I read the hell out of this book. Buehlman writes great vampires. There's always a human behind that ugly, blood-sucking face. Criminals are usually stupid. That's what makes them criminals. There are great heroes with giant, gaping flaws. It's what drives them into revenge or atonement.

Buehlman also writes a mean and bloody battlefield. The battles here had movie shades of From Dusk 'Til Dawn and John Carpenter's Vampires, but in a more public sphere.

I was wincing over the wrecks of those beautiful old cars. I've always loved classic muscle cars.

There is a dog death, but I have to give Buehlman props for making it meaningful and touching in a few paragraphs. It pinches your heart and then it's over.

The way that Luther met his end was poetic and highly satisfying. Buehlman can make you care about a handful of new characters in less than a page.

I had so many questions at the end. I wanted more. Terrible book hangover coming on. I may have to reread [b:The Lesser Dead|20893407|The Lesser Dead|Christopher Buehlman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396375462l/20893407._SY75_.jpg|40236397]. ( )

The Suicide Motor Club is a horror novel by Christopher Buehlman, who also is the narrator of the audio version that I listened to. The book opens with a nomadic group of vampires attacking a family on a New Mexican highway. While Judith, the wife survives, she watches in horror as her little boy is grabbed from their car and pulled into the vampire’s vehicle. She never sees her little boy again. Her husband dies in the subsequent car crash.

Vowing to destroy these evil creatures, Judith first becomes a nun and then becomes the hunter, stalking these evil beings across the highways of America and relying upon religion and goodness to overcome them. And believe me, these vampires need to be destroyed as they are brutal and sadistic, delighting in their evil ways.

It’s been awhile since I have read a novel that features vampires and I enjoyed this blood-fest. I was particularly pleased that a woman was the main character and the destroyer of monsters. A warning for the slightly squeamish, there is lots of violence and gore scattered throughout the book. ( )

This is a story about a group of vampires on a gore-covered, depraved murder spree.

No, wait.

This is a store about an old vampire trying to find beauty in the world.

No, still.

This is a story about a mother trying to find justice for her husband and son brutally ripped from her.

No.

This is a story about a road trip, and faith and violence and miracles.

There we go.

It's actually a couple of different road trips in a number of different cars, from the one where little Glendon gets yanked out the window by a bunch of vampires, to the muscle cars traipsing across the country in blood fueled venom, to the one following quietly behind intent on their end driven by a mother turned nun looking for justice for her murdered son and an older vampire trying to stop their bloody spree before everything gets exposed for the love of blue, almost lavender eyes. It portrays the gory side of vampires in all their glistening, blood-soaked madness.

Buehlman does have a talent for writing rich characters and lush atmospheres, though. I especially loved Judith, whose hidden strengths in the face of her own mortality especially impressed me, and honestly, Calcutta, who had a richer history and a care for her own mother that I would not have expected.

The Suicide Motor Club was also not really what I was expecting. To be entirely fair, the only other book by Buehlman I've ever read was [b:Those Across the River|10772903|Those Across the River|Christopher Buehlman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442798702s/10772903.jpg|15684614], which was about a little southern town hiding a nasty secret. Reading that inclined me to expect The Suicide Motor Club to be a more traditional horror novel -- but this was not that. For that reason, I expect, this book didn't yank me in the way I wanted it to, because I really wanted a traditional horror novel and picked Buehlman as an innovative, atmospheric writer of such.

In short -- good book. Gory. Sometimes offensive. Surprisingly deep at times. Worth the read if you're looking for a story about vampires who really, *really* don't sparkle and love muscle cars. ( )

A gang of vampires roams the highways at night causing accidents so that they can drink the blood of the victims, and the wife/mother of two of those victims decides to take revenge. The story is campy, bizarre and over-the-top ridiculous, but it was also amusing (to me anyway) and entertaining. ( )

4.5/5 stars!

Vampires and American muscle cars. It's like this book was tailored to me personally. And on top of that, it ROCKED!

A family is on a road trip on an American highway one night, with their young son in the back seat. A car with no lights on pulls up next to them, grabs the arm of the boy, (he had his arm out the window), and poof, the boy is gone. Next thing you know, the car is crashed on the side of the road, with both mom and dad badly injured. Where did the boy go? Who took him? Will he ever see his father and mother again? You'll have to read this to find out.

There's no sparkling here and there's no romance, (well, maybe a little, but it's a different type of romance.) Instead, these vamps traveled in a pack during the late 60's. For me, the time period was a perfect, refreshing setting because: 1. the cars were all American,(this was a time before the invasion of imported cars), 2. I'm an American car gal AND I love muscle cars and 3. there were no cell phones or other technologies distracting me from the story.

At this point in my horror-reading life, I'm vampired out. It takes a special book to get me excited about them, and this one was it. I loved the return of vampires with hypnotizing skills, (remember when Dracula did that hypnotizing thing?), ones that can make you do his/her bidding and then forget you ever saw them. I enjoyed the fact that these vampires had other special skills which I'll leave you to discover on your own, (but trust me the skills were COOL). I loved that these monsters were just that: MONSTERS in capital letters. Lastly, I also loved the fact that the protagonist was strong and female, never exactly sure of her strength but pressing on just the same. Jude was one to root for and root I did.



Now I'm sad that I only have one Christopher Buehlman book left to read. If you're out there, sir, I hope you're working on something new!

If you haven't read any of Mr. Buehlman's work as of yet, you should rectify that-and quickly! I doubt you'd be disappointed with any of them, but I highly recommend The Suicide Motor Club! It might just restore your faith in vampire horror stories and give you a new author to read!

You can get your copy here: The Suicide Motor Club

*I obtained my copy through my awesome public library because I'm usually broke. Libraries RULE* ( )