Fangland by John Marks

Book Details
Fangland by John Marks
Paperback, 400 Pages
2008, Penguin
ISBN: 0143112538

Synopsis
As the popularity of Elizabeth Kostova's bestselling The Historian proves, there's always an audience bloodthirsty for quality, page-turning horror. Now, in a marvelously horrifying turn, John Marks-a former 60 Minutes producer-sinks his satirical teeth into twenty-first- century media. In Fangland, Evangeline Harker is an employee of the legendary TV news magazine The Hour. Sent on assignment to Transylvania, she delivers more than a story when mysterious e-mails, coffins, and a creepy guy named Torgu descend on the New York office. This darkly funny tale will appeal to vampire and horror aficionados as well as anyone who's fed up with what passes for "news" today.

Review
Fangland was a very slow read. Usually when a book includes emails, journal entries, and other forms of communications, it helps to move the story along. While these inclusions brought other viewpoints into the story, they didn't do anything to actually liven up the story.

The main character, Evangeline, was all over the place. She was unreliable and unsympathetic. She wasn't the only one. None of the characters gave much of a reason for the reader to care about them at all.

Fangland's version of vampires had weird rules that were hard to understand. They drank blood and were immortal, but even this was strangely different from the norm. They didn't bite their victims as much as bleed them into a bucket to drink after the killing. They chanted place names, which turned humans into their minions. It wasn't explained as to why these things were done.

The idea that a vampire takes over a 60 Minutes type show was much better in theory than it was presented here. For all the intrigue that could have taken place, I found myself largely disappointed. Too much of the "why" was missing to make Fangland a worthwhile read.

Rating