Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

Paperback, 384 pages
Published by Penguin

Blurb: "At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, looking for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not. Ann, longing for love, and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.

Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds - Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah (whose eyes are as green as limes) are on their own lost journey; slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.

They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself..."

So, I'm back, after another long gap in reviewing, but don't worry the reading did not stop! Unfortunately, one of the books I read in the interim was this...

This was a very strange, dark and twisted book. The synopsis makes it seem interesting, but it does not warn you that all of the characters have serious issues. Strangely, it also doesn't mention a couple of key characters (although I suppose they are limited for space in a blurb). So there is also Steve who is Ghost's best friend and Ann's ex-boyfriend, and Christian, who is the oldest vampire in the novel and who knows secrets about Nothing's past.

The only character who is even vaguely likeable in this novel is Ghost, who is some form of psychic, who is thoughtful and loyal to his friends. However, even he has a violent side. Everyone else in the novel has serious issues, and I found it difficult to relate to their actions which were extreme, and were awful - no matter how isolated they were feeling.

I don't want to go into specifics in case anyone actually wants to read this. However, this whole novel revolves around drugs, sex and murder. Most of the characters are bisexual but there are only a couple of instances of heterosexual sex in the novel and one of these was rape. The novel continues with more sex - including male group sex and incest - and blood-drinking (complete with gory descriptions which is fair enough) and murder.

Despite all this, I will admit there were times where the prose was well-written and had good descriptions. However, it took me weeks to read this and I do not recommend it. Although the concept in the book that vampires were born and not made was interesting. I only continued because I hate not finishing a book!

2 out of 10.