The third book in Christopher Moore's Love Story trilogy is on par with the second, You Suck but not as good as the first, Bloodsucking Fiends. But let's explore the really cool parts of this novel...1) Vampire Kitties. (awwww!)
2) The "ewwww!" factor: OK, so vampire kitties are cute but as my father would say, "The problem with kittens is they grow up to be cats." One of the great things about the author is he can go from "awwww!" to "ewwww!" in the same paragraph. So you may think vampire kitties are cute. What about a huge vampire cat spooning humans? Thought so.
3. The Emperor: He should have his own book aside from being a minor character in almost every Moore novel that isn't about Pine Cove.
4. Bummer and Lazarus: Moore must have a real affinity with dogs. He gets their personalities so right. Bummer is a hypermanic Boston Terrier whose dialogue goes something like this: "Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat! Murder! Pain! Evil! Cat! Bite! Bite! Bite!" while Lazarus the golden retriever says "We should get out of this neighborhood, maybe go to North Beach and see if anyone dropped a beef jerky. Or we can stay and die. Whatever. I'm good with it."
5. The saga of Tommy and Jody remains the ultimate vampire love story. Some reviewers have likened them to Romeo and Juliet. But I would say it is more like Women in Love if D. H. Lawrence had any sense of humor whatsoever.
6. The San Francisco setting: Any novel set in San Francisco gets extra points from me.
The not-so-cool parts.
1. Vampire rats. Yuck!
2. Abby Normal: I loved Abby in You Suck. However, Moore made the dubious decision to let Abagail Von Normal carry the bulk of the narration. Valley Girlish speak gets really annoying page after page. BTW, I grew up in The Valley and my friends and I never spoke like that. Ten years later Valley Speak is all "Gnarley, Man, "Gag me with a spoon", "Later, Dude". How does language change so quickly? From this book, I'm assuming that San Francisco Goth girls are simply Valley Girls with better drugs.
3. The Gay Jokes: OK, it's San Francisco. But how many times can we hear gay jokes without saying, "Christopher, give it a break!"
4. Still, too many characters and not enough for them to do. The Animals night crew and the detectives are an afterthought in this book.
5. No turkey bowling.
Bite Me is still hilarious and Moore's madcap humor reigns but I'm glad he ended this trilogy here and ended it well. Three and a half stars.
