Olga was right.
This is not your teenage daughter's vampire book.
Doug Reed has taken the burning questions vampire skeptics like me ask every time we encounter vampire world, and explored them with tremendous skill.
*Immortality is a lot of time to fill. Wouldn't you quickly get bored out of your mind?
In "Half" we find a vampire working a mind-numbingly horrible second shift job at an insurance company, and we realize that immortality is a fate worse than death. (That workplace provides the setting for my favorite line in the novel: "No one will underwrite your soul.")
*I can barely remember my kids names. Wouldn't a vampire have a hard time remembering hundreds of years worth of people's names?
The main character of "Half" shows just how much of a detriment that can be.
*How can a vampire have sex if he doesn't have any blood in his body, if you know what I mean?
Doug boldly goes where no teenage vampire book has gone before.
*When a vampire turns into a bat, what happens to his clothes?
This is my favorite revelation in this novel, but I don't want to spoil it for you.
"Half" is groundbreaking. Name me another vampire novel that also features a leprechaun. Can't do it, can you?
It's hilarious. It's touching. It's lyrical.
Doug Reed is a twisted and talented writer. (I'd love to spend a day inside that brain). He's a Chicagoan now too. (The book takes place in his previous hometown of Madison).
Support your fellow Chicagoan, and pick up a copy today.
I really think you'll like it.
