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A Love Like Blood 9781444751949 Books

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A Love Like Blood 9781444751949 Books

Marcus Sedgwick is best known as the author of award-winning young adult novels such as FLOODLAND and MIDWINTERBLOOD, which won the prestigious Printz Award in 2014. His books for young people are often dark and atmospheric, filled with vivid images and packed with horror, beauty and suspense. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that in his adult debut, A LOVE LIKE BLOOD, Sedgwick turns to a classic subgenre of horror fiction: the vampire story.

Stretching over the span of 25 years in the middle of the 20th century, Sedgwick's novel opens with a horrifying vignette that is likely to haunt readers (almost) as much as it haunts Sedgwick's protagonist. Charles Jackson, a young medic in the British military during World War II, finds himself in Paris just days after its liberation. There, in a remote neighborhood, he is drawn to a concrete bunker, in which he sees a man --- completely shamelessly --- apparently drinking the blood of an attractive young woman. Jackson finds the scene horrific, of course, but also fascinating and perhaps even erotic. The image stays with him for years afterwards.

When Jackson returns to Paris a few years later for a conference (he is now, coincidentally, a doctor specializing in hematology, or the study of blood-related diseases), he inexplicably finds himself back in that same neighborhood, where he sees the same man in the company of a beautiful young woman to whom Charles is immediately attracted. He befriends Marian, but when he attempts to warn her about the man, she retreats --- and eventually disappears under mysterious circumstances.

Over the next 15 years, Jackson becomes increasingly obsessed with his wartime memories as well as with what happened to Marian. His quest will take him back to France and Italy, and to witness some truly dark rituals. Once he begins to approach the truth, he may lose everything in his drive to find answers --- and to take revenge.

What's interesting about Sedgwick's first foray into adult literature is that, in many ways, his prose is more straightforward and his storytelling less sophisticated than it is in many of his books for teens. He certainly ups the sex and violence quotient here, but the novel otherwise reads like a quite conventional, even old-fashioned, horror story, albeit one filled with beautiful, if at times disturbing, prose: "I began to fail to see people as people. They were bodies, in which the blood was contained in veins; the existence of their minds inside their heads seemed to have disappeared or me; they were not people, but merely walking flesh and blood, and I feared for them all."

Occassionally (and also like some old-time genre fiction), A LOVE LIKE BLOOD offers some too-easy coincidences that help make the plot work --- Jackson comes into a great deal of money just when he needs it most, for example --- but readers of vampire fiction are, after all, probably predisposed to suspend disbelief on at least some levels. Jackson's motivations are also not always rational, but given that obsession is one of Sedgwick's themes here, that irrationality eventually begins to make a lot more sense, as Jackson himself loses sight of nearly everything, except blood, of course.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl.


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A Love Like Blood 9781444751949 Books Reviews

Spanning the years 1944 to 1968, this is a tale of depravity, obsession, revenge and blood. Our hero (actually often delightfully un-heroic) is a young Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Charles Jackson has spent the war finding safe sources of drinking water, setting up showers and organising latrines for the troops as they advance across Europe – an unglamorous but necessary occupation. In 1944 he finds himself in a newly liberated Paris, visiting the Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-laye with his Commanding Officer. The Chateau had been Germany Army Headquarters during the war years, but had previously been a museum, which his CO wants to visit. Wandering in the grounds, Charles comes across a bunker. Without any idea that it will change his life, he steps inside and sees a man drinking a woman’s blood – the man looks up, meets his eye, and looks amused... Shocked, he stumbles outside, horrified and afraid. Charles later gathers enough courage to go back, but both the man and woman have vanished and he is unsure that he really witnessed the scene that comes to haunt him.

After the war, Charles Jackson returns to Cambridge and obtains a post in the Department of Haematology. However, the sight he saw that day in 1944 continues to play on his mind. When he returns to Paris he begins an investigation which results in his chasing the elusive Count Verovkin over twenty years and several countries. During this novel Charles Jackson discovers love, is duped, attacked, threatened, disbelieved and is both hunted and the hunter. In theme, it is a little like “The Historian,” with a chase over several years and in many different locations. Overriding everything is the theme of blood – from Charles Jackson, the doctor and researcher, and his work into haemophilia, to tales of gruesome crimes committed by those obsessed with blood.

I first became aware of author Marcus Sedgwick as an author of YA novels, whose books were greatly liked by one of my sons. This is his first adult novel and it is a well crafted book with dark themes. Charles Jackson is a very likeable main character and there are a good array of others who help flesh out the storyline. Often there are some gaps which, although realistic, do slow down the action a little and, sometimes, you feel that Charles is just a little too gullible. However, overall, this was an enjoyable read which will appeal to a wider audience than he usually receives. Some of his YA novels are easily comparable in style though and, if you like this, then I would recommend trying some of his earlier work, such as “My Swordhand is Singing” or “Blood Red, Snow White."
Marcus Sedgwick is best known as the author of award-winning young adult novels such as FLOODLAND and MIDWINTERBLOOD, which won the prestigious Printz Award in 2014. His books for young people are often dark and atmospheric, filled with vivid images and packed with horror, beauty and suspense. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that in his adult debut, A LOVE LIKE BLOOD, Sedgwick turns to a classic subgenre of horror fiction the vampire story.

Stretching over the span of 25 years in the middle of the 20th century, Sedgwick's novel opens with a horrifying vignette that is likely to haunt readers (almost) as much as it haunts Sedgwick's protagonist. Charles Jackson, a young medic in the British military during World War II, finds himself in Paris just days after its liberation. There, in a remote neighborhood, he is drawn to a concrete bunker, in which he sees a man --- completely shamelessly --- apparently drinking the blood of an attractive young woman. Jackson finds the scene horrific, of course, but also fascinating and perhaps even erotic. The image stays with him for years afterwards.

When Jackson returns to Paris a few years later for a conference (he is now, coincidentally, a doctor specializing in hematology, or the study of blood-related diseases), he inexplicably finds himself back in that same neighborhood, where he sees the same man in the company of a beautiful young woman to whom Charles is immediately attracted. He befriends Marian, but when he attempts to warn her about the man, she retreats --- and eventually disappears under mysterious circumstances.

Over the next 15 years, Jackson becomes increasingly obsessed with his wartime memories as well as with what happened to Marian. His quest will take him back to France and Italy, and to witness some truly dark rituals. Once he begins to approach the truth, he may lose everything in his drive to find answers --- and to take revenge.

What's interesting about Sedgwick's first foray into adult literature is that, in many ways, his prose is more straightforward and his storytelling less sophisticated than it is in many of his books for teens. He certainly ups the sex and violence quotient here, but the novel otherwise reads like a quite conventional, even old-fashioned, horror story, albeit one filled with beautiful, if at times disturbing, prose "I began to fail to see people as people. They were bodies, in which the blood was contained in veins; the existence of their minds inside their heads seemed to have disappeared or me; they were not people, but merely walking flesh and blood, and I feared for them all."

Occassionally (and also like some old-time genre fiction), A LOVE LIKE BLOOD offers some too-easy coincidences that help make the plot work --- Jackson comes into a great deal of money just when he needs it most, for example --- but readers of vampire fiction are, after all, probably predisposed to suspend disbelief on at least some levels. Jackson's motivations are also not always rational, but given that obsession is one of Sedgwick's themes here, that irrationality eventually begins to make a lot more sense, as Jackson himself loses sight of nearly everything, except blood, of course.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl.