**When we first started Horror Yearbook I wanted to try and bridge the gap between horror movie fans and horror book fans. Two years later we have all but been blacklisted from the horror writer community, so I hope Larry W. Bills can handle this review.
Like a lot of horror movies, horror novels tend to tread over the same territory. But some writers are able to make those same themes exciting over and over again. However, some do not. Before I read Dawn’s End I had just finished an older book called Stinger by Robert R. McCammon. Stinger is nothing more than your typical alien/horror novel. Good alien lands on Earth, bad alien follows, people die, good alien teams up with humans to defeat bad alien. The thing about McCammon is he manages to make this tired formula exciting again. A helicopter chase in the book reads like you are watching a film, all the characters are developed nicely, and everything ties up like a neat little bow at the end.
Dawn’s End is just another vampire story to add to a thousand other vampire stories. Vamp sires another vamp, sired vamp doesn’t want to be a vamp, said vamp falls in love with human, father vamp comes back to kill other vamp and so on. However Bills gives us nothing to be excited about. I hate to say it but even if he fleshed out the romance part a little more the gay in me would have been satisfied, but instead we get nothing. Not even a cheesy romance novel.
What happened to the days where books went where films could never go, especially horror books? Horror novels should make you want to turn the page because you know where they are going but can’t believe they are going there. They have the advantage of doing things SFX could never dream of doing; creating characters that films have no time to develop. And can I get a little raunchy sex these days? Also what is the point of only suggesting the horrors in a horror novel? Without cringe worthy, disturbing scenes I may as well be watching a PG-13 rated horror film instead of wasting my time reading. There is a reason books don’t have ratings. The gloves are off- take advantage of it!
Dawn’s End falls victim to all these things. Devon, our villain (think Lestat with no balls) is as menacing as a vampire without fangs. You could care less that he is about to find his prey- the lovable loser Alex who was dumb enough to fall in love with Rena the female vampire Devon hunts. Devon sired Rena who insulted him by rejecting her vampire nature and taking his eye. Devon wants Rena dead and Rena wants to stay alive, spawning a game of global vampire cat and mouse. You may as well just read the back cover description on Dawn’s End because that is as exciting as it gets.
The build up is not there, the romance is not there and the most horrible thing that happens is Rena eating a cow. There is even a scene where Devon explains that what you learned about vampires from movies is bull but then goes on to describe how most of the movie clichés actually apply to vampires. I tried my best to find something positive about the book because I do not like beating up on self-published authors. The only thing I could come up with is this: If you are obsessed with vampires and have read everything vampire related then at least there is another vampire book for you to read.
