Vampire Blood Bank

Rating:
Summary: Sloppy and poorly edited
Review: As best I can tell, this book must be one of the new breed of publish-it-yourself vanity press offerings. Because if it had gone through a real publisher, at the very least it would have gone through proofreading, and maybe even some copy editing. But as it is, it clearly has had none of those things. There are spelling errors, extraneous punctuation in some places, missing punctuation in others.

Yes, there are a few funny lines in the book. But it's a one-trick pony, and after a while the joke loses its flavor on the bedpost overnight, especially when one is distracted by things such as the characters' names occasionally changing (a slip-up in editing, would be my guess), sentences ending in the middle of a sentence, and so forth.

The author's writing style is run-on to the extreme. The title should tell you that- on the cover and the spine, it's not just Vampire Blood Bank, it's "The Story of a Jewish Hemophiliac Vampire Who... So He Opened A Vampire Blood Bank." He uses the same jokes over and over. Most of his characters have identical speaking styles - can't always tell who's making which wisecrack.

In short, this was a great disappointment. We have an extensive vampire collection, which includes excellent writers such as Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and this book is not fit to share a shelf with them. We never throw away a book, but this one will get donated to the public library book sale, rather than lovingly kept and recommended to others.

Rating:
Summary: So where's the sequel...?
Review: Recovering in my own bed from recent surgery, I thought it would take more than a tall tale to make me laugh let alone smile, but VAMPIRE BLOOD BANK accomplished this with sweeping success. Combining a fun-loving fascination of vampires with the humoristic approach of hemophilia and other hominine struggles, this is one of the most entertaining spins on anthropomorphism I've read. An entertaining, fast read for anyone who enjoys humor, vampires, New York, and not least, the comedic climb and triumph of the misfit.

Rating:
Summary: In tears....
Review: Sometimes one can read on for pages and pages without ever raising an eyebrow or being forced to smile. I was forced to close the book on several occasions for fear of ruining the pages with the effluent of laughter-induced tears! I then attempted to regain my composure quickly so that I could keep on reading! MANY of my friends will be receiving copies, as I believe there is not a better qift than making someone smile and laugh! This book is histerical!