Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: smash. This book is a vampire novel, a historical fiction novel, and a mystery novel all rolled into one.
Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires isn’t the kind of book I’d normally read: gonzo fantasy. But it came highly recommended and — in spite of itself — it worked. The imagery was overpowering and the narrative eventually caught up with it near the end. It made sense for the kind of story it was trying to tell: take the apocalyptic overtones of the Bubonic Plague and turn it into an actual apocalypse.
So I had high hopes for this one even though I’m not a vampire guy: crime novel set in 1978 New York City. Yes and yes.
But this didn’t work for me as well as I would have liked, mostly because the gonzo style that was so effective in the first book is wasted on a first person POV of a character that’s insipid and annoying.
And I could have lived with that if this was just a crime novel but it’s also a vampire novel so we have to engage with the whole, y’know, vampiric aspect of it all. And that got old fast, along with the narration.
There are still moments of visual beauty, as well as an interesting ending. But I think Buehlman missed the chance to do something better with the story. Even a third person narrative would have helped to get me out of this guy’s head. I liked parts of it but overall, I’m glad to be done.