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God, I love the sci-fi-fantasy-horror-magicrealism-pagan-mystic genres, cause every once in a while you come across a book like Bride of the Fat White Vampire, by Andrew Fox. Funny, clever, and highly entertaining.
Jules Duchon, our hero, was once a 450 pound pale white cab-driving vampire. Now he is a collection of 187 pale white rats scavenging for food in the alleys of New Orleans. His friend Doodlebug, who was once a twelve year old boy vampire, and is now a twenty-something female vampire, rounds up the rats, cages them, and magically transforms them back to Jules’ original portly glory. Unfortunately, Doodlebug only managed to collect 186 rats.
And Jules’ day only goes downhill from there.
In the heart of New Orleans some skillful and dangerous fanatic is dissecting the young attractive female members of the High Krewe, an old and elite sect of vampires. The High Krewe hires Jules to hunt down the culprit and find the, um, well, the missing body parts. Or else.
The Good: I love stories about misfits, and this story is nothing but. Fat strippers, transvestite vampires, black vampires from Orleans dressed like the members of Queen. How could I not like it?
This is a book that was written to be a fun read. The situations Jules finds himself in are outrageous, the dialogue is bang on. The plot is involving… whatever other adjectives I can throw in to show my support, consider them thrown.
The Bad: This book picks up right where Fat White Vampire Blues leaves off. To understand this story, the author put in plenty of exposition concerning what happens in the last book. Unfortunately, now I’m so spoiled, I don’t need to read the first book. I already know it. I’m not sure if there was anyway around this, but there you go. So if this series sounds interesting to you at all, you may want to start with Fat White Vampire Blues first, and then follow through with this one.
The Ugly: Nothing ugly here. It’s pretty much all good.
This is not a grand book. It’s not great art, it’s not morally uplifting, and it will not make you cry while kneeling before all its splendor. But you will have a hell of a lot of fun reading this book. Who needs a better reason?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Bride of the Fat White Vampire by Andrew Fox
Published by: Ballantine Books; August 3, 2004
ISBN: 0345464087
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Author’s Webpage: http://www.andrewfoxbooks.com/
About Joe Murphy
Joe Murphy succumbed to leiomyosarcoma on April 1, 2007. The irony of this is not lost on any who knew him and laughed with him. He was the first “official” book reviewer for The Dragon Page Radio Talk Show, and after moving to Arizona, he became a frequent contributor to Cover to Cover, Wingin’ It, Slice of SciFi and co-host of Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas.
He will be missed.
