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Rachel: A Dark, Bloody, Sexy Lesbian Vampire Thriller
Under the neon lights of Tokyo, vampires live out uneasy nights in a city where anyone can lose themselves. Dragged from her native England, one of the youngest vampires in Tokyo acts out her anger and grief through endless hollow nights. Rachel's existence has shrunken in on itself. Violence, blood, and running from her memories keep her going, the city serving as safe haven and prison.
When someone starts killing the vampires of Tokyo, Rachel will be forced to confront everything she's fought to forget for over a hundred years. Trapped between her vicious mentor and the implacable force of the monsters she shares the streets with, she will have to confront the most painful secrets of her past to survive... or she and the woman she loves won't see another night alive.
When someone starts killing the vampires of Tokyo, Rachel will be forced to confront everything she's fought to forget for over a hundred years. Trapped between her vicious mentor and the implacable force of the monsters she shares the streets with, she will have to confront the most painful secrets of her past to survive... or she and the woman she loves won't see another night alive.
310 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 9, 2016
6 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Dobromir Harrison
1 book7 followersDobromir Harrison is from the UK, spent 11 years in Japan, and recently moved to Northern California. A childhood spent reading the likes of Clive Barker has given him a love of the grotesque. He especially loves stories told from the monster's perspective, and is committed to writing diverse fiction exploring the lives of women, people of color and LGBTQ characters.
When not writing, Dobromir plays board games with his wife. They live in a small town in Northern California with 3 cats and a dog.
When not writing, Dobromir plays board games with his wife. They live in a small town in Northern California with 3 cats and a dog.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 21, 2016
When you look forward to a guilty pleasure but end up with garbage like this. Trite and artificial.
June 20, 2016
It's sad to witness the author whining to Twitter about the negative reviews this book has received. Why play the sympathy card? Be suspicious of the onslaught of good reviews that may follow.
May 11, 2016
Frustrating, Confusing, Unrelentingly Bloody and Violent, Muddled Story
I picked this up due to the good reviews and wonder if it's the same book. It starts slap-bang in the middle of the action, through Rachel's point of view. Is her point of view so muddled because she's sick? Crazy? She's in trouble of some kind, and she's a vampire, and there's a woman - but Rachel seems to hate herself and her relationship with this woman, as it's revealed, isn't really sexual or romantic. Rachel is broken, was probably broken when she was brought from England to Japan. Her maker is possibly the Frenchman Jacques, also very probably her rapist and kidnapper. She stays in Tokyo, where she has this.....exceedingly bloody relationship with another woman, a fellow vampire, who answers to another master, a man Rachel is also somehow beholden to. Why? WHO KNOWS. I kept going back in the book to find explanations for people, for situations, surely there were REASONS for the things that were happening. Maybe there were, but the reader isn't privy to them.
I'm a longtime reader of vampire novella and horror novels and the level of detail concerning blood and the smell of blood and being soaked in blood and the dripping of blood, etc. was really disturbing, after a while. The relationship that Rachel has with this woman is based on blood. Rachel is always covered in blood. She reeks of blood. She's dirty. Her clothes are soaked in blood. Why? NO CLUE. Author must like the mental image, because there's no plot reason for this lovingly detailed description of someone's lover sticking a finger in their ribcage and making them bleed all over the subway. Why? Uh...because, I guess.
Rachel runs away, because of the Japanese vampire head and Jacques' presence in Tokyo. She stumbles across a diseased town full of dying people with poisonous blood, so THAT'S not a way out. Back to Tokyo, to the mystifying vampire culture that even RACHEL doesn't understand. She ran a gang at one point, we're told. What happened to them? What happens to her? Oh, more blood. Squish, squish, squish.
I read the last quarter of this book grimly, because I was sure that at some point, I'd know what was going on. But it seems like a blood fetishist wrote a vampire novel and forgot to include the explanatory portions of the plot. It's just violence, blood, gore,death, betrayal - also a lot of puking, for a species that doesn't eat.
Honestly, this book was just gross. Worse than that, a waste of my time. I'm glad all these people apparently liked this "new" and "different" vampire story, but I found it confusing, disgusting, and finally just really annoying.
(Seriously, the amount of blood-soaked everything in this book is just ABSURD - beds, clothes, people, snow, bars, rooms, it's a non stop festival of gore.)
I picked this up due to the good reviews and wonder if it's the same book. It starts slap-bang in the middle of the action, through Rachel's point of view. Is her point of view so muddled because she's sick? Crazy? She's in trouble of some kind, and she's a vampire, and there's a woman - but Rachel seems to hate herself and her relationship with this woman, as it's revealed, isn't really sexual or romantic. Rachel is broken, was probably broken when she was brought from England to Japan. Her maker is possibly the Frenchman Jacques, also very probably her rapist and kidnapper. She stays in Tokyo, where she has this.....exceedingly bloody relationship with another woman, a fellow vampire, who answers to another master, a man Rachel is also somehow beholden to. Why? WHO KNOWS. I kept going back in the book to find explanations for people, for situations, surely there were REASONS for the things that were happening. Maybe there were, but the reader isn't privy to them.
I'm a longtime reader of vampire novella and horror novels and the level of detail concerning blood and the smell of blood and being soaked in blood and the dripping of blood, etc. was really disturbing, after a while. The relationship that Rachel has with this woman is based on blood. Rachel is always covered in blood. She reeks of blood. She's dirty. Her clothes are soaked in blood. Why? NO CLUE. Author must like the mental image, because there's no plot reason for this lovingly detailed description of someone's lover sticking a finger in their ribcage and making them bleed all over the subway. Why? Uh...because, I guess.
Rachel runs away, because of the Japanese vampire head and Jacques' presence in Tokyo. She stumbles across a diseased town full of dying people with poisonous blood, so THAT'S not a way out. Back to Tokyo, to the mystifying vampire culture that even RACHEL doesn't understand. She ran a gang at one point, we're told. What happened to them? What happens to her? Oh, more blood. Squish, squish, squish.
I read the last quarter of this book grimly, because I was sure that at some point, I'd know what was going on. But it seems like a blood fetishist wrote a vampire novel and forgot to include the explanatory portions of the plot. It's just violence, blood, gore,death, betrayal - also a lot of puking, for a species that doesn't eat.
Honestly, this book was just gross. Worse than that, a waste of my time. I'm glad all these people apparently liked this "new" and "different" vampire story, but I found it confusing, disgusting, and finally just really annoying.
(Seriously, the amount of blood-soaked everything in this book is just ABSURD - beds, clothes, people, snow, bars, rooms, it's a non stop festival of gore.)
September 12, 2016
A series of horrible, bloody, violent, events with just the minimum of background or explanation. To create a main character that suffers abuse and in turn acting out a seeming never ending cycle of killing and remorse, ugh.
February 20, 2016
This was a vampire book, but no one sparkled and that was a good thing. Rachel is a complex character haunted by her desires and lost soul. Throw in Japanese gangs and honor and you are taken on a compelling dark journey through an unfamiliar land with little peace in the end. I rarely read horror, but this story was so captivating, that I quickly made my way to the end.
From Tokyo to rural landscape of a Japanese mining town, sense of place is its own character in the novel. Harrison paints his literary landscape in vibrant colors that run red with blood.
From Tokyo to rural landscape of a Japanese mining town, sense of place is its own character in the novel. Harrison paints his literary landscape in vibrant colors that run red with blood.
March 6, 2016
This book is good in theory, but it does not do it for me.
Rachel is a vampire who while British, lives in Japan. She as a "mentor" and a "girlfriend".
This story is about her life, her troubles, her defeats, her loves, her likes.
Here is my main issue with it. It is conversation based, I would say that it is honestly 90% either Rachel talking to someone or her talking to herself. While in theory this could work, it gets kinda boring. I mean there are spots of brilliance like the Vampy with the acid. For me the conversation just got to me, and honestly I think that this rather lengthy book could have been 50% shorter and still had the same impact that the longer version has.
Again, I really like the premise and the author's voice is good, but the conversations just grate after awhile.
Rachel is a vampire who while British, lives in Japan. She as a "mentor" and a "girlfriend".
This story is about her life, her troubles, her defeats, her loves, her likes.
Here is my main issue with it. It is conversation based, I would say that it is honestly 90% either Rachel talking to someone or her talking to herself. While in theory this could work, it gets kinda boring. I mean there are spots of brilliance like the Vampy with the acid. For me the conversation just got to me, and honestly I think that this rather lengthy book could have been 50% shorter and still had the same impact that the longer version has.
Again, I really like the premise and the author's voice is good, but the conversations just grate after awhile.
February 24, 2016
Interesting modern day vampire story
June 28, 2016
Not what I expected. Very gory. Didn't connect with the characters.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews