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Jacob
Who is Jacob? And why has he sought out this young horror writer to tell his story? Why is he finally revealing the dark history of how he became a creature of the night? Born in 1858, orphaned at 13, abandoned to the desperate alleys of Seattle's rough waterfront, Jacob becomes a street-rat and a pickpocket. Until one night, he picks the wrong pocket... Caught by a man he knows only as Monsieur, suddenly swept into the world of the Nightsiders, Jacob discovers there is much more to being a creature of the darkness than popular mythology might have it. Serving first as a daykeeper, then later as a protege, and finally as a hunter, Jacob learns that not everybody can be a vampire. You have to prove you're ready for it. There's an initiation...and it's not what you think. It's worse. And then...even if you do pass the test, even if you finally understand what's being offered, is this the life you desire?
- GenresHorror
198 pages, Paperback
First published September 22, 2015
7 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 11, 2020
David Gerrold’s Jacob has the perfect line on the cover that says: “A different kind of interview.” Yes. Yes, it is. So, when I jumped into it expecting the promise on the front to live up to its name, I was and wasn’t disappointed.
We open in a writer’s group with the members critiquing another writer’s manuscript. Said writer is our narrator who’s trying to basically find that one story like everyone else. He tells us that he doesn’t really find any of their opinions worth anything. But then he strikes up a conversation with the new guy in the group. The new guy is wearing a black hoodie and is pale looking. They talk for a while and eventually they leave and go to another coffee shop. Once we get there, the new guy discloses the first part of a story that spans the rest of the book and we find out that, besides his name being Jacob, he’s a vampire.
Jacob wants to break the fantasy type of myths that humans think about vampires. True, humans for the most part don’t really know that they exist, but either way, Jacob wants to complete the goal. Shake things up, so to speak.
He begins by telling us of a rough beginning to his life in the mid 1800’s as a “peg boy” in Seattle. Basically, a boy prostitute. The city at the time was filled with a majority of men and men who weren’t necessarily gay would frequent these young boys for a certain “companionship”.
From there we meet an older man by the name of Monsieur, who takes a liking to (not in that way, at least not at first) Jacob. Monsieur, can’t go out during the day (I wonder why?), so he offers Jacob room and board if he will be his daykeeper (running errands and such). Sooner or later the story continues to gather some tension and Jacob grows older. So, Monsieur sends him away to develop a broader sense of education in Boston.
The different chapters pickup at an unspecified time (maybe months or a year) after the other. Jacob stops his story at the end of each and picks up at the beginning of each. But also, the writer and his relationship grows. It is heading, it seems throughout, to an inevitable conclusion. And at least from that perspective, the book doesn’t really disappoint.
Jacob wants to “ripen” (in maybe more ways than one) the writer’s intellect. Jacob wants someone to share his intelligence (and bed) with. Also, he wants the aforementioned breaking the myth thing, too (eg: vampires can die by lost of there blood).
The story is heavy on sexual themes. This is not only that of the human, but also that of the vampire species. Gay, straight and bisexual; it’s all there. The book explores what real love might be and does it go hand in hand with affection. The themes are some of the more stronger points in this book.
What also belongs in this category is the characters. The writer is naïve (at least in Jacob’s eyes) and isn’t really that worldly experienced (which is something a writer needs to be). It takes him sometimes longer to catch what Jacob is hinting at (of course, in the reader’s world, the writer is our surrogate). Jacob on the other hand, has about a century and a half on him and has been around the block a few times. But I found their characterizations to be well rounded. Even so, the writer seems to be dumb down too much at times. I had started to find that annoying. Yes. Gerrold is building him up to become wiser at the end, but still.
Now, here’s where the two major problems that I had overall. First, the pacing. Because we are to follow along on this journey with Jacob and because he is stretching it out over time, the middle or second act, tends to drag. It’s not a disaster, but it’s enough to stop the flow. What saves it a little is the stopping and cutting back to the present where sometimes we get some philosophical and generalized conversations with the writer and vampire. However, it still slows everything down.
Second, which may be what the first is a consequence of, is the length. The hardcover is about 200 pages long (the PDF is just under 400), so the book is somewhere between novella and full length. Because of the dragging portions of it, I found myself a few times thinking that this feels like a short story being stretched into what it became. While I’m all for a well rounded story, I don’t feel this should have been this long. A lot of things could have been left on the cutting room floor and we as the reader would have still been able to get it.
Now, the last chapter does save some of the faults that came before it and it gives a satisfactory closure to the story that was told. I found it a little jarring at first, but as I had more time to reflect on it, it was good enough.
Besides the bumps in the road, I followed along on this journey well enough. While I didn’t feel overly happy and thrilled all the time with it, it was decent. It wasn’t great and wasn’t bad. Middle of the road sometimes is just enough to enjoy something.
We open in a writer’s group with the members critiquing another writer’s manuscript. Said writer is our narrator who’s trying to basically find that one story like everyone else. He tells us that he doesn’t really find any of their opinions worth anything. But then he strikes up a conversation with the new guy in the group. The new guy is wearing a black hoodie and is pale looking. They talk for a while and eventually they leave and go to another coffee shop. Once we get there, the new guy discloses the first part of a story that spans the rest of the book and we find out that, besides his name being Jacob, he’s a vampire.
Jacob wants to break the fantasy type of myths that humans think about vampires. True, humans for the most part don’t really know that they exist, but either way, Jacob wants to complete the goal. Shake things up, so to speak.
He begins by telling us of a rough beginning to his life in the mid 1800’s as a “peg boy” in Seattle. Basically, a boy prostitute. The city at the time was filled with a majority of men and men who weren’t necessarily gay would frequent these young boys for a certain “companionship”.
From there we meet an older man by the name of Monsieur, who takes a liking to (not in that way, at least not at first) Jacob. Monsieur, can’t go out during the day (I wonder why?), so he offers Jacob room and board if he will be his daykeeper (running errands and such). Sooner or later the story continues to gather some tension and Jacob grows older. So, Monsieur sends him away to develop a broader sense of education in Boston.
The different chapters pickup at an unspecified time (maybe months or a year) after the other. Jacob stops his story at the end of each and picks up at the beginning of each. But also, the writer and his relationship grows. It is heading, it seems throughout, to an inevitable conclusion. And at least from that perspective, the book doesn’t really disappoint.
Jacob wants to “ripen” (in maybe more ways than one) the writer’s intellect. Jacob wants someone to share his intelligence (and bed) with. Also, he wants the aforementioned breaking the myth thing, too (eg: vampires can die by lost of there blood).
The story is heavy on sexual themes. This is not only that of the human, but also that of the vampire species. Gay, straight and bisexual; it’s all there. The book explores what real love might be and does it go hand in hand with affection. The themes are some of the more stronger points in this book.
What also belongs in this category is the characters. The writer is naïve (at least in Jacob’s eyes) and isn’t really that worldly experienced (which is something a writer needs to be). It takes him sometimes longer to catch what Jacob is hinting at (of course, in the reader’s world, the writer is our surrogate). Jacob on the other hand, has about a century and a half on him and has been around the block a few times. But I found their characterizations to be well rounded. Even so, the writer seems to be dumb down too much at times. I had started to find that annoying. Yes. Gerrold is building him up to become wiser at the end, but still.
Now, here’s where the two major problems that I had overall. First, the pacing. Because we are to follow along on this journey with Jacob and because he is stretching it out over time, the middle or second act, tends to drag. It’s not a disaster, but it’s enough to stop the flow. What saves it a little is the stopping and cutting back to the present where sometimes we get some philosophical and generalized conversations with the writer and vampire. However, it still slows everything down.
Second, which may be what the first is a consequence of, is the length. The hardcover is about 200 pages long (the PDF is just under 400), so the book is somewhere between novella and full length. Because of the dragging portions of it, I found myself a few times thinking that this feels like a short story being stretched into what it became. While I’m all for a well rounded story, I don’t feel this should have been this long. A lot of things could have been left on the cutting room floor and we as the reader would have still been able to get it.
Now, the last chapter does save some of the faults that came before it and it gives a satisfactory closure to the story that was told. I found it a little jarring at first, but as I had more time to reflect on it, it was good enough.
Besides the bumps in the road, I followed along on this journey well enough. While I didn’t feel overly happy and thrilled all the time with it, it was decent. It wasn’t great and wasn’t bad. Middle of the road sometimes is just enough to enjoy something.
June 9, 2021
Jacob by David Gerrold is a modern vampire story. It’s an expansion on his short story of the same name. The first chapter is basically the original story. As noted on the cover, A Different Kind of Interview….
The book is Jacob telling his story and the life of his kind to the narrator. It’s a short novel, under 200 pages in the format of the book I have. I find it enjoyable to see what each author brings to a well-worn genre. Little pokes at the Twilight series, seems they don’t sparkle that much, while he hints at the larger history of the community of vampires that he envisioned.
The story is a slow burn, there are no huge set pieces, but it held my attention. Mr Gerrold does a nice job with his little touches in this story. Describing the lives of those that are effectively frozen in time. Their adjustments to living in the various eras. How they manage with each advancement to stay hidden yet be part of the world.
I liked his tight focus on the story he told here. While I wondered on the larger history hinted at, I think leaving it as a mystery was enough. I got a glimpse behind a curtain that should stay drawn.
The book is Jacob telling his story and the life of his kind to the narrator. It’s a short novel, under 200 pages in the format of the book I have. I find it enjoyable to see what each author brings to a well-worn genre. Little pokes at the Twilight series, seems they don’t sparkle that much, while he hints at the larger history of the community of vampires that he envisioned.
The story is a slow burn, there are no huge set pieces, but it held my attention. Mr Gerrold does a nice job with his little touches in this story. Describing the lives of those that are effectively frozen in time. Their adjustments to living in the various eras. How they manage with each advancement to stay hidden yet be part of the world.
I liked his tight focus on the story he told here. While I wondered on the larger history hinted at, I think leaving it as a mystery was enough. I got a glimpse behind a curtain that should stay drawn.
February 8, 2023
At the end of the first chapter, Gerrold has his main character say "..and that's how you write a vampire story!" I have a feeling that this entire book is Gerrold saying exactly that to the world. Jacob is a short, sensual, political, logical vampire story. He hint at a wider world and happens, but we don't need to see that to get the point. A wonderful read.
May 23, 2019
Jacob
By David Gerrold
2015
A stand alone vampire book, those seem so rare nowadays. The premise is simple and up-front, just like the vampire that the book is named for. As it says, "a different kind of interview..."
3 1/2 stars
By David Gerrold
2015
A stand alone vampire book, those seem so rare nowadays. The premise is simple and up-front, just like the vampire that the book is named for. As it says, "a different kind of interview..."
3 1/2 stars
February 18, 2023
Jacob is a vampire. Gerrold looks at the social and psychological aspects of being a vampire. What does it take to be a vampire and is worth it?
June 16, 2024
Fun read
David Gerrold is a wonderful storyteller adept at his craft. He manages to give a freshness to a vampire story that kept me turning pages eagerly. Don’t miss this one.
David Gerrold is a wonderful storyteller adept at his craft. He manages to give a freshness to a vampire story that kept me turning pages eagerly. Don’t miss this one.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews