[Comments] THIRST by Marina Yuszczuk

[Fillyjonk]

PRIDE MONTH PICK So Vampyres used to be spooky. Then they got hot. Then they got sparkly. And then we were all SO over vampires. Readers, writers, publishers, we noped out and went blithely on to zombies until we were tired of that, and then we abjured all undead like a lawful good cleric, but NOW Marina Yuszczuk has, please excuse me, pumped fresh blood to the genre: “This gripping tale is full of queer representation and lush, lyrical passages, all while exploring death with an air of nihilism…Vampires are making a comeback, and Yuszczuk is spearheading their revival with this bloody novel.” —The New York Times Book Review How could we have a more perfect pick for Pride month? bananabadger's suggestion has lesbian cemetery vampires and hot nihilism. Hello, June. I will be reading with my eyes, not my ears this time, as I have yet to finish Bunny, even though I am really digging it. So hit up your library for THIRST, or DL it, or go to your actual local and get you a copy that smells like your childhood, you know, back when we had BOOKS, and sink your teeth in. I am hooked already...

[AnotherDragoon]

Well, it's no secret I'm a fan of queer vampire stories. I know I've professed my love of Poppy Z Brite's Lost Souls and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicals here before so, YASSS to Sapphic Vamps. Just borrowed a copy from my library and am eager to sink my fangs in once the sun retreats.

[bananabadger]

I'm #2 in line for this book at my library. Will take drastic book store measures if other patrons don't hurry up and get their reading down by the end of this week!

[Acathala]

Originally Posted by bananabadger

I'm #2 in line for this book at my library. Will take drastic book store measures if other patrons don't hurry up and get their reading down by the end of this week!

 

[Fillyjonk]

I have been on a Ruth Ware kick. Read two more of her books in a row, and I like her. I see why she gets all the Agatha Christie comparisons.

I just finished the second Ware book last night and am going to the library to procure thirst (and a library card in my new town) tomorrow.

I am STILL listening to Bunny. About halfway in. IT IS WEIRD, and I really, really like it. The reader is so good with her dour little downturn of a narrator-voice and her cooing Bunny voices.

[AnotherDragoon]

Heh, I had forgotten this book in our library bag; I remembered and started this morning. Just finished the prologue and had to pause to come here and say wow, Marina's prose is devastatingly beautiful; like a black veil of lace and gauze over a tear-streaked face.

I am captivated by this glamour.

[Acathala]

I’m glad you’re enjoying it. My experience has been different. I’ll try to collect my thoughts later in the week.

[Fillyjonk]

okay! y library three blocks away had it so I walked down and snatched the copy like a boss.

Thoughts to far, no spoilers:

I love the sentences. I see why the comparisons to Daphne du Maurier, and I am here for it. There are images she builds over the course of a page or two that pay off.

Plot: It is a slow burn, so far. I am not far in, but it is not a long book. SO.

MORE LATER. But so far digging it --

[Acathala]

So here we are. This is my own experience, other experiences may differ.

So the concept of the lesbian vampire actually predates Dracula. Le Fanu’s Carmilla short story is the ur-example of this, and personally one of my favourites. It went on to have a Hammer horror adaptation, “The Vampire Lovers”. So how does “Thirst” compare to it’s great great grandmother?


It was okay. As others have noted it was beautifully written, but not terribly original. I suspect if I had read this during my Anne Rice phrase, in the way back when, I would have enjoyed this more. However I have read an absolute shed load of vampire fiction. It’s going to take a lot to impress me. It never quite gets there.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a perfectly okay book. If you want to wile away an afternoon, perhaps with an ice cold soda, Thirst can be your gal. If you liked it, then great. Me not liking it as much as you do, takes nothing away from your experience.

[Fillyjonk]

Mostly through part one; loving it.

I think it may be a book that is more about feminism and death than vampirism, and iI think that’s not a spoiler as much as it is a lens you can choose to look through as you read or not. It also works as a vampire story. I need to read part two before I decide, but it may be more about feminism than it is about death - and it is a LOT about death.

Sweet gods,The casual remorseless pervasive death in this! Real death. Not horror book death. A lot of nihilism for me but I am interested enough in the feminism to be sucked in. So to speak. And I love the nameless vampire. She is a fascinating horror.

The structure is weird. But okay!

More (with spoiler tags and specifics) when I am done.

[Fillyjonk]

OK, I’ve kind of bogged down… The nihilism and the ennui and the suffering is getting to me.

It’s bleak. It’s about death. I recently had an argument with another novelist, who said that the only books that a person can write are about death. I think that the only books a person can wrote are about love.

This is about death, but because there is this love story you can be tricked into reading it plus, I’ll read anything with vampires…


Anyone else finding it too SAD? It’s a very smart book, but I do not share the worldview or rather… The truth is more like I do share the worldview and I have to fight it. I am in a dedicated war with it. The truth is, I refuse to share this worldview.

You?

[Acathala]

Well yes, any book about vampires will come to death at some point. Nihilism would be an easy mindset for a vampire to fall into. You live forever and all the mortals you know die. Rinse and repeat.

In Monsterhearts Nexus, I played a vampire called Andrew Crawford. A former vampire pal of his, tried to get Andrew to join him in nihilism and be a murderer like him, citing the usual arguments like god is dead and so on. Andrew eventually leaves the guy, and becomes the count von Falkenburg. He meets one of the loves of his lives and marries her. He’s still really troubled about what his former friend said. It takes a conversation with his wife for him to come to a realisation. If god was really dead, then it was more important to be good. Andrew rejects nihilism.
Fast forward to the modern era(where the game is actually set) he’s making connections to keep his humanity. Whilst he had lost his way a bit, by the game comes to a close he actually goes on to become human again. Makes peace with the deaths of his wife and adopted son, finally stopped blaming himself and moved on. Eventually remarried and had children.
I understand nihilism, but I always personally reject it. Your life has the meaning you give it. With our thoughts, we make the world.

I suspect i’ve meandered off topic, so I’ll leave it there.

[Fillyjonk]

A book can contain death without being soaked in nihilism.

It sounds as if you played a game that addressed death and mortality but played a character who sought meaning . Love in the face of mortality is what the books I love are about . Nihilism is death in the face of death. The Nothing. The vast black. And in part two it sinks out of fantasy and The Nothing wins.

To this I say, meh.

Sure: All vampire books contain death (even sparklepires) but some are about sex and some are about love and some are about fighting nihilism and seeking meaning via or in spite of mortality etc.

This book rejects meaning, fights meaning, and in part two embraces ennui and despair. Now perhaps the next part when the stories collide will be different. But… I do not see it happening….part one was all nihilism too BUT it had a distracting vampire and some good set piece scenes. Two pulls away the fantasy and says

“These two stories are the same story and there is only one story.”

I reject this.

[bananabadger]

My copy just came in at the library. I know, I know, on the very last day of June.
But late nihilism is better than no nihilism, right? I'll get started soon!

[Acathala]

It was more a case of me creating more background than the game needed. Didn’t actually put it all down on forum sadly.

Honestly had a feeling you might not like the book as much as you got further in.