The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Seeing Red
By T.C. Orton
Four stars

T.C. Orton presents us with a really interesting contemporary take on vampires, and that alone has earned him most of his stars in my review. His world, in which a little nest of vampires – Moss, Kyle, Troy and Nicolai - make their way in modern London, is neatly described and nicely defined in a larger global context of paranormal beings and politics. Isaac, a feckless, nearly homeless nineteen-year-old is suddenly cast in their midst, and now there are five, one of whom is a newborn and needs not only to be taught, but protected.

The story is told through Isaac’s eyes, and his awkward approach to being immortal and being part of a family of sorts is rather endearingly portrayed. There is sufficient page time given to the differing backgrounds and histories of his four brothers in blood, and yet I somehow didn’t quite feel any great depth – although I knew it was there. The whole vampire political system is hard to make fresh in the shadow of “True Blood,” and the emphasis on hidden dance clubs was perhaps less to my taste than a more complex vampire social network would have been. I’m old. I want at least some of my vampires to have libraries and live in old houses or quiet apartments. I think the author’s age shows in the kind of hip urban world he imagines for his vampire musketeers. On the other hand, I did very much like the insistence on agency – making choices that determine one’s own direction. Isaac is much like any young person – on the edge of adulthood, yet still unsure of who he is and how he fits in. This is very nicely drawn.

There is a great deal of interesting stuff going on in Orton’s head – not the least of which is the emotional nuances of these vampire – but there is a lack of literary discipline that kind of derails the greater potential impact of the overall narrative. As in the other Orton book I’ve read, the writing is all over the place, and the editing is dodgy. Weird word choices and marginal grammar make it feel like a college freshman creating writing exercise. It bothered me less here than in “Warlock Academy,” and I have to repeat my wish that Orton will take on a serious editor who will crack the whip over him and make him live up to the promise of his fertile imagination.