Fevre Dream

Fevre Dream
by George R. R. Martin
New York: Bantam Books
1982
336 pages



Now that Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin's magna opera, has become a best-selling series and television phenomenon, some people are going back to read his earlier works. This book is one of those.

I must tell you that I first read this historical fiction novel in about 1990, so well before Game of Thrones was even any sort of thing in popular culture. I read it because I love vampire stories, and the more classic the better. This book fits my requirements very nicely.

This is the story of Captain Abner Marsh, an almost has-been steamship captain who has lost most of his fleet of ships that move up and down the Fevre River and Upper Mississippi. He meets a very strange man one evening for dinner, by the name of  Joshua York, who has a proposition to make to him. Joshua wants to buy Captain Marsh's business and increase it by building the biggest, finest ship on the Mississippi. In exchange, Marsh will work for him and take him to the lower Mississippi, all the way to New Orleans, and not ask questions. He will have some associates also on board and there may be some mysterious comings and goings, but as long as Captain Marsh asks no questions or gets curious about it, he will be able to run the new fine sternwheeler as he sees fit.

Needless to say, this sounds like a dream come true to Captain Marsh, who thought his business was going under water fast, literally and figuratively. But he wonders about this strange new partner? What is he really after?

The Fevre Dream is born--the most elegant, most deluxe, the fastest sternwheeler on the mighty Mississippi. Wouldn't it be grand if the Fevre Dream could out outrace the famous sternwheeler, the Eclipse? That would be something, all right.

A Steamboat Race on the Mississippi by George F. Fuller, 1858

Abner Marsh is well pleased with himself.

That is, until Joshua York starts acting oddly. Why does he always come out of his cabin at night? Why is he always reading newspaper stories about mysterious deaths along the river? Where does he go on shore, sometimes for days, only meeting up with the ship later downriver. What is going on with Joshua? But Captain Marsh made a promise not to meddle.

Now, all of you readers of this blog post know that Captain Marsh is going to meddle. And he does. He learns something rather chilling about his partner, and yet it is okay. Joshua is not the bad character of this story, but there is someone else who is. That "man" is the reason for Joshua York's nightly excursions.

This book is very well-written. It has a tight story and the characters and setting are fully described. I like the descriptions of the river and river life. I won't go into detail about vampires, although you probably have guessed that Joshua York is one, but he obeys all of the typical rules: no sunlight, burning skin, drinks blood (or does he?), mesmerizes humans, etc. Joshua does some other more unusual things, such as eats food occasionally, is more social than other vampires that we have met in traditional stories; doesn't see humans only as dinner; and is not afraid of mirrors, holy water, or crucifixes. Other vampires in the story enlarge and change the meaning of what it is to be a vampire in Martin's world.

For those of you who are interested, this book has been turned into a graphic novel. It is not in print any longer, but used copies can be found. I have not read it yet, but I have seen some of the pictures online. I guess I prefer to form my own pictures of the story in my own imagination.

Joshua York in the graphic novel version

So, for a good historical vampire story, I heartily recommend Fevre Dream for readers who like George R. R. Martin books, good vampire stories, or quirky historical fiction.

Recommended for ages 16 and older, for violence and gory descriptions.

Far Far Away

Far Far Away
by Tom McNeal
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
2013
371 pages



Recently I read this book by Tom McNeal. It was voted one of YALSA's (Young Adult Library Services Association) Teen Top Ten books for 2014. On the back cover, I was promised this:

this is the strange and fateful tale of a boy, a girl, and an ancient ghost.

Ok, this book has my full attention! Strange and fateful tale? Ancient ghost?!

Jeremy Johnson Johnson is the anti-hero of our story. Why do I say anti-hero? Jeremy is a very shy teen who lives in an apartment above The Two Book Bookstore, the bookstore left by his grandfather that sold only two books, both volumes of his grandfather's biography. Jeremy's mother is gone, run away with a man she met at the local baker. His father is heartbroken and never comes out of his apartment, instead choosing to waste away in mourning, barely paying attention to what is going on with his son.

And Jeremy has problems. He is considered to be a strange young man, always talking to himself but no one talking to him. Except for a ghost.

The ghost, our narrator, is one of the parts of the story that I appreciated most. This is not a hair-raising ghost, but a protective ghost who has pledged to help Jeremy if he can. I hate to divulge the identity of the ghost, but he fits in nicely with fairy tale theme of the book.

The only human who regularly talks to Jeremy is Ginger Boultinghouse, a wild girl with wild hair and wild ideas.

Early in the story Ginger invites Jeremy to go with her to the bakery in town, the Green Oven Bakery, to have Prince Cake with her and her friends. Prince Cake is a specialty of the Swedish Baker, Mr. Blix, who only makes it occasionally and then signals the town with green smoke from his chimney. The Prince Cake has a local reputation and people half believed that whatever living thing you saw upon eating the first bite would steal your heart away. The only way to break the enchantment was by the touch of a salted tear upon the parted lips of the spellbound.

Prinsesstårta, or Prince Cake in our story, is a traditional Swedish cake
of light sponge, whipped cream, jam, and covered in a light green marzipan.

Jeremy has worries about Prince Cake, since rumours say that his mother ran away because of it.

Surviving his first trip to the bakery, Jeremy falls in with an impetuous plan of Ginger's. She, her two girl friends, and Jeremy break into the baker's home and play a big joke on him. This one simple, thoughtless act leads to the horror that is to follow, putting Jeremy and Ginger into severe danger that even his ghost friend has trouble getting him out of.

I mentioned earlier that this book has a fairy tale feel to it. The setting, a small town called Never Better, seems to be right out of a fairy tale, superficially a nice place to live until you dig around and find something nasty under a rock, including a lot of inexplicably missing children. Several of the characters seem straight out of stories, and our ghost, who I think is the true hero besides being narrator of the story, is definitely connected to fairy tales. It can be amusing to discover how many tales are alluded to in the book. Mr. Blix tells stories, the deputy tells and listens to stories, and even Jeremy's absent mother's only gifts to her son are actual stories in books.

The main plot of this book, however, revolves around a very well known tale, and one that turns strange and scary for our two main characters, Jeremy and Ginger.

I confess I had a very hard time putting this book down. I got so caught up with Jeremy and Ginger and the action of the story that I stayed up most of one night to keep reading. Tom McNeal is a truly a master storyteller about the mastery of stories.

Highly recommended for ages 13 and up.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
by Holly Black
New York: Hachette Audio
2013
Read by Christine Lakin
10 sound discs (12 hours)


For the last few weeks, I have been listening to this book in the car. By popular author, Holly Black, this is one of the best vampire stories I have heard in a long time. No wonder it was voted one of the best fiction books for young adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and an amazing audiobook for young adults (also by YALSA) in 2014. It is on several lists of best horror fiction for teens, too.

This story starts out with a horrific bang. Tana, a 17-year-old, wakes up following a party only to discover that all of the other teens have been brutally murdered. As she wanders through the house, she looks for other survivors but only finds blood and guts everywhere. Yes, it is rather graphic. Then she opens a door to a bedroom. There she sees Aidan, a young man (and former boyfriend, it turns out) chained to a bed. In the other bed is another boy, but this guy is different. Tana can tell immediately that he is a vampire.

This is how we find out what sort of story this is. The victims of the house party were mutilated by thirsty, very savage vampires, who purposely left Aiden and Gavriel, the "boy" vampire in the bedroom.

Tana has moments to figure out what she should do. How can she get away? She doesn't know where the vampires are in the house, but she knows they are there, probably sleeping off their glutonous feast since it is still the remains of the day. That doesn't leave her much time. And what she she do about the vampire who is tied up?

Springfield is the Coldtown of our story.

Through the masterful telling of this story, we learn that events such as the party massacre are not unusual. Vampires are real and out there, but society has mostly dealt with them by locking them into various "coldtowns", called such because of the sickness and feeling that takes over one's body as it changes. Coldtowns are all over the United States, and people on the outside can see in through the active use of social media.

There seems to be the impression that Coldtowns are fun, party towns where vampires live forever, dancing and feasting. This lifestyle is appealing to some young people who escape into the Coldtowns hoping to be changed and party forever, only to die tragic deaths as food for the vampires who eat too quickly. Not all victims will be turned, however, but only those who are bled slowly and then have a chance to feed themselves.

I was particularly pleased with Holly Black's more traditional portrayal yet updated of vampires. They are seen as mesmerizing and erotic to their victims, once bitten. They also sleep in the day, can't survive in the daylight, and also have an uncontrollable need to feed. Her descriptions of their ability to sense the blood around them, in living victims, is very vivid and helps us to understand the immediate change in the brain, once the person becomes infected. These are very much ancient vampires who have adapted well to the clubbing activities of many teens, using this as the means to entice new meals into Coldtowns.

The story as to who Gavriel is, and the conflicts between him and the ancient and powerful Coldtown vampire, Lucien, is well described and exciting. Tana and Gavriel are attracted to each other, something no other vampire in the story expected since Gavriel has been known during his long life as being maniacally cruel, a history Tana did not know before she rescued him from the farmhouse party. This leads to some interesting plot twists.

I hate to think of Tana, who was infected during her time in Coldtown and must wait to see if she changes, as being a vampire forever. She has a humanity that most of the characters, human and vampire alike, lack. But we know that she will "survive" any way that she can, and maybe make Coldtown a better place.

Here is a book trailer for you about the story:

I recommend this book for older teens, maybe high school and up, who love traditional vampire stories. Some of the gore in the story, as well as the intensity of the violence, might be too much for younger readers.