Status Updates From How to Bite Your Neighbor a...

Aaaand. All the tension is just dropped. And this near vampire kidnapping could've been something. And this aftermath could've been really heart wrenching from the betrayal. But I don't care. The characters have only seriously interacted twice and the chemistry is not strong enough to carry this scene. We're almost halfway through the book! The chemistry should much stronger by now! Ugh!

Like. Vampires here still need to eat actual food in addition to blood. Can't go out in sunlight. Can't transform into bats. They have venom to soothe the humans they bite and their spit heals the bite? And super strength and speed. Not immortal, just eternally the age they were when bitten until they die of old age. It feels so...defanged. If you'll pardon the pun. Dead and Breakfast did a similar thing.

Also not sure how I feel about the way this book is using 'vampirism as a metaphor for queerness (with queer people actually present)' with the text treating vampires primarily as oppressed in the same way queer people are in real life, but actual queerness seems normalized? And it's doing everything it can to soften vampires to just being people with special needs and a couple powers.

I've got mixed feelings on the "vampires are already public knowledge and kind of integrated into society" thing. I think it kills some of the excitement for me.

Me when my name is Wes and I’m a traitor