AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

TITLE: Lost Souls

AUTHOR: Poppy Z. Brite

NARRATOR: Chris Patton
PUBLISHER: Crossroad Press
DATE OF PUBLICATION: January 7, 2011

FORMAT: Unabridged - 12 hours, 30 minutes
GENRE: Horror
ASIN: B004IY3UVU 

SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS: 

The novel that defined a generation of young goths and took vampires to a wholly new place...that brought you Chartreuse and Absinthe in ways they had previously never been experienced...brought to life by the amazing voice of Mr. Chris Patton - a self-described child of that very era - and a fan of the novel himself.

Three stylish vampires arrive in New Orleans just in time for Mardi Gras, and then disappear again. While in the city, the group's leader, Zillah, meets and impregnates an adolescent girl. Fifteen years later, the child of that pairing, a boy who calls himself simply "Nothing" is living with adoptive parents in the suburbs, where he – like so many other teens – feels isolated and out of place. The answer is, his father is a vampire, leaving Nothing hovering precariously between worlds. When Nothing runs away from home he meets up with none other than Zillah and his small troupe, Molochai and Twig. Together they go on a quest to seek out Nothing's favorite band, Lost Souls. Nothing is aided along the way by a psychic named Ghost, and their relationship leads to the ultimate inner battle where Nothing must choose between his wild, vampiric heritage, or preserving his humanity to save the life of another. 

MY REVIEW:

I received this audiobook for review from Crossroad Press through Audiobook Jukebox's Solid Gold Reviewer Program. I did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views expressed herein are my own.

 

I love vampires, and I love audiobooks – so I jumped at the chance to review a vampire audiobook! It was not at all what I expected. 

Lost Souls is about three androgynous bisexual (although mostly homosexual) vampires: Zillah (the leader) and his two sidekicks (Molochai and Twig). They come to New Orleans to party during Mardi Gras and they come across a bar that is owned by a vampire named Christian. There is an underage human girl (Jessy) at the bar, and she winds up having sex with Zillah while Christian has sex with Molochai and Twig. Jessy discovers that she is pregnant long after Zillah and his cronies have left New Orleans. Knowing that human females tend to not survive vampire childbirths, Christian takes Jessy in and has a sexual relationship with her throughout her pregnancy. She does indeed die during childbirth and has a boy whom Christian names “Nothing.” Hoping to spare him of his destiny, Christian leaves Nothing on a doorstep and hopes the couple will love him as their own and that Nothing will never know of his true identity.

The book then jumps ahead 15 years when Nothing is a teenager, and he feels that he is totally misunderstood. He decides to run away and find the singers of a band whom he idolizes, and he hitches rides to the town where they live. He turns some tricks here and there, and then is picked up by Zillah, Molochai, and Twig. The vampire trio first intended to drain him, but instead have sex with him. Yes, that’s right...Zillah has sex with his son, unbeknownst to him.

From here, the book continues on a downward spiral. This was not so much a vampire story, but more a story of getting high, getting drunk, and getting laid. I am a pretty open-minded person, and I wasn’t so much bothered by the M/M and M/M/M and even M/M/M/M action – different strokes for different folks and all that. I am not one to judge, and it takes a lot to shock me. But it did really bother me when Zillah and Nothing hooked up. But wait, it gets worse: They do eventually discover that Zillah is Nothing’s father, but they still continue having a sexual relationship! And Christian even tries to justify it saying that there are so few of their race left and that, if they can make each other happy, why not? Ok, this is disturbing. Christian also eventually has sex with Nothing, which brings on a whole new level of “ewwwwww” since he had sex with Nothing’s mother and is now having sex with her son.

Let's recap: This book contains teenage prostitution, incest, sex with minors (statutory rape), and there was even an incident of rape. There was also another occurrence of incest, this time father/daughter, that I won’t even go into because it was just too offensive.

I did not find this book entertaining. I found it dark and disturbing. It was not at all what I expected, and I will be steering clear of this author in the future!

The narrator, Chris Patton, did a fine job with the book. His voice was clear and expressive, and he was probably what kept me listening despite the book’s content. 

MY RATING: 1 star. I did not enjoy it at all. This was not for me.

This book qualifies as:
#59 for my 2011 100+ Reading Challenge
#32 for my 2011 Audio Book Challenge 

#32 for my 2011 "Whisper Stories in My Ear" Challenge 

#23 for my What an Animal Reading Challenge IV 

#14 for my Vampire Challenge 2011