Review: Hemovore by Jordan Castillo Price

Mark Hansen thought working as artist’s assistant would be glamorous, especially if that artist was a vampire. Black tie events, witty repartee, gracing the pages of the local style section…. Didn’t happen. Not even once.

Jonathan Varga is an enigma. True, he’s quiet, generous, and scrupulously polite. But he has zero social life, refuses to be interviewed or photographed, and insists he can only consume feline blood.

Why supermarket blood won't suffice, Mark hasn’t asked. He’s rarely at a loss for words—he can dish an insult and follow it with a snap as quick as you can say “Miss Thang.” But one look at Jonathan’s black-as-sin gypsy eyes, and Mark’s objections drain away.

So he endures the perpetual grind of their routine: Jonathan hiding in his studio, swiping black paint onto black canvases. Mark hurling insults while he buffs the office to a shine with antiviral wipes. Each of them avoiding the other in a careful choreography…until a blurb in Art in America unleashes a chain of harrowing events.

As secrets from Jonathan’s past are brought to light, it becomes clear that all his precautions weren’t nearly enough.

Second expanded edition includes bonus novelette Sweet

And there goes my JCP fangirl heart! This author has a writing style that I just love. I don't think she's written a story or character that I haven't drooled all over, and Hemovore is no exception. This is vampires done brilliantly. BRILLIANTLY.

I love how talented JCP is; I can fall into her dystopian worlds so easily. True, they're not all that different from ours on the surface, but there are nuances and differences. They're easily understandable though. Huge parts of the text aren't given away to explanations of this altered world, but I understand it perfectly.

Mark and Jonathan. Jonathan and Mark. How much do I love these two? A lot, that's how much. A whole damn lot. Jonathan is V positive and Mark V negative, so it doesn't matter how much Mark wants Jonathan, he can't have him. Hell, he can't even touch the same surface without gloves on, so there is no way that anything more is going to happen, and Mark resigns himself to the same old, same old. Except of course life always has a curve ball to throw.

Written with care and attention to detail, this novel is gritty and gripping and I love the relationship development as much as the dystopian world it is set in.

Go and read it.

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