BLOODSUCKING FIENDS

Bloodsucking Fiends is recommended for ages 18+.

The book includes mature language and themes such as sex, violence, and drug use. Please see the trigger warnings below for more details.

Bloodsucking Fiends contains a lot of heavy themes that may not be suitable for all ages, and may be triggering to readers. To help our fans decide if this book is right for them, we have included this trigger warning list as there are topics that readers may find disturbing.

• Physical and mental harm
• Sexual assault
• Death
• Drugs
• Kidnapping
• Torture

Jody turns from a predictable, shy, and monotonous 26 year old to an outspoken, strong, confident vampire overnight. With her heightened senses and strength, she FINALLY feels able to overcome all the things weighing her down, like leaving her frat-boy boyfriend who's borderline abusive, and not taking slack from men harassing her. These new powers are great, but definitely not without pain. In comes Elijah, her sire, the original Teflon user, and Tommy Flood, Safeway night manager and writer, both here to shake up her world, for better or worse. It's a battle of love, old school and new school, with the added elements of the supernatural and a writer's desire for love and success. Elijah and Tommy are stark opposites in almost every single way. Elijah is strong, older, wealthy, undead, and is a continuation of Jody's past history of overbearing and demanding men, whereas Tommy is exactly none of that, until he gets turned.

The relationship between Jody and Tommy is a rocky road for sure, but it's a comedic twist of desire that deviates from the tropes of easy fantasy and fate. With both leads coming to terms with mortality, the afterlife, and gender roles at different rates, Bloodsucking Fiends plays devil's advocate in offering a different take on classic love stories and perfect endings. Specifically, I love the way Moore utilizes anticipated shock value to throw readers through loops. His knowledge of what readers expect allows him to twist the story in one direction and rip the rug from underneath you. Just when you expect one thing, it's completely reversed, like when Tommy has been courted by a woman leaving nice flowers but it turns out to be his male roommates. Or with the Animals all seeming one way and turning out to be another, making us question if anything we thought we knew really was, and how to prepare ourselves with bombshells dropping and changing left and right.

And though there is profanity and sex in the book, I find that the underlying tone of it is so humorous instead of overly aggressive or sexual that it adds a layer of awareness and humanity instead of secondhand embarrassment for more shy readers. Yes, there is a decent amount of swearing and adult themes, but stripping away the perfectionist surrealism of most written encounters, we find a balance of reality and hilarity in parts like the magazine article quiz allusion that directly reflects what most of us have seen in the Cosmo magazines in our youth.

The most consistent, and my personal favorite, character is the Emperor. If you've read other Moore books, the chances you've heard of him are high. He makes appearances in books like A Dirty Job and is always there when you need him. He's a beacon of hope, always wandering the streets with his trusty sidekicks Bummer and Lazarus at his side to take care of San Francisco. His interactions with Jody and Tommy are guiding and fatherly, something both of them have lacked in their lives. He's just a heartwarming character to have pop up and check in every once in a while!