Ever Want to Be in the Head of a Lice-Eating Vampire.......Me Either.

TITLE: The Truants
AUTHOR: Lee Markum
PUBLISHER: The Overlook Press
PUBLISHING DATE: July 25, 2017

FROM GOODREADS: Contorting the conventional vampire narrative into a startling tale of immortality, blood lust, and rage contaminating London’s inner-city youth like a virus, The Truants tells the story of the last of the old-ones—creatures afflicted with a condition not unlike vampirism: ancient, bloodthirsty, and unable to withstand sunlight.


The last old-one has decided to end his life, but before he can act he is held up at knifepoint. His assailant disappears, the knife in his pocket, the blood of the old-one seared into its sharpened edge. The knife trades hands, drawing blood again, and the old-one is resurrected through his victims’ consciousness and divided, spreading through the infected. With his horde of infected youth, the old-one must reclaim the knife to regain control of his soul. But someone is out to stop him...

MY THOUGHTS:  So this book is 256 pages long, which isn't long by any means.  And I managed to get to page 186...and it was a struggle.,.and I can't continue.  So yep, this is one of a few select DNF books for me and yep, I'm still reviewing it because I've read enough to form an opinion.

"The Truants" features mean, dirty and gritty vampires, which is how I prefer my vamps.  And I really looked forward to reading it.  However, the problem with this book for me lies in the fact that I never felt attached to ANY character.  In fact, I hated them all.  It's told in first-person POV which is fine.  But "the old one" is a jerk and even though he decided to finally end it all, thanks to a stupid teen, or "rat" as the old one calls ALL humans, his essences ends up on the blade of a knife before he does so and now a part of him is ending up in people all over the city.  I sort of felt sorry for Danny, a 10-year-old who ends up "infected" but I couldn't even root for him.  

This book contains child abuse and animal abuse as well as lots of stupidity.  I can't stand by animal abuse but it actually fit with the plot and if only the dog would have survived longer, I may have found a "character" I could cheer on.  So I think people will either love or hate this book.  I checked some reviews before making the DNF plunge and lots of people seem to like it a lot and think Markum is making some statement about society as a whole.  I will consider reading this author again in the future, but am not in any hurry.

RATING:

NO PAWS - DNF