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Fangland

2.66 of 5 stars 2.66 · rating details · 591 ratings · 135 reviews

An acclaimed novelist and former 60 Minutes producer grandly reinvents the Dracula epic in the halls of a certain television newsmagazine

In the annals of business trips gone horribly wrong, Evangeline Harker's journey to Romania on behalf of her employer, the popular television newsmagazine The Hour, deserves pride of place. Sent to Transylvania to scout out a possible s...more An acclaimed novelist and former 60 Minutes producer grandly reinvents the Dracula epic in the halls of a certain television newsmagazine

In the annals of business trips gone horribly wrong, Evangeline Harker's journey to Romania on behalf of her employer, the popular television newsmagazine The Hour, deserves pride of place. Sent to Transylvania to scout out a possible story on a notorious Eastern European crime boss named Ion Torgu, she has found the true nature of Torgu's activities to be far more monstrous than anything her young journalist's mind could have imagined. The fact that her employer clearly won't get the segment it was hoping for is soon the very least of her concerns.

Back in New York, Evangeline's disappearance causes an uproar at the office and a wave of guilt and recrimination. Then suddenly, several months later, she's heard from: miraculously, she's convalescing in a Transylvania monastery, her memory seemingly scrubbed. But then who was sending e-mails through her account to The Hour employees? And what are those great coffin-like boxes of objects delivered to the office in her name from the Old Country? And why does the show's sound system appear to be infected with some strange virus, an aural bug that coats all recordings in a faint background hiss that sounds like the chanting of...place-names? And what about the rumors that a correspondent has scored an interview with Torgu, here in New York, after all? As a very dark Old World atmosphere deepens in the halls of one of America's most trusted television programs, its employees are forced to confront a threat beyond their wildest imaginings, a threat that makes gossip about an impending corporate shakeup seem very quaint indeed.

Written in the form of diary entries, e-mails, therapy journals, and other artifacts of early-twenty-first-century American professional-class life, compiled as an informal inquest by a very interested party, Fangland manages both to be a genuinely-in fact triumphantly-frightening vampire novel in the grand tradition and a, yes, biting commentary on the way we live and work now.(less)

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published January 11th 2007 by Penguin Press HC, The

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Mar 12, 2008 R.J. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While some of it was fun . .the Don Hewitt character yelling "the Network" at the time when consummate evil was overtaking the pseudo-60 Minutes television show. . it was a bit of a misfire. I didn't even really understand what Torgu was doing? was he the physical embodiment of eviL? And really the lead character doing a striptease is what undid him? I mean on one hand that is terribly funny as men do stare dumbly at naked girls but really, that's all she had to do? And what happened to her afte...more

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Feb 13, 2008 Jen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a disappointment! The pacing left a lot to be desired, for all the suspense that Marks was trying to create, I left feeling like not much really happened. I get what he was trying to do with the different points of view and journal/email/first person formats, but there wasn't enough grounding in each point of view character to make me care about what they had to say. Also, some wildly inefficient use of language- I don't need two long sentences about a pashmina scarf to get that a character...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Stephen Thomas rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

LACKING BITE

This book promised so much but delivered very little. It’s slow to start, and the first 60% is bogged down with too much character-based plot development. This may seem like a non sequiter when discussing a novel but here the character subplots actually impede the story arc by reining back the narrative just as it starts to get interesting. For once, less would have been more. Marks also uses some curiously idiomatic vocabulary that is sometimes too florid and serves only to obfuscat...more

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Aug 08, 2011 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is Dracula updated. Set in the present day, using current technology, it shows that your not safe from ancient evil even in the modern age. In the book, Evangeline Harker is a producer for the long running, New York-based, television show The Hour. She isn't happy that her current assignment is to go to Romania, and do background on a well known, but little seen, criminal, Ion Torgu. Part of the unhappiness is that she just got engaged. The other part is that she is an associate produc...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Wendell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: trash-horror-guilty-pleasures

I cannot honestly say that Fangland is the worst novel ever written, but I grant Marks the benefit of this doubt solely because I have not read every novel ever written. (In private, however, I maintain my suspicions.) The characters are foolish, inarticulate, pompous, and criminally overwritten (this is the only real horror the book contains), and the plot is so unnecessarily convoluted and fragmented that a reader can be forgiven for harboring the paranoid conviction that Marks is trying to dr...more I cannot honestly say that Fangland is the worst novel ever written, but I grant Marks the benefit of this doubt solely because I have not read every novel ever written. (In private, however, I maintain my suspicions.) The characters are foolish, inarticulate, pompous, and criminally overwritten (this is the only real horror the book contains), and the plot is so unnecessarily convoluted and fragmented that a reader can be forgiven for harboring the paranoid conviction that Marks is trying to drive him crazy. Personally. The main problem? That you will not care, you simply will not care one tiny bit, what happens to Marks’ main character, Evangeline Harker. You will, instead, begin to wish for her early and painful demise and for surcease of her vapid, pointless, breathless musings, her lunatic mood shifts, her non sequiturs. How many dozen times can a character declare some version of “That is simply beyond my powers to describe” before the reader is justified in saying, “Fine, don’t describe it. I'll go find a book whose author understands what his job is”? (In fact, with regard to Harker, let me amend my earlier statement about Marks' inarticulate characters: Marks makes Harker that girl who has memorized a lot of big, recondite words, but who doesn’t necessarily know how to use them properly. This artifact cannot be on purpose, because it is diametrically opposed to the building of Harker’s character, and thus one suspects that Marks is the one who doesn’t know how to use those words properly.) And you will especially not care about the painstakingly rendered snake pit of egos, hacks, and buffoons that populate the television news show where Harker is employed—nor, most of the time, will you have the slightest notion what they are talking about, why they are talking about it for 10 pages, or what it has to do with the story (other than Marks taking the opportunity to get 60 Minutes payback). I listened to this book on CD, and can faithfully attest that it is the exception to the golden rule: that bad books generally get better if one hears them read out loud. In this case, the cast of actors (so to speak) resembles a third-rate high-school drama club: Not only are there too many voices and too many incoherent, delirious shifts of point of view, but the narrators also choose to do imitations and accents (mostly badly; the only exception is Clemmie, who actually sounds as though she could be from Austin), which raises the whole affair to the level of a raving cacophony—both in terms of the performance and in terms of the plot, already a rambling, tedious mess. The fact that they mispronounce common words doesn’t help: visage, e.g., is given a French spin so that it rhymes with “mirage.” Other than assuming that the director of the recording came from the same third-rate high school as the cast, one where they don’t have money to learn words like “visage,” I can discern no logic behind this choice. (By the way, John. I’m sure you could barely stand how cool and with-it and all twenty-first-century Facebooky it must have seemed when you came up with the strategy of giving long sections of your book over to email messages, but I'm here to tell you: it's a stupid, lazy idea. And it's not just a stupid, lazy idea for you, it's a stupid, lazy idea for everyone--and I'm thinking specifically about that person who is out there right now wondering whether it's possible to write a novel in tweets. Yes; it is possible. No; no one wants to read it.) The absolute best you can say about this miscarriage is that it started off with a marginally interesting premise: a modern re-writing of Dracula. That, accompanied by contemporary VampireMania, was likely sufficient to earn Marks an advance and to move a respectable number of units. But, like so many advertising promises these days—and it is essentially and only that, a publicity stunt—this one isn’t maintained. Marks is no Bram Stoker, and he doesn’t even appear to understand what made Dracula an entertaining book and his nothing more than a bungling, irritating kludge.(less)

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Jul 15, 2010 Marcie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first think that got my attention was the cover of Fangland. It’s very dark and mysterious and splattered with blood. My kind of book. When I received Fangland in the mail I began reading it at once. Evangeline Harker is a producer. She goes to Transylvania to interview Ion Torgu. Torgu is very mysterious man with all kinds of secrets. Is he a criminal? Is he a vampire? Is he something worse?
What I like about the book: The newsroom characters were quirky, from a civil war reenactor to someon...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Christine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

Evangeline Harker is a producer for a television news show called “The Hour”. On the heels of her engagement she reluctantly leaves for Transylvania to investigate the possibility of a story about an international gangster, Ion Torgu. In this book Torgu steps into the count Dracula character. Unfortunately, he does not do it well. Mr. Marks attempts to update the vampire lore and I found he left much lacking. Although Torgu shares some of the classic vampire traits the rest is too ambiguous to d...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Marsha rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, literature-fiction, mystery-thriller

While moments in this book shine with artful displays of metaphor, adjectives and melodramatic scenes that just cry out for cinematic translation, somehow it fails to add up to a coherent or even enjoyable storyline.

The book is a swamp of deceit, misdirection and obfuscation. It’s even unclear just what kind of novel it is. Is it a horror novel about vampires? A ghost tale? A satire about the stress and backbiting in the broadcast industry? A cautionary tale about computer viruses that can atta...more While moments in this book shine with artful displays of metaphor, adjectives and melodramatic scenes that just cry out for cinematic translation, somehow it fails to add up to a coherent or even enjoyable storyline.

The book is a swamp of deceit, misdirection and obfuscation. It’s even unclear just what kind of novel it is. Is it a horror novel about vampires? A ghost tale? A satire about the stress and backbiting in the broadcast industry? A cautionary tale about computer viruses that can attach themselves to human beings? A horrifying testament to humanity’s tendency to butchering its own?

On the surface, it seems to be about vampires. But Ion Torgu, the mysterious crimelord and prison survivor, doesn’t seem like your typical vampire. He has no allergy to crosses, garlic or sunlight. He has a reflection (although he may not be able to be seen on videotape) and collects holy relics.

However, he disappears from the book about a third of the way into it and reenters only shortly near the end chapters; that is a blessing. If he’s a vampire, he’s one of the least interesting ones you’ll ever encounter in the printed medium. He’s a rambling, ugly, shrunken butcher who travels around with a clanking bucket and a knife stuck in it. He has no wit, sophistication, intelligent conversation or visible style. He’s just a miserable raver…with bad teeth.

The rest of the novel becomes a sprawling, meandering, disjointed and protracted mess about mental disintegration in a New York broadcasting building. What exactly is happening? Why are people mumbling about places of human atrocities, murders, wars, massacres and mass graves? Why are people getting sick or committing suicide? Why have three big coffin-like boxes been delivered and why doesn’t anybody get upset enough to have them removed? When the answers come, you really don’t care.

While each page ratchets up the growing sense of unease and alienation, none of it ties together into a solidified whole. This book reads like a messy script in which several interesting characters are fighting viciously to be allowed a chance at center stage. Only nobody really gets to make himself heard properly because everybody’s shouting at once.

There’s a good novel in this somewhere…or perhaps two or three good novels. It’s too bad it got swamped under its own murky quirkiness.(less)

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Aug 13, 2010 Clarice rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned-so-bad-i-couldn-t-finish

This novel started out with so much promise. I really liked the fact that Marks was telling the story with emails, journals, newspaper clippings, etc. in the style of Bram Stoker. Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that EVERY character spoke in the EXACT same voice. Even worse, emails were so lengthy and written in such elegant prose that it was just unbelievable. And a personal journal that one of the characters was being FORCED to keep as a therapy tool by his psychiatrist, (again, written in...more

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Jul 25, 2010 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal-vampires

Fangland was a very slow read. Usually when a book includes emails, journal entries, and other forms of communications, it helps to move the story along. While these inclusions brought other viewpoints into the story, they didn't do anything to actually liven up the story.

The main character, Evangeline, was all over the place. She was unreliable and unsympathetic. She wasn't the only one. None of the characters gave much of a reason for the reader to care about them at all.

Fangland's version of...more

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Jan 26, 2009 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a strange little book Fangland is. I was initially intrigued because Audrey Niffenegger had a blurb on the back, but quickly got caught up in the actual story once I started reading it.

Don't get me wrong, it does get off to a slow start, and is confusing at points in the beginning. As the story winds on, though, it's easy enough to figure out that you're supposed to be a bit confused, as it adds to the atmosphere.

The first half of Fangland reminds me of Dracula, as far as suspense goes. I w...more

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Dec 26, 2008 Anya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The editors press their buttons, scrubbing, cutting, recutting, the cacophony of their labor rising in bizarre noises from the dark back hallways, the blips, blurts, hisses, and jolts of sound that arise when the human voice gets ripped apart by machines, voices transformed from a conversation between two people into a series of mutilated moments that can be twisted, baked, and sauteed until the tension pops and the meaning fries."

This is a weird, disquieting book. The first 80 pages or so are...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011challenge, vampires, horror

I understand why this book has gotten rather poor reviews. If I weren't listening to it on CD, I would have quit reading over a week ago and returned it to the library. The most interesting character in the book is Austin Tratta, one of the journalists of The Hour (a news show in the book which resembles our real-world 60 Minutes) who writes his account in a therapy journal, though he never quite accepts the evidence of his eyes or what he is told.

Evangeline Harker, with whom the book opens and...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Alice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, audio, horror, library, thriller, urban-fantasy

I picked up Fangland because the notion of a vampire running a TV news program from the inside, from the back description, intrigued me. Instead, I got a faithful adaptation of Dracula, brought to a post-9/11 New York City. I'm not unhappy with the story I did get, but it didn't match my expectations.

If you've read the original Dracula and liked it, you are highly likely to enjoy Fangland. On the other hand, if all you know of the vampire legend is from movies, you're likely to be profoundly dis...more I picked up Fangland because the notion of a vampire running a TV news program from the inside, from the back description, intrigued me. Instead, I got a faithful adaptation of Dracula, brought to a post-9/11 New York City. I'm not unhappy with the story I did get, but it didn't match my expectations.

If you've read the original Dracula and liked it, you are highly likely to enjoy Fangland. On the other hand, if all you know of the vampire legend is from movies, you're likely to be profoundly disappointed. Many modern readers have picked up Dracula and wrinkled their noses at how boring and unsexy the source material is.

Fangland is similarly neutered, and the action sequences are few and far-between. Like Dracula, it's told through letters and journals and correspondence (in this case, emails). It does change a large portion of the story, though. Instead of Jonathan Harker, we get Evangeline, a young associate producer for the most-respected news program in the country. She's scouting Ion Torgu, an underground leader of speculated crimes in Eastern Europe, to see if there's a story. There is, but it isn't one she gets to dictate. Instead, she winds up some distance away with no memory of how she got there, thirsting for blood. Meanwhile, her co-workers back in NYC speculate and worry about her disappearance, until people start dying and there's a strange static hiss that sounds like place names everywhere you go on the 20th floor.

The original Dracula was an embodiment of a bloodthirsty warlord, but this defanged vampire (he drinks blood by cutting people with a knife and bleeding them into a pail) serves a deeper purpose of remembering the human faces behind the cruelty people do one another. That's where the book falls apart, for me, because the author seems to want to have it both ways. Torgu is both a monster and needed, to be feared and pitied. I might have wrapped my mind around that more thoroughly if Torgu hadn't killed dozens of innocent people in the text. That he should constantly name off cities of atrocities, but not include his own murders in the numbers, struck me as contrived, and it muddled the point of the ending.

In addition, the writing doesn't overcome the limitations of the style. It can be difficult to tell a story through correspondence, and I don't think the author quite rises to the task. He has characters transcribing conversations word-for-word in emails, down to where people paused to gaze out windows. He has conversations for which the recipient was present related in exacting detail. And one of Austen Trotta's journal entries is a recap of everything we've already heard in the narrative, which was frustrating and unnecessary. How convenient that the characters know their words are going into a book.

Overall, the author set himself a difficult task, updating a horror classic to a post-9/11 world and making it relevant to that world. His interpretation is interesting, but not always successful. Depending on how well you liked the original story, you may find this entertaining, or frustrating.

I listened to the book on audio, which had several different narrators. It did an excellent job of separating out sections and making it clear who we were following, except where they'd swap out narrators, and then I'd wonder why "the old guy" was narrating for a young woman, where "the news guy" had reported her sections before. I liked the voices, and most of them fit their personalities well, but it was sometimes confusing. Also, the tendency of two narrators to whisper when characters shouted sounded laughingly funny.(less)

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Jan 23, 2010 Sonia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: have

I'm a bit conflicted about how much I liked and/or disliked this book. I was definitely interested in finding out what would happen, but there were a lot of things I didn't like about this book.

I didn't like that the very beginning seemed a modern update to Stoker's Dracula. The meeting between Evangeline, coincidentally also surnamed Harker, and Torgu was too much like that of Jonathan Harker and the Count. I didn't really understand what eventual relevance the whole induction of Clemmie Spence...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Robert Magness rated it 3 of 5 stars

It seems I follow a lot of people's opinion of this book. It is mis-titled, that is for sure. I get the reference, but it doesn't entirely work. And the picture is a bit off putting according to the whole theme of the text. I do admit, though, that I enjoyed the parellels of Dracula and found myself completely entranced by the book...up until the finale. It ended very quickly and, in my opinion, in the wrong way. It had an excellent build up and then a very disappointing ending.

The reason I pic...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Jason Logue rated it 4 of 5 stars

A nice vampire novel with a blend of mystery, macabre, comedy and drama. It's somewhat of a retelling of the Stoker's Dracula set in post 9/11 world, specifically centering around a news show similar to 60 Minutes. Evangeline Harker is sent to investigate a story and meet with some contacts in Romania. While there she dissapears and reappears in a convent in Romania with a wiped memory. As things start to come back to her, the news bureau in New York starts to receive packages of tapes and other...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

FANGLAND is a compelling novel that has stayed with me for weeks. It truly captures the essence of the original DRACULA. While FANGLAND makes no secret of how closely it follows DRACULA, or of how many of the same elements they share, it still manages to stand securely on its own two feet.

Much as Bram Stoker accmplished in DRACULA, Marks steadily builds an underbelly of terror that runs the length of the novel. Almost without realizing it, the reader slowly comes to understand that something te...more

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Nov 28, 2009 pinknantucket rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ms-readathon-2007

It’s been a long time since I read any horror, because, you know, me and horror don’t get along so well, so I’m not sure if I’m correct here, but I think this book might, well, be sneaking over into the horror genre. There are no ice picks involved, or chainsaws or people being skinned or anything (not directly, anyway) and the book cover doesn’t make use of dripping blood; the horror it contains is more of an intellectual quality - the horror that has been inflicted on real persons throughout t...more It’s been a long time since I read any horror, because, you know, me and horror don’t get along so well, so I’m not sure if I’m correct here, but I think this book might, well, be sneaking over into the horror genre. There are no ice picks involved, or chainsaws or people being skinned or anything (not directly, anyway) and the book cover doesn’t make use of dripping blood; the horror it contains is more of an intellectual quality - the horror that has been inflicted on real persons throughout the centuries.

Interestingly, also, Fangland is a post-9/11 horror story; the horror that was nearly 3000 people’s last moments (plus all the associated shock and emotional damage that was the survivors’) is woven into the narrative. I’ve only read one other book that was quite so directly a post-9/11 novel, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close; and although I thought Foer’s book was excellent, I think Fangland was more effective at capturing what the events of that day did to the city of New York.

Fangland is a modern take on the vampire legend, and at the start I thought it was going to be a bit too clever for itself, but I ended up really quite liking it. I will look for other novels by John Marks. It is set (for a good part of the action) in the offices of a television current affairs program (The Hour) in downtown New York, located just next door to the holes that exist where the World Trade Centre used to stand. The rest of the story is set in Romania, as we follow what happens to one Evangeline Harker, who has been sent there by her bosses at The Hour to assess the possibility of a story on an Eastern European crime lord called Ion Torgu.

The story is told from the viewpoints of a number of different characters; for me it was Evangeline’s voice that read best, challenging my pet theory that it is difficult for men to write convincing female characters and vice versa. (I can’t really test the vice versa; male characters written by women often seem quite convincing to me, but what would I know? You blokes will have to confirm/deny). Not all of the book works for me and there are, to paraphrase the C&C Music Factory, a few bits that made me go “Hmmm” - such as the scene in which Evangeline uses her sexuality to fend off an attack by Torgu. To paraphrase the evil Mexicans in For a Fistful of Dollars, “ehhhh??” I suppose at least it wasn’t the same old “vampires are sooo sexy” thing that most authors peddle. But overall, the book was moving and chilling…if you feel in the mood for a vampire novel, definitely read this one over Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.
(less)

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Feb 15, 2012 Nicole Roberts rated it 1 of 5 stars

I hated this book. I understand that the author was trying to give a new perspective on vampires, but honestly? A vampire that has been around for centuries and seen all different kinds of massacre and death, has to use a bucket for blood drinking? You would think he would've figured out something a bit more sophisticated than that. There are characters that are brought into the story that are never explained or expanded upon. Can someone please tell what was with the Greek brothers that Torgu h...more

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Feb 01, 2010 Sandra Kasturi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You know, this book was really unexpected. Given the title, I expected a sort of fun vampirical romp, a palate-cleanser, if you will, after all the Twilight and Laurell K. Hamilton nonsense the world has so been inundated with. Not so! Fangland is SO much more than that, that I kind of feel that the title is actually not doing it any favours, especially given that the Zombieland movie came out not long ago. This novel is a scathing satire/indictment of the hour-long news programs and television...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Andrew Campbell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Among the worst cover, and titles, for a book that I can imagine. What seems to present itself as a campy/jokey Dracula redux is actually a shrewd, unsettling recasting- and reclamation -of the entirety of the Bram Stoker myth. Vampirism, here, is anything but the brooding romantic trope that it's devolved into today.

Along the way you get some privileged glimpses into the way that 60 Minutes (oh, excuse me, The Hour) works, and more than a few ridiculous names. But Marks' most compelling achieve...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Vanessa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

I feel a little guilty giving this book 2 stars as the author has some good ideas and clearly put some effort into the writing. But Goodreads tells me 2 stars means ok and this book was very much just ok. The idea of an updated version of Dracula with a dash of Ringu thrown in and updated to be set in the world of a 60 Minutes-like show was in the end irresistible to me, despite the lackluster reviews of other Goodreaders.

So, the concept was good but the execution is somewhat bumpy. The prose t...more

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Jan 09, 2010 Matthew Herring rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting read for sure. John Marks brings us a modern update to the vampire thriller that combines multiple viewpoints into a cohesive account of horror. Well written and fairly engaging, though I took issue to the abrupt change in narrative after the first third of the book. After that one flaw however, I found it much easier to follow the threads of the narrative, though it stretched my suspension of disbelief to read the ridiculously long supposed email entries. I forgive most of this a...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Raven Carluk rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've been wondering why this book is getting a movie.

It was sent to me by someone telling me it was really good, and I had to read it. So I struggled through the lame story, and the lack of explanations about what was really happening, to a very disappointing end.

And then she told me she didn't like it either, and was hoping maybe I'd "get it", and could help her understand.

Instead, this was an unrewarding book, with a stupid take on a classic book. No horror, no reasons for the activities or ch...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Laura Roberts rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was very painful to read. I stuck with it because it had its hopeful moments but over all I was terribly disappointed and was never so happy to have a book end in my entire life.

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Sep 10, 2010 Kristy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book up until the end. I'm not sure how to rate it. I found it suspenseful and interesting, but the end left me wanting to know more. I felt as though it left me with too many unanswered questions. Some unanswered questions are fine, but I felt as though Marks was trying his hardest not to answer the questions he himself and the characters posed. I had trouble putting the book down, I did find the book entertaining, I was just disappointed with how it all played out. I feel...more

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Feb 23, 2009 AM rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first three fourth of this book are really good. There is an ever increasing tension mounts as all the major character spiral closer and closer to a collision. Then, inexplicable the books starts to meander. The tension leeches out in fits of bumbling until the conclusion with is barely satisfying. It is a conclusion, and over all I liked the book. But, it was a there wasn't enough meat at the end to make it a good meal. I do like most of Marks dialogue and some of his descriptions where lau...more

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Jun 28, 2010 Adrienne rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, horror, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 13, 2010 Me, My Shelf and I rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, own-physical-copy

I got this book for $2 at a book sale and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much.

Even though I routinely say that I don't particularly like vampire books (a common misconception due to my small obsession with twilight) I did pick this up based on the name and cover.

I think you will find it is actually not about vampires and more about a supernatural phenomenon of sorts. The story is good, although the person who you are viewing it through changes throughout and can b...more

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What's The Name o...: female journalist goes to Translavania and maybe find Dracula - modern day story [s]	8	51	Dec 15, 2011 10:42am

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/405784.Fangland?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1174482837l/405784.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/405784.Fangland?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Fangland by John Marks[/url]

Fangland

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