If I’m recalling correctly, it was almost like the city was another character…

15. The Lesser Dead – Christopher Buehlman

I thought I would like this story of vampires in 1978 New York City more than I did. It’s not bad or slow or anything, it’s just perhaps I didn’t get as much enjoyment from Joey Peacock or the endless grittiness of the city as I would have liked. And they’re living in the subway tunnels and traveling through them constantly, so gritty. The misfit children who Joey encounters on his gnarly adventures drinking blood around New York City are also gritty, and creepy. Now, I am interested in times when children form creepy groups and scare people, I have seen Village of the Damned and The Children (the one where their fingernails turn black), but I just didn’t get into this story as much as The Suicide Motor Club or Those Across the River, which I guess would be dusty and sweaty stories instead of gritty.

 

It may very well be dusty under the chair in the corner of the living room, but it’s not gritty, so Peregrine and Ozma are having a hard time starting a gang for committing evil in the dark and dangerous city.