Review of It's Hard to Be a Vampire

[sayjil gordhan]

[Following is a volunteer review of "It's Hard to Be a Vampire" by Viktoria Faust.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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It’s Hard Being a Vampire by Victoria Faust is an anthology, consisting of nine horror stories. The book contains themes of death, depression, and addiction. Dark humor is introduced to the reader in the opening story - “It’s Hard to be a Vampire.” In my opinion, this is the lightest of the stories. As the reader progresses, the tone of the book becomes more melancholy and darker. “Gallery of Horror” follows a painter Jan who becomes obsessed with painting and whose muses die. The sequel, “The Painting Strikes Back” is about one of Jan’s paintings haunting a boy. In my opinion, these two stories are the best of what the book has to offer. It’s exceptionally creative and captures mystery and horror well. Faust captures relevant experiences in “Narcissus,” where the protagonist approaches a woman who is not interested, and that inevitably leads to his demise.

The book is written in the third person. Faust’s prose is exceptional. The reader will adeptly envision a world of nightmares. I think the fact that the reader is cognisant of vampires being real, makes it easier for the reader to be captivated into this eerie world. The dialogue is written to flow authentically and does not seem forced at any point in the book. There is great depth to the characters. It feels as if you are in the mind of each character and the subtle darkness of their thoughts. Through morbid curiosity, the reader is propelled into horrific scenes. Despite really liking this book, and noting the author's excellent prose, I do have cristisms. I feel as though some stories are too fast-paced for the reader to grasp the nuances and underlying themes. However, in other stories, I experienced the opposite - where the horror element of the book becomes redundant due to long complex prose. I expect genres such as horror and crime to surprise me and shock me to the senses. The ideas in each story are dark and twisted but the prose through which it was executed failed to instill thrill, intensity, and fear. At times due to the dialogue, I felt as though I could only focus on words that conveyed fatphobia or homophobia.

The book contains derogatory language and profanity.
I attribute that I did not find any typos or errors to great editing.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes horror, paranormality, and dark humour. I do not recommend this book to young readers.

For these reasons, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

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It's Hard to Be a Vampire
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[Gerry Steen]

I am a fan of short stories. I do not usually read dark and morbid stories, but this review has me intrigued with the anthology. Thank you.