Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled
Review: I must confess I was a little worried in the beginning of the book when St. Laurue (Mr. Kirk's main vampire) invaded a publisher's office. I said to myself, "Here we go, now the vampire talks his story out in flashbacks to the media man, just like in Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire." I'm happy to report that I couldn't have been further from the truth! Don't be fooled by any surface similarities. No flashbacks here. Mr. Kirk masterfully unfolds his own distinct real-time, tightly woven dark adventure. This is the story of vampires and humans and how little difference there is once you scratch the surface. A "Don't want to stop" and a "Don't want it to end" storyline. It gives nothing away to say that interesting things are happening as vampires tap into the modern blood supply. Clues are left, citizens can't help but notice that things are getting a bit gruesome, and something has to be done. The police are brought in as well as some other, more shadowy figures. Everyone is searching for something or someone and it all produces a maelstrom of love, death, and desire. No way to figure it out. You just gasp, along for the ride. The vampires are the coolest I've ever come across. There are many of them each with their own distinct personality. They are scary, clever, sometimes funny, and even tender. One is nothing short of masterful. There are many human characters, all of whom you care about, and some of whom manage to stay un-undead. The story is modern and opens up a new universe of plots and intrigues, some pointing to the past and others pointing to the future. After reading "Reflections of a Vampire," it is satisfying to this reader to contemplate how Mr. Kirk will satisfy the inevitable demand for more.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I read this book and hoped against hope for something new in vampire lore but it's basically the same old stuff not very interestingly written.
Rating: 
Summary: not as good as the hype
Review: I will say that this was a fast read. The story moves along at a good pace-but frequently I'd have to stop reading to roll my eyes. Attempts at humor were often more lame than funny (I'm convinced that the character named Slim was named soley for the line about when she disappeared saying she went from "Slim to none").
The gore is expected in a good vampire novel, but much of it seemed like it was going overboard for the sake of being graphic. Such acts in Stephen King's hands would have come across well, but not here.
I assume that a second installment is in order as the ending was so abrupt and left many things open. Unrealistic sounding conversations happened just to inform the reader of the plot which could have been handled better. ...
Rating:
Summary: Bite This Book
Review: It was fascinating! In "Reflections of a Vampire", Damion has created a world just a little different from our own. What if you could live a very long time? What if you could literally fly to Washington DC ~ seduce, control and kill anyone you wanted, at any time? The only price that you pay is a little bit of guilt. What would it mean to be in a world where someone can completely control you? Forget about morality, it's all about power. In the Old Testament, Job was tested this way, but Job was dealing with an old-time Hebrew God who had more power than awareness. Damion's vampires on the other hand, are up to date. They're cool. You can't outsmart them. Your only hope is to get them to like you, and that is mostly up to them. In this book, Damion creates powerful images, slapstick humor, kinky sex and extreme terror in a world ten degrees off true. His book reminds us of every kind of human Vampire in our own lives: Desire for power over others, compulsion, masochism, denial of the obvious and fear of death. I couldn't help but see my self. Suppose we start catching on to the Vampires that are always hanging around us, what can we do about them? In "Reflections of a Vampire", the answer is "not much". This world is a lot like ours. If we try hard and get lucky, we might get the best of a Vampire or two. The next one we come up against may stick his tongue down our throats and out our spine. Sometimes we get caught. "Reflections of a Vampire" moves straight into our most difficult dilemmas, in a very bizarre way. I had a really good scary time. I laughed a lot, was thoroughly grossed out.and got a little smarter. Out of the 3,000 books I have read in my life this book is in the top 50.
Rating:
Summary: Bite This Book
Review: It was fascinating! In "Reflections of a Vampire", Damion has created a world just a little different from our own. What if you could live a very long time? What if you could literally fly to Washington DC ~ seduce, control and kill anyone you wanted, at any time? The only price that you pay is a little bit of guilt. What would it mean to be in a world where someone can completely control you? Forget about morality, it's all about power. In the Old Testament, Job was tested this way, but Job was dealing with an old-time Hebrew God who had more power than awareness. Damion's vampires on the other hand, are up to date. They're cool. You can't outsmart them. Your only hope is to get them to like you, and that is mostly up to them. In this book, Damion creates powerful images, slapstick humor, kinky sex and extreme terror in a world ten degrees off true. His book reminds us of every kind of human Vampire in our own lives: Desire for power over others, compulsion, masochism, denial of the obvious and fear of death. I couldn't help but see my self. Suppose we start catching on to the Vampires that are always hanging around us, what can we do about them? In "Reflections of a Vampire", the answer is "not much". This world is a lot like ours. If we try hard and get lucky, we might get the best of a Vampire or two. The next one we come up against may stick his tongue down our throats and out our spine. Sometimes we get caught. "Reflections of a Vampire" moves straight into our most difficult dilemmas, in a very bizarre way. I had a really good scary time. I laughed a lot, was thoroughly grossed out.and got a little smarter. Out of the 3,000 books I have read in my life this book is in the top 50.
Rating:
Summary: Left me cold
Review: Okay, I'll admit it was sort of scary, but it got on my nerves how completely unlikeable the characters were. When one of the humans fell prey, I thought 'so what'...when one of the vampires was being high and mighty, I thought 'whatever'. Having the vampires turn into a grotesque, ugly beast is orginal, but actually rather distasteful. It did have a lot of surprise twists to the plot, which saved it from being awful, but I won't read it again, and I won't keep the book. My biggest complaint is that no one could resist the draw of vampirism...what absolutely no one? Come on.
Rating: 
Summary: Make room for the Vampire St. Laurue
Review: Reflections of a Vampire is a very good, fast paced, quite entertaining, at times gruesome, well written book. It's quite a bit more than Vampire fiction, since it has many of the elements of fantasy built in; invisibility, blink of an eye shape-shifting, and fire beams, to mention a few. I disagree with other reviewers that this is a book in the tradition of Anne Rice. It is not. People use this comparison to the point of making it a cliché, and basically having no meaning whatsoever. As a story, this book has everything; Vampires, a Daemonion Council, shapeshifters, a priest, a book publisher and ghost writer, policemen, minions, very graphic gore, AIDS, castles, and a host of other things to draw from. The book could easily have been twice as long with the amount of ground the author covers. Damion Kirk does do a superb job at keeping the readers interest with a quick moving story, unpredictable events, and quite a bit of action. The novel is dying for several sequels and I'm sure I'll read them if and when they are available. Unless you are a hard core Vampire reader, you may pass this book up since the cover price of the book is fairly high, especially for a first novel of an unknown author. It is done with quality paper and a very nice easy to read font, but still, I felt the price was out of line.
Rating:
Summary: Where to Begin?
Review: The plot is interesting enough, though not overly exciting. The vampire St. Larue must soon take the "millennium rest" required by all of his kind. He has less than a week to secure a resting place and enlist minions to ensure his safety. Dreading the prospect of the coming 18 months underground, St. Larue is driven to write his memoirs and find a publisher for his work. Damian Kirk gives his thanks to Anne Rice at the beginning of the book, saying "without whom this book would never have been written." Although I've enjoyed many of Anne Rice's books over the years, I began to wish she'd never been born if it would have saved me from enduring REFLECTIONS OF A VAMPIRE. The only thing I can say for this book is that it was hilarious. Unfortunately, the humor was unintentional. The author writes as though vivid imagery comes from run-on sentences and $.50 words. The most vivid image I had while reading this book was of a steaming thesaurus. My favorite is: "As she soared toward the full moon, she let loose with a long tortured bawl which sounded like the ear-splitting suicidal squeals of a legion of bedeviled swine leaping over a steep cliff, plunging toward certain death." Another brief example is when the author refers to a garbage bin as "an industrial sized steel trash receptacle." Occasionally, the author takes his work to the other extreme. "In a flash, he transformed...into a figure so vile in appearance that it was capable of inspiring instant terror in any onlooker." This would be fine if it served to launch a detailed description of this creature, but the author doesn't. This was the only description given. Like most readers, I picture the story unfolding like a sort of mental movie created by an author's words. Nothing brings it to a screeching halt faster than picturing a vague blob written across with the words "Insert really icky monster here." Many of the characters in this book seemed to be created from an Encyclopedia of Common Stereotypes. Specifically with religion, it's taken to an almost insulting degree. The writing can also be redundant at times. Things you'd expect to be corrected with editing. Compared to the rest of the problems this book has, it's a relatively minor issue. It still grates, though, because it's yet another thing that pulls your concentration from the story. "They ascended upward." -- is there any other way to ascend besides upwards?
"...tried to mentally read her mind..." -- as opposed to what? An EEG? Braille? I understand that with so many vampire books on the market, authors will try to have that "new take" on the beasties. Call me a vampire purist, but I didn't like Damian Kirk's concept of vampires. Too many extra and pointless abilities for my taste.
Rating:
Summary: Original and compelling
Review: This book has existed under the radar for too long. Any fan of the horror novel should put this at the top of their must-read list.
Rating:
Summary: Original and compelling
Review: This book has existed under the radar for too long. Any fan of the horror novel should put this at the top of their must-read list.
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