Pros: Amazing gothic horror novel with a great cast, written in a very original style.
Cons: Not for the squeamish, easily offended or homophobic.
The Bottom Line: Practically unputdownable first novel written in a compelling and original style, offering a slightly skewed and modern take on the Gothic subculture and vampire legends.
kaochan's Full Review: Poppy Z. Brite - Lost Souls
I'm going to admit my bias right from the start - this book is one of my favorite novels ever, so you may want to take my opinions with a pinch of salt.
This book offers a new take on an old genre. The vampire story has been done and double done, becoming one of the standard horror novel/movie cliches, and it is to Brite's credit that she managed to take a tired formula and do something new with it. It seems every writer who decides to write vampire fiction has their own take on what it is that makes a vampire - I found Brite's take on the mythology to be one of the more intriguing ones out there.
The story is mainly set in New Orleans and a small town somewhere in the deep South (Carolina? Louisana? I can't remember, and I'm not an American myself...), the characters the lost souls of the title. For one reason or another none of the characters fit in with contemporary society, are even on the fringes in the subcultures; it's a portrait of the world as seen by outsiders, and to me that world is far more compelling than the vision painted by mainstream society.
The plot itself is a fairly simple one - though none the worse for that simplicity - but the plot by itself is not not what makes this novel special. The beauty is in the characterisation, description and detail. Brite's use of language is highly original and incredibly evocative, the world she creates is enough like reality that the fantastic nature of some of her characters seems bizarre, yet the descriptions can make the mundane seem surreal or exotic. For me, the power of the language and the descriptive imagery really made this book come to life.
I have heard people say that the plot in this story is derivative. Whilst it is true that some of the *themes* in this book could be described as recycled, I do not feel it is fair to label the whole book that way, partly due to Brite's highly original writing style and engaging characters - whilst the novel may not be inventive it's definitely innovative, and after all, Shakespeare recycled his plots. To call it derivative is to miss the point, and fails to do the book justice.
An earlier review mentioned the character names; a lot of them, especially those given to the vampires, are in my opinion incredibly original and absolutely great. Not only that but they often really seem to suit the characters. The characters themselves were interesting and well-realised - I've always been a sucker for beautiful but depraved characters, and the ambiguous nature of a lot of the relationships was intriguing, as was the moral ambiguity of many of the characters - most of them fit into neither of the conventional moulds of good or bad and the vampires were more amoral than evil.
A word of warning: like most of Brite's work, this book contains scenes of graphic violence and homoerotic imagery and situations - these feature gay men not lesbians, before anyone gets the wrong idea. If you find either of these subjects offputting I would reccomend you do not read this novel.
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