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Monster rocks!

I had pretty much given up on the vampire genre in the last few years, but A Self-Made Monster puts the juice back in. Like a lot of books that play around with genres, Monster throws out a lot of the stale old ideas and replaces them with a fresh perspective.

In this case, the vampire is a schizophrenic who takes on the traits of his victims...this makes each victim a roll of the dice and forces the 'monster' in question, Alex Resartus, make some very calculated and ultimately very surprising decisions. And the vampire here is honed right to the essentials: no corny cloak, no Euro-trash routine...just bloodlust and plot twists that rock!

What sets this novel apart (not just from other vampire novels, but most in general) is its perfect use of ambiguity. At various times, we wonder, 'Just what kind of creature *is* this?' At the end, the answer is tantalizingly close...but I won't spoil it.

Read it!