Long before the New Moon saga had created a cult of adolescent girls going all weak-kneed over the possibility of receiving a hickey from an un-dead heartthrob, Christopher Moore had begun recounting the misadventures of vampires on the West Coast in Blood Sucking Fiends. Set in the far more exotic environs of San Francisco (Washington's overcast and rainy weather may sound like atmosphere to some, but to me it just sounds cold and damp) it, along with its sequel You Suck, recounted the story of how the put-upon Jody became a vampire, and how she in turn converted her boyfriend, wannabe writer Thomas C. Flood.
Having a sensitivity to the UV rays of sunlight that not even the toughest sunblock will cope with, Jody had initially taken advantage of Thomas working the night shift stocking shelves at a local grocery store and having his days free. This allowed him to run errands for her and take care of all that stuff that can only happen during the sunlight hours. So with Thomas becoming a vampire they find themselves in need of somebody to pick up the slack for them. By the end of You Suck they had settled on a young Goth girl, Abby Normal (Day Slave name Allison) to handle such tedious tasks as finding them accommodation and keeping them under wraps during the day. What they hadn't probably counted on was Abby and her bio-tech boyfriend Steve dipping them in bronze while dead to the world in order to make sure they didn't split up and ruin Abby's romantic vision of the two vampires living an eternity of loving bliss with her as their worshipful minion.
Which is where we pick up the story in the third book of Moore's vampire triptych, Bite Me, hitting the streets March 23, 2010 courtesy of HarperCollins Canada through its William Morrow imprint. In case anybody's missed the first two books, our erstwhile narrator fills us in on the details in her own inimitable style — an extended text message on speed, coloured with sexual innuendo and rampant sarcasm through which we get periodic glimpses of the person hiding behind the pounds of makeup, fishnet stockings, and dyed hair. One of the key points of her summation is how a very large hairless cat named Chet has become a vampire and has now set out on a rampage through the city.
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