Review: Dolph the Unicorn Killer and Other Stories

 

I received an advance reader copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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Okay, right off the bat, I have to confess that the title of this book is rather misleading. Dolph’s story doesn’t appear until close to the very end, and he’s certainly not what you would call the main character.

Instead, the first story we’re presented with is that of a Las Vegas vampire, who finds himself on the losing end of an encounter with a vampire hunter. But instead of killing the vampire, the hunter - also known as “the madman” - captures our hero and proceeds to use him as a guinea pig for various ways to kill/weaken vampires.

Our hero tells his story directly to us, the readers, whom he refers to only as his friend. However, he seems to be telling this story aloud, as a couple of the other captive vampires the madman has collected question who he’s talking to. It’s insinuated that the vampire isn’t telling his story to us, but has in fact gone insane from the torture, and believes that he has an audience to talk to.

When I read the exerpt of the book, which was the first few pages of Dolph’s story, I expected the other stories to contain the same crude humor, but I found myself disappointed. While the vampire’s story was interesting, and made me feel pity for him and the other vampires, it was anything but humorous.

Lack of humor aside, though, as a serious story about a captive, terrified, possibly insane vampire, it does its job well, and is worth reading.

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