For those who long for bloody and ghoulish vampire stories, Christopher Buehlman (The Necromancer's House; Those Across the River) delivers with this disturbing and fast-paced story set in 1978 New York City. Turned at the age of 14, Joey Peacock glamours victims into believing he's anywhere between 10 and 22 as he prowls the seedier parts of the city, where he dances in discos and punk rock bars in search of his evening meal. Living in abandoned subway stations along with a group of other vampires, life for Joey is routine. Most nights he has a quick bite and some sex, and two or three times a month he spends evenings with the Bakers, who "had the biggest veins, the weakest minds, and the most comfortable furniture on the East Side."
One night, while riding the subway, Joey sees something that scares him: three little kids, each no more than seven years old, charming their prey. A chill runs through Joey's body; children aren't supposed to be turned. The pace quickens, the blood flows more readily, and readers are swept along through the train tunnels, sewers and abandoned buildings with dizzying speed and finesse as Joey and his friends gradually discover just who these children are and what they mean to do, not only to their human targets, but to Joey's enclave of vampires as well. Buehlman's novel is hideous in the most entertaining way, and skillfully reestablishes that vampires are not charming creatures one falls in love with, but monsters of epic proportions. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer