Half the Blood of Brooklyn: A Novel
by Charlie Huston
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Book Summary Information
Author: Charlie HustonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-26
ISBN: 034549587X
Number of pages: 223
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of Half the Blood of Brooklyn: A Novel
Book Review: absolutely superb!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read all the books in the Joe Pitt series (this is the latest one; the other two are Already Dead: A Novel and No Dominion: A Novel, both of which are excellent), and this is the best so far.
Before reading this one, you really ought to read the other two. Please don't start with this one, as you will lose much of the background that has led Joe Pitt to where he is.
Joe Pitt is a vampire, but not the kind you're probably used to reading about. He doesn't do sunlight, but other than that, he's different in some really basic ways. He doesn't walk around crazed with bloodlust. He doesn't attack everyone he meets and then sink his fangs into neck after neck after neck. No, he and the other vampires in this book basically walk around like you and I do, except for the aforementioned "allergy to sunlight."
If you've not read a Joe Pitt novel before, you should know that all of the books are brutal. There's bloodshed on almost every page. Joe is not a nice guy. Even when he does the "right" thing, he's obnoxious and maybe selfish and homicidal. He kills fairly easily. He jokes even when he's near death. He loves his girlfriend, but not enough to tell her the truth about who he is or to give her a choice to save herself by becoming a vampire like him (that girlfriend is dying from AIDS; Joe's blood, infected as it is with the Vyrus, which could save her or kill her, as there's no guarantee her body will be able to handle it). He has allegiances to people, but they're all driven by his own fight to survive,
The novels are done in first person, so we always get Joe's viewpoint, which is often critical of his own inadequacies, but which is also often determinedly blase. You don't see Joe get worked up about much; I guess it's tough to get worked up when you come from an abusive household, were beaten fairly regularly as a kid, were beaten almost to death by the vamp who left you to die, are constantly threatened with the possibility of spending your last moments in the sun's warm, virulent-cancer-causing embrace.
The dialogue is quick and very realistic. People speak in fragments. They stutter. Huston has a knack for making each character speak clearly in his/her own voice. Terry, the hippie vamp, speaks like a quintessential hippie (you'll feel like you're listening to someone stuck in the 60's at times); "the girl" speaks like a teenager, complete with heavy emphasis on strategically-chosen words (you can tell which by the italics); Lydia stammers and steams, and her dialogue is sometimes filled with fragments, with single words that punctuate her disgust or her contempt.
In this book, Joe is challenged by the decline of his girlfriend's health, by a lifestyle he doesn't like (he's working for Terry, basically aligned with Terry's group of vamps, and he hates being part of a group), by the awareness that someone else (Daniel) thinks he's a good choice to lead another vamp group (Joe's no leader; were it up to him, he'd hermit out somewhere, or maybe just take Evie with him, but that'd be it).
Again--bloodshed deluxe, lots of Joe-getting-beaten scenes, a healthy dose of mystery, more insight into Joe's history, and an ending that leaves you wanting the next book RIGHT NOW.
Love it!
Summary of Half the Blood of Brooklyn: A Novel
?One of the most remarkable prose stylists to emerge from the noir tradition in this century.??Stephen King
?Hard-boiled horror, pulp noir vampires, decaying urban souls? you?re gonna need a shower after this one. . . . [Huston] kicks down the door of horror.?
?Fangoria, on Already Dead
There?s only so much room on the Island, only so much blood, and Manhattan?s Vampyre Clans aren?t interested in sharing. So when the Vyrus-infected dregs of New York?s outer boroughs start creeping across the bridges and through the tunnels, the Clans want to know why.
Bad luck for PI and general hard case Joe Pitt.
See, Joe used to be a Rogue, used to work off his own dime, picked his own gigs, but tight times and a terminally ill girlfriend pushed him into the arms of the renegade Society Clan. Now he has all the cash and blood he needs, but at a steep price. The price tonight is crossing the bridge, rolling to Coney Island, finding the Freak Clan, and figuring out what?s driving that bunch of savages to scratch at the Society?s door. No need to look far. The answer lies around the corner in Gravesend. Convenient, all those graves.
From uptown to the boardwalk, war drums are beating. Murderous family feuds and personal grudges are being drawn and brandished, along with the long knives. Blood will spill and, big surprise, Joe?s in the middle. But hey, why should this night be different from any other?
Sunset to sunrise: put off a war, keep your head attached to your neck, and save your girl. Check. Joe?s on the case.
Praise for Charlie Huston and his Joe Pitt novels
?In conceiving his world (a New York City divided by vampire clans, each with different reasons to hate Pitt), Huston gives a fading genre a fresh afterlife. [Grade:] A.?
?Entertainment Weekly
?[Huston] creates a world that is at once supernatural and totally familiar, imaginative, and utterly convincing.?
?The Philadelphia Inquirer
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