Being a long-time fan of everything vampire, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING
immediately caught my eye. I expected some sort of urban fantasy, and
instead what I got was a paranormal thriller, unlike anything I had ever
read. Our vampires, Gloamings, correspond in all appearances to the
accepted vampire mythology: they cannot be captured on film, they
must avoid the sun, they sleep buried in the earth, and of course, their
sustenance comes from human blood. But Raymond A. Villareal has
built upon this mythology in dizzying new ways, and his research and
knowledge in almost every area of life are simply astonishing,
especially medicine.
Set in the very near future, A PEOPLE'S
HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING feels like an actual
chronicle, and it is so meticulously crafted that I wonder if, in a hundred
years from now, it might be taken as fact and not fiction.
A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE
UPRISING is also a scathing satire on our obsession with beauty,
success, and athletic performances; it is also a reflection on right and
wrong. Villareal also demonstrates his considerable wit, starting with
the Gloaming moniker, mentions of a popular female singer, and a short
passage from a fictitious TMZ article that had me in stitches.
A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE
UPRISING is told from several points of view, often in the first
person, and the transition between the various voices is as seamless as
can be. It is imperative that I mention the remarkable quality of the
writing, especially the absence of linguistic and stylistic tics, which is
almost unheard of in a debut novel. There are many characters, all
different and all superbly fleshed out; the pace is steady and swift;
there are no plot holes, which considering the scope of the story is
astounding, and it is riveting from beginning to end. Fans of Michael
Crichton will be ecstatic, because A
PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING owes quite a bit
to the medical thriller genre as well. Raymond A. Villareal is a dazzling
new voice in the world of fiction and his next book will not come out
soon enough for me!
In this ambitious and wildly original debut--part
social-political satire, part international mystery--a new
virus turns people into something a bit more than human,
upending society as we know it.
This panoramic fictional oral history begins with one small
mystery: the body of a young woman found in an Arizona
border town, presumed to be an illegal immigrant, disappears
from the town morgue. To the young CDC investigator called
in to consult with the local police, it's an impossibility
that threatens her understanding of medicine.
Then, more bodies, dead from an inexplicable disease that
solidified their blood, are brought to the morgue, only to
also vanish. Soon, the U.S. government--and eventually
biomedical researchers, disgruntled lawmakers, and even an
insurgent faction of the Catholic Church--must come to terms
with what they're too late to stop: an epidemic of vampirism
that will sweep first the United States, and then the world.
With heightened strength and beauty and a stead diet of
fresh blood, these changed people, or "Gloamings," rapidly
rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society. Soon
people are beginning to be "re-created," willingly accepting
the risk of death if their bodies can't handle the
transformation. As new communities of Gloamings arise,
society is divided, and popular Gloaming sites come under
threat from a secret terrorist organization. But when a
charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, runs
for political office--well, all hell breaks loose.
Told from the perspective of key players, including a
cynical FBI agent, an audacious campaign manager, and a war
veteran turned nurse turned secret operative, A People's
History of the Vampire Uprising is an exhilarating,
genre-bending debut that is as addictive as the power it
describes.
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