In Review

21 November 2008 20:22 BST

Half the Blood of Brooklyn by Charlie Huston

Published by Orbit, out February 7th, paperback, 221 pages, £6.99.

In a nutshell...

Bloody, violent, sickening, savage and even…touching.

What's it all about?

Joe Pitt is back, ensuring The Society's rules are respected across the city of New York. Sent for a new mission, Joe comes across the weirdest species of "vampyres" who reside over on the other side of Brooklyn Bridge. But Joe is going through a hard time with his uninfected terminally-ill girlfriend Evie who carries HIV.

Bloody and merciless Joe seems to attract the reader's compassion. His inner conflict permeates the whole plot as he cannot decide whether he should save Evie by infecting her with the "vyrus" which would make her a "vampyre" or not.

Both surreal and real elements coexist in the novel, conferring it a very distinctive style.

Half the Blood of Brooklyn is the third of a series of five, after Already Dead and No Dominion.

Who's it by?

California-based Charlie Huston published several books before his Joe Pitt series, including the Shotgun Rule and A Dangerous Man.

Huston describes himself as a constant "scribbler" and remembers finishing his first proper science fiction, noir short story at the age of 13.

An ex-bartender in Brooklyn when he wrote his first novel Caught Stealing, Huston has entirely devoted himself to his career as a writer since 2004.

As an example...

"The midget is standing in the middle of the stage, tugging lengths of intestine from the hole he's chewed in his own belly and draping them over the shoulders of Vendetta and Harm, who admire them like mink stoles, giving them the occasional lick."

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

None of Huston's books have been on the big screen yet, although his first novel Caught Stealing and Already Dead did attract Crossroads Films and Phoenix Pictures at the time.

Half the Blood of Brooklyn on the screen would quickly cover it all in red and make your deepest, darkest nightmares come true.

What the others say

"Huston creates a world that is at once supernatural and totally familiar, imaginative, and utterly convincing." - Philadelphia Inquirer

"Violent, often ugly, Huston's series is not for the squeamish, but fans will find this third instalment the best to date." - Kirkus Reviews

So is it any good?

When looking for blood and violence, Huston is a reliable source and he will feed you more than you ever wanted. The story is a rather surprising blend of traditional vampire stories with a touch of unforeseen present day themes such as HIV.

The book is particularly captivating as it allows us to travel through Joe's inner thoughts, and although he is no more than a blood-sucking "vampyre", he still manages to win the reader's compassion.

Huston's style is very broken and jerky, which is certainly adapted to the description of New York City's "vampyre" clans, but it does make the reading somewhat tiring.

In the same way, Huston tends to resort to simple lexical fields, mainly consisting of extremely rude and aggressive words, which again add a lot to the background scenery, but does not contribute to a happy reading time in the mornings, and will make more than one reader skip dinner.

6/10

Aurore Jouanin