'With Teeth' – Brian Keene (Death's Head Press)

I'm trying to stick to to some kind of 'TBR Pile Order', these days, as I've found that adding a little structure to my reading helps me to stick with it and get more books read. There's only so much time in the day, you've got to use it wisely...

There are some writers though where any new book of theirs will jump straight to the front of the queue and throw the rest of my reading order into total disarray. Don't look at me like that, you're exactly the same and you know it. One of the joys of having favourite authors is that excitement you get when a new book comes out and you absolutely have to read it that very second. Brian Keene is a favourite author of mine (so do bear that in mind as you read on) and 'With Teeth' was the book that I had to read straight away. And so I did, it was brilliant.

For a group of middle-aged friends, the trip into the forest was supposed to be simple.  All they had to do was find a place to set up their criminal enterprise, and all of their financial problems would be solved.  But now, night is falling, and with the darkness comes something else.  Something fast.  Something ferocious.  Something...with TEETH!

'With Teeth' is only ninety eight pages long but Keene, as ever, uses all of that limited space to its fullest advantage and tells a taut tale pulsing with a dark energy that picks you up and carries you along right to the end. Seriously, if I hadn't had to read to my kids, I'd have just kept going until I was done (and they're eleven and seven years old, my ex would have killed me if I'd read them 'With Teeth'...) We're looking at a tale that's very easy to get into but very hard to put down.

Part of that reason is the vampires themselves. We know they're coming and Keene uses this in his favour by holding off introducing them until the reader is pretty much at breaking point. All the clues are there, it's just the vampires that aren't and when they finally do arrive, it's all the more impactful for having had to wait. These vampires are like no other vampire that you've ever come across, the closest comparison I could think of were the 'infected vampires' in 'Blade 2' but you can almost feel sorry for their plight, there's nothing to feel sorry for here with these vicious bastards who haven't eaten in maybe a year but are still capable of draining you before you realise it. Just their sheer speed is terrifying, you can imagine what it's like when they hit our unsuspecting 'heroes'.

And that's the other reason why 'With Teeth' is so difficult to put down. Keene doesn't just draw a good character, he'll have you rooting for them at the same time and it's no different here. Frank and his friends are up to something completely illegal (and immoral) but they're not bad people, they just need the money and we can all get behind that, can't we? I can (in a 'what would I really do for my daughters?' kind of way) and that's all down to the work that Keene puts into making his characters sympathetic. It's a hard world out there and it can lead the best of us into making questionable life choices. It happens and then you pay for your mistakes. Or if you're Frank and his friends, you really pay for your mistakes...

What do you do when you're faced with vampires that are as thirsty as all hell? You run like mad and Keene taps into that panic, using it to fuel the rush to the end of the story. Only it's not the ending that you were expecting... It's a good one though, worth the wait and entirely in keeping with what we know about our main players.

'With Teeth' is a great read then, I would say that (big fan etc) but it also happens to be true ;o) That's not the end of the book though. Because 'With Teeth' is a novella, Keene has included a couple of short stories as well, 'The Last Supper' and 'Down Under'. I'm not going to go into these too much as they're short stories and I don't want to give anything away. Let's just say that they are both definitely worth your time and very apt choices for this small, vampire filled, corner of the Labyrinth Mythos.

'With Teeth' is a great example of a writer more than able to spin something original out of the same old 'horror monsters'. Not only that, it's a book that had me more than a little scared in all the right places as well as making me jump at least twice. A great read then, whether you're a long term fan or looking for somewhere to jump on and start reading (anywhere is good but 'With Teeth' is a great example of what Keene is all about as well as being a very self contained read). You've probably bought it already but if you haven't... Do it, do it now.