Lost Souls
by Poppy Z. Brite
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Book Reviews of Lost Souls
Book Review: Brite's Best
Summary: 5 Stars
One of Brite's earliest books, "Lost Souls" is a chronicle of miserable and tragic youths. Steve, Ghost, Nothing, Anne, and Zillah are the main characters and every single one of them is interesting and sympathetic in their own way.
Brite's got a knack for description, a talent which served to repel me during my reading of "Exquisite Corpse." However, she has managed to awe and delight me with it here as she covers miles and towns such as New Orleans and the fictional Missing Mile. Her description is lush, imaginative and raw. You find yourself examining sex scenes with an artist's interest rather than a lewdist's. It's a great book to curl up with on a stormy evening.
Here's the main gist: Zillah and two of his buddies are three wandering vampires with a penchant for murder and booze. It's painful to try and sum up this huge book because so many interesting things occur with a bunch of characters, but I'll just have to condense this for you. Zillah ends up fathering Nothing, a lonely youth who yearns for experience and acceptance, and who goes off in search of his anonymous father. That is the underlying backbone of the tale, but there is a lot that goes on.
This is Brite's best, in my humble opinion. All of you yearning youths should pick this up and read it. I sure got some communion with Nothing out of it!
Book Review: Erotic, Sexual Role-Model of a "Vampire" Story
Summary: 5 Stars
I borrowed LostSouls from a co-worker with no real idea what to expect. He said it was one of the best books he had ever read, and I was willing to try it out. Later I found, to my amazement as well as amuzement, he has fashioned himself quite well after the rampant wantonness of the beings in PZB books! After reading my fill, I actually Returned the book to him a few days later. I say "actually returned" the book because as mentioned by other reviewies, this book has a habit of being absconded with by "friends" you share it with. I've gone thru five different PZB books in the past four years! The older Vampire, Christian held my heart and interest as the "mature and wise" Vampire while Zillah was the sexual dream (and possible role-model?) of what a Vampire should be. Wholly erotic and completely plain about what he was doing and why. The relationship between Ghost and Steve was one I could relate to and I was pleased to get a glimpse of them in Drawing Blood also. Reading this book and visiting New Orleans is an experience. You can gain a higher awareness of other-worldly beings and relish it. I highly recomend this book to any Vampire story fan with a strong sence of their own sexuality and a willingness to look at other sides of life. Great book, great author! Bravo!Book Review: Dark theme, great characters
Summary: 5 Stars
The story has a dark theme. Violence and death and sex in weird constellations (not as graphic as to insult, but you do have to be fairly tolerant not to be disgusted). The characters feel at home in dark dead-end sub-cultures, self destruction seems to be part of the story. But I guess that's normal in vampire stories (I'm not really into them).The story is lightened by two remarkable characters, the musician Ghost who has a sense for the supernatural and Nothing, a screwed up, lonely kid and vampire apprentice. They're believable even though they're set in a strange world; I found myself rooting for both of them. What attracted me was the portrayal of this dark world Nothing and his (vampire) friends move through and Ghost's tries to rescue Nothing from it. The relationship Ghost/Nothing is done nicely and brought to a neat conclusion. The whole story is actually carried by these two characters.
It's also amazing how the author managed to create such a dark setting and make it appear a perfectly normal place to live in (at least as long as the book lasts - then you wake up in the real world again, thank goodness)
Definitely an interesting read. It does feel very modern to me, as another reviewer said. No cobwebs, no garlic, no wooden stakes. There's cars and hitchhiking and (a single) gun instead.
Book Review: Sexy, Gothic, Enthralling
Summary: 4 Stars
Lost Souls is one of the best mordern vampire book I have read. The story is original, different and one-of-kind. Brite created a new breed of vampires, creatures that can walk in the sun, creatures without real fangs, creatures who are exquisitely beautiful and strange all at once. These aren't the lyrical vampires one would find in an Anne Rice book; these are tormented souls who often act out of pure hatred and lust.Brite has constructed a horror novel that is at once sexy, scary, graphic and disturbing. There are many great memorable moments in this novel, such as when one of the book's main character - a young boy named Nohting who has just learned that he is in fact a vampire - kills a friend of his because he is thirsting blood. And the book's finale is all at once engaging, thrilling and very sad.
Brite has also created two very amazing characters; Ghost is a young man who can read thoughts and who has mystical powers. And Nothing, the young boy with a tortured soul who longs for something better, who longs to be loved, is highly remarkable.
This gothic horror novel is sexy and scary, beautiful and ugly. It blends horror, mysticism, magic and lust in a very balanced way. You will find yourself unable to put the book down, and unwilling to let the characters go once you are done reading.
Book Review: Teen angst meets bad metaphor after bad metaphor--surprise!
Summary: 2 Stars
Poppy Z. Brite has added nothing to the world of vampiric horror with this little number, which is sad, considering that she starts out with a few interesting characters: Christian, the antiquaited vampire with a soft heart; Ghost, the psychic rocker-wannabe; and Steve, the semi-abusive friend of Ghost. As for the all-too self-conciously clever named "Nothing"---didn't we ALL go through these "boo-hoo I don't belong" feelings back in junior high? And didn't you end up diddling your Vampire father in a mysterious black van too? As for Nothing's Vampire father Zillah--he's more laughable than anything, and about as "dangerous" as a drunk frat-rat at the MTV summer beach-house. Perhaps even worse, Brite's language is of the "typical" vampire nature: over-the-top romanticism about blood, a gratutious Goth soundtrack ala' Bauhaus and the Cure, hackneyed religious connotations forced into every sentence, etc. etc. Brite was much more ambitious with her follow-up, "Drawing Blood", and, therefore, considerably more sucessful in a writerly manner. Horror fans, shelf this one. My kid sister wrote it in her "Trent Reznor" phase of 8th grade. I wrote it in my "Christian Death" phase of 9th. When did YOU write YOUR version?