Lost Souls

At a club in Missing Mile, just outside New Orleans, the children of the night gather.  They dress in black and they're looking for acceptance.  There's Ghost, who sees what others do not; Ann, looking for love; and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, seeking the deathless truth about his father - and himself.
  But into Missing Mile tonight come three beautiful, hip vagabonds.  They are on their own lost journey, slaking their ancient thirst for blood, aching for supple young flesh.
  They find it in Nothing and Ann.  Now Ghost must pursue them all to save Ann from her new friends, to save Nothing from himself.


When telling my Mum about this book she was sure she had read it.  However, upon reading the blurb to her she was all, "that's not what my copy said...and mine had a green cover', which is to be expected when the book is about 20-years-old.  When I started reading Lost Souls I realised that both the blurb and the cover had been re-done to appeal to a Twilight obsessed market looking for their next fix of those lovable people of the night.  The problem with this is that Lost Souls is most certainly not Twilight.  Poppy Z. Brite's book is dark and twisty to the extreme, and most certainly an adult read where anything (and I am not using that word lightly...) goes.  It has shades of Interview with the Vampire, not just because of it's partial New Orleans setting, but with it's non romanticised concept of what a vampire truly is. 

I'll be the first to admit that I was disturbed by some of the content.  Nonetheless, I couldn't stop reading this book.  I did wonder if Brite wanted her story to be as offensive as possible, to get a rise out of her readers, but then I'm always complaining that all vampire stories have merged into one huge sparkly love fest.  It was nice that behind all this sometimes heinous activity, there was complexity and interesting discussion points; the standout being only a few lines with Ghost's musings on, and if you can even define, what is evil.  I'm not sure I would read it again, even if I did enjoy the ride, but it did help me realise that maybe I have been reading books that have been written in the wrong decade.  Obviously, pre-noughties is the way to go for original vampire fiction.