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Fat White Vampire Blues

Fat White Vampire Blues

List Price: $13.95
Your Price: $10.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: antiprotagonist? or just annoying?
Review: Okay, so you have your basic protagonist, the main character we, the reader, root for throughout the book. Then you have your flawed protagonist, one who has some drawback but makes him or her more identifiable or sympathetic. Then you have your anti-protagonist, the one who drives the plot and is the central figure but is basically unlikable for some specific reason. Duchon is not any of these per se, because he is, in fact, a lazy sonofabitch who, 80 years after his mother has died, still lives in the house he grew up in, is a total glutton (feeding on fatty people of color, no less), and seems adept only at whining about his own problems.

But that's not even the worst aspect of reading this drivel. That none of the characters have anything resembling real motivation for their actions, that the tentative momentum of the plot slows to a standstill in the third quarter of the book, and that the story is at turns vile, pointlessly depressing, and suffers from bad dialogue, well, all of those things are jockeying for first place of worst aspects of the book.

Do something else with your time, like go jogging, or stand in bright sunlight.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just plain not funny
Review: Our hero, Jules the waddling vampire, is dysfunctional, stupid, homophobic, delusional, and racist. And not funny. Maureen and Veronika, the two main female characters in the book were vain, stupid, weight-obsessed, and creepy. And not funny.

The only character of any real interest is Doodlebug, Jules' old sidekick. He's the only member of the cast who has half a brain and a sense of style. A book about Doodlebug might be worth reading.

Throughout the book, it seems that the author is attempting to poke fun at racism, partly by creating a series of caricature characters. Guess what? He's not funny. Instead, he comes off as genuinely racist. The fact that two of Jules' best friends are black (and are two of the only decent human beings in the book) does nothing to make up for asinine statements like, "That's mighty white of you." Maureen, the vampire who made Jules, has told him that he should never make "colored" vampires, but the reason for this is never completely explained. Are we to infer that it's because they'll all turn into ghetto-crack-lords like Jules' nemesis, Malice X?

I was completely unable to identify with or cheer for Jules. There was very little to like about him, and that made the book a dreary read.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: How disappointing.
Review: The fact this book was ever published is beyond my comprehension. the only reason I even finished it was the fact that it is this months reading for d.c. sci-fi club.

Original material? Maybe. A much better author, my 3 year old nephew for example could have turned this into a much more interesting story. If this author is ever allowed to publish another book I will forever boycott that publisher.

Sorry to be crass but the only way I was able to finish this book was by making it the only book availible in the toilet. Buy it at your own risk.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fun and new take on vampires.
Review: Vampires. New Orleans. Jazz. The French Quarter. Sounds like the makings of an Agatha Longr.....er, I mean Anne Rice novel. You couldn't be more wrong, or more entertained.

Andrew Fox has put a fun, interesting and wholly logical spin on the vampire mythos. This book was a really amusing and entertaining read. You get the "good guys" - Jules Duchon(the title character), Maureen (Jules' love of his life) and Doodlebug (Jules' gender-bernder sidekick). Then you have the "bad guys" - Malice X and his posse of fairly newly turned black vampires aiming to drive Jules out of the "Big Easy".

Adventure,comedy and tragedy(with some bloodsucking thrown in)are all in store for you here.



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fat White Vampire Blues
Review: What Fun!! A bumbling, insecure vampire with a conscience (or at least a semi-conscience) After Ann Rice vampire novels ad nausium I never wanted to hear the word "vampire" again.............but this is delightful, and funny, and imaginative! A wonderful tour through New Orleans neighborhoods,culture and food ("the neon sign across the street reflected in the layer of grease on her red beans") the tour guide being vampire Jules Duchon whom you can't help rooting for no matter how many victims he "fangs"........I can't wait to read "Bride of the Fat White Vampire" next, and hope there are more to come!...........Beryl Schindler

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Book Not as Promising as its Title
Review: With its title of "Fat White Vampire Blues," I expected a wild, inventive comedy--an expectation fueled by all those "Confederacy of Dunces" comparisons. Well, the book is set in New Orleans and the main character, Jules Duchon, is fat, but these are about the only things Andrew Fox's novel has in common with "Dunces." Much of Jules behavior is whiny and annoying, which I could forgive if it was used to greater comic effect, but the laughs just aren't there. Other characters aren't much better: Maureen, another fat white vampire, is a little less irritating than Jules, if only because her appearances are in measured doses; and the antogonist, Malice X, seems an amalgamation of every movie stereotype of black men. Only Doodlebug, Jules' cross-dressing former sidekick, breaths any sort of life into this story, although even s/he can't save the flagging pace of the book's final third. "FWVB" isn't totally without merit: The first few chapters were engaging enough to keep me reading. Unfortunately, as the story dragged on it became quite apparent Jules is no Ignatius J. Reilly, and Fox is no John Kennedy Toole.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Book Not as Promising as its Title
Review: With its title of "Fat White Vampire Blues," I expected a wild, inventive comedy--an expectation fueled by all those "Confederacy of Dunces" comparisons. Well, the book is set in New Orleans and the main character, Jules Duchon, is fat, but these are about the only things Andrew Fox's novel has in common with "Dunces." Much of Jules behavior is whiny and annoying, which I could forgive if it was used to greater comic effect, but the laughs just aren't there. Other characters aren't much better: Maureen, another fat white vampire, is a little less irritating than Jules, if only because her appearances are in measured doses; and the antogonist, Malice X, seems an amalgamation of every movie stereotype of black men. Only Doodlebug, Jules' cross-dressing former sidekick, breaths any sort of life into this story, although even s/he can't save the flagging pace of the book's final third. "FWVB" isn't totally without merit: The first few chapters were engaging enough to keep me reading. Unfortunately, as the story dragged on it became quite apparent Jules is no Ignatius J. Reilly, and Fox is no John Kennedy Toole.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A fat white guilty pleasure
Review: You know those very few books that stay with you? The ones that leave you with memories of things that never actually happened in your world? Fat White Vampire Blues is one of those rare finds. Jules is a character so rich and real (well, besides the fact that he's a vampire), that I can't shake the urge to put him on my Christmas list.

One of my favorite things about the way this book is written is that it doesn't play down to the reader, nor does it waste time with overdone formulas. Without giving away too much plot, I will just state that there were several instances where I found the book leading me out of my comfort zone in a refreshing way. When was the last time you were encouraged to view a 300+ pound woman as a desirable, sexy vixen? Well, that's just one of the things that this book is able to pull off.

Beyond the shock value, Fat White Vampire Blues will leave you with a taste of the real New Orleans, some whimsical fictitional memories, and a totally new perspective on life as a vampire. Should you skip this book? As Jules would say, "Does the Pope bless abortions in a whorehouse?"


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