Review: American Vampire #1 - #5 by Scott Snyder and Stephen King

"Another vampire story? Aren't there enough?" you groan.
"Never!" I respond.

The thing about vampire stories, good vampire stories that is, is that they can be told over and over, as long as you keep the blood fresh.

King's foreword in the graphic novel American Vampire reveals that he jumped onboard this train because he was lured by the prospect of Snyder's SCARY vampires. Not to say this hasn't been done before, but at the moment it's not exactly a secret that the media is leaning towards one specific type of vampire: the sexy vampire.

Somewhere along the line we lost the idea that vampire's are alluring to humanity because they represent a taboo. There are dark and despicable things that humans often succumb to and vampires are a realisation of that. Recently, we have this trend that vampires are hot because they are physically attractive, and they are simply so desired because they get to be young and hot forever, not because they represent a dark part of our humanity.

Snyder's bringing scary back. And I, for one, welcome it. Not because I don't enjoy sexy vampires, I do, but because I so sorely miss vampires with a ...ahem... point.

Scott Snyder's American Vampire follows Pearl Jones, a young ingénue in 1920's Los Angeles, as she struggles to realise her Hollywood hopes and dreams. Needless to say, these dreams are brutally dashed when she's unwittingly served up as an all you can drink buffet to some elitist European vamps.

Pearl Jones - our heroine

Stephen King's part to play in all this is that he's penning the story of Skinner Sweet, a heartless murderer and theif in the 1880's who wronged the wrong unpeople, as he discovers what he's become: a vampire with no sensitivity to sunlight, silver or the usual vampire hoodoo. What the book calls an American vampire.

The stories merge with Skinner changing Pearl (she's still breathing after the attack, and Skinner finds her still dying in the ditch where they've left her) into an American vampire, and sets her on the path of revenge, against the same that carries the rest of part one.

Skinner Sweet...

I'm not going to lie, these ideas are things we've seen before (Blade, for instance, featured "daywalkers"). But the characterisation, and the non-attempts to make Skinner at all sympathetic rather than selfish - or invalidate Pearl's revenge plot - are refreshing. Skinner is a badass. There's no apology for that. But even though he is villainous, Skinner isn't the main antagonist in this story either. It's great. He's no woobie, and he received no karmic payback either.

I'd definitely recommend it, the writing is sharp and though-provoking. Also, the art by Rafael Albuquerque (and colourist Dave McCaig) is both at times beautifully sweet and eerily freaky. Combo of both great story and art is rare for me in graphic novels - I usually like one and not the other.

Let's see if the magic continues into part 2...

Review: On Writing by Stephen King

What is it about Kingy? I love him. I really do. He can write a story for billions of people and make it seem like he is in the room with me, in the chair across from my computer, with a beer in one hand and my dog sitting on his shoes.
He's so damn... accesible. And from someone who has written about everything from giant maneating spiders, to nazi-wannabes, to prison inmates, to murderous husbands... being accessible is one HELL of a skill!

Who wouldn't want some tips about writing from Stephen King?

This book isn't fiction, it's a memoir. It starts off with his stories from childhood, and morphs into a reader-friendly breakdown of The Elements of Style (E.B White and William Shrunk Jr.) While Elements is great as a revisionary tool, King's On Writing is a good way to see the elements in action.

He gives examples of what works and what doesn't. He does this in a general "you should be honest with your writing" way, all the way down to "see how adverbs kill this passage" way. Very handy.

He points the way to get more information on anything if you need it, uses personal experience to guide his answers and advice, and just gives easy tips to sharpen your quill.

One thing stood out for me though, and I mention this with a grin on my face; King advises that his characters take on the novel, and simply act on their own merits, and the storyline plays out from their interactions. That's why, and he alludes to this in Writing, many of his books are based on SITUATION and REACTION. There is a situation, and the book is about the character(s) reaction to that situation.

Now, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't.

Desperation, this book is all reaction to a situation. And I read it, and I struggled with all the character POVs and it ended and I felt nothing. It didn't affect me at all. I'm not against what I call "character studies" (and I'll go into that a little further), but to please me they need to be tempered with some forward motion too.

Kingy's one of my favourite writers, hands down and tickets ripped, but sometimes his books don't land properly and I'm now attributing this to the fact he doesn't believe in plotting it out too much. By land properly, I mean end properly. This is in my opinion of course.

Rose Madder, definitely one of my favourite books, ends so strangely - it's reaction, not plot. Rosie's reaction to the initial situation is the main drive of the story. AND it's amazing! But the wrap up is odd to me - I won't spoil it, but pick it up, I know you'll see what I mean. The story-plane lands like it's hitting a cross wind on the runway.

Kingy also mentions that Rose isn't one of his favourites, because it was so heavily plot driven. I found that completely at odds with the book i've read about 20 times, if anything I would say Rose lacks plot because it's a character study. When I say character study, I mean this: the book is about Rosie. Rosie runs from her husband and rebuilds her life. To me, that's not plot driven. In a plot driven story, "Rosie runs from her husband and rebuilds her life" would be the start, leading onto her becoming a spy, or finding her true calling as a policeman, or solving a murder or something.
I have to stop talking about this book, that's for another day.


/digression



IT - this is another one that has that landing trouble. It's all going well, gelling together, and then suddenly the girl character (can't remember her name right now) sleeps with all the boy characters and IT's a giant spider or something. I still don't get it. It might be user error of course.

Sometimes SITUATION and REACTION work amazingly! See Firestarter. Amazing beginning middle and denouement. Characters are fleshed out with no problem, the story is a first class flight and a landing on a summer's day with no breeze to be felt.

See Misery, see Cujo... See mostly anything he writes. But sometimes, and just sometimes, his landings are off for me.

Anyway, I only mentioned the stories because of what Kingy wrote in Writing and I need to wrap this review up.

The memoir is a great tool for any aspiring writer, and a great way to get some answers to some FAQs. Kingy gives some amazing advice and lessons in the book, and most of all, he gives the advice in an inspiring and encouraging way.

Stephen King is so often unsung, when really he is just a great writer. Just because he's ACCESIBLE DAMN IT, just because everyone, even your twelve year old cousin reads him doesn't mean he's not amazing. Not everything that is popular is as vapid as Justin Bieber or Jersey Shore. Stephen King is definitely not dull, he can just reach people. And that's what writing is about, right?