Weary Memories by Elizabeth Jewell

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Weary Memories is a collection of four novella by Elizabeth Jewell following the life of the more than 200 years old vampire Liam and his assistant and lover Alex. All the collection is faithful to the most classic vampire rules, with Liam being a powerful but mourning vampire, and Alex a troubled man who finds in the strenght of the vampire, the force to move on his dramatic past.

Alex is apparently a shy and quiet man who is now comfortable working with Liam, an ancient vampire. Liam is also a scholar and Alex works for him as decipher and also as assistant. They have a routine, Alex arrives at Liam's home when the vampire is arising for his nightly session, and they work side by side in harmony. Liam is no more an hunter, he doesn't prey on human, he is "tamed" as vampire and drinks blood from freezed bags. So Alex has never really seen his vampire side; until the night he arrives a bit earlier and finds a sketchbooks decipting some of Liam's past victims. Alex is not scared by that pictures, on the contrary he is aroused: when Alex was only a child he was abused by his father, and even if he thinks to have buried that memories in his mind, they are still there, alive, and prevent him from having a normal life and sexual relationship. And so thinking to Liam, who is all but normal, Alex wonders if he can help him to forget, to make new memories to replace the old and scaring. Facing a bigger danger maybe is the way to move on a past, but still live one.

Even is Liam seems "tamed", he has still inside the inner urges to prey and feed on the living. He is able to suppress the urges, but when they are near, too near like Alex, his consciousness slips. But even if he is the stronger and probably the dangerous side of the couple, I never felt like Liam was a real trouble for Alex. Liam is ancient, and with the age he gained the knowledge, and so he is able to control his primal instinct. Instead Alex is still suffering for his past, and the wounds are still bleeding, and like a wounded animal he is dangerous, since he can be uncontrollable. Even when having sex, Liam is always the one who tries to follow a quiet pace, and instead Alex is like an outburst of rage, an up and down of mood.

There is a lot of sex in this collection, maybe also since, being a collection of four originally distinct novellas, everytime there must be a main course, a long sex scene between the two heroes, and this means that in the collection we have four of them, one soon after the other. But I think that this is also a very good vampire story, it has an elegant feelings, and it's also very dark; these are not harmless vampires in frilly dresses, these are the direct descendants of those vampires who rule on the horror stories of 100 years ago.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

Re: Weary Memories

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

This is probably a book that with a lot less sex and a bit more scene would be perfect. But remember that is a collection, and so, probably, read story per story at distance, they are all four pretty good. Elisa

Re: Weary Memories

[valkovalin.livejournal.com]

Oh, a collection! I didn't realize. :) Good to know.

Re: Weary Memories

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a collection, but they now sell it as a single book, don't worry: buy one and have 4! Elisa