What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY’s picks for book lovers include Raymond Villareal's very modern novel about vampires and a biography of iconic New York photographer Weegee.
“A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising” by Raymond A. Villareal; Mulholland Books, 432 pp.; fiction
Having vampires and humans living and working together in society is just asking for a whole lot of bad blood.
Conflict, conspiracy, curiosity and chaos all arise in Villareal’s debut novel.
In a nod to what “World War Z” did for zombies, “A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising” chronicles roughly 3½ years after the discovery of a virus that gives its hosts extraordinary abilities and a penchant for plasma.
It follows a cast of characters through various accounts, documents and articles that detail the Gloamings (they’d rather not be called “vampires,” please and thank you) and their gradual infection into all walks of life.
It begins with Liza Sole, a presumed-dead woman who walks right out of an Arizona morgue. CDC researcher Lauren Scott crosses the country to investigate, and she’s the first to make headway into figuring out the mysterious NOBI virus that starts spreading across America.
Celebrities and power players want to be “re-created” as Gloamings — they even get their name courtesy of a Taylor Swift social-media post — and the vamps start fighting for their civil rights as they play a bigger role in the everyday world.
USA TODAY says ★★★ out of four. “Well worth a bite… a beguiling entry into the thoughts of Dracula and his ilk living among us.”