Drawing Blood: A Novel

I consider this to be one of the greatest books ever written. Poppy Z. Brite is so descriptive in her writing that I get so lost in her novels. This is the first one of hers that I read, I got it about 5 years ago, maybe more. It was the hard cover edition and I read it and fell in love with it. Then, like an idiot, I lent it to a friend and I never saw it again. I bought the paperback and i read it so many times that it almost fell apart. I am just so entirely moved by the love story within these pages. I love the way Trevor goes back to his home town to deal with his demons and then Zack just finds his way there. I also completely love the way she works in Steve and Ghost (from Lost Souls) I think for the first couple of weeks after I read Drawing Blood I was afraid to go to the bathroom. I still get a little scared every once in a while looking at the shower curtain rod, he he. As an aspiring writer, I can only hope to write something of this caliber.

I think I must be one of those few poeple who like Drawing Blood better than Lost Souls, Poppy Z Brite's much more touted debut novel, although Lost Souls was very good also. Lost Souls was basically a coming of age story spiced up with some twisted vampire lore. Drawing Blood, on the other hand, is a love story; and I've always been a real 'sucker' for a good love story, gay or straight. As always, Brite's characters are vividly drawn and colorful, and her prose is so smooth and mellow that you hate to see the book end. I've read where some have criticize the over abundance of gay sex loving detailed in this book. But, hey, I'd read those any day over that terrible scene of Steve raping Anne in Lost Souls.

Brite has held the position of being my favorite practitioner of horror since I first read her novel Lost Souls. I have now read everything she has published, and love her just as much. She writes in a beautifuly poetic quality like none I've seen before. This novel is a very modernized retelling of the Haunted House story (with its own original emements), a beautiful love story (between two guys--be warned now if this offends you), and the metaphoric refference to a seperate comic world called BirdLand (but it does not remain only a metaphor for the entire story.) The characters are all very well drawn: a boy who's father, in a drunken rage, kills his mother, brother, and himself; an interesting computer hacker; a New Orleans stipper helplessly in love with her gay friend; and a Jamaican-American/local marajuana dealer with a good heart. I recommend this book to anyone who has previously enjoyed Brite, and anyone who has yet to discover her.

I recently re-read this book, and I was amazed all over again at how good it is. Okay, Poppy may very well be the most obsessed writer since David Goodis (I'm not sure she could write a book without going into her manias about "beautiful gay boys in love" and how cool it is to get drunk and smoke pot and overglorification of the whole superficial goth scene), but she writes so incredibly well that it's pretty easy to overlook those things. Poppy's the kind of writer who makes you jealous... if you write, it's inspirational to read her because you continually run across a finely-turned sentence or a certain description that just floors you, and you want to try and top it. And, you usually can't. I'm now re-reading _Lost Souls_ and enjoying it, too, even though I think this book is still the best thing she's written so far. I reccommend all her books, and if you like Poppy, then you're sure to love Caitlin R. Kiernan as well - _Silk_ is incredible. Poppy's not for everyone, I think - it's strong stuff in many ways - but if you can handle it, you'll be well-rewarded.

I stumbled onto Poppy Brite quite by accident. I read the cover summary of her first book, "Lost Souls?" and thought it sounded interesting. I read that title in two days. Luckily, her second novel, "Drawing Blood," had just been released. I picked it up and finished it in one day. When I put it down, my first thought was, "Good, but not as good as 'Lost Souls'." But as the days went on, it was "Drawing Blood" that continued to reverberate in my mind. I have now read it over 10 times and find more depth with every reading. Brite has the ability to create characters that feel as if they are your best friends, and creates locales with the mastery of a poet. A big Anne Rice fan, I was amazed by Brite's ability to accomplish far more with her characters and settings with less verbosity. Never once did I skim any of Brite's books. Don't get me wrong, I am still an Anne Rice fan, but with Anne Rice, I often found myself skipping over pages that detailed one cornerstone of a building. Also, unlike Rice, Brite does not mince words about her characters' lives. Whereas Rice hints at same sex attraction between her characters, Brite creates no allusion...her characters are out-and-out gay just as her straight characters are definately straight. "Drawing Blood" is an amazing character study, an endearing love story, and a treatise on psychological horror. Think of it as "The Shining" of the nineties with a distinctly GenX flavor.