Rhoda is 41 years old, overweight, Jewish and looking for
a Jewish man to settle down with after her marriage broke up and she’s had a
series of poor relationships since then. Just her luck that the first man who
seems interested isn’t a man at all – he’s a vampire. But at least he’s Jewish.
And he’s into her – zaftig and all.
Dating a vampire isn’t easy, especially not a vampire in
an orthodox community when you’re anything but. Rhoda has to work through her
own personal insecurities as well, as someone who has been through the wringer
a few times already, it’s hard to be so invested in someone who is so very
different; Rhoda flails between worry about their relationship to desperately
trying to make it work even while Sheldon has to deal with his own family and
friends.
And then there’s Rhoda’s mother with the heart condition.
She has to go through yet another horrendous surgery or she won’t live much
longer – and at 81, that surgery doesn’t look too safe. Unable to stand the
thought of life alone, Rhoda makes the leap into seeing her mother – and her
friends “the goils” become a vampire and join the Golden Grandmas – a network
of elderly vampire women.
But while undeath brings her mother a new lease of life
and energy, allowing her to throw herself into activities she hasn’t enjoyed in
decades, it also brings with it a disturbing blood lust, a hunger that drives
her to the darker side of life and death. And one that leaves bodies in its
wake – and the possible attention of the vampire authorities
There is a wonderful sense of Jewish culture – Rhoda and
her family and contacts are all very real people who live their culture and
carry it with them at all times. It’s in their language, their food, their
family bonds, their history and their understanding. It’s funny without being
mocked, heavy without being stereotyped. It’s used for in community jokes but
never outside mockery. It’s funny, it’s witty and the characters are extremely
real and natural. The characters make this book.
We also have some fascinating conflicts – Sheldon being
torn between his fellow Hasids and fellow vampires, whether Rhoda, a
non-kosher, non-practicing Jew would fit in with such a traditional, orthodox
family and, of course Goldie, Sheldon’s golem who is determined to see him
settle down with a nice, orthodox, Jewish vampire. I’m also really disappointed
with how Goldie was handled, especially since she’s clearly a stand in for
Sheldon’s mother. I would rather have had reconciliation rather than the future
wife having to kill her future mother-in-law for the wedding to even happen.
Then there’s the big issue of Rhoda’s mother – becoming a
vampire at the age of 80 (another very unique twist, vampires are nearly always
young) and dealing with that sudden youthful burst of energy, becoming reborn
and no longer infirm and how she deals with that – to say nothing of how she
reconciles her energised, youthful feeling with an 80 year old body and how
people treats her. And then there’s the pesky issue of blood addiction, of
wanting to kill humans and even doing so and justifying it as “they’re bad
people.”
Unfortunately, while we do look at all of these, they don’t
get nearly as much attention as Rhoda’s insecurities and relationship angst
which dominates so much of the book. Rhoda is a 40 year old woman who is
overweight – both are damn rare in Urban Fantasy. And Sheldon loves her because
of these traits, not in spite of them. Rhoda has also come out of an unpleasant
divorce and had a series of very unsuccessful attempts are relationships. As
such she is quite insecure – and very human about it. While I didn’t find it an
endearing trait and wasn’t particularly enjoying the times she worried and
fretted over whether Sheldon was into her or if he had left her, it was very natural
and very human and made Rhoda a strong character. What did derail me entirely
was her finding a book of 1950s style “rules” and deciding she would try and
follow them.
I was frustrated that we had these real and fascinating points of conflict that could have been analysed in far more depth but we spent much much more time on Rhoda’s insecurities and fretting. I felt that the true gems of this book were eclipsed by some very standard relationship angst.
I do like pop culture references in books – it shows they
are actually grounded in our world and not in a fantasy world with no vampire
fiction ever. It gives it more presence and context. That being said, there’s
also too much of a good thing and you can go from “pop culture references for
setting and “this author is a major Twilight fan”. I liked that vampire fiction
was referenced but there was too much Twilight and bordering on that for True
Blood.
This book has some GBLT characters. Unfortunately. There’s
Hedwig and her group – the book completely conflates trans people with gay men
and cross-dressers. Hedwig is consistently referred to with female pronouns,
which is good, but every time we see her or one of her friends we also get a
description of how tall and bulky and muscular and masculine they are. In fact,
despite the many trans people (or crossdressers or drag queens – I really can’t
tell who is supposed to be who because they’re all conflated) there, they’re
all massive, muscular and “manly” and always have that pointed out. And we have
use of the slur “tranny” which really, really shouldn’t be there. And I’m all
for vigilantes who beat up gay bashers, but not when they’re called the “Tranny
Police”. No, really, no.
They go to a gay club full of “crossdressers” (again, no
clue if this is cross-dressers, drag queens or trans people) or half naked men –
the two flavours of gay men apparently = except “gays” is usually used instead
of gay men. In fact “the gays” as a homogenous group is used commonly. And we
have lines like these:
“Gay boys, of course,” I said to Hediwg. “They would see Mom and Miriam as trophies – as the ultimate fag hags.”
“Mom always did go for gay guys and vice versa. She had a very campy way about her.”
“I’ve always liked the gays and they like me.”
Slurs, stereotypes, sweeping statements and tired tropes –
“the gays” are not well portrayed here at all. Really, referring to any
marginalised group as “the X” in vast sweeping terms is insulting, remember it’s
actual people you’re writing about. And they find these “gay boys” by asking a
guy who’s had a threesome with them, of course.
GBLT people managed to fill in as both completer
strangers who were willing to risk life and limb to help Rhoda and the villains.
I think it was a genuine attempt at inclusion but it went so very very wrong.
We have a few POC in passing but not in any major way –
mainly side characters. And we do have some unpleasant references (the Middle Eastern
guy she said would make her nervous on a plane.)
All in all, it has some real gems. But there’s about
10-20% of the book that needs completely excising or re-writing (any part with
Hedwig and co) and I’d love a strong shift of emphasis. As it is, the gems I
love about this book are sadly swamped by a lot of angst, a lot of rambling
insecurity and moments that, frankly, make me cringe. Still, it did make me
laugh and I did enjoy it – but I feel it lacked its full potential.
Reviewers Note: A copy of this book was provided by the author for review
