A People's History of the Vampire Uprising

The steady pace of the ensemble of narrators creates a tone of eerie wonderment in this story of a rapidly growing vampiric species called Gloamings. The diversity of characters, including a scientist, an investigator, a journalist, and a butt-kicking vigilante, keeps the momentum high. The female narrations particularly stand out, given the necessity for clear distinction between a headstrong scientist and a determined nurse-turned-soldier. This is not a "fight-to-the-last-drop-of-blood" story. It is a historical timeline of both integration and uprising. Each narrator offers a different perspective on this "re-created" species. The cast effectively delivers first-person narrations that individualize the characters, creating an oral history of undesirable changes in a nonhuman society. T.E.C. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

April 16, 2018
At the start of Villareal’s enjoyable if derivative first novel, CDC virologist Lauren Scott travels to Nogales, Ariz., where she visits the city morgue to examine a body “exhibiting unusual hemophilia bruising and intradermal contusions.” To her annoyance, the body has apparently been stolen, but another has since arrived at the morgue bearing the identical pattern of bruising. Lauren notices two puncture marks on this new body near the carotid artery. Sure enough, the evidence suggests that vampires—who prefer to be known as gloamings—have invaded the U.S. Lauren eventually joins Hugo Zumthor, the FBI agent in charge of the Gloaming Crimes Unit, and John Reilly, a Catholic priest, in contending with the gloamings, who are struggling for their political rights. Genre fans may have fun recognizing the influence of such notable predecessors as Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire series, Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain, and Max Brooks’s World War Z. That 20th Century Fox and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps have secured film rights bodes well for this solid supernatural thriller. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.