STARRED REVIEW

Kim Catanzarite’s Staked poses an intriguing question for readers of vampire fiction: What if the vampire in question was both angelic and monstrous simultaneously?

Staked’s vampire is Gregorie Babin, who approaches life (or afterlife) like a philosopher. “He didn’t sleep just like he didn’t breathe,” the author writes. “That’s why he feared he was dead. But he wasn’t dead, was he? He was still thinking and moving, still remembering.”

Gregorie, born in the 1700s in a small fishing village in France, was confined in his “shell”— a trunk-like container on the ocean’s floor—for centuries. He suddenly awakes from a deep slumber and swims ashore to New England’s Wodge Island. After drinking a dying deer’s blood, he encounters three 20-something vagabonds living in a bus—Liam, Paul and Benicia—who introduce him to the modern age.

As Gregorie grows stronger, he slowly remembers who he was, and the novel alternates chapters between modern times and Gregorie’s memories of living in Saint-Suliac with his mother, the village healer. In assisting his mom in her healing work, he learns he has power to help those who are stuck crossing over to the afterlife (his mother calls him an “angel of death”). Gregorie is a good person, despite being a vampire —but when he encounters his evil maker Reynaud in the modern age, his reckoning with him propels the plot.

Catanzarite’s prose is evocative, almost lyrical at times as she weaves a tale of two different centuries. Under her skilled storytelling, suspense builds as Gregorie remembers how he came to be a vampire. She also delivers superb descriptions: “A brisk breeze slid down the dunes, and he sensed something indescribable that seized his attention. And now he moved in that direction without thought, losing control of the horrible wanting, knowing he would go wherever it led him.”

Fans of vampire fiction, particularly those who enjoyed The Historian, will delight in Gregoire’s journey and eagerly anticipate his next adventure.

Also available as an ebook.

IR Approved

For a vampire story, Kim Catanzarite's STAKED is a startlingly warm and wholesome tale of love, found friendship, strength of will, and purity of heart—with enough horror to make the war between light and dark come to life.

A young vampire in a new world uses his magical gifts and companionship (old and new) to overcome his new, horrific form and the monster who forced it on him.

After centuries of hibernation in a trunk tossed and battered by the ocean waves, Gregoire Babin has washed up on the shore of Wodge Island in New England. At first he has no idea who he is or where he’s from, but he is quickly taken under the wing of a group of wanderers and outcasts: sweet Benicia, whom he nicknames Gentille for her kindness, steady Liam, and fierce, prickly Paul. As his memories come back to him, Gregoire begins to realize that he is three hundred years ahead of his time, that he has a disturbing craving for blood (which he manages to satisfy, for the time being, with animal blood), and that the monster who transformed him into a vampire is loose on the island.

STAKED: A Vampire’s Tale, Book One in Kim Catanzarite’s Angel of Death series, is mainly concerned with Gregoire’s internal struggles between his innately gentle soul and the monster that he is becoming against his will. There is also the external fight to keep his vampire progenitor, Reynaud, from devouring and destroying his new friends. The two battles parallel and strengthen each other, in essence becoming the same fight from two different perspectives. Gregoire has some natural assets, including the ability to release souls stuck in dead (or dying) bodies into grace; the memories and teachings of his loving Maman, a wise healer knowledgeable in both natural and supernatural matters; and the two women he loves: his childhood sweetheart Michaelangela, and his new friend Gentille.

The characters are complex and interesting, some of the background characters as much or more so than the protagonist, and all of them, including Gregoire, have their secrets and hidden sides—which are deftly shown to us as the story goes on. The author’s writing is beautifully descriptive, almost poetic in places: there is a “blood moon casting wicked red streaks across the evening sky.” Gregoire thinks of his trunk-refuge as his “shell,” and himself as the “mollusc” inside. The plot yields a promising beginning to a larger story, but there is no complete resolution here; that will have to wait for later books. There are a few things the characters could have easily done by the end of the book to ensure permanent safety from the main threat—and it is not made clear why they don’t do them. All in all, though, it’s a delightful start to a new series, and hopefully its successors will continue the story as beautifully as this begins it.

For a vampire story, Kim Catanzarite’s STAKED is a startlingly warm and wholesome tale of love, found friendship, strength of will, and purity of heart—with enough horror to make the war between light and dark come to life.

~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader

A vampire is stranded in the modern world in Catanzarite’s first horror-fantasy novel, the start of a series.

Gregorie Babin, originally from Saint-Suliac, France, washes up on a beach after being trapped in a waterlogged wooden trunk for a long, long time. He doesn’t remember how he came to be in there, nor does he have any idea where he is currently. It’s night, and he’s thirsty, and, for some reason, he feels compelled to drink the blood of a dying deer he finds by the roadside: “He’d never consumed anything so soothing, so satisfying. His limbs warmed, the nourishment spreading, and his insides filled near to bursting. He eased back in ecstasy and rested on the ground beside the animal while it relaxed into its last breath.” Gregorie soon discovers that the world has technologically advanced quite a bit; these automated, fast-moving carts that he sees on the road are all new to him. He notices, too, that he no longer needs to breathe to remain alive. He soon meets a trio of locals—Liam, Paul, and a young woman whom Gregorie calls “Gentille”—who see his confusion and offer him a place to stay. As Gregorie pores over his memories, attempting to figure out his predicament—a ship, a monster, and a lost love named Michaelangela are involved—his new friends start to realize that there’s something a bit strange about Gregorie. Catanzarite’s understated prose succeeds in selling Gregorie’s fish-out-of-water status and unusual perspective, as when Gentille offers him her sunglasses to protect his eyes from daylight: “Gentille removed the shiny brown thing from her face and propped it upon his nose, pressing one of its skinny arms behind each ear. Everything became soft and rosy, and the tears stopped flowing.” This aspect of the work, and the offbeat premise of a centuries-old vampire who’s unaware of who or what he is, brings some much-needed freshness to a crowded horror subgenre. That said, fans of such tales will still find plenty of familiar elements to sink their fangs into.

An innovative take on the modern vampire story.