Vampire Vic (Vampire Vic Trilogy – 1) by Harris Gray
4 stars
(Excerpt from Goodreads) Would you give up donuts…for blood?
Fat, balding accountant Victor Thetherson hoped becoming a vampire would turn his life around. But Victor can’t stomach confrontation and gets queasy at the sight of blood. Instead he gets it from the blood bank, diluted in bloody Bloody Marys. The result: a vampire who doesn’t bite, and a man who gets no respect.
Victor’s slacking staff mockingly calls him Vampire Vic. Victor’s boss amuses his wife by intimidating Victor on video. His ex makes him stay out late while she entertains boyfriends in the house she insists they continue to share. One night it finally boils over, and Victor bites someone. And then another…and very soon, he’s no longer visiting the blood bank.
Muscle replaces fat, and his comb-forward widow’s peak takes root. Victor basks in newfound attention and respect, at the office and at home. But real vampires get hunted, and as the transformation reaches the tipping point, Victor must decide how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the power of the vampire.
Vic is a wimp, there’s no nice way to put that. He is your typical balding, fat middle aged accountant. No one respects him, they dump everything on him since they know he will finish every task. At home he lives with his ex-wife that tells him to stay out late so she can entertain her friends. Vic is a joke, he is still the same fat man, he can go out in the daylight, and everyone uses him as the butt of all jokes. Plus what vampire has an issue with confrontation and the thought of drinking blood makes him gag.
But one night he snaps and bites someone. Then things start turning around. All of a sudden he is toning up, his widow’s peak fills in, and everyone starts throwing themselves at him. Of course Vic is drunk with all of this attention. But not all of the attention is good, where there are vampires there are vampire hunters. Vic has found himself right in the sights of a hunter. The question is if he is going to make it out of this alive, err, undead?!?
When I first started reading Vampire Vic I have to say that in a sense I felt sorry for him. The poor guy is a joke. He has no self-esteem, he is the guy everyone dumps the work on, and his ex-wife entertains her boyfriends in the house that they still share. But at the same time it was getting on my nerves. I mean come on man, step up, you are a vampire, start acting like it. Then when he snaps I was cheering for him. Way to go! You finally did it. But then Eugene comes into the picture. I had mixed feelings about him.
Over all this is a pretty good story. There is a lot going for it. The problem that I really had was the pace of the book. It is slow and steady and didn’t really excite me more than a couple times. But the thing I really liked was the fact that this is a new twist to the overdone vampire theme. Vic doesn’t sparkle, he isn’t a ladies man, and he’s not even a really good vampire at the beginning. But I liked him like this. He was realistic and I have to laugh. Everyone things that the minute you are bitten you become this sex god or goddess that everyone is going to throw themselves on you and I loved how poor Vic is still struggling just to try and bite a jerk co-worker and is mistaken as if he is trying to hit on the guy. That was hilarious and I can see the same thing happening to me.
This is not a bad book. I really enjoyed it. Could it be fine-tuned, yes there is room for improvement and the ending is left open for more books to come. This is a good book and I do recommend you read it. It has a new twist to the overdone vampire theme.
For more information on Vampire Vic or to purchase this book make sure to check out Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Harris Gray’s website.
I received this book for free from Roger Charlie in exchange for an honest review.
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