Jane, Volume 1: Revival

Jane the Hippie Vampire #1-4

by Leigh M. Lane

Jane has had one hell of a time ever since she happened upon the wrong guy during the Summer of Love, but she's taken it all in stride. Wandering from town to town, she seeks out the needy and the broken in hopes of breaking the curse that's left her bloodthirsty and forever seventeen.

This four-part collection includes the first three novellas to the dark, dramatic horror series, Jane the Hippie Vampire, as well as an exclusive novelette:

Hair: Jane goes south for the winter, hoping to find reprieve in the forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A supernatural stalker of the shape-shifting variety has different plans, however. Will her new-found ally--a park ranger with a painful secret--be enough to help her avoid a fate worse than undeath?

Love Beads: Jane crosses paths with a middle-aged man who's encountered her kind before--but he seems happy just to have the company. Of course, appearances can be deceiving, and his secret might just prove to be the end of her.

Flashbacks: Jane must face demons from her past when she encounters a long-lost friend and a homeless Vietnam veteran with lingering demons of his own.

Flower Power: Jane teams up with an astral traveler in order to banish a dreamwalker from her past--and in the process, she must confront her greatest nightmare.

WARNING: This series contains graphic violence and includes content that might be inappropriate for readers below the age of 18. Reader discretion is advised.

290 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2014

About the author

In addition to writing dark speculative fiction for over twenty-five years, Leigh M. Lane has sung lead and backup vocals for bands ranging from classic rock to the blues, dabbled in fine arts, and earned a black belt in karate. She has a BA in English and graduated from UNLV Magna Cum Laude. She currently lives in the dusty outskirts of Sin City with her husband, an editor and educator, and one very spoiled cat.

Her traditional Gothic horror novel, FINDING POE, was a 2013 EPIC Awards finalist in horror. Her other novels include the WORLD-MART trilogy, a tribute to Orwell, Serling, and Vonnegut, and the dark allegorical tale, MYTHS OF GODS. Her Lisa Lane books include the JANE THE HIPPIE VAMPIRE dramatic horror series and the REVELATIONS trilogy.

Reviews

[Clayton Bye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane, Volume 1: Revival (Jane the Hippie Vampire)
Leigh M. Lane
Published by Cerebral Books,
Sept. 24, 2014
193 pages
Dramatic Horror

Jane is a collection of 3 novellas and 1 novelette about a vampire from the 60’s who’s frozen in time as a teenager-turning-adult. We follow her as she travels from town to town, somehow running into trouble wherever she goes. Why does Jane get into trouble? I think it’s because she’s an atypical vampire. First of all she was turned while on the streets running from an abusive father. Then, the vampire who turned her was far worse than her father ever was, raping her in unimaginable and horrific ways. These experiences drive Jane to feed on no one but the evil. Hence, Jane must seek out the evil, which invariably leads her into troublesome situations.

To tell you any more about the stories would be to spoil the surprises which await you in each tale. Let me continue in this way: The only thing that bothered me in these delightful and saucy stories was the soul-searching that Jane should have dealt with 50 years earlier. Much of the time I felt that Jane was a fairly new vampire instead of one who had been turned back in the sixties. Now this could just be me being picky, because the information had to be brought into the stories somehow. I say these things yet I went through the book rapidly, finding it hard to leave the book closed as I worked. I also thought each story was refreshingly original. But the reason I gave Jane a 5 star rating instead of the four it might otherwise have been is this…Jane was fun to read. When did you ever say such a thing about a horror story? Perhaps this is the reason Leigh M. Lane called the book a dramatic horror story. Yes! This book is a drama with horrific passages. And as horrific as some of those passages were, they were not enough to keep me from enjoying the drama. I felt like I was immersed in a television series. As Jane would say, “Cool.”


Copyright © 2014 Clayton Clifford Bye

[Eden Royce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read about vamps who hate to take human lives, but Jane goes a step further: she’s a vegetarian. Well, sort of. Until the hunger takes her, that is. But she is able to restrain herself to drinking from only the dregs of society. She is also an introspective soul searcher, always trying to do the right thing by everyone. I appreciated that she didn’t completely lose her personality when she was changed and that she craves cigarettes more than blood. She also believes that if she does enough good, then God will remove her curse.

Barefoot, she walks across the country, getting herself into trouble in these four novelettes. In “Hair”, she stops the South, where she encounters a werewolf among the rednecks. (That’s a great book title!) The description of backwoods antics and shotgun justice felt eerily accurate to me.

“Love Beads” shows Jane weakened and desperate to find the solution to what is draining her of life.

In the tender “Flashbacks”, Jane meets with a former friend, which sets off a storm of confusion driving her back to the streets and underground where she meets a homeless Vet who may have something to teach her about life and death.

“Flower Power” was my favorite of the collection and a great story to end with. It showed a manipulative predator from Jane’s past, who caused her endless torture. She has a chance to destroy the woman, but will she take it or will her hippie tendencies to let things be take over?

Jane doesn’t have a lot of squicky killing and fang-piercing-throat action, but I was okay with that. I enjoyed the collection thoroughly and I would consider it horror for those who say they don’t read horror. It is light hearted and fun and I sympathized with Jane’s plight. She’s trying to do good in the world, and maybe…maybe she has.

[W. Tinkanesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Revival’ is a series of stories telling the diverse adventures and wanderings of Jane the Hippie Vampire. She was turned at the age of 17, during the Summer of Love, and her maker was more cruel than her abusive father. Since then she’s been trying to break the curse by performing good deeds and only feeding on bad guys. Fifty years on, she still accumulates wisdom and philosophy, while keeping her youthful hippie looks.

Travelling south, mostly walking barefoot, Jane encounters various humans and supernatural creatures. A park ranger, a werewolf, an incubus, a homeless Vietnam veteran with flashbacks of his own, a long lost friend and an astral traveller who wants to enlist her to banish a dreamwalker.

All the way through she keeps on thinking and wondering, speculating and learning. A ditzy blonde she ain’t, and the overconfident incubus should think twice about attempting to outsmart her. Herself she should think twice about lying to her long lost friend. And every adventure is a lesson Jane is willing to learn.

‘Revival’ is a compelling read, sprinkled with reflections about life and human potential.