Demon Vampire - Book Review

Some stories are like appetizers, others are like lunch and my favorites are like desserts. In the case of Demon Vampire, I can easily say its like a Thanksgiving Dinner with every single fixin' you can think of!

The first thing that struck me as I read this story was the Anne Rice feel to it. But I made the initial mistake of treating it like an Anne Rice novel, in which I can easily skip pages and not loose the thread of the story. Not with Demon Vampire, there is vital information everywhere! This brings me to the second thing I noticed, this book re-taught me to be patient, relax and enjoy the story. I 'm very used to reading books that are 250 pages or less where the plot and dialogue is developed very quickly. In this case, especially at the beginning, the characters get there when they get there, in this book there's no rushing.

First we are introduced to Zack, an awkward teen, who, even though has weird blood-filled dreams, he doesn't feel like he's anything special. Then we meet David and his daughter Kyli who are plotting to kill Zack because of what lives inside him, an ancient, evil Demon Vampire, one that can and will destroy civilizations with its uncontrollable power. At this point I thought I could predict the main plot, but I was so wrong!

As the story unfolds we meet Orhn Damascus, a vampire/vampeal that comes out of the blue to torture Zack. This torture teaches us important things about Zack and Kyli, who comes to rescue him, and we get to know Orhn's fascinating story of love and loss later on in the book. As new vampires and vampeals are introduced, we learn about their stories and relationships with each other. As it is with people, there are "good" and "bad" vampires and the thing about immortality is that if a vampire has a grudge, it will fester and grow for centuries and so far I didn't see any of them wanting to forgive and forget or move on.

While I enjoyed all the back stories, among my favorites where Del Marin's who learned how to exist among humans and even work for a living as a tax accountant before becoming an artist. We also meet Malio, who has serious anger issues! And my favorite: Salas, THE Demon Vampire. The rest of the vampires are united in wanting to kill Salas or the very least delay his return for another 300 years by killing his current unsuspecting host, Zack.

Throughout the story, the other vampires mention how evil Salas is and in this story we meet three of his hosts: Moira, Love and Zack. Each one deals with Salas in a very different way, but each one of them knows they are doomed no matter what path they take. At least in my case, I found Salas seductive and bad-ass, if I was the host, I'm pretty sure I would give in to what he wants very quickly!

Demon Vampire introduces new concepts to the vampire mythology, or at least they are new to me. We have Redgold which is the crystallized blood from a vampire taken thanks to a specific ritual during an eclipse. Vampires are categorized depending on their gifts into Focus, Psychics or Alteration. There is the ancient story on how Vampire Elders created the Demon Vampires and so much more.

The story goes from the present day where Zack is trying to figure out what the hell he is, to the past, where we get to find out the stories of the different vampires and vampeals surrounding Zack. There are several centuries-old relationships in this story, but the main one is between Zack and Kyli.

Poor kid, he never stood a chance with Kyli. Here is this super hot goth girl making the first moves, of course Zack would fall for her! Though I'm sure she didn't anticipate her eventual feelings for him. At times I found Kyli very annoying, she would get angry and hurt Zack as a way to teach him lessons, but even I never could anticipate what would make her happy or angry. Zack had to learn everything the hard way. As the story progresses, Zack will grow - literally. There will be a mental and physical transformation as he realizes what he is and what is inside him.

The ending of Demon Vampire seemed to me like the ending of the Fellowship of the Ring, you can tell there will be more, a lot more. Even in the last chapter, Kyli is still explaining things about the Vampire Elders. I'm sure all this wealth of information will be needed when the next books in the series come along. When you finish the book, one thing I can almost bet is that you will go back and re-read Chapter One!

To read my interview with author Virgil Allen Moore, please click on this link.

Interview with Virgil Allen Moore

I met Virgil through Goodreads.com, he sent me an e-mail asking if I would be interested in reading his book, which he described as "an epic paranormal work of dark fiction"....how could I resist?

Even though I'm a fast reader, it took me almost two months to read his book. Demon Vampire has a lot of meat in it and after reading a chapter or two I would take a step back from it and then come back for more, I enjoyed that. It reminded me when I was in junior high and two years in a row I would read Les Miserables, which took me all summer, but I loved it!

As I read Demon Vampire I've been in contact with Virgil through Twitter and some months ago while I was in the middle of a blog challenge he did two guest blogs for me (I was so grateful!). These are the posts:

• Day 17 - "Of all the things that might have developed from writing a book, I never imagined that I'd break my keyboard in doing so....."
• Day 18 - "My most memorable experience is easy to surmise, yet unrelenting to me while being a writer: Criticism...."

I'm very glad Virgil agreed to write for my blog one more time and answered the following interview questions. These questions have to do with the book Demon Vampire and it is my hope that after reading them you will be interested in reading the book for yourself, follow this link to read my review.

Virgil Allen Moore

I've read several vampire stories and series, from Bram Stroker's Dracula and Lord Byron's poems to the Sookie Stackhouse series (don't judge me, they're awesome!), so far I don't remember ever reading about Vampeals, Demon Vampires, Vampire Gifts or Redgold. Is this something new you are bringing to the vampire mythology or is it based on other works?

Those are a lot of questions. I've watched and read a great deal of Japanese and Chinese plots. I draw a great deal from their mythology and styles. Vampeals are from a series called Vampire Hunter D. Vampire Gifts mostly from pen and paper gaming such as Vampire The Masquerade. However, Demon Vampires and Redgold are my own unique creation. I wanted to forge something that would be feared, even to vampires. "An abomination among monsters." I needed to create something that an elder vampire would be afraid of. A reincarnating demon vampire fit the ticket far too well ;) Redgold on the other side was a solution to vampeals that worked its way very well into the storyline. Crystallized vampire blood that turns a vampeal (half-vampire) into a full vampire. So far, I don't think anyone has ever tackled those two story concepts in a vampire novel, let alone any other type of novel. 

On a follow-up side note: When I Googled "Vampeal", "Demon Vampire" and "Vampire Redgold"; Virgil Moore comes up in the first page...Well Done!

From your author picture I see you enjoy dressing in a style reminiscent to Gary Oldman's portrayal of Dracula. As you write the Redgold series, is there a character that represents you? And I hope it's not Malio!

God no, not Malio. He is sick and twisted, almost perfect antagonist that we all love to hate. As for me, I'd have to say that Zack, is me. As far as the personality type that is. His reactions to the events in the book are my reactions if I was there. At least at his age. One of the things that makes my series special is that you get to see the character from a very young point of view at the beginning and throughout the course of the story, he's physically nineteen and has grown several inches in height. Beyond that, readers will be able to see him get older as the series progresses. I won't go into details now, but Zack changes a lot. You will be able to see how his mind and choices develop as time goes on. Not many other series let you see that much change over such a large scale.

Does Zack ever gets to meet his Mom? I know its a spoiler, but can you give any hint?

Yes. It's a truly horrific meeting though. There is a lot of storyline explaining why she even settled down in the first place. Since you know she was such a "free spirit" to say the least in the time that Yugo and Orhn knew her, everyone always wonders why in the hell she would meet a normal guy like John and have a kid. All I can say is that she has a very disturbing reason for everything that she has done over the past several hundred years. Also, there is a blatant reason why I never talked about her gift in the book. All I can say is that she has a psychic gift and it is terrifying. 

Zack's Dad seems a little too non-chalant about everything that's happening to his teenager. Is he in some sort of trance?

That's a very good guess, but no. John is based mostly on my own mother. I had a very lax childhood and if those things happened to me, I think she would have reacted the same way. That is as much as I'd tell her ;) John just gets into his own world at times. Of course Diane, his new girlfriend is partially to blame for things as well. At least distracting him for that matter.

I hope I didn't miss it as I read the story, how are hosts choosen? Is it random or does Salas have a specific reason why he chooses a host?

Nope, it's random. Except for the fact that it can be sometimes foreseen by certain vampire psychics that have a specific type of future sensing gift. It's the reason why Kyli, David, Marin, and Yugo found Zack in the first place. It wasn't by chance. Malio simply didn't have access to a psychic that was good enough. Yugo did. The same goes for Orhn tracking down Lucretia, he didn't have the access. Same for Damien. 

I know these are very little details. I've hidden so much in the storyline that I'm actually surprised you were able to figure out that much. Not many others have. Also, everything that I haven't answered in book one has a building point later on in the series. I incorporate all. 

And one more teaser for book two. You get to meet Sophialla Ashmore. She shows up in the main book and has a hell of a back story as to how she fused with her demon vampire.

Another follow-up side note: I made notes from each chapter to keep track of all the info. Which is the same thing I did with the Game of Thrones books to keep track of the avalanche of characters!

What are you working on now? 

Demon Vampire: Redgold. The direct sequel to the current main storyline. I will also be writing another side novella from Kyli's point of view. Originally I had planned for all the side novellas to just be an addition to the main books, but as of yet, I have decided to tie them into all parts of the Redgold Series. There are people and events from the side novella that will come into play. So far several characters from a few other stories I have written have made their way into the book. Ellen, is one of those characters. He began in a story about an immortal demon named Ouroboros that continuously reanimates his host. It's a story that also takes place in Gainesville, but a few years after the main storyline of The Redgold Series. 

Demon Vampire: Redgold will be coming out later this year. Be sure to tell everyone about it and sign up to follow my blog for details about the book release. Visit http://demonvampire.com/ to follow the book, and be sure to like the facebook page as well. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Demon-Vampire/126728070744115

Thank you so much for sharing your book with me and I know I will continue to read the rest of your books. Best Wishes!