Review of It's Hard to Be a Vampire

[Ohmy Book]

[Following is a volunteer review of "It's Hard to Be a Vampire" by Viktoria Faust.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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"Only the fear was the life inside him." ("Quietly They Rise From the Fog", Location: 63%)

It's Hard to Be a Vampire by Viktoria Faust is a 100-page collection of nine short stories, based mainly on horror and speculative fiction. The nine titles are "It's Hard to Be a Vampire", "Gallery of Horrors", "The Painting Strikes Back", "Do Vampires Dream of Slaughtered Sheep?", "Narcissus", "Quietly They Rise From the Fog", "Behind the Door", "The Invisible Ink", and "That Bloody Useless Bloodless Body!" All the protagonists were crazy and interesting in their own way. The author wrote using the third-person point-of-view, but the narrator had access to the character's, especially and mainly the protagonist's, thoughts. As the quote above hints, fear, purpose, and death are the central themes of these stories. This book discusses vampires, ghosts, murderers, and psychopaths. These stories are unusual and progress unexpectedly, making them engaging. The endings are abrupt but thought-provoking and intriguing.

I am using quotes from the book to support whatever I am discussing in this review. The paragraph following the quote is related to it, but not to the story the line is from.

I am an English Literature student pursuing an MA, and I could do a whole analysis of this book and its stories. It was such a good piece of work. I enjoyed how this book was humorous, thrilling, and, at times, fear-inducing. The author is intelligent and a great writer. They used excellent imagery. They were successful in creating distinctly different characters. Their wit and depth of thought are reflected in this collection. I would like to read more by them.

"It's Hard to Be a Vampire" (the first short story) was funny. I have mixed thoughts about the last sentence of the story. I think it was meant to be funny, but I was shocked. Yet, it was a good tale. "Gallery of Horrors" had me smiling because of how dark and psychotic it was. I had fun coming across the use of dramatic irony (a literary technique where the audience is aware of facts but the characters are not) in the second story. "The Painting Strikes Back" was scary, which made it gripping. In "Narcissus", I had no idea where the story was going or what the characters' motivations were. This had me captivated. The author wrote exactly what I was thinking near the end of "Do Vampires Dream of Slaughtered Sheep?" It was riveting to see how acutely aware they were of what they were penning down and what the reader would think of it. "Quietly They Rise From the Fog" was creepy and psychologically well-written. The building suspense in "Behind the Door" was exciting. "The Invisible Ink" had me wondering about and trying to understand what happened by the end. In the last story, "That Bloody Useless Bloodless Body", it felt like the author was directly speaking to the reader. It was a good experience reading about a fictional person whose thoughts and behaviour were aberrant. These were the prime things that entertained me in this book.

"The writer writes to entertain himself, right?" ("That Bloody Useless Bloodless Body!", Location: 81%)

This book was not an effortless read for me; I stopped at too many instances to reread the sentences and understand what was happening. The language used was uncomplicated, but the sentences were complex, making my reading speed slow. Every story made me stop and think about it. Yet, I cannot say that I hated that about this book. It was like reading a stream-of-consciousness novel where the thoughts are flowing and the reader needs to catch up with them. Except for having to reread lines, I have nothing else that I did not like about this book. Some readers might think that these stories are without meaning or nonsensical, but I think this makes them all the more enthralling. Probably, like the quote above, the author wanted to entertain themselves and not the reader, which sounds very cool to me.

"I suspected the answer to be far away, further and beyond what I can understand." ("The Invisible Ink", Location: 78%)

I believe this book deserves 4 out of 5 stars for its open-to-interpretation endings and hidden meanings in the stories. Though it took me many days to get through the less than 100 pages of this book, I cannot bring myself to give it a low score, and yet that is the reason I am not giving it 5 stars. I really enjoyed that I had to stop to go into my head and interpret what was happening. Sometimes, the details of what was happening were not shared, making me ponder. It was fun for me to interpret what the stories meant or conveyed. This quote above is similar to what I feel about understanding what was happening in each of the stories. Furthermore, I found only one minor typographical error in this work, which makes this book deserving of this high rating.

This book is based on mature and dark themes. It has recurrent use of profanity too. These are the reasons why I would recommend this book to only an adult audience that favours the genres of crime, thriller, murder, and horror, with a touch of speculative fiction. I would also like to make readers aware that some characters in these stories say and do things that would be considered blasphemous and grossly wrong by devout Christian believers. Please note this if you want to read this book.

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It's Hard to Be a Vampire
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[Jeff Kanda]

I remember watching the Vampire Diaries Series and I did love it. Since this book seems to have some vampire stories, I believe i will love it. Thanks for the detailed review. I have enjoyed reading it.

[Cara Wilding]

[Following is a volunteer review of "It's Hard to Be a Vampire" by Viktoria Faust.]

It's Hard to Be a Vampire by Viktoria Faust is a 100-page collection of nine short stories, based mainly on horror and speculative fiction. The nine titles are "It's Hard to Be a Vampire", "Gallery of Horrors", "The Painting Strikes Back", "Do Vampires Dream of Slaughtered Sheep?", "Narcissus", "Quietly They Rise From the Fog", "Behind the Door", "The Invisible Ink", and "That Bloody Useless Bloodless Body!" All the protagonists were crazy and interesting in their own way. The author wrote using the third-person point-of-view, but the narrator had access to the character's, especially and mainly the protagonist's, thoughts. As the quote above hints, fear, purpose, and death are the central themes of these stories. This book discusses vampires, ghosts, murderers, and psychopaths. These stories are unusual and progress unexpectedly, making them engaging. The endings are abrupt but thought-provoking and intriguing.

"It's Hard to Be a Vampire" (the first short story) was funny. I have mixed thoughts about the last sentence of the story. I think it was meant to be funny, but I was shocked.

It was a good experience reading about a fictional person whose thoughts and behaviour were aberrant. These were the prime things that entertained me in this book.

This book was not an effortless read for me; I stopped at too many instances to reread the sentences and understand what was happening. The language used was uncomplicated, but the sentences were complex, making my reading speed slow. Every story made me stop and think about it. Yet, I cannot say that I hated that about this book. It was like reading a stream-of-consciousness novel where the thoughts are flowing and the reader needs to catch up with them. Except for having to reread lines, I have nothing else that I did not like about this book. Some readers might think that these stories are without meaning or nonsensical, but I think this makes them all the more enthralling. Probably, like the quote above, the author wanted to entertain themselves and not the reader, which sounds very cool to me.

This book caught my attention quite a while ago, although I had no idea it was a collection of short stories! I had just gotten done reading a vampire book, so I put this one on pause. I may very well have to revisit this one! I am intrigued with the chapter titles and the fact that it seems like there is a lot of "crazy" and unusual stories. I don't know how I feel about abrupt endings, but your mention that they are thought-provoking does interest me. The first short story, and title of the book, sounds like there is some good humor as well. The idea of a writer wanting to entertain themselves as opposed to the reader is ironic, which makes it slightly cool - I would agree with you! I enjoyed your review, almost missed it...but glad I didn't! Until next time...

[Ohmy Book]

I remember watching the Vampire Diaries Series and I did love it. Since this book seems to have some vampire stories, I believe i will love it. Thanks for the detailed review. I have enjoyed reading it.

I have never watched the Vampire Diaries and I know I should. I'm happy my review made you interested in reading this book. Thank you so much!

[Ohmy Book]

[Following is a volunteer review of "It's Hard to Be a Vampire" by Viktoria Faust.]

It's Hard to Be a Vampire by Viktoria Faust is a 100-page collection of nine short stories, based mainly on horror and speculative fiction. The nine titles are "It's Hard to Be a Vampire", "Gallery of Horrors", "The Painting Strikes Back", "Do Vampires Dream of Slaughtered Sheep?", "Narcissus", "Quietly They Rise From the Fog", "Behind the Door", "The Invisible Ink", and "That Bloody Useless Bloodless Body!" All the protagonists were crazy and interesting in their own way. The author wrote using the third-person point-of-view, but the narrator had access to the character's, especially and mainly the protagonist's, thoughts. As the quote above hints, fear, purpose, and death are the central themes of these stories. This book discusses vampires, ghosts, murderers, and psychopaths. These stories are unusual and progress unexpectedly, making them engaging. The endings are abrupt but thought-provoking and intriguing.

"It's Hard to Be a Vampire" (the first short story) was funny. I have mixed thoughts about the last sentence of the story. I think it was meant to be funny, but I was shocked.

It was a good experience reading about a fictional person whose thoughts and behaviour were aberrant. These were the prime things that entertained me in this book.

This book was not an effortless read for me; I stopped at too many instances to reread the sentences and understand what was happening. The language used was uncomplicated, but the sentences were complex, making my reading speed slow. Every story made me stop and think about it. Yet, I cannot say that I hated that about this book. It was like reading a stream-of-consciousness novel where the thoughts are flowing and the reader needs to catch up with them. Except for having to reread lines, I have nothing else that I did not like about this book. Some readers might think that these stories are without meaning or nonsensical, but I think this makes them all the more enthralling. Probably, like the quote above, the author wanted to entertain themselves and not the reader, which sounds very cool to me.

This book caught my attention quite a while ago, although I had no idea it was a collection of short stories! I had just gotten done reading a vampire book, so I put this one on pause. I may very well have to revisit this one! I am intrigued with the chapter titles and the fact that it seems like there is a lot of "crazy" and unusual stories. I don't know how I feel about abrupt endings, but your mention that they are thought-provoking does interest me. The first short story, and title of the book, sounds like there is some good humor as well. The idea of a writer wanting to entertain themselves as opposed to the reader is ironic, which makes it slightly cool - I would agree with you! I enjoyed your review, almost missed it...but glad I didn't! Until next time...

Hi, Cara. You are exactly right about the first story being humorous, but it's kind of satirical. Thank you so much for your kind words and sharing your thoughts! I would love to read your review if or whenever you finish this book. Hope you're having a good day!

[Rob Carr]

This sounds like a set of stories I would enjoy despite it not being the easiest read. Thanks for the review.

[Ohmy Book]

This sounds like a set of stories I would enjoy despite it not being the easiest read. Thanks for the review.

I'm happy to know it interests you. The stories make you pause and think about what you just read. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment here. Have a great day!

[Laney K]

I do love a good vampire book, and short story collections can be so much fun. I think I might just have to check this one out!

[Ohmy Book]

I do love a good vampire book, and short story collections can be so much fun. I think I might just have to check this one out!

Yes, because if that's the case, you're definitely going to enjoy this!