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Lost Souls Poppy Z Brite 9780141048932 Books

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Lost Souls Poppy Z Brite 9780141048932 Books

I read this book when I was in high school. had it in the original hard back and thought i lost it, so I purchased this one used. After receiving the book, I moved and guess what I found, the original hardback book I read in high school. So now i have two, but that isn't a bad thing. This is Poppy's first book and it reads really well. If you are into vampires, but want a different take, or if you have read other Poppy Z. Brite books, then I highly recommend this book.


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Lost Souls Poppy Z Brite 9780141048932 Books Reviews

The prose, the descriptions in this strange, eerie, exquisite novel are lush, rich with subtle metaphor and meaning. The characters are a perfect take on vampires, managing to capture both the eroticism and horror of them. They are brutal and beautiful. Subtle discussion of gender, of death and rebirth (as they relate to gender), of family, duty, and adolescence are all here.

It's a glorious novel, a perfect, perfect love letter to the goth scene back in the day, a discussion of teenage angst, of rebellion. It taps into the dark parts of the human subconscious, the unspoken and strange within us.

The author himself (Poppy Z. Brite is now Billy Martin since he transitioned) is ashamed of the book, but this as a first novel is nothing to be ashamed of. It's a wonderful novel to read for the first times in your early twenties and reread to relive again and again as you get older, because it perfectly captures the atmosphere, the mood of the time.
“Zillah had bewitched Ann. Ghost knew from his grandmother that love-spells don’t work on people who don’t want them, and they are surely the hardest to undo once they are done.”

This year I’m making an effort to reread several of my favorite books. I’d be remiss if I failed to include two beloved works by Poppy Z. Brite, LOST SOULS and DRAWING BLOOD. I had a difficult time starting LOST SOULS, because it felt like looking up a dear friend I hadn’t seen in decades. The desire to reconnect battled with the fear of disappointment. With a glacial pace, I read the prologue and the first couple of chapters, and then the book drew me in as it had all those years ago.

The appeal of these two books when I read them in the early nineties is apparent when examining a few of the themes of LOST SOULS being an outsider, searching to find one’s place in the world, the curse of unrequited love, and the gut-wrenching fear of losing a loved one. Themes that tugged at my heart in my youth. Themes which are still relevant decades later.

In LOST SOULS certain characters are drawn together, because blood calls to blood. Teenaged Nothing, christened Jason by his adoptive parents, knows he’s different, but until he meets a band of vampires, he doesn’t understand just how different he is. Nothing’s obsession with musicians Steve and Ghost, and their band Lost Souls?, take him on a journey to Missing Mile North Carolina and leave an indelible mark on all their lives.

Brite brings the French Quarter lovingly to life along with the human and not-so-human characters. I’d forgotten how LOST SOULS tackles topics such as suicide, incest, and rape. “In a world of night, in a world of blood, what did such pallid rules matter? He wasn’t sure he could ever have felt the things expected of him in the normal world, not even when he had been an unwilling part of it. Its morals had never been his; its baubles of status had never hypnotized him with their false glitter.”

With Brite’s dreamy portrayals of the supernatural characters, stellar world building, and raw emotion, LOST SOULS has earned its place on my keeper shelf.
Almost 25 years have passed since I first read Lost Souls. Surprisingly, it stood the test of time – more or less. Lost Souls is a kitschy, gritty, fairly original, character driven, ensemble vampire tale. It starts off with the “teenaged” Vampire Trio of Zillah, Molochai and Twig rolling into New Orleans, drinking, drugging, screwing and stuffing their faces with Hostess cakes and “champagne, whipped cream, kidneys, chocolate truffles and baby’s blood ice cream”. They’ve come during Mardi Gras to visit their OLD old friend Chrissy – or technically Christian – who’s more of a “I don’t drink…wine” purist – because at pushing 400 years – Christian doesn’t drink anything (well except blood obviously), or eat and he’s got some cool little fangs that evolution cheated the young ‘uns out of – so they have to file their teeth into points. The vampires of Lost Souls are a species all their own and when one is born, the mother (or host more accurately) dies in childbirth as the baby from almost the moment of conception – begins eating the host from the inside out.

During the festivities at Christian’s bar, Zillah – the androgynous, lime green eyed leader of the pack - knocks up a little vampire-wanna-be-groupie; and blows out of town before learning that he’s a proud papa to little Nothing (so named by Christian and gently deposited on the doorstep of some normal people to save the babe from a life of bloodlust, ennui and existential angst). Except what was he thinking – because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, blood calls to blood, yadda yadda. So fast forward 15 years later and little Nothing has had it with his dull, fake parents and his lame gothy-punky-hippie friends – and decides to set off on a road trip to find his real family. And maybe hook up with Ghost and Steve - the musicians from Lost Souls – the Indie rock band he’s been listening to – because maybe THEY’RE his real family - like his long lost brothers or something.

So Zillah, Molochai and Twig head south to visit Chrissy, and Christian heads north to escape being hunted by angry villagers and Nothing hitches his way to Missing Mile the home of Lost Souls – and they all converge upon each other in one great big cluster@#$% of disaster.

The vampires of Lost Souls are not romantic. Nothing about them is terribly attractive. There’s plenty of sex but none of it is very explicit – or titillating (a lot of BJs and sloppy groping). None of the characters (even the human ones) are very appealing – and all of them are strangers to the “cleanliness is next to Godliness” maxim. Molochai is sticky from his sweets and chocolaty hostess cake snacks leaving a film across his teeth, there’s lots of sweet & sour spit, the vampires have an underlying “meaty” scent, and the humans have greasy hair and clothes that could walk on their own. The incest angle between Zillah and Nothing wasn’t really all the shocking or off putting because they so clearly aren’t human - it was more like… inbreeding in dogs – a whole different vibe.

But overall it was an entertaining little horror story. Originally 5 stars - but still a solid 4 upon re-reading 20+ years later.
I read this book when I was in high school. had it in the original hard back and thought i lost it, so I purchased this one used. After receiving the book, I moved and guess what I found, the original hardback book I read in high school. So now i have two, but that isn't a bad thing. This is Poppy's first book and it reads really well. If you are into vampires, but want a different take, or if you have read other Poppy Z. Brite books, then I highly recommend this book.