My Dead Body

I noted as I went on that each book seemed to drop a star. This one barely got 2 stars. It would have been 1 1/2 if they gave that option because my reaction was "So do I care? " and the answer was no.

I can easily list what I didn't like about such as dialogue that went on and on and on until I wanted to say "OH SHUT UP AND GET TO THE POINT." Lots of emotional masturbation but not much forward motion in the plot.

Joe's series simply did not wear well which is sad because I wanted to like it.
( )

Another book in Huston's series about the down on his luck vampire, Joe Pitt. Caught in the middle of a vampire civil war involving a missing girl who may be carrying an infant who may be the future destiny of vampires everywhere, Pitt struggles to survive. And gets increasingly battered along the way. An enjoyable story for those who like this sort of thing, it is almost entirely unmemorable a year or so after reading. ( )

** spoiler alert **

A solid ending to a blood, brutal series, and I think my brain needs a cleansing shower. 5 stars minus one star for killing Hurley.

By the way, you can find my long, metaphoric (and possibly confusing but quite sane) review of the tone and vibe of this series at my blog: https://armandinezian.wordpress.com/ ( )

I still can't get enough of Huston's sparse writing. It feels lean and clean even when the topic is oily and gritty. I can't be certain this is the last Joe Pitt book. Huston leaves the door open for at least one more semi-apocalyptic novel. But I suppose I do doubt it because, to tell that story, it would not be as tightly personal as all the earlier stories were. Who knows. Maybe he would find a plot that still has us riding on Joe's shoulder.

I rate My Dead Body a bit lower than any of the others in the series. It felt like Huston was forcing the resolution of his many threads and also gratuitously cutting off Joe's body parts. I know Joe getting himself beat up is part of who he is but this story takes it too far. Sure he's a wiseass but would he really stick his head that far into the noose and encourage his physical destruction that much?

There are moments of greatness, just as in the other novels, but I felt more of a let-down. Maybe my expectations were high as some of the earlier stories are magnificent. But what happens to Predo, Terry, and Hurley here is packaged in too big a lump for me to swallow and still enjoy.

All in all, I haven't read anyone else who captures this noir tone in a supernatural thriller quite like Charlie Huston. I give a tip of the hat to a master at his craft! ( )

If you're looking for another Twilight, this isn't it. If we call Meyer's books Vampire YA, full of angst and...well...more angst, and we call Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books Vampire Lite, full of romance, sex and some sanitized violence, then Huston's books are Vampire Grit...Philip Marlowe encounters the dark side and then some. There's very little sex, not much more romance, but people get hurt in this quintet of books. Yet, they aren't really part of the horror genre like Dracula and its progeny; these read exactly like hard-boiled crime novels.

I really liked them for this. In a world where (to use Huston's term) sanguivores exist, it isn't all going to be tall, dark, erotic and handsome. If you think of the Irish gang wars in New York in the 19th century, or the Mob battles during Prohibition, you'll have a good idea of the tone of these books.

This picks up the second half of the story begun in Every Last Drop with Joe Pitt, ever more beaten and battered, dealing with the chaos he started in that volume. Huston pulls this all together very nicely, satisfactorily resolving not only the immediate events, but the larger story line, as well.

Huston's novels are generally rather raw and these are no exception. If you want a very different perspective on how "vampires among us" would play out, I recommend this series. ( )