Sunglasses After Dark: Full Blooded Collection

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While Sunglasses After Dark may have been written in '89, it is the most gothic punk 90s horror novel I could've asked for. The finale involves a mirror-shades wearing vampire invading a suburban mansion, setting it on fire, having a psychic battle with a half-succubus, shooting out guards and having a personal revelation about how comfortable she is with violence. Sonja is a tragic figure. Memories of who she was before she was turned into a vampire plague her and drive her to the edge of madness. Make no mistake though, when push comes to shove, Sonja reacts in true vampire style. No not that I remember, but she really manages to deliver with this performance, the main character is a monster after all.

All of that gore and sex does lend it a lurid air - but I want to salute Nancy Collins here, because it felt like it was trashy deliberately. Everything felt over the top that by the end I was just riding with every awful thing. Man strung up by his intestines? Not the first time, won't be the last. The sexual violence was treated almost exactly the same, too - you're horrified, it's awful, and it makes that horror sing. Nancy A. Collins (born 10 September 1959) is a United States horror fiction writer best known for her series of vampire novels featuring her character Sonja Blue. Collins has also written for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, Jason Vs. Leatherface, Predator: Hell Come A Walkin and her own one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn. Maybe I will prove myself wrong but I don't think I will finish the series. While I can see why it is a well written book, I frankly didn't like it.Honestly, I gave this 3 stars because I didn't hate it and I can see how many people would enjoy the book. Collins is incredibly descriptive and there is nothing wrong with the story. I know intellectually that this is far more likely to be the behavior of someone who drinks human blood. However, it just really wasn't my cup of tea...or bottle of True Blood, be that as it may. A street poetess of pain and rage, Nancy A. Collins has cast an undeniable shadow across the tradition of dark and fantastic fiction.”— Cemetery Dance Magazine Sonja could have been a very sad character. I honestly believe she could have been written in such a way that my heart would have ached for all that she had lost and what she had become. Likewise, I think I could have liked her. She tries to not be the personification of evil. I can liken her a bit to Dexter Morgan in that she thinks she feels nothing but she clearly does. And what happened to her is so very very sad. Should I mark that for spoilers? Nah. This isn't a book based on suspense, it's about gore and vampire lore and mixing creeping dread with radical violence.

Collins has also written a number of highly acclaimed Southern Gothic short stories and novellas, most of which are set in Seven Devils, Arkansas, a highly fictionalized version of her hometown. If there is such a things as a splatterpunk masterpiece, Nancy A. Collins has written it.”—Asimov’s Science Fiction Collins has written twenty novels since 1989, many of which refer to and directly include races of creatures the author calls Pretenders, monsters from myth and legend passing as human to better hunt their prey. Another pivotal character in our tale is Catherine Wheele. She's a powerful, enigmatic, charismatic televangelist. Add ruthless to that list and you have the ingredients for a humdinger of an antagonist.

Collins has created a unique vampire in a very strange world that looks a lot like our own.”—Science Fiction Chronicle Originally published in 1989, I read it some years later and remember enjoying it so was looking forward to this re-read. When heiress Denise Thorne disappears in 1969 London, no trace of her is ever found because she was abducted by a master vampire and became Sonja Blue, a “tough-as-nails punk vampire/vampire-slayer”. The story follows her learning her skills and working her way across Europe, wiping out vampires as she searches for the man who converted her and the sleazy televangelist - Catherine Wheele - who has been exploiting Denise’s parents.