My Goodreads Review: Vampire Verses
Feb. 26th, 2026 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ankh_hplThis chapbook collection from LindaAnn LoSchiavo features a remarkable variety of takes on the European vampire, in nearly as many verse forms. Though comfortable with free verse, LoSchiavo demonstrates her unforced skill with the prose poem, fibonacci ( and other syllabic patterns), villanelle, sonnet, golden shovel, and possibly others. The overarching feel, however, is not merely crafts(wo)manship. It is pure Gothic entertainment, with a wide streak of dark humor.
Enhanced by several full-page black and white illustrations-- also humorous -- by Giulia Massarin and Erin Caldwell, the poems shift between historical times and present day, with Dracula himself (or some analogue) frequently present in full evening dress. He pops up in the Playboy Club, near a hangman's tree in Poland, in a series of texts discovered after a disappearance from a college dorm. Other interactions with modern-day vampirism include an Italian sonnet describing an unsatisfying movie rental, and an online offer to train aspiring bloodsuckers with a prepaid master class.
Bram Stoker is given his own briefer section, with several poems focused on the novel itself. Quotes from Dracula and other appropriate texts add to the atmosphere.
Recommended for Gothic/vampire enthusiasts in search of a lighter touch, and any spec poetry reader unafraid of surefooted formalism. My thanks to NetGalley and Twisted Dreams Press for providing me with this ARC.
Enhanced by several full-page black and white illustrations-- also humorous -- by Giulia Massarin and Erin Caldwell, the poems shift between historical times and present day, with Dracula himself (or some analogue) frequently present in full evening dress. He pops up in the Playboy Club, near a hangman's tree in Poland, in a series of texts discovered after a disappearance from a college dorm. Other interactions with modern-day vampirism include an Italian sonnet describing an unsatisfying movie rental, and an online offer to train aspiring bloodsuckers with a prepaid master class.
Bram Stoker is given his own briefer section, with several poems focused on the novel itself. Quotes from Dracula and other appropriate texts add to the atmosphere.
Recommended for Gothic/vampire enthusiasts in search of a lighter touch, and any spec poetry reader unafraid of surefooted formalism. My thanks to NetGalley and Twisted Dreams Press for providing me with this ARC.
