over several members of Arnault’s own trope. Just enough to leave doubts and questions lingering throughout.

As I said earlier in this review this is a book to be savoured, not rushed. It’s a slower paced narrative but it works in its favour with prose that truly immerses and engulfs you in its scenes. It also gets surges of intensity that then seem to pull the rug out from under you. There were certainly a couple of scenes that left me breathless and drowning in despair.

Altogether I wholeheartedly recommend ‘The Red Sacrament’ and can see it becoming a classic of vampire fiction one day. It’s beautifully and evocatively written, painting a scene that brings horrors both natural and supernatural into the light. Its a tale that seems to sink beneath your skin gradually, pulling you in and engulfing you so that when it throws it punches, they truly do catch you off guard. Its bloody, gristly, uncomfortable and compelling with an ending that is likely to play on your mind. Its beautifully immersive and unflinchingly grim. I’m now desperately hoping that Sara Hinkley will pen more novels in the future and I can’t wait to see other readers fall under this books haunting spell.

‘He has painted horror. In fact it used to be his daily work: Christ scourged and hung and broken, saints sliced from themselves, peeled and framed in costly gilt. But he couldn’t paint this.’

[annabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

(some minor spoilers discussed here)
I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. Thank you so much <3

I would rate this book 2.5/5 stars if GoodReads would let me, because this book did have many promising elements to it, but it just didn't come together in the end.

The Red Sacrament centres around a vampire, Arnault, and the troupe of other vampires who run a secret, invite-only opera house, the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, in Paris during the late 1860's. We as readers follow them as they put on performances, meet new and mysterious people, and as they try to survive the turbulent world of 19th century France.

One interesting thing that this author does is she never refers to vampirism outright, not that I can recall at least. They chose to refer to vampirism through a variety of different innuendos and metaphors, which makes for quite an interesting reading experience. The characters were all quite obviously vampires (they sleep in coffins, don't out during the day, drink blood - all the stereotypical things), but hiding it behind implications and suggestions made for quite an interesting experience. I liked it.

And I liked the writing style. It was unique and I found it really intriguing; I would've enjoyed it more however, if it had been refined a little bit. There were lots of run on metaphors, similes and needless descriptions and exchanges, all of which made the story difficult to comprehend sometimes. There were also extended passages specifically about opera, which I struggled to fully understand because I know next to nothing about opera. I felt like I was getting lost in a sea of words at times, trying to discern what was relevant and what wasn't.

Believe me, I can handle my flowery language, big words and extended metaphors. I can handle my complex books, but this was just a bit over-stuffed in my opinion. A little bit more editing and refining (and a dictionary) would've improved the experience.

I think the characters came across a bit flat. There were lots of figures who could've been quite interesting - Arnault, the leader of the troupe who has been alive for centuries and 'sired' some of the troupe-members; Alix, a relatively new vampire; Leopold, Arnault's progenitor (this character was most interesting to me); and Victor and Françoise, who are posited in the synopsis as being these mysterious, enthralling new vampires in town. In reality, they all were a little underwhelming, felt quite flat, and their relationships felt one-note. I felt like the synopsis suggested the relationship between Arnault and Victor was going to be more prominent, but they spend half of the book just going out together, getting interrupted, then the twist (which I had seen coming from the start) happened.

The plot also felt like a disjointed mismatch of elements and points that didn't really come together in any interesting or meaningful way, which was a shame, because on their own they were interesting. A mysterious witch, who I never really managed to get my head around; a series of gruesome murders that never actually felt as important as they should've, and a twist that was quite predictable - not because it was set up well, but because I don't think the author ever really tried to deceive me or turn my head in any other direction. I found it really hard to discern what was going on at times because of the sheer density of the writing, and by the end I almost felt fatigued.

The most interesting part of this book was following the troupe as they tried to survive in the ever-changing world of post-revolution France. There is a point - about 83% of the way through - in which Paris is under siege and Arnault and the troupe really had to figure out what to do with themselves, which was really interesting. I wish the author had focused more on their interactions with history and how they survived, because I really enjoyed this section.

Eventually, Arnault is ousted from the theatre and intends to run away with Victor, but this plan goes awry and Arnault more or less has a breakdown, crawling into a stranger's coffin in a crypt. The book should've ended HERE, but it went on for another good few chapters, which led to the ending feeling quite bland. It would've hit a whole lot harder, and would've been a whole lot more interesting, if it had ended with Arnault hiding himself away.

Ultimately this is a book that had a lot of potential but failed to capitalise on it. And I've seen people say it sounds similar to Interview with a Vampire, but I've never read it so I can't tell you whether it is or isn't.

[Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars. Okay, I'll start with the positives first. The author is very good at writing beautiful prose. The descriptions are gorgeous and the writing style reads extremely well. I was really excited about the setting for this book: year, France, theatre. I'll also point out that this is the author's first book. Had I not known this prior to reading, I wouldn't have ever guessed. The prose feels masterful in this regard and I think there is a massive potential for Hinkley's future continuing as an author. I think most readers will be able to agree on this.

I need to call out this cover. The cover is stunning. The cover and the title are what first drew me into this book. As a horror reader that loves vampires, that became another huge seller for me. But I believe the cover and title will bring in a lot of attention.

Unfortunately, this book was way too descriptive for my liking. It was welcomed at first as I thought it was a solid way to introduce the setting, plot, and characters, but it didn't stop. I feel as though nothing exciting happened until around 55% of this book and by this point, I was struggling to maintain my investment. This was just a tedious book for me. There were a lot of descriptions and yet I thought the characters fell flat. I had no connection to them and they sort of blended together. There didn't seem to be anything to set each character apart from each other. Another thing about the writing, which will be hit or miss for people, is that there is a lot of French within this book. At first I was translating all of the French, but there was so much sprinkled throughout that I eventually got fatigued and stopped translating. I'm sure if you speak French, this won't matter to you, but with how much was in the book I wish there had been some translations included. The other option would've been to read this on a device that can easily translate. I read on Kobo and you can only translate singular words instead of paragraphs so it became a hassle for me.

I would've strongly preferred much of the filler to be replaced with something of more plot/character substance. Like I said, I think the author is an extremely talented writer, but there needed to be a better balance. And I also can see how heavily this book was influenced by Interview with the Vampire.

This book improved substantially after around 55-60%. I started to see more horror and more vampires. I would rate the second half of this book much, much higher than the first half. But unfortunately the first half is dragging this down. I can certainly see this book being a huge hit to many people. Maybe this is a case of me just being the wrong reader for this. I am truly sad that this book didn't work for me as I was highly anticipating it.

I loved the writing enough that I would still be open to reading another future book from this author. Although my review is more on the negative side, I don't think this should dissuade you (readers) from giving it a chance. What didn't work well for me, I'm sure will work well for a lot of people.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Carmelita · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Red Sacrament offers an interesting supernatural historical fiction, but the narrative's heavy repetition and reliance on exceedingly commonplace vampire stories, combined with a detached prose and slow pacing, keep the story from establishing its own distinctive identity. The story is like an expanded slice of the theatre scenes from Interview with the Vampire; a vampire coven that runs its own theater is plagued with seductive infiltrators, during the eve of the 1870 Paris uprising. While the beginning of the story offers a witch's mysterious sexual ritual involving our protagonist, Arnault, the momentum stalls towards the middle as another familiar character arc develops when a new toxic male vampire love interest enters the narrative. In part, the pacing stalls because we follow vampire coven leader Arnault as he goes through the motions of running the theatre and its vampiric actors, such as when he is balancing the books and telling the reader his thought process as to why he appoints certain vampires to particular roles. These practical moments where the fantasy is suspended for reality happen often enough and in great detail that it didn't feel revealing or insightful as I would have hoped. If this was done on purpose to portray the eternity of life as an immortal, I feel that the detached third-person present-tense narrative style prevented proper homage to gothic horror. It was difficult for me to connect with the characters and stay interested. Especially in Arnault, when phrasing such as "you might see" repeatedly used to describe the inner workings of the theatre acted as a barrier. The frequent shifts in narration style were confusing at times, especially when it came to the last act of the book and the ending. Overall, the encounter with the witch was such an original and strong premise, but the execution fell short because the characters and the rest of the story were too similar to other well-known horror classics, and the pacing was too static for me. In the end, I had wished that the momentum would have shifted more strongly towards a mystery about the witch and the murders, but it didn't lean into it enough to keep my interest. I finished this gothic horror wishing it relied less on established vampire tropes, given how lush the writing is, particularly given the author's background in costume design, which explains why all the clothing is described exquisitely. The action, gore, and violence were superbly described but sadly the structure of the story prevented me from losing myself in the novel.

Thank you to Titan Books, Penguin Random House, and Netgalley for allowing me to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Red Sacrament is a vampire novel about a group of vampires and what happens when some strangers upset the balance between them and their leader. Arnault is head of a clan of vampires who perform at the Théâtre Saint-Siméon in Paris during a turbulent time in Parisian history. The vampires feed off the audience members and their concerns centre around who gets which parts, until a visit from a witch and then two newcomer vampires arriving in Paris change everything. Arnault is drawn to Victor, one of these newcomers, and dreams of the witch, but his preoccupations threaten the world he has built.

This is a book that is very much described as a "vampire novel" first and foremost, though it also has an interest in politics that feels very in-keeping with the broader gothic genre. The writing style is lush and really brings to life its nineteenth-century Paris and the contradictions held within it and within the lives of the vampire clan. The actual narrative has a slow pace, with a lot of focus on visual detail and the world of Paris. It is a book for people looking for that kind of atmosphere, a slow historical vampire novel that is playing with ideas more than plot. The characters except Arnault are not really explored in depth, because you get everything through his perspective, and I can see how for some people this might be frustrating, as a lot of the other vampires blur into one another.

This is also a novel that is in conversation with Interview with the Vampire quite clearly, as well as political and social ideas. Having read the book and seen the film, but not having watched the TV series yet, I found it interesting to see which elements I noticed as feeling explicitly in discussion with IWTV and how effective I found this. Ultimately, it does make it easy to say that if you like the theatre of vampires element of Interview with the Vampire and wished for something that explored the dynamics of that alongside the background of political upheaval, then that's what you're getting with The Red Sacrament.

Personally, I appreciate a lot of what Hinkley does in the book, particularly in terms of the writing style and creating a very fitting atmosphere through it. It has an otherworldly vibe, filled with dreams and shiny visions that betray rot underneath, with very real societal problems. However, I also found myself skimming through it, wanting more from its length. I think I might just be more of a twentieth- or twenty-first-century vampire person, or at least more Lost Souls than Interview with the Vampire.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Red Sacrament by Sara Hinkley, narrated by Christine Williams, releases July 7, 2026 from Dreamscape Media.

Set in Paris in 1869, the story centers on Arnault, the manager of a secret midnight theater whose performers are an ancient clan of vampires. The theater has survived for centuries under strict rules designed to keep its true purpose hidden, but new arrivals and growing unrest in Paris begin to threaten the careful balance Arnault has maintained.

The prose in this book is beautiful. It genuinely feels like the way an ancient gothic vampire would speak, with ornate language, long memories, and a voice that feels appropriately removed from the modern world. As someone who speaks French as a second language, I also loved the use of French throughout the story. It added to the setting and made the world feel even more immersive.

The premise immediately pulled me in, and at first I thought this was going to be exactly the kind of vampire novel I love. It has that lush, theatrical Anne Rice feeling, with decadent vampires, a gothic Paris setting, and an atmosphere that completely surrounds the story. There is no shortage of mood here.

However, this is also a very slow and highly literary book. The writing is impressive, but the story is so dense with atmosphere and description that it became difficult to chew through, especially considering its length. I love high-brow gothic horror, but I found myself wanting the book to occasionally scale back the atmosphere and give the plot more room to move. Because it is such a large book, the slow pacing eventually made the experience feel a little daunting.

This will likely work best for readers who enjoy literary gothic fiction, elaborate prose, historical settings, and books that prioritize atmosphere over momentum. Readers looking for a fast, bloody vampire story or constant plot movement may need to adjust their expectations before going in. This is a book meant to be slowly absorbed rather than quickly devoured.

Even though the pacing kept it from being the immediate favorite I expected, I still appreciated how beautifully written and fully committed it was to its gothic voice. The concept is fascinating, the setting is richly created, and I can easily see readers who love dense, atmospheric historical horror becoming completely obsessed with it.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing this audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Red Sacrament follows the vampire Arnault through Paris between 1869 and 1871. It features a vampiric theater troupe, a doddering old sire enjoying retirement in the country, two recently arrived young vampire twins visiting the city, a mysterious witch who haunts Arnault's dreams, and of course the Franco-Prussian war, though it can't be said the book is about any of these things. Rather, the book is about how Arnault deals with all the things happening in his head and around him. He's aging, and dealing with burnout and a general malaise in the way only an immortal can. It's no wonder a handsome newcomer with a zest for unlife and a mastery of the world's new ways captures his interest.

Despite all these plot threads, it feels like very little happens in The Red Sacrament's 500+ pages, and pulling on any thread is likely to lead nowhere. What the book uses most of its time for is lush descriptions of the scenery and meandering thematic asides as Arnault struggles to stay in the present moment. It makes the book very atmospheric, but also very slow and hard to follow when something is happening (which is, unfortunately, not often). This filter over the story makes it hard to feel invested as Arnault himself is not much invested. The fourteen vampires in the theater troupe blend together, things with the witch aren't every fully explained, and the twins are rarely in the foreground. The war and siege on Paris are set dressing.

Occasionally, there is a very beautiful sentence. Sadly, these do not coalesce into beautiful paragraphs. I do not typically skim when I read, but I skimmed the back half of this and don't feel I missed much of anything. You could likely cut 200 pages from this book without losing much of substance. I was very intrigued to begin with, but lost interest quickly. I likely wouldn't have finished it but for the fact that I got an eARC for review. It does get interesting around 80% in, but even then, it doesn't nail the landing.

I am not the best person to compare this to Anne Rice, but it begs for the comparison. Readers who enjoy The Vampire Chronicles' slower, atmospheric storytelling may enjoy this. They will certainly recognize Arnault and his theater troupe.

My thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early. While it was not for me, I suspect it will be for some people.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan books for this free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Red Sacrament follows Arnault and his band of vampire actors/progeny, which felt like an actual family that squabbled but looked out for each other as they tried to lure in crowds for money, blood, and for sheer pride in their artistic abilities. One interesting piece of this book was the various gifts the Sacrament could bestow on them-increased speed, strength, the ability to soothe animals, etc. For once, the vampires in a story aren't able to have sex, which added a tragic element to the couples that formed throughout the book. Hinkley had a beautifully restrained hand at times, letting the story develop without rushing in to explain every piece. This was mostly appreciated-except I was let down by the end. More on that later.

I loved that The Red Sacrament explored what it's like when you have to actually work for money as a vampire, the drudgery that comes with hundreds of years of balancing your check book, buying props for your theater, etc. I found the troupe's behavior toward new vampires interesting, too-polite and welcoming as long as the rules were followed. I wasn't sure why all new vampires were treated this way-what if they were actually terrible? What if they didn't respect the vampires who were there first?

Another compelling piece of this book was showing the occasional POV of a victim and how their life was just as meaningful, to them, as the vampire's lives. There were frequent dream sequences (a plot point I typically hate, but wasn't terrible here). Hinkley kept it fresh by allowing Arnault to communicate with Beatrice during the dreams. While the writing was gorgeous, sometimes it really, really wasn't-I could do without all the descriptions of things smelling like "cunt", for example.

Beatrice...I'm conflicted. I was interested in her POV but also found her horrific, because she sexually assaulted someone. I was disappointed with the lack of vengeance at the end of the book-Arnault doesn't settle the score with ANYONE who has wronged him. I would have liked to see closure, if only for his poor family.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but I'm still conflicted about the vague ending and the fact that Arnault chose peace over something darker.