Author: Katherine Villyard
Release date: 2025
Contains spoilers
The blurb: He lied about his identity. Two hundred years later, he’s still paying the price…
Prussia, 1841. Abraham only ever wanted to play violin. Hiding his Jewish status so he can study at the prestigious Berlin Academy of Music, the eager young man is delighted to find a patron who believes in him. But he’s mortified when his new friend turns him into a vampire… and Abraham earns the fury of an ancient antisemite who vows to see him permanently dead.
Fleeing the hate-mongering fiend across the decades, the sensitive violinist at last settles in twenty-first-century New Jersey with a mortal woman. But when he discovers his relentless tormentor has tracked him down yet again, Abraham despairs he’ll never find true happiness.
With everyone he’s ever loved at risk, can he escape the rage of a ruthless bigot?
In a complex tale woven through history, Katherine Villyard delivers a fresh and insightful twist on the vampire novel. Infusing the narrative with profound themes of love, betrayal, and the nature of monsters, she crafts an unforgettable saga of surviving prejudice that will keep readers turning pages deep into the night.
The review: Abraham is a Jewish vampire married to a wiccan mortal in this first-person narrative novel, which moves both through time periods and between narrators. Of course, one of the issues for a Jew turned is the fact that drinking blood is expressly forbidden in the Torah and one thing I did like about this was Abraham struggling, despite his long life, with reconciling his vampirism (and undead status – if he is indeed undead) with his faith. As a mortal he lied about his faith to get a place in the Berlin Academy of Music and gained a patron in the form of Ludwig – a vampire. When he contracted consumption Ludwig turned him, without permission, so that the world would not lose his gift. Unfortunately, Ludwig’s maker, Thomas, is fervently antisemitic who was a part of the Inquisition and later would become a Nazi (the evil of the Shoah is explored, with Thomas and Ludwig able to, at least, get some young relatives of Abraham to America) and later still a popularist right-wing rabble rouser in the USA.
Destiny, Abraham’s mortal wife is a veterinarian and vegetarian but does know about her husband’s condition – after all standard tropes such as sunlight hold true here. She has expressly stated she doesn’t want to turn. Abraham also seems to have some degree of impulse control – a lover of cats, he manages to end up with vampire pets as he can’t let them go. Of course, Thomas will enter their lives again.
I mentioned the sunlight trope and a vampire can also control those they turn. This gives Abraham some assurance with the vampire pets and the turning seems to have made them more intelligent also. There is an interesting meeting of science and vampire physiology when it comes to the ability to reproduce through IVF. There is a great bit around the gifts that vampirism bestows that I won’t spoil as it is integral to the climax.
The characters were given distinct voices, and, on occasion, the author would revisit scenes through another perception that worked well. The story paced well and the Jewish lens brought an interesting direction to the prose and narrative. I did enjoy this. 7.5 out of 10.
On Kindle @ Amazon US
On Kindle @ Amazon UK
No comments:
Post a Comment