3.0
Blood Groove
ByPublisher Description
When centuries-old vampire Baron Rudolfo Zginski was staked in Wales in 1915, the last thing he expected was to reawaken in Memphis, Tennessee, sixty years later. Reborn into a new world of simmering racial tensions, the cunning nosferatu realizes he must adapt quickly if he is to survive.
Finding willing victims is easy, as Zginski possesses all the powers of the undead, including the ability to sexually enslave anyone he chooses. Hoping to learn how his kind copes with this bizarre new era, Zginski tracks down a nest of teenage vampires. But these young vampires have little knowledge of their true nature, having learned most of what they know from movies like Blacula.
Forming an uneasy alliance with the young vampires, Zginski begins to teach them the truth about their powers. They must learn quickly, for there's a new drug on the street—a drug created to specifically target and destroy vampires. As Zginski and his allies track the drug to its source, they may unwittingly be stepping into a fifty-year-old trap that can destroy them all . . .
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities13 Reviews
3.0
Ms Angelita
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Kvree801
Created over 1 year agoShare
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JillyReads
Created about 4 years agoShare
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“For the most part I enjoyed this. I read it because I'd enjoyed all of Bledsoe's other books and this is a darkly funny and often disgusting look at what would happen if an early Victorian Serbian vampire suddenly reawakened in 1975 Memphis. You'd naturally expect an adjustment period but Rudolpho is completely anachronistic - talking candidly about purchasing slaves, infuriated by women and the poor and black people having equal (for the 70s) rights with rich, powerful, white men. In this respect, it's intelligently done even if the subject matter is somewhat repugnant. It makes sense for an apex predator amongst apex predators, who has always enjoyed a position of privilege to have difficulty with the 'modern' world.
If you don't like or can't read past a lot of sex in your books - specifically dubious consent and borderline rape sexual content, as well as instances of sexual coercion and outright rape - then you're not going to love this. It's deliberately written in a very male gaze-y way, intended to titillate too. I say this as an observation not an accusation. Let's be honest about how the majority of vampire fiction these days is written with a female target audience in mind, normally featuring slavering hunks of alpha male vampire to tickle certain fancies (rolls eyes). There's nothing wrong in theory with using vampire mythos to explore the darker reaches of sexuality. The reason Dracula became a huge hit long after Stoker died - thus ensuring the enduring love of the vampire - was because film adaptations (especially early black and white, and silent ones) used the image of a foul (later a handsome and debonair) creature of the night penetrating the exposed neck and shoulder of a swooning and beautiful young woman as a stand in for being able to show actual sexual content. There's no original vampire canon that says bites are administered to the neck btw, that was just the least risqué area which could be shown that would link to sex in the audience's mind. occasionally with a hint of exposed décolletage. Folklore vampires were not especially interested in blood either - living off any human bodily secretions. And I do mean any. The excellent vampire PR following Dracula did a lot to clean up their image.
Why are you waffling, Jules? I hear you cry. Well, because there were things that troubled me about some of the sexual content and want to be clear that using the idea of a daemon lover to get over the hurdle of belief that was 'good girls don't want sex' is one I'm fully aware of. I think we can do better these days, and yes even 11 yrs ago when this was published we could have expected better. But I am not throwing shade merely because a male author decided to write about female sexuality in quite a graphic way, clearly intended to make the reader hot and bothered. Vampirism in books and films has been used to talk about rape without PIV or other sexual assault. Kind of an 'eat your cake and have it' scenario where the consequences of putting the topic on the table are ones that can be played off lightly or as fantasy.
So what's my big beef? Bledsoe uses the idea of female virginity as a way of classifying minor vampire powers. Be a female virgin and become a vampire, for instance, and you'll be functionally immune to physical desire whilst inspiring mindless lust in others. Faurvette, is a virgin when she dies and becomes a vampire, but before she rises, her corpse is gang raped. As a consequence she's very susceptible to the sexual compulsion of stronger vampires, but is forced to lose her virginity over and over. This is described as excruciating and bloody agony every time. The concept of virginity is an outmoded sexist idea designed to hem in women from having sexual agency. Or, to control people who would act perfectly naturally and responsibly in the Organise Religion de jour would just not give them massive sexual hang ups. So it's already a shaky starting place. Add to that, Faurvette being a 'sexy virgin' who wants it but suffers for it, is just compounding the problem. And then consider that making your sexual debut as a woman does not involve the old myth about tearing and pain and bloodloss. Seriously this is not how hymens work. It's not a freshness seal. Many women don't tear their hymens until childbirth. First time sex does not have to be painful at all - at least it shouldn't be if your partner is at all considerate and thinking about your needs. Frankly this bullshit needs to stop appearing everything from historical fiction to contemporary romance because IT'S NOT TRUE. And it just feeds into the same sexist model about female virginity being somehow a sacred thing. It's only sacred or important to the degree with which you imbue it with those things. So yeah. That was a huge turn off. Hopefully in the last eleven years, the author has learned a bit more about how female bodies actually work?!
Second big problem: Danielle briefly gains vampiric mind control, sexual compulsion powers and decides to work them out by forcing a man to have sex with her and then for him and her best friend to have sex with each other. I am 90% sure this was included as sexual titillation rather than a true representation of any more meaningful comment on the human psyche. And presumably Bledsoe doesn't want us to feel much sympathy for anyone in this book - almost everyone is on some level vile. But in terms of serious plot and character development it was unnecessary and repulsive. Yes Bledsoe's vampires are predators in every sense of the word and sex is a big part of it but that was just completely off the wall.
In conclusion, a mixed bag. I'm find with dark themes, graphic sex and vampires being disgusting rather than sexy. There were just times when Bledsoe jumped the tracks and I did not want to follow because the thrills were cheap and degrading - and not in a good way. Having said that, I will read the second one because I remain a fan of his writing. Make of that what you will.”
polarbear1986
Created over 4 years agoShare
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“Be prepared for the use of a lot of racist language. This is done so in contemporarily accurate ways to the setting of the novel, but it times felt a bit gross knowing the background of the author. At times, it was also reminiscent of Blacksploitation, which I think was intentional, but again get a bit clumsy and heavy handed. The story is compelling in many ways, but I have a lot of hang ups. Another is the focus on the concept of virginity, especially of an ~underage~ character. Still processing a good bit and I don’t regret reading it, but I certainly have some let downs as someone from Memphis who’s a vampire fanatic.”
RoChayo
Created over 5 years agoShare
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