thevampiremars's reviews
202 reviews

Not for me. It reads like fanfic, with a bare-bones plot serving as a vehicle for the juicy stuff (porn). I don’t think the author actually wanted to engage with the historical setting or the fantasy worldbuilding beyond a vague aesthetic, which is a real shame because this could have been a fascinating historical drama with a gothic twist. Instead the story oscillates between political matters one minute and “the muscular squish of boypussy” the next.

Sasza being a “stealth” vampire is hard to believe because he’s two metres tall with white hair and amber eyes.

Not that it really matters because Świetlana figures it out easily and Ilya, as it turns out, knew all along. To me it seems to parallel that have your cake and eat it too fantasy a lot of young queer people have where they want to remain closeted for the sake of safety but also don’t want to have the capacity to pass as straight/cis because they want it to be obvious who they truly are.

There’s only one scene that I can recall where Sasza being closeted is relevant, and I see what the author was doing there:

no one stood up for him despite there being more at stake (no pun intended) for Sasza himself, as a marginalised person, than there would be for his supposed allies. But the same effect could have been achieved if Sasza had been known to be a vampire, regarded as one of the good ones (albeit on thin ice). Honestly, it seems odd to introduce two types of vampire, one which is animalistic and reviled and another which is basically just a guy with a blood kink, if you’re not going to do something with that contrast. Vampires which resemble humans are tolerated because they’re not like those hideous bestiapirs. You know? And we know Sasza has the ability to transform into a bestiapir but do all vampires? His father was horrified at his transformation but is that just because he turned into a Buzzwole or was it his ability to transform at all that upset him? It’s implied to be the latter but I’m not sure. Anyway, Sasza is frustrated that his allies let him down so he immediately shifts from being closeted to going apeshit.

The violence in this book is just as gratuitous as the sex. I’m not at all opposed to either but it very much feels like this was what the author wanted to write and everything else was just half-baked filler. Which sucks because there were some interesting concepts. Wasted potential.

This novel should have been right up my alley but I found it amateurish and lacklustre. I don’t think I’ll read the sequel awkwardly teased at the end.

CONTENT WARNINGS: death, blood, gore, body horror, vomit, violence, limb loss, needles, drug use, alcoholism, self harm for magic use 

Good stuff.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

blood, body horror/transformation, suicide, violence, mind games

 

“An exotic blend of complex trauma, psychotic ramblings and spicy gay high aesthetic make you a hit at the dinner party while remaining just pathetic enough to be non-threatening”

CONTENT WARNINGS:

panic, paranoia, delusions, suicidality, drug use, white supremacy

Wish it were longer.

CONTENT WARNINGS: hypochondria, paranoia, guilt, colonialism/imperialism, dictatorship 

Dagger Dagger is not a cohesive anthology. The cover promises “dark fantasy and sci-fi” and editor Al Gofa coins the term “blood-fi” to describe these works. “Blood-fi” to me invokes those manga where characters explode with more blood than could possibly be contained within a human body, and enemies are viscerally torn apart (something like Berserk or Fist of the North Star). By comparison, the comics in this anthology really seem to be holding back; in fact, there are many comics which barely feature blood, or don’t at all. They do all touch on grisly subject matter like slavery and warfare, but these are major themes throughout science fiction and fantasy literature, so I don’t think this book is especially “dark.”

The individual comics are fine, largely mediocre. I did like the art of The Monastery by Goran Gligović, Angelic Missile by Linnea Sterte, and Yesaul by Artyom Trakhanov and Artem Dumov. I’ve been a fan of Sterte’s work for a while but I’ll make sure to check out those other artists as well.

I think that’s ultimately the main goal of this anthology – to highlight some comic creators and give them exposure. The book literally ends with the Evil Wizard following all the featured creators on social media and being inspired to create their own comics. If that’s what Dagger Dagger was aiming for, it did succeed.

CONTENT WARNINGS: war, violence, execution, slavery, injury, fire 

 “...and I, beneath... would find stillness in the hot viscera.”

CONTENT WARNINGS:

death, murder, mentions of terminal illness and suicide, mental illness (dissociation, dereality, hallucinations, nightmares, paranoia), blood and gore, toxic relationships, constant lies/manipulation, sexism

The writing is sardonic and meandering – that’ll take some getting used to. And there’s a lot that’s making me kind of uncomfortable, from cringey one-note characters to objectionable politics. Maybe this improves as the book goes on, but I’m just not in the mood right now.

I might come back to it eventually. We’ll see.

Love the artwork. I can see the French and Japanese stylistic influences – a little bit of bande dessinée, a little bit of manga... And Locatelli-Kournwsky’s knack for shape and silhouette is uplifted by de Santiago’s vibrant colours.

The fight scenes are slightly hard to follow, but that moment where

Troezen yeets a makeshift weapon and it flies out of the confines of the panel, seemingly towards the reader...

that was very cool.

There are some interesting concepts, like

magical girls being coopted by the state; the image of Naoko in her leotard and tights being deployed from a military aircraft

– ugh! So good.

It’s really promising! This volume is only the introduction, laying the groundwork for (hopefully many) future instalments. I’m hungry for more.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

invasion, injury (amputation, blood), trauma, alcoholism

 

Fruity

“Plums. Well. I did it. I – oh, sweet nectarines, I don’t entirely know what it is I’ve done – but I have most thoroughly and irrevocably done it nonetheless.”

Farcical, for better or for worse. Hijinks, lots of secrets and misunderstandings, everyone gasping and gaping and stammering in disbelief. Fun if you’re into that.

The main focus is Henry fumbling through life and figuring herself out –

her gender, her crush on Septimus, and her place in the world.

This coming-of-age narrative, along with the preoccupation with eloquence and grace (Henry struggles to find the words to express herself; she’s very aware of how clumsily she speaks so she overcompensates in her writing with verbosity, a very self-conscious performance of intelligence and charisma, modelled after the competent characters she looks up to) made me think she was maybe fourteen? I was surprised to find out she’s twenty-one. The quirky “figs!” exclamations and the “my wretched self” angst feel more befitting of a teenager than a full grown adult. It’s just a bit odd.

The other character I was drawn to was Pip Property, the eccentric and vaguely sinister cravat designer.

Except their villainous role was disappointingly undercut by the reveal that they’re simply “under coercion” (in their own words), and dampened by a humanising moment before then where we see them chilling in their home and even learn their deadname. It does feel like Reeve struggled with the whole queer-coded villain thing, toying with the idea of this enigmatic and transgressive figure stalking our protagonists, but also not wanting to demonise them and cast their queerness as evidence of evil. I say go all in and commit to writing a genderfucky pervert. Seriously, just do it. If the rest of the story is going to boil down to relationship drama with a veneer of quirky macabre, you may as well lean in and write a suitably flamboyant villain.

I dunno. I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s not for me, but there were aspects I enjoyed.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

sexism, transphobia, allusions to racism and antisemitism, anxiety and panic attacks, self-loathing, some drunken incestuous flirting, outing, blackmail, kidnap, gun violence, nonconsensual cutting of hair, injury, death, a severed head