The Taste of Blood: ReVAMPed Edition – Jon Athan

2 stars

The Taste of Blood was not one of my favourites by Athan. Sure, it checked all the boxes for gore, trauma, and craziness, but it didn’t give me the cohesive feeling I was looking for.

There seems to be a lot of things going on at once, but let’s start with the first: the predator. We’ve got a 19-year old dirt bag who is actively preying on a 13-year old girl, everyone around her knows that this is happening and what he’s done, but everyone is just alright with it and doesn’t try to do anything to resolve this situation? Where are all the mandated reporters? Did none of the kids go home after school and tell their parents?

Then said dirt bag convinces this girl that now she’s a vampire and she immediately goes off the rails in full on belief. She quickly spirals and completely loses her mind, unable to separate reality from fiction, and no one thinks that she needs some serious help? Again, where are all the mandated reporters at the school? Or the parents of the other kids or people who watched the videos online of the bullying and weird claims this girl was making?

All of this is compounded by Genesis’ “fixer” best friend, Aubrey. Aubrey knows they’ll what is happening isn’t right, knows she needs to tell someone responsible, then doesn’t do anything but dig herself in deeper because she can absolutely fix things no problem! Add in one very explosive public fight, making up with a bully, and a good bit of gore and we have a climax for the ages.

This one was hard for me. Maybe that means it did its job, maybe not, but it just didn’t work for me. I was left feeling deflated, like all the wind had been let out of my sails, after that epilogue and the conclusion of Aubrey’s (and Genesis’) story.