*** Review*** Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

On the Back of the Book

In the French Quarter of New Orleans the Mardi Gras revellers concealed a group of pleasure-seekers who preferred to wear black. For Zillah, Molochai and Twig the party had been going on for centuries, fuelled by sexual frenzy, green Chartreuse and a cocktail of vodka and innocent blood.

Nothing was born in horror and brought up in suburban Maryland. Even before he ran away to find his true home, he suspected he was different from other teenagers. And when he had his first taste of human blood, he knew he was right.

Ghost was the visionary singer of the band Lost Souls? When Nothing was drawn into Zillah’s fatal circle, Ghost had to decide whether he should try to save the boy from himself – or abandon him to his bloody birthright.

Pre Read Thoughts

This was recommended to me a couple of years ago by a friend. I bought the book but then forgot to actually read it (like you do). Now it’s at the top of my TBR pile and I can’t wait to give it a go. I bought it off Amazon but I’m not sure how much I paid for it. I did try to find it on Kindle but it’s not available so you’ll have to buy a print copy. I’m not entirely sure what the cover’s about, it’s very green though. It doesn’t attract my attention as I’m not a fan of the colour green and nothing in particular stands out about it for me. The synopsis is interesting but I can tell that it’s not what I’d normally read. This is a step out of my comfort zone and I just hope it’s worth it.

Post Read Thoughts

It was quite a hard book to read and I never felt that I completely got into the story. While the writing was wonderfully descriptive I found that I was put off by the torrent of sex scenes, some of which were quite disgusting, I’m not down with incest, and the foul language, now I swear but never have I seen so much in a book. I think that there are other, better, ways of getting your point across and moving the plot along. I did like the story though and how the characters all converged together then fell away from one another. I heard that this was horror but I didn’t find it particularly scary, just disgusting. I did love the author’s interpretation of vampires though; I do like it when vampires are ruthless murderers.

Christian – At three-hundred-and-something, Christian is the oldest vampire in the book.  He’s incredibly lonely and I felt sorry for him because he ended up paying for Zillah’s reckless actions. He tried to save Nothing and this is probably why I like him.

Zillah – I don’t like Zillah. I think he’s self obsessed and so very cruel. He’s the stereotypical vampire, incredibly beautiful with the power to seduce anyone he wants. His green eyes seem to be able to hypnotize everyone. He’s the leader of the vampires and is Nothing’s lover – and father. I’ve been trying not to think about that too much.

Molochai & Twig – They’re Zillah’s cronies. They don’t really get much of a chance to develop but I think they’re pretty loyal to him. I wouldn’t want to meet them down a dark alley if I’d messed with Zillah, let’s just leave it at that.

Nothing – Born on Christian’s bedroom floor, Nothing is Zillah’s son, he’s sent to try and live a normal life but he runs away and stumbles upon Zillah and his companions. He’s actually looking for the band Lost Souls? who he likes to dream are his brothers. He’s easily led astray by Zillah and his attraction to him. I felt sorry for him more than anything.

Ghost – He’s the lead singer of Lost Souls?, he also has the gift of psychicness. The weight of that on him is incredible and I kind of get the feeling that he’d save the whole world if he was able. He was my favourite character, the only one that I felt I could connect with a bit.

Overall this was a difficult book for me to read due to some of the content. I definitely wouldn’t read it again but if you’re into horror then maybe you should.  I did like that the vampires behaved like vampires and the way the book was written. I think the book might stay with me for quite a while as it’s one of the best written that I’ve read for a couple of weeks.

My Rating

3 stars – This wasn’t really my cup of tea but I hope fans of vampires pick this up because it might appeal to them. I recommend it to adult fans of horror as they’ll know exactly how good or bad this is compared to other stuff. I’m pretty clueless.

A Final Note

As I’ve pointed out there’s violence, swearing and sex. Now, I realise that everyone’s different so I should point out that some of the sex is incestuous between parent and child (that freaked me out) and some of it is between two guys, just in case that freaks you out.