Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight — and you’re invited to join in!

Here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

1. Has to be something you’ve read yourself
   
2. Has to still be available, preferably still in print
3. Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

Vamped by David Sosnowski

(published 2004)

From Goodreads:

Martin Kowalski is an eighty-year-old man stuck in a twenty-year-old body. He works the graveyard shift. He has a poster of Bela Lugosi on his wall and a box of uneaten Count Chocula in his pantry. He drinks stem-cell-derived blood from cleverly packaged and marketed juice boxes. He is, in short, a vampire. But since his wildly successful scheme to turn as many mortals as possible into vampires — “vamp” them rather than kill them — resulted in a new immortal majority, Marty finds little of interest to fill his countless days.

From the deeply imaginative mind of David Sosnowski — who gave us the critically acclaimed junkie-angel classic Rapture — bursts this neo-vampire novel studded with pint-size vampires known as “screamers” (children who were vamped and are none too happy about it); priest vampires who helped convert their flock into lifetime members of the Church; stripper vampires who lap-danced their way into customers’ veins; and one very small, very outspoken human girl.

When Marty decides to end his endless life of soul-crushing ennui — call it vampire affluenza — a three-foot blond obstacle is thrown in his path: Isuzu Trooper Cassidy, a refugee from a human hunting preserve. At first he thinks “midnight snack,” but before the sun comes up, Isuzu is the one snacking on his prized cereal collection as she charms him into staying undead long enough to raise her in a world rife with danger and almost entirely populated by vampires yearning for the taste of real human blood.

Most of my Flashback Friday books have been rather serious ones, all in all. Vamped is decidedly not.

Sorry, humans, but in the world of Vamped, the vampires have won. Pretty much no humans live “in the wild” in this world, although a few tasty specimens are kept for hunting and sporting purposes. Instead, vamps live off of synthesized blood in a world they control… and for Marty, at least, it’s all rather boring. Life eternal equals life of no change, and it’s hard to find a reason to keep going. But when Marty finds a tiny human creature on the loose, his world is turned upside-down. Although it may sound like Vamped verges on becoming a sweet, gooey, sentimental, little-girl-saves-grumpy-guy kind of story, it’s actually a whole lot darker and funnier than that. There’s danger lurking around every corner, and Marty has to be both brave and inventive if he has any chance whatsoever of keeping Isuzu alive.

While the vampire genre is so overdone these days, Vamped has some fresh elements that make it a very fun read and a real stand-out among the crowded vampire bookshelves. (I myself was particularly tickled by the concept of Alaska becoming a vampire vacation fantasyland — what could be better than a place where the sun disappears for months at a time?) I’m surprised that more people haven’t heard of this book. I’d place it in my vampire book collection right alongside Christopher Moore’s outrageously awesome Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck, and Bite Me. I’ve mostly run out of patience with the topic of vampires in general — but I’ll always make an exception for a vampire book that can make me laugh.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a blog hop or book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!