Draculas

Draculas is the much hyped novel by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand and F. Paul Wilson.  The four of them collaborated on the novel and incorporated all of their input so it truly does flow fluidly.  It actually flows about as smoothly as a nice stream of blood from a cut artery, which there is ample amount of.  Blood that is, as well as severed arteries I guess.  There is more blood flowing in this novel than all of the Quentin Tarantino movies combined.  I think more people might have died in this book than all the other books I have ever read combined.

This is not your every day vampire book.  These creatures have one goal in mind, to kill as many people as possible, suck them dry and then head off to the next guy and do the same.  They will kill off their own, rip children's heads off and drink them like a soda pop, and never bat an eye.  If that isn't enough, and they lose track of time, finding themselves more hungry than they can stand, they will chew off their own innards and suck the blood from themselves.  It is just a non-stop bloodbath.  Trust me when I say you have not read a book this bloody in a long time, if ever.

Mortimer is an old guy, very old, and he is very very rich.  He has been diagnosed with cancer, is a few weeks away from the end and he gets a special package in the mail.  The package happens to be the skull of an ancient beast, recently excavated, that might have a human quality to it, save the hundreds of jagged hollow teeth that fill the monstrosity of a mouth.  After taking a few glances at it, the old guy implants the teeth from the thing into his throat and then starts convulsing.

The nurse and his geologist aid rush him to the local hospital where all hell breaks loose, and I do mean all hell.  Within minutes the old dude begins to change and all of a sudden his mouth transforms and his teeth eat right through his own jaws.  His hands turn to alien appendages and he suddenly has a craving for blood that cannot be quenched.  I do mean it cannot be quenched.  He jumps on everyone he sees and commences to tear at their skin while sucking as much blood as he can.  Those that do not die turn into the same form of monster that he has became, and they do the same.

And so on and so on and so on.  You get the picture right.  It doesn't take long before there are more Draculas roaming the halls than there are people.  They are everywhere, and all they care about is sucking blood, any blood, even their own if they have to.  One of my favorites is the five year old girl who refers to the blood as red candy and can't figure out why all the mean adults won't give it up to her nicely.  Damn, she is used to getting what she wants.  Why all of a sudden is everyone being so stingy?

I don't know if I am giving too much away, since the book reminds me of so many recent horror movies.  I don't think there is a huge plot to hide.  There isn't much depth here.  It is all about killing, blood, gore and death.  Every page, every paragraph and every sentence is about somebody dying or being killed.  So if you like horror books, with a lot of descriptive gore, then you will have died and gone to heaven or hell so to speak.  The book is very well done, filled with action to overflowing and keeps you extremely entertained.

I would give it a very solid four stars out of five.  I can't go much higher because I do tend to like something more in my reading than just blood, but then again, I can go this high because the book was pretty damn awesome.  If you can't handle violence and I do mean over the top violence, then stay away from this read.  If you love a gory blood soaked evening then tear at this one and enjoy.  You will be a little stressed out, but you should be satiated upon completion, at least for the time being, until the hunger kicks in again.