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francis_deer's review against another edition
4.0
The novel's original title used to be "The Night Inside" which is a far better fit than the simplistic "Kiss of the Vampire".
I first read this book in the nineties and now took it out for a reread that also felt like a journey back in time: There are video tapes, no mobile phones and when people talk about "mail" they mean "snail mail" not "email".
I enjoyed the scope of the book: The protagonist Ardeth Alexander is introduced as an academic, calm and responsible. She is kidnapped and forced to make a hard choice. She reinvents herself and when doing so plays with the known vampire trope of dark seductress. I love that the story does not end there, that it explores issues of insecurity and morality.
"I thought we didn't have consciences."
"Things would be much simpler that way, I admit. But all that died [...] was your body. Anything else that seems missing now, you yourself have buried."
Besides being an intriguing vampire story, this novel is also a fast-paced thriller with all pieces fitting together logically.
What I did not like:
At times, the combination of morbidity and eroticism was too much for me. We get the phrase "kiss of cold steel" twice. Coming from the PoV of our heroine, this term just felt wrong. When someone put a knife to my throat and threatens me with death, "kiss" is not the metaphor that would pop up in my mind.
There are also several dead women, unlucky victims all of them.
In one case, these women are killed in a larger battle but the protagonist does not give them a second thought later. I wish there would have been a moment of regret.
As for further corpses, I also wish they would have been given a resolution, e.g. someone informing the police so at least the bodies could have been found and identified. (At least, at one point Ardeth talks about that grave in the woods, so there might be a resolution outside the novel's pages.)
Still, the novel is a fast-paced and captivating read that ponders the weightier issues of identity and moral choices, and it's a pity that Nancy Baker's novels seem to be hard to obtain.
I first read this book in the nineties and now took it out for a reread that also felt like a journey back in time: There are video tapes, no mobile phones and when people talk about "mail" they mean "snail mail" not "email".
I enjoyed the scope of the book: The protagonist Ardeth Alexander is introduced as an academic, calm and responsible. She is kidnapped and forced to make a hard choice. She reinvents herself and when doing so plays with the known vampire trope of dark seductress. I love that the story does not end there, that it explores issues of insecurity and morality.
"I thought we didn't have consciences."
"Things would be much simpler that way, I admit. But all that died [...] was your body. Anything else that seems missing now, you yourself have buried."
Besides being an intriguing vampire story, this novel is also a fast-paced thriller with all pieces fitting together logically.
What I did not like:
At times, the combination of morbidity and eroticism was too much for me. We get the phrase "kiss of cold steel" twice. Coming from the PoV of our heroine, this term just felt wrong. When someone put a knife to my throat and threatens me with death, "kiss" is not the metaphor that would pop up in my mind.
There are also several dead women, unlucky victims all of them.
In one case, these women are killed in a larger battle but the protagonist does not give them a second thought later. I wish there would have been a moment of regret.
As for further corpses, I also wish they would have been given a resolution, e.g. someone informing the police so at least the bodies could have been found and identified. (At least, at one point Ardeth talks about that grave in the woods, so there might be a resolution outside the novel's pages.)
Still, the novel is a fast-paced and captivating read that ponders the weightier issues of identity and moral choices, and it's a pity that Nancy Baker's novels seem to be hard to obtain.
annasirius's review against another edition
2.0
I suspect this felt fresher back when it first came out.
What bothered me was the lack of believable fleshing out of the two main characters. They lack depth. There are some details given, but they don't feel plausible. I don't buy into Rozokov's deep guilt over not having been able to protect his vampire companion in the past; I do not believe that anyone can switch personalities as quickly and absolutely as Ardeth did, and I don't understand why she should feel zero connection to her sister at all given their backstory.
I stopped reading on page 249.
What bothered me was the lack of believable fleshing out of the two main characters. They lack depth. There are some details given, but they don't feel plausible. I don't buy into Rozokov's deep guilt over not having been able to protect his vampire companion in the past; I do not believe that anyone can switch personalities as quickly and absolutely as Ardeth did, and I don't understand why she should feel zero connection to her sister at all given their backstory.
I stopped reading on page 249.
sarahblessing's review against another edition
4.0
When I was in 5th grade I read Interview with the Vampire for the first time and immediately became obsessed with all things vampire. I went to my library and looked up the subject vampire and read each and every book our branch had. I read The Night Inside like a dozen times but never thought to get my own copy. I’ve spent like the last ten years looking for this book that I honestly was beginning to think I had made up, googling random variations of the plot. I happened to find it on Goodreads by mistake a month ago and immediately ordered a copy online.
So does it hold up? Honestly, my opinion is probably colored by nostalgia but this book is still fun as hell. If you like both sexy vampire thrillers and like goofy 90’s action movies wherein the government is searching for a couple on the run, pick up this book. It’s got some things that are weird or icky (not surprising given the time it was written, and thankfully not as awful as it could be) about sex workers and HIV, but overall it wasn’t cringey or disappointing like I was worried it would be.
The best part is that there’s a sequel I never knew about as a kid and I just ordered a copy of it, am beyond psyched to see what happens to the thousands year old vampire and his weird goth girlfriend!
So does it hold up? Honestly, my opinion is probably colored by nostalgia but this book is still fun as hell. If you like both sexy vampire thrillers and like goofy 90’s action movies wherein the government is searching for a couple on the run, pick up this book. It’s got some things that are weird or icky (not surprising given the time it was written, and thankfully not as awful as it could be) about sex workers and HIV, but overall it wasn’t cringey or disappointing like I was worried it would be.
The best part is that there’s a sequel I never knew about as a kid and I just ordered a copy of it, am beyond psyched to see what happens to the thousands year old vampire and his weird goth girlfriend!
ladymoonlight's review against another edition
4.0
Bei "Die Nacht in mir" handelt es sich um einen Sammelband, der soweit ich weiß die komplette "Creed" Serie enthält. Mir ist zumindest nicht bekannt, dass noch ein dritter Teil geplant ist. In "Discovering Japan" wurden aber wohl noch einige Kurzgeschichten veröffentlicht. Beide Bücher sind schon über 20 Jahre alt. Band 1 (Blutgesang) wurde zum ersten Mal 1993 veröffentlicht und sein Nachfolger etwa ein Jahr später.
Bei "Blutgesang" handelt es sich um einen spannenden Vampir-Thriller, der sprachlich durchaus auf hohem Niveau angesiedelt ist, obwohl es sich hier um einen Roman handelt, bei dem die "Bösewichter" Mädchen entführen, um Pornofilme zu drehen. Es kommt schon etwas Romantik vor, die Liebesgeschichte steht hier aber keinesfalls im Mittelpunkt, was ich bei einem Vampirroman zur Abwechslung wirklich einmal sehr erfrischend finde. "Blut und Chrysanthemen" ist dagegen eher ein "leiseres" Buch. Wunderschön geschrieben und sehr interessant, aber nicht annähernd so aufregend wie sein Vorgänger. Die Charaktere aus Band 1 spielen natürlich wieder eine Rolle. Hauptsächlich geht es in diesem Teil aber um einen asiatischen Vampir, durch den man sehr viel über die Geschichte und die Kultur Japans erfährt.
Dieser Sammelband mag zwar ein dicker Schinken sein, rückwirkend hat es sich aber gelohnt, ihn zu lesen. Auf den Leser wartet in "Die Nacht in mir" ein spannender Dark Fantasy Roman und ein sehr interessanter aber ruhigerer Fortsetzungsband mit einigen historischen Rückblicken und poetischen Zügen.
Bei "Blutgesang" handelt es sich um einen spannenden Vampir-Thriller, der sprachlich durchaus auf hohem Niveau angesiedelt ist, obwohl es sich hier um einen Roman handelt, bei dem die "Bösewichter" Mädchen entführen, um Pornofilme zu drehen. Es kommt schon etwas Romantik vor, die Liebesgeschichte steht hier aber keinesfalls im Mittelpunkt, was ich bei einem Vampirroman zur Abwechslung wirklich einmal sehr erfrischend finde. "Blut und Chrysanthemen" ist dagegen eher ein "leiseres" Buch. Wunderschön geschrieben und sehr interessant, aber nicht annähernd so aufregend wie sein Vorgänger. Die Charaktere aus Band 1 spielen natürlich wieder eine Rolle. Hauptsächlich geht es in diesem Teil aber um einen asiatischen Vampir, durch den man sehr viel über die Geschichte und die Kultur Japans erfährt.
Dieser Sammelband mag zwar ein dicker Schinken sein, rückwirkend hat es sich aber gelohnt, ihn zu lesen. Auf den Leser wartet in "Die Nacht in mir" ein spannender Dark Fantasy Roman und ein sehr interessanter aber ruhigerer Fortsetzungsband mit einigen historischen Rückblicken und poetischen Zügen.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
4.0
Baker is one of the few authors I have seen that actually examines the change that being a vampire would cause in a person. This is a wonderful book. Ardeth is wonderfully drawn character, and Baker makes the transition real. Ardeth changes after she dies. No, she doesn't just get powers, but the death does something to her. Baker does examine this issue, and that look makes the book stand out.
lovghoul's review
5.0
“I should have let you stay lost.”
I’d read around that this is a criminally underrated vampire book and that a lot of people are surprised it didn’t gain much traction when it was published in the 90s. Most surprising to me was that the more negative reviews were largely about the lack of romance??? Excuse me, but HELLO? This book had me chanting “Straight Rights!” at 3am in my kitchen. What are vampire novels if not stalwart accounts of repression and the vague blackness of desire burning beneath?? Is there anything hotter than moral decay and retribution??? Ladies. Do better!
I’d read around that this is a criminally underrated vampire book and that a lot of people are surprised it didn’t gain much traction when it was published in the 90s. Most surprising to me was that the more negative reviews were largely about the lack of romance??? Excuse me, but HELLO? This book had me chanting “Straight Rights!” at 3am in my kitchen. What are vampire novels if not stalwart accounts of repression and the vague blackness of desire burning beneath?? Is there anything hotter than moral decay and retribution??? Ladies. Do better!
kazen's review
3.0
A refreshing vampire novel in that there's no instalove, no teenagers. It was also neat to slip back into 1990s Toronto, though things never feel dated. I'm really interested to see where Baker takes it from here.