I was sure I had read every twist possible on the vampire story, but I was wrong. The Vitandi adds another unique and upsetting twist to the vast collection of vampire stories out there.
Remember the twelve apostles from the Bible? The apostles and Christ are a huge part of this book. The author does a very brave thing: she gives a religious reason for the creation of vampires.
The twelve apostles found out after they drank Christ’s blood at the Last Supper that they had been cursed. They were now forced to live as vampires for the part they took in betraying Christ. Their only escape from this cursed life is for Kellan, the son of Simon, to find a female descendant of Christ and father a child with her.
The apostles have been searching for this lady for a very long time. When they finally find her, it is touching to see how the relationship develops between her and Kellan. Kellan is not supposed to fall in love with her, but how many children listen to what their parents tell them?
Lucifer wants this woman and the child she carries inside of her dead, and he will go to any lengths to accomplish this. Kellan wants to protect her and their child. He wants to spend his life with them, so once again he doesn’t listen to his father. He follows his heart. But following his heart puts them all in danger.
The storyline, the characters, and the dialogue are awesome. I found the book captivating and hard to put down.
If you don’t like for the story told in the Bible to be messed with in any way, then you probably wouldn’t like this book. But if you are a fan of paranormal stories full of suspense, action, and thrills, then you would love this book.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like to purchase your own copy, click on the Amazon link below.
Amazon Link: The Vitandi
Recommended Article: Writing Religious Fiction: How Far is Too Far? – Guest Post by Denver Batiste
Favorite Sentences:
God doesn’t do things halfway.
She had no idea how close she had come to death tonight.
His breath wheezed as he shifted from rational human being to bloodthirsty animal.
New Words Learned:
cerulean – a deep blue color; azure
fop – a man who is excessively concerned with fashion and elegance
harridan – a scolding old woman; nag
humidor – a humid place or container for storing cigars, tobacco, etc
About the Author:
At the age of four, Denver knew she wanted to be a writer. Her grandmother, a Creole from Krotz Springs, LA., kept her and her siblings up at night by telling tantalizing stories of ghosts, ghouls, and the stereotypical zombies that were a part of her culture and heritage. Denver started incorporating her own imaginary characters in the tales, adding a few details to make the story more frightening, and retold them to her parents, much to their amazement and amusement.
As an adolescent, she spent her afternoons going to the library and reading anything and everything. Mostly books on Roman and Greek mythology, Egyptian folklore, anything that had to do with the strange and unusual. At 13, she began writing her own short stories, and developed a unique style by using actual events and changing them into fictional form.
When her aunt, Mary J. Bowers, wrote a series of romance novels in the mid-80s, she knew she had found a kindred spirit. The inspiration from her aunt’s novels opened up the writer lurking inside, encouraging her every step of the way.
Denver has always had a strange fascination with vampires, and wanted to write a story that steered away from the traditional “I vant to suck your blaaahhhd” genre that has sorely been played to the extreme. Being from a small town in Tennessee, the Bible was a significant part of her life, and she especially enjoyed the New Testament and the stories relating Christ’s life. Always curious, she never understood why the Bible didn’t go into more detail about the life of Jesus as a youth or the lives of His beloved apostles after his crucifixion.
So, she decided someone needed to write a story about them. Not the traditional non-fiction drivel, but a new kind of book. With her brain working overtime, Denver began creating a story– a different version of what’s been told for centuries. She asked herself “What if the apostles were punished for abandoning Jesus and leaving Him to be crucified? What if they were doomed to live forever with the knowledge of their betrayal?” That’s when it came to her.
Denver was going to write a book, merging her two passions: vampire lore and Biblical characters. By doing this, she would break away from the humdrum biting on the neck and look into my eyes nonsense that has been the staple of all vampire tales. Instead, she developed a story using a different method of transformation. After ten years of laborious fact checking and meticulous reading, The Vitandi, her first novel was born.
Denver lives in Tennessee with her four children and her husband. She is currently working on a sequel titled, Anathema.
