Live Girls was a ton more fun than Cabal. I was worried though. Why? Because who hasn't heard of the whole vampire women acting kind of like succubi and living in strip joints and drinking blood from men they sex up? I snickered to myself because the first similiar item that popped in my head was that ridiculous movie From Dusk Till Dawn. Likewise, sex and vampires seem to go together no matter where you look and it's kind of annoying and tiresome after a while. Vampire women? Doing it with plenty of men? Been there, done that. What's Garton going to do that's different?
Mm, plenty. Garton does some great stuff and while I mentioned in my ramblings about Cabal how I expect a horror book to freak me out, I realize I have to take that back. While a horror book ought to weird a person out, I forgot about the entertainment value. I had a good time reading this book. Garton kept things interesting, characters you wanted to see hang on until the end, and who would come out a vampire and who would come out dead.
My mouth lead me to acquire books that contained a fair amount of gore, so I got what I asked for. There's just about everything in here, from mutilated bodies to vomiting blood to vampires gone horribly, horribly wrong. In fact, those last two components and the reasons behind them are what made Garton's vampires unique. While crosses and holy water don't work "Fuck you Bram Stoker" (one of the best lines in the book), garlic causes a nasty little allergic reaction, but even better, if you're familiar with vampire stories out there where the vampire wants to be good and just drinks up on the dregs of society? Yeah. No dice here. Drinking up on some crack addict or someone with a certain disease can permanently screw up a vampire. I love the idea. It's like eating bad food. In most vampire cases the blood simply tastes icky, but it'll still sustain the vamp. Here, that's a big no-no and it's cost more than one vampire their...well not lives but their looks and shape more or less.
Every character mattered, had a place, and the story just kept on moving, even when you think one spot is a lull, it isn't or it quickly switches over. One of those books you have trouble putting down. I also wonder why sex seems to always couple with horror, but meh. Oh well. It's a good book. A bit tricky to find (thanks interlibrary loan!) but worth it, yes sir.
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Moral of the story: Be careful when you go to nudie bars, boys.
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