mario_morales

Axel Taiari’s A Light to Starve By is set in a modern-day Paris where vampires have run out of places to feed. Most vampires have joined one of the many clans that have popped up since the civil war, but our unnamed narrator claims no affiliations, a loner who is slowly starving to death like most others. Life is tough for these vampires. If they’re not fighting each other, they’re running from hunters who ruthlessly scour the city in search of the undead. I really liked the unique twist on this vampire tale. I like that the humans are aware of the vampires and, as humans do with every other annoyance, develop ways of dealing with them that threaten to force the vampires into extinction. Others have considered moving to other countries, but the narrator needs to stay in Paris. He’ll starve if he has to, but there is something from his past in Paris that he can’t leave behind. Taiari’s prose is precise and visceral, and it really places the reader in this story. The little nuances of this world are what make it real for the reader. This is a short but exciting read. Read it in about an hour, but it will stick with me for much longer. Don’t know if the author has a sequel in mind, but I know that I’d like to see one. This is definitely a world that is worthy of one, or perhaps a series of stories set in the same world.

2023-01-25 04:08