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Bite Me: A Vampire Love Story

Christopher Moore

Published 2010              309 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

Abby is dedicated to turning herself into a vampire. Her boyfriend Steve is researching a serum to turn the undead back into mortals. Chet – an enormous vampire cat – is busy turning the stray cats of San Francisco into vampiric kitties. And vampire lovers Jody and Tommy are imprisoned in a bronze statue and have to try to escape...

In the unpredictable, blood-sucking, thrillingly paranormal San Francisco Christopher Moore has created, a love story unfolds that has real warmth and bite.

The Review

Bite Me is Christopher Moore’s third novel following the continuing adventures of Jody and Tommy, a pair of young vampires from the Bay Area of San Francisco. The story starts just after where You Suck (the previous book in this series) finished but with a first chapter dedicated to bringing readers up to speed with events new readers shouldn’t be too lost in Bite Me if they haven’t read the earlier novels. The extensive re-cap is well detailed and followed by a test, which any vaguely attentive reader should pass. While it’s not necessary to have read the previous instalments in this trilogy before Bite Me, I’d strongly recommend reading both Blood Sucking Fiends and You Suck because they are a highly amusing take upon the vampire love story.

The story starts out with Jody and Tommy encased in bronze, effectively trapped, alive (well, undead) yet unable to move. Since they have been trapped Abby Von Normal their teenaged Goth minion has been guarding them – okay living in their apartment – while her boyfriend, a science student called Foo Dog, performs all kinds of experiments evolving turning rats into vampires amongst other things. While Abby and Foo Dog have been enjoying living in the love lair things have gotten more than a little strange on the streets of San Francisco with a plague of vampire cats running amok, eating the city’s homeless population.

For readers familiar with Christopher Moore’s vampire books, Bite Me sees a welcome return to all of the series’ usual players. In addition to Jody and Tommy, the Animals, the Emperor, detectives Rivera and Cavuto, Abby and Foo Dog all return to reprise their earlier roles as lovable losers and comic misfits. There is virtually no love story here since the story has less focus on Jody and Tommy as a couple than it does on Abby and friends dealing with the vampire cat menace – which between them they manage to screw up fairly well.

Bite Me is told in third person from multiple points of view. Just about every character in the story gets to chime in at some point with their version of key events. Even Chet, the vampire kitty, gets a turn at telling the story from his point of view. A large chunk of the story is told by Abby Normal, Jody and Tommy’s minion, who takes her dark duties to her vampire masters very seriously. Except for when she’s grounded or made to errands for her mother. Abby is hilarious and her passages, written in teenaged Goth speak, really stand out from all the rest.

All-in-all Bite Me makes a good end to Christopher Moore’s vampire trilogy. While there is perhaps a lack of character relationship development in the story there is plenty of action driven vampire cat slaying action (who knew cats could be so evil?) The loveable wacky characters, and bizarre situations they find themselves in, are by turns touching and hilarious. A fun, fast read – Bite Me’s satire is spot on the mark, making spontaneous outbursts of laugher a distinct possibility whilst reading this book.

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