Note: Stephen Graham Jones mentioned The Lesser Dead in his end notes for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, so I immediately added it to my reading list. 2025 has a strong vampire theme so far.
The Lesser Dead is set (mostly) in 1978 New York City and narrated by Joey Peacock, a 14 year old turned into a vampire forty years prior by Margaret, his family’s Irish maid. Joey framed her for stealing a piece of jewelry from his mother. He joins her group (Anne Rice would say “coven”) living in the abandoned subway tunnels and learns how to control his new powers. The subway is a character all its own. Buehlman does an excellent job of capturing the sights and smells. These vampires rarely kill their victims to avoid unwanted scrutiny from the police. Instead, they “charm” their intended into allowing the vampires to feed. Joey visits one family repeatedly, drinking from father, mother and son in turn.
One evening he sees what appear to be child vampires on the subway, luring a person away. He reports the disturbing scene back to Margaret who insists on setting up a search party. They eventually locate the children and determine they are vampires, possibly of an entirely different breed. The six children feed constantly and violently, torturing and murdering their prey. Margaret’s group concludes the children are too much of a liability and must be killed, setting up an epic confrontation. But . . . it takes a little too long to get there; instead of creating suspense, the repeated clashes feel repetitive. After these detours, we get the battle royale we deserve.
A warning: CSA is referenced on multiple occasions.
Highlights:
Joey charms a bouncer to get into Studio 54. (Anyone remember that movie with Ryan Phillipe? Good times).
Criticisms:
I desperately wanted more background on the children (there is some).
Joey being 14 made some of the sexuality in the book disturbing. 18 or even 16 would have unnerved me a lot less. Yes, he’s really 64-ish by the time the meat of the story takes place, but I was bothered. It didn’t feel essential to the plot.
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5. I wanted to love it but the momentum really slows in the second half.
