A People's History of the Vampire Uprising

by Raymond A Villareal

It starts when the body of a young woman disappears from the local morgue. Then more corpses, dead from an inexplicable disease that solidified their blood, also vanish. Soon the U.S. government - and eventually biomedical researchers, disgruntled lawmakers, and even an insurgent faction of the Catholic Church - must come to terms with what they're too late to stop: an epidemic of vampirism that will sweep the world.

With heightened strength and beauty and a steady diet of fresh blood, these changed people, or "Gloamings", rapidly rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society. Soon people are begging to be "re-created", willingly accepting the risk of death if their bodies can't handle the transformation.

As new communities of Gloamings arise, society is divided, and popular Gloaming sites come under threat from a secret terrorist organisation. But when a charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, runs for political office - well, all hell breaks loose...

• ISBN10: 0316561681
• ISBN13: 9780316561686
• Publish Date: 5 June 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[kalventure]

📣 A People's History of the Vampire Uprising is available NOW!

"It's exactly these changing conditions - we are still trying to figure out how we got here - that caused me to realize: now is the perfect time to compile the beginning, middle, and... if not the end, then that place that occupied the in medias res of our current conflicts."

3.5 stars, enjoyable read that was (almost) everything that I wish World War Z was... only with vampires!

A People's History of the Vampire Uprising is a fictionalized oral history of the discovery and uprising of Gloamings - vampires. It started in Nogales, Arizona and is investigated by a new CDC agent Dr. Lauren Scott, who is one of the main voices of this novel. I was gripped by the boots-on-the-ground recounting of a new virus from a multitude of perspectives. Lauren's chapters were by far my favorite and they reminded me of The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (which began a lifelong obsession with microbiology).

I liked the plausible, scientific explanations for the supernatural. While this book is written from the perspective of "in the middle of the uprising," the reader is taken along for the ride as the characters/newspaper reports/etc discover them and the events unfold. This makes for an interesting read that is fast paced in action as things are slowly becoming more developed.

This book does use footnotes which lends to the feeling of reading an academic or scholarly account, although I can imagine will frustrate some readers. I found them worth perusing for the most part and once I figured out the anchors brought you back to the narrative after reading the footnote in the ebook I was even more happy to read them, especially so as to not miss gems like these:


But this book is not just a vampire book, or a science-y book. It also is satire and has lots to say about current society. References to current media outlets and social media accounts root this story eerily in our present, and as much as this is about discovering where the vampires come from and trying to find as cure... it is about how the people react as a whole. This is as much about how American society would respond to a new minority population emerging and the friction caused as those without power seek it. It's incredibly eerie because everything discussed I can actually see happening - for better or for worse. And that's what is so great about satire - it makes you think.

One thing that I did struggle with was I did find near the last third of the book that I was overwhelmed by the number of characters/perspectives and had difficulty recalling a couple of people easily. I almost wish there was a character list to reference either at the front or back of the book that I could refer to as more narratives are added into the mix.

Had I reviewed this at like 85-90% it would have easily been 4 or 4.stars. I found the "ending" rather dissatisfying in a way that doesn't ring true to the Forward of the book. I know that things are still ongoing but the lack of a proper wrap-up or an ending analysis was just an anticlimactic ending for me personally, and a low point to end a great book. I imagine it was left open in order to leave it open for a sequel, but UGH. Lauren's ending was... odd. And then the Epilogue just made me angrier. I don't know, things were just starting to be uncovered about the origins and it felt like the whole book was building to that and the last part with Father Reilly was leading to something really interesting, and the ending felt abrupt and rushed.

Movie rights were secured for this book in 2017 - a full year before publication! - I think this will lend itself really well on screen. This is a really interesting piece of satire for the United States right now in addition to being imaginative origin story for vampires. This is truly a genre-bending read. I really disliked World War Z, and this book, even with its faults, is exactly what I wished that book would have been.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Mulholland Books, for providing me with an electronic copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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