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Vampire Nocturaries #1
The Gothic Rainbow
Helle Tompkins has reached the end of her days as an outcast, suburban teenager. Ever since her beloved father killed himself, and they released Helle from the mental hospital for trying to join him, she's been in a place where her pain is far deeper than high school melodrama. No more hiding behind black lipstick and a mohawk. Now she's playing with pagan charms, Wiccan rites, and the scrying sorcery of her Ouija board. It's the perfect distraction until she summons the attention of a charming and sinister faerie prince. A seductive spirit lurking in the shadows of treebranches shimmering upon her walls, he may be something much more horrible than he claims. Will she succumb to bewitching promises and find salvation in his cruel embrace, or will his own agonizing secrets draw Helle into even deeper heartbreak?
580 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
1 person is currently reading
675 people want to read
About the author
Eric Muss-Barnes
21 books31 followersRaised by the 1940's swingkid generation of his maternal grandparents, Eric Muss-Barnes grew up 2500 miles outside of Los Angeles; has spent years working at Walt Disney Studios; piloted hang gliders over 6000 feet above the Earth; dated fashion models, rockstar goddesses and glamazon actresses; been thrown and dragged by horses (arguably similar to his dating experiences); earned a living as an American Greetings toymaker and a Hollywood game designer; ridden motorcycles through mountains and desert sandstorms (make that "over" mountains, he's not Buckaroo Banzai); produced, directed and edited music videos and an award-nominated film; briefly wed a tattooed MENSA astrophysicist chick; crewed on an Academy Award nominated movie; skateboarded in pools all around California with XGames medalists; written an epic series of vampire novels; photographed numerous Playboy models and sold his images in art galleries; been published in multiple fiction/non-fiction anthologies; served 12 years hard time in parochial schools; and created and programmed a blog called InkShard where you can see videos and essays about his life as a writer.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 9, 2014
Won from a goodreads giveaway :)
I found this book to be poeticly dark, and Descriptively Gruesome. Different from other vampire books I have read, an intense read for sure.
I found this book to be poeticly dark, and Descriptively Gruesome. Different from other vampire books I have read, an intense read for sure.
October 23, 2013
This is not your run of the mill vampire fantasy as it avoids all the usual cliches of immortal and mortal love, over the top feuds and the usual focus on elder vampires ruling the roost. This story finds its way through fantasy subcultures incorporating real life music, bands, films etc to bring the duality of mortality/immortality to life through the relationship between Elric and Helle and the convoluted conspiracy they get drawn into. The writing is descriptive and dream-like in places which I did find a little confusing (for lack of a better word) at times which spoiled the story for me (admittedly others won't have a problem with it). This really is an epic fantasy and it is an engrossing and engaging story that keeps you interested from start to finish. Overall a really good read but personally the dreamy nature of the writing was a little off putting but this is still a superb story once you get used to it.
November 6, 2013
so dangerous when i'm reading it but at the same time i cant put it down!
March 10, 2018
This is probably my favorite vampire novel, I've read quite a few. The detailed scenes thrill the darkest reaches of your mind. Inclusion of music of varying artists and style bring you to a whole new level of enjoyment and immersion. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this genre as it really brings you to beautifully darker vision of vampires.
July 24, 2016
I received this book in exchange for an honest review (LoP or Lovers of Paranormal)
This is the first of two books in the Vampire Noctuaries series. The main character is the only male of a family of vampires with a die hard appreciation for the gothic industrial music scene. Much of the book revolves around this appreciation, to include scenes taking place in the underground club scene, music lyrics from goth bands embedded in the writing, and a playlist at the end of the contents of the book including goth bands. The characters also embraced other features of goth subculture, to include attire, make-up, and hair styles. Some of the characters are also depressed or experiencing a lot of teenage angst, which has been tied to the gothic subculture. I don't know how much truth there was to how accurately the goth subculture was captured in the book, but regardless, the author was able to create an atmosphere for this story from components of this subculture.
As far as the vampires go, they are violent, dark, and incredibly loyal to their family members. This violence lead to some pretty graphic, bloody scenes. It seems nowadays that authors have their own spin on the vampire novel. Therefore, I was expecting more insight into how new vampires are made, how often they have to feed, what kills them, do they have any special features/powers, etc. I didn't really feel like I got much of that with this book.
The writing style was different. The author chose to capitalize all pronouns referring to vampiric characters. This helped in terms of separating the mortals from the immortals. The book contains a lot of characters and it would not have been clear to me if they were a mortal or immortal without this type of writing. I found some parts of the novel a little winded and hard to get through. I can appreciate bringing in some philosophical ideas to better make the reader understand how characters are feeling and what they are thinking, but at times, it was a bit much.
Regardless, I still found the novel okay and would recommend it to anyone interested in the goth subculture and vampires.
This is the first of two books in the Vampire Noctuaries series. The main character is the only male of a family of vampires with a die hard appreciation for the gothic industrial music scene. Much of the book revolves around this appreciation, to include scenes taking place in the underground club scene, music lyrics from goth bands embedded in the writing, and a playlist at the end of the contents of the book including goth bands. The characters also embraced other features of goth subculture, to include attire, make-up, and hair styles. Some of the characters are also depressed or experiencing a lot of teenage angst, which has been tied to the gothic subculture. I don't know how much truth there was to how accurately the goth subculture was captured in the book, but regardless, the author was able to create an atmosphere for this story from components of this subculture.
As far as the vampires go, they are violent, dark, and incredibly loyal to their family members. This violence lead to some pretty graphic, bloody scenes. It seems nowadays that authors have their own spin on the vampire novel. Therefore, I was expecting more insight into how new vampires are made, how often they have to feed, what kills them, do they have any special features/powers, etc. I didn't really feel like I got much of that with this book.
The writing style was different. The author chose to capitalize all pronouns referring to vampiric characters. This helped in terms of separating the mortals from the immortals. The book contains a lot of characters and it would not have been clear to me if they were a mortal or immortal without this type of writing. I found some parts of the novel a little winded and hard to get through. I can appreciate bringing in some philosophical ideas to better make the reader understand how characters are feeling and what they are thinking, but at times, it was a bit much.
Regardless, I still found the novel okay and would recommend it to anyone interested in the goth subculture and vampires.
December 6, 2013
I won this book in the goodreads giveaway contest.
The Good: This book is not your normal run of the mill vampire story, it is much more interesting, with some very good twist and turns. The characters are "believable" and well characterized, You will quickly grow to love them or hate them depending on what kind of person you are. I found myself enjoying the good parts of the book to an extend where i could not put it down.
The Bad: Long winded explanations of dreams, feelings and visions that feels like an unwelcome break in an other wise excellent story. No need for those filling up to 6 pages, it do not add anything "interesting" to the story, well it do but a short and sweet description would have been preferred.
The Ugly: The constant referral to band's and music genre, including the belittlement of others music taste. Yes it is new and yes it haven't been done in this extend before but for the love of god, WHY??? After 50 pages i found myself absolutely fed up with it. At times it even feels like an personal advertising of a special band and/or a certain music genre. That is really not necessary and for me just added to my annoyance of unwelcome breaks i did not need.
All in All: This is an excellent read, if you can get trough the few annoyance's mention above, and i have managed to do so, so yes it is defiantly worth a go. I give it 4 stars, mostly because of the unique vampire story and the part of the book that i really enjoyed.
The Good: This book is not your normal run of the mill vampire story, it is much more interesting, with some very good twist and turns. The characters are "believable" and well characterized, You will quickly grow to love them or hate them depending on what kind of person you are. I found myself enjoying the good parts of the book to an extend where i could not put it down.
The Bad: Long winded explanations of dreams, feelings and visions that feels like an unwelcome break in an other wise excellent story. No need for those filling up to 6 pages, it do not add anything "interesting" to the story, well it do but a short and sweet description would have been preferred.
The Ugly: The constant referral to band's and music genre, including the belittlement of others music taste. Yes it is new and yes it haven't been done in this extend before but for the love of god, WHY??? After 50 pages i found myself absolutely fed up with it. At times it even feels like an personal advertising of a special band and/or a certain music genre. That is really not necessary and for me just added to my annoyance of unwelcome breaks i did not need.
All in All: This is an excellent read, if you can get trough the few annoyance's mention above, and i have managed to do so, so yes it is defiantly worth a go. I give it 4 stars, mostly because of the unique vampire story and the part of the book that i really enjoyed.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews