Imagine a vampire, complete with acid wit, misanthropism, and a love for ice hockey. Add in a strip club with a never-ending stream of women at his disposal. Toss in a sassy girlfriend and being framed for a crime he didn't commit. Now you have Staked. Eric is a vampire with issues. His short-term memory problem, for one. He not only can't remember what he did yesterday, he doesn't even remember how he became a vampire in the first place. Then there's his girlfriend issues. His one true love refuses to become a vampire, so she's in her eighties, now, but still hanging around, helping him run his strip club, the Demon Heart, in downtown Void City. His current girlfriend, Tabitha, won't stop bugging him to turn her into a vampire, but when he finally gives in and does, he's suddenly not interested in her anymore. Then there's the outcast issue. Despite the fact that his powerful abilities would guarantee him a place at the most exclusive vampire gatherings, he doesn't have time for those stuffed shirts. He just wants to hang out at the club, mind his own business. Except it's starting to look like someone's setting him up to take the rap for a recent werewolf murder.
It would help if Eric could actually remember if he did the deed, but he's pretty sure he didn't. And now the werewolves want to kill him as revenge. Tabitha might be the best person to come to his rescue...if he'll let her.
Staked was certainly interesting. I had no idea what to expect going into it, but I was intrigued by a vampire with memory loss issues and constantly running into trouble. Eric is a Vlad, the most powerful kind of vampire, but that doesn't stop a bunch of werewolves from trying to kill him. Eric manages to get away, but he has no idea how it all started and who he actually killed. Then he finally caves and turns his girlfriend, Tabitha, into the undead, and finds her thought-to-be dead sister and falls into lust with her. It's just a big ol' mess and Eric has to figure out how to get out of it even if he can't remember all the details.
Staked is quite weird. The plot seems kind of jumbled at times, but I kind of like that since it matches Eric's screwed up memories. He also has "black out rages" so he does actually lose parts of his days when he gets too mad and then needs to get rescued by one of his friends (or a stripper at his club if it's daytime). There does seem to be a plot against him, since Eric knows he didn't kill as many werewolves as their Alpha is claiming he did. Also, a gun was used on several of them, and he doesn't have one. Someone is trying to frame him, but why? I didn't figure out who was behind it, but the reveal was underwhelming. I was shocked by who it was, but their reason was pretty dull.
I wasn't expecting it, but Staked is told in dual POV. Of course, one of them is Eric, but then there's Tabitha. I'm not sure why, since she really added nothing to the overarching plot. That's not to say I didn't like her chapters because I did. That woman is awful! She's kind of a bitch and a bit pathetic in her pining over Eric. Getting turned into a vampire winds up being a bad decision for her, since Eric has made it known that he only dates live women, hence moving on to her sister! Although she obviously did know it was her sister, but I was excited for the moment that she did! Not only is her boyfriend cheating with her baby sister, but she also hasn't been dead this entire time! Good stuff!
In the end, I did like Staked a lot. I don't know if the characters intrigued me enough to want to continue though. They're all kind of awful, but in a way where you just can't turn away. I did really like how the vampires were portrayed though. They have the typical aversions to sunlight, garlic and holy water, but many of them can also shapeshift. And not just into the stereotypical bat!
