Vampire Gods and Young Jewish Maidens

The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A full blown story dealing with the occult, religion, vampire and Egyptian deities. Set in Salem, Massachusetts 1913 one would think this book is about witchcraft. Starting off with Sarah Engelman watching her father pray in synagogue the story rolls into a young girl going off with her friends Emily, Ann and Sam. Sarah worries about typical things for a young Jewish orthodox girl her age. School, acceptable socializing and marriage. Then Alex comes along a young Greek boy her age. The forbidden attraction starts.

Meanwhile Nasir, an Andalusian vampire rolls into town. His first thing is to kill Charles someone about to marry Anne. He is killed by the vampire in a bizarre ritual only to rise from the dead and go on a killing spree all his own. The dream team puts a stop to all that. But only temporarily.

They now have to destroy Nasir. Sarah's father, Rabbi Joseph has some history with vampire as does Alex's grandfather. Nasir is out to get something, Gabriel's horn and he is acting on behalf of a trio of Egyptian gods. Specifically, Anubis and Khepri. The third is a ram. The evil team is being helps by the warlock pastor Parris who himself is in a relationship with a succubus. It only gets better as the story rolls on. The dream team ends up travelloing through time and venturing into different realms. I do not want to spoil the ending.

The story is told by an author who seems to have great knowledge of Jewish lore and customs. The story is centered a lot around Jewish lore. Many vampire stories have a Christian theme so this one stands out. The ending is a little bit sad but at the same time it leaves a platform opening for a sequel which hopefully the author will write.

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