Review: Coffin Moon

4 stars. I really, really, really want to give this 5 stars. This was an incredible rock-and-roll ride start-to-bloody-finish, a thrilling and gory revenge plot for fans of S.A. Cosby. It is an instant vampire classic with vivid 70s slasher vibes - think VW vans, dive bars, roadside hotels, and payphones. It has a crackling premise, a fiery climax and an explosive ending. And there's depth, too - a lot of chewy musings on life, death, choices, masculinity, trauma, grief, morality, survival, and more. And I have to mention that it's incredibly, like from the pacing down to the sentence-level word choice, well-written. 

Duane Minor, a Vietnam war vet, and his wife Heidi take care of their 13-year-old niece, Julia, who has come under their guardianship through terrible circumstances. Along with his in-laws, the family manages the Last Call - a popular Portland bar. Duane is struggling but sober; getting by. But when John Varley and a motorcycle gang attempt to sell drugs out of his bar, Duane's temper flies out of control, setting off a chain of gruesome and monstrous events that will change his and Julia's fates - and John Varley's - forever. 

It's not a spoiler to share that this is a vampire story - a super dark and wonderful one. It invokes a lot of the vampire lore/tradition we all know and love: the rules, the hunger, the transformation, the teeth, the self-loathing and the desperation, the fighting of the instincts, the young ones turned too soon, the practical considerations around avoiding sunlight and silver. The hunt. The kills. Humanity. Immortality. Ego. Power. Admit it: we all love this shit. I honestly wouldn't have minded a bit of a longer journey with Duane, Julia, and John. 

But for some reason I just can't quite bring myself to go higher than 4 stars. I think I maybe did want more - a little more at the end, there. Maybe I'm bouncing off the extremely strong dude smell wafting out of these pages (the female characters are there - could they be a bit more colorful? Maybe?), or the loose ends, though I don't typically mind ambiguity. Maybe the dialogue was a bit odd, or John Varley was a bit obvious... Idk. It also wasn’t very scary.

The takeaway is this: it’s fun. This is a chaotic, cinematic ride and I can’t wait to see it adapted - can you imagine the soundtrack?! I truly respect and admire the form and craft but like, there’s also a real fuck yeah vibe here that’s hard to resist. Coffin Moon is amazing and I highly recommend. 

Coffin Moon on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph