Synopsis:
Creatures of dark legend, they roam the Earth to feed on the living. A race older than time - despised, feared and misunderstood - immortal souls damned for all eternity. Now young Chris Callaway has joined their ranks - shedding the yoke of pain and illness to experience the freedom of life everlasting... and to savor the warm taste of blood. But unexpected terrors await him in the world of the night. A new evil, relentless and insatiable. An obsessed and deadly hunter... called Man.
Review Out for Blood 23/06/2020
Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
I’ve been trying to remember the last time I read a vampire novel. I don’t mean a tale revolving around the Brian Lumley’s body-sculpting Wamphyri or Colin Wilson’s sexy Space Vampires but good, old fashioned vampires and I think it was probably The Vampire Lestat which I read the 90s as a rebellious teenage and so it was with interest that I started Out for Blood.
Synopsis wise, it’s an interesting premise and the idea of Chris Callaway, a young gay man suffering from leukemia, was certainly a different take than the usual person seeking excitement, revenge or power. The portrayal of his fear and frustration over his illness was well defined while avoiding it making it seem he was steeping in self-pity and I quickly grew to really like him and this was aided in no small part by the excellent narration by Sean Duregger who really gave him a beautiful sense of reluctant resignation.
Enter Beth, stunning goth girl who admits that she’s a vampire and has fed on him once and now wishes to offer him eternal life as a vampire. In a very short time, he’s died, been reborn and met the local pack of vamps and we learn that the vamps are not blood-thirsty killers but live with a very carefully regulated feeding ethos and take great care to avoid killing or turning.
This was a really nice change from the typical portrayal of vampires, as party animals revelling in death, blood and chaos and felt extremely refreshing. Another new addition is Chroba, the form that blood takes within a vampire after feeding and used to fuel their existence. I can’t remember the last time that a book about ‘classic’ vampires created anything new but this is certainly one such instance.
Things are not all fun and games as Chris learns and the problems don’t just involve hiding his new condition from humans as there are those who would use Vampires to their own ends and, following his meeting Temsik, he learns that there are things that even Vampires need to fear but to know what that is, you’ll just have to find out for yourself.
And I do recommend you do, this is a great story full of likeable characters, all excellently voiced by Sean, an original take on vampires and a really exciting story. To think that was published 30 years ago with a gay main character is brilliant and I honestly can’t think of many gay characters this well portrayed from that era (or in fact, since).
