Desmodus

Rating:
Summary: The dark side of a vampire family
Review: Narrator Joel Desmodus describes life in his clan of humanlike beings: their matriarchal social structure, their occasional forays for blood (usually from cattle), and their southward migration in the fall, when the females hibernate and the males party.

But this year custom goes awry. Joel's niece Meredith, unlike all the other females, resists hibernation and thus gives birth surrounded by the irresponsible and indifferent males. Joel cannot ignore the danger -- especially when he notices that Meredith's antisocial brother Rory is taking an unhealthy interest in the clan's newest member. While trying to protect little Eli, Joel learns a horrific secret about how Desmodus babies are nurtured -- and how the Desmodus matriarchy perpetuates itself. Every step that Joel takes to help and protect the child puts them both into worse and more bizarre circumstances, finally leading to a nightmarish yet somehow inevitable conclusion.

Underlying DESMODUS is the ultimate biological explanation for vampires: a clan apparently descended from vampire bats ("Desmodus rotundus" is the scientific name of the common vampire bat). Yet Tem makes this alien species with its self-contained social system as real as our neighbors and as frightening as the evening news. Much of the horror of DESMODUS comes from Joel's own disarming meekness. He is an unlikely vehicle for describing a family falling in on itself: his introspective nature and somewhat wordy style underscore the hopelessness of his situation as the foundations of his life collapse. Yet his very ordinariness makes his horror and determination all the more compelling and his attempts at heroism all the more gripping, even when they are doomed to failure.

DESMODUS tells a powerful story with deliberate but subtle skewedness. Its horror builds slowly, almost casually; the nonchalance of its grotesquery makes it more unsettling than simple gore or violence. Such a blend of tragedy and perverse wonder will satisfy the most profound lust for the disturbing, leaving images that no reader's mind will quickly put to rest.