Vamped: A Novel by David Sosnowski
Started Reading: January 7, 2008
Finished Reading: January 7, 2008
I’ve been looking for this book ever since I saw it online. I’ve looked for it in Powerbooks at Greenbelt but there was no copy. D: I was supposed to go to Fully Booked at Bonifacio High but thankfully I saw it at Gateway. 
SO WHHEEE~
This book is deserving of the high ratings its been given (although not perfect. I’d give it about an eight out of ten). David Sosnowski’s kind of vampire world is different from what I’ve usually read. Vampires do not simply co-exist with humans, they’ve overpopulated them to the point that humans are a rare commodity - farmed and harvested for the luxury and entertainment needs of a now-rampant vampire population. Normal things we take for granted today are auctioned on Ebay, requiring large bucks and a lot of time for shipping.
Enter Marty, one of the vampires that helped in increasing their kind and outbalancing the humans. When he’s bored of life (and quite ready to die, thankyouverymuch), what does he find?
A human girl on the streets.
And instead of taking her as a meal, he takes her in and takes care of her.
I love the relationship between Marty and Isuzu (yes, she’s named after an SVU). And it’s not of the dirty kind, mind. It’s purely parental on Marty’s part although I’d throw in a bit of a savior/hero-worship for the case of Isuzu (though she doesn’t really show it, especially when she gets bitchy). Marty is cynical and his lines just makes me laugh. Sosnowski manages to add a bit of philosophical musings that don’t get out of place. Despite the different kind of world Marty’s living in, his questions or observations about the world of the living and the undead is similar to the kinds of questions some people ask about life.
The development of the story and the introduction of the characters are fairly smooth. Marty’s past resurfaces as he deals with taking care of Isuzu and it makes it easier to understand him, how he things, and the kind of world he lived and grew up in. Another interesting aspect of him is, he is Catholic. And while he switches from a Catholic kind of upbringing to a loss of belief in God, he’s forced to impose the religion on Isuzu still because there’s that part of him and still believes there’s a Heaven he wants his ward to be able to enter someday.
Although I’m not a big fan of the ending, the story as a whole was a different kind of read for me. : ) Different in a good way. Vamped is not a dark kind of novel, although it handles topics and scenes like sex and violence, but that’s just in the level of real-life conditions. What’s important about it is the character of Marty and the insights he has about life, how that changes over the years he’s lived as a vampire; how his past has affected his present; and how he is changing as he copes with parenting situations. And I just liked Marty better with his humor. This was a book I did not put down.
Tags: David Sosnowski