Helpful Score: 3
Sexy and disturbing look at two young men trying to escape their pasts. I found it to be highly erotic, and I loved the character development. I stayed up all night to finish it. Pretty gory.
Highly recommended
Highly recommended
Helpful Score: 3
Poppy Z. Brite creates dark and evocative settings and her moody troubled characters fit right in. Drawing Blood is the story of a lost soul named Travis, an artist whose father left him alone alive after a murder/suicide binge that left his entire family dead. It is also the story of Zach, a hot pepper munching computer hacker who has to go on the run to escape discovery of the crimes he's committed. These two find each other, and find some resolution to the demons that have been plaguing them throughout their lives. Characters and settings from Brite's other novel Lost Souls make cameo appearances in this story, which is fun if you've read the other book, but not distracting and not crucial to the plotline if you haven't. It isn't a true crossover effort, you don't really get a continuation of the Lost Souls plotline. But it was a good insider's perk to see the way the two stories interact if you've read Lost Souls before you read Drawing Blood. And, contrary to all the goth trappings that go with a Brite novel, this story has a happy ending. I liked it better than Lost Souls. Although I found both stories compelling, this one ties up the loose ends better.
Helpful Score: 1
Mystery/horror genre. Author writes beautifully about awful things.
Helpful Score: 1
Trevor is a cartoonist haunted by what previously happened to his family in the house on Violin Road. In teh company of a friend, a computer hacker, Trevor has returned tot he same house on Violin Road to face his ghosts. As he loses himself in the lines and drawings of his cartoons, the hauntings begins and the lines blur even more between fantasy, reality, and the past.
Darker and more exotic than Anne Rice, more cerebral than Stephen King... Horror is rarely this good and Poppy Brite does it good.
Darker and more exotic than Anne Rice, more cerebral than Stephen King... Horror is rarely this good and Poppy Brite does it good.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Since it takes place in the early 90s, the computer technology is quaint in comparison to today -- 2400 baud dial-up was the bomb, woo hoo! Brite's characters are fascinating and compelling, and I missed "being" with them at the book's end.
The character development here is quite good. I wouldn't call this "horror" so much however. A good read, but not really for those seeking a chill.
Robert McGee is a comic book artist that has lost his muse. While traveling the east coast with his family the car breaks down in Missing Mile, N.C. They rent a dilapidated house on Violin Street with the last of their money. Robert sinks into depression and the bottle. Trevor wakes up one morning to find his mother and little brother have been murdered by his father who then committed suicide. At the age of five Trevor has lost everything but the talent his father passed on to him. When he is 25 he returns to Missing Mile to confront his past.
Zack is a 19 year old computer hacker who is wanted by the FBI. He hits the road and also ends up in Missing Mile. Zack doesn't trust anyone due to the abuse he received at the hands of both his parents.
These to damaged souls meet and for the first time they have a reason to live and love. They stay in the haunted house and work out their nightmares together.
There is a wonderful cast of characters that revolve around this story. I loved it.
*disclaimer* contains graphic violence, homosexual relationships, blood and gore, and people smoking ganja like cigarettes. If none of this bothers you it's a great read.
Zack is a 19 year old computer hacker who is wanted by the FBI. He hits the road and also ends up in Missing Mile. Zack doesn't trust anyone due to the abuse he received at the hands of both his parents.
These to damaged souls meet and for the first time they have a reason to live and love. They stay in the haunted house and work out their nightmares together.
There is a wonderful cast of characters that revolve around this story. I loved it.
*disclaimer* contains graphic violence, homosexual relationships, blood and gore, and people smoking ganja like cigarettes. If none of this bothers you it's a great read.
I throughly loved this book. I could not put it down until I finished it. The characters were so real that I was sad the book had to come to an end.
Annotation
From the hottest voice in contemporary horror comes a hip, sensual, and totally original reimagining of the haunted house story. Trevor McGee is a survivor. Twenty years ago, his father took the lives of his mother, his brother and himself in an inexplicable explosion of murder and suicide. Now Trevor has returned home to face the demons. . . .
From the Publisher
Robert McGee is a man living under a dark cloud. Acclaimed cartoonist of the underground comic book Birdland, he has moved his family from Texas to New Orleans and finally to Missing Mile, North Carolina. But Robert is unable to escape the drinking and the violence that have become as natural to him as breathing. Soon after he and his family settle into a decrepit farmhouse, Robert kills his wife, his younger son, and then himself. Only his five-year-old son, Trevor, is left alive. Twenty years later Trevor McGee, also a cartoonist, returns to Missing Mile to the house in which his family once lived. He has been running from the truth for years, and finally realizes he must face his demons. He fears that what happened to his father will happen to him. But if it does, Trevor thinks, at least I won't have anyone to kill. Then he befriends Zachary Bosch, a computer hacker from New Orleans running from the law. In the house, which Trevor calls Birdland, they must confront much more than bad memories. For the house itself carries its own dark force, which threatens to envelop Trevor in the past and destroy him. Stephen King's The Shining re-created the haunted house novel in the '70s with a stunning vision; Brite combines these elements in a totally new way to reimagine this genre for the '90s with a brilliant new power.
From the hottest voice in contemporary horror comes a hip, sensual, and totally original reimagining of the haunted house story. Trevor McGee is a survivor. Twenty years ago, his father took the lives of his mother, his brother and himself in an inexplicable explosion of murder and suicide. Now Trevor has returned home to face the demons. . . .
From the Publisher
Robert McGee is a man living under a dark cloud. Acclaimed cartoonist of the underground comic book Birdland, he has moved his family from Texas to New Orleans and finally to Missing Mile, North Carolina. But Robert is unable to escape the drinking and the violence that have become as natural to him as breathing. Soon after he and his family settle into a decrepit farmhouse, Robert kills his wife, his younger son, and then himself. Only his five-year-old son, Trevor, is left alive. Twenty years later Trevor McGee, also a cartoonist, returns to Missing Mile to the house in which his family once lived. He has been running from the truth for years, and finally realizes he must face his demons. He fears that what happened to his father will happen to him. But if it does, Trevor thinks, at least I won't have anyone to kill. Then he befriends Zachary Bosch, a computer hacker from New Orleans running from the law. In the house, which Trevor calls Birdland, they must confront much more than bad memories. For the house itself carries its own dark force, which threatens to envelop Trevor in the past and destroy him. Stephen King's The Shining re-created the haunted house novel in the '70s with a stunning vision; Brite combines these elements in a totally new way to reimagine this genre for the '90s with a brilliant new power.
My all time favorite Poppy novel. This is my comfort book. There's something about beautiful boys, who are broken, finding a way to make themselves whole with each other.
It's creepy in all the right ways, and sucks you in to a strange and twisted world. Yet, still delivers an ending that leaves you stasfied.
It's creepy in all the right ways, and sucks you in to a strange and twisted world. Yet, still delivers an ending that leaves you stasfied.
haven't read this book bought it at a library sale just to use for book swap
