I do like a good horror novel particularly zombie fiction and the odd vampire novel too I must say.
This one though was a bit of a disappointment,not really engaging and all a bit muddled,World War Z set the bar too high for this type of novel.
I would give this 2 stars unfortunately.

Wasn't really my thing. I was left a little confused. There's mixed reviews so I'm sure it's got its fans.

I’ve always loved books that stray from the usual narrative structure, so this one instantly caught my eye. The story told from these differing viewpoints was an engaging one, and I read on eager to find out what was next. The cover is very striking too, and definitely contributed to me wanting to pick this up. It’s one I’ll be recommending for sure.

I'm not sure I've ever read a book anything like this one before. The style is something like the script for a fictional documentary, with events laid out in (mostly) sequential order. There is no principal main character but rather input from the perspectives of several characters who played significant roles in the described events, from a virologist with the CDC to FBI agents, priests with a secretive Catholic order, and even some of the vampires themselves.

In essence, this is a cautionary tale of just what people can get away with if they have enough money, power and the right spin doctors at their disposal. And the answer is… literally anything, including being actual vampires who need to drink human blood to survive.

Though I found this a fascinating, if terrifying, read, there were too many unanswered questions and logical gaps in the narrative for me to really ‘buy in’. For example, a mass grave on the Mexican side of the border was mentioned several times of being of interest at the start of the outbreak, but we were never told why, what or who had been buried there or why the virologist considered a return many months later. There were logical inconsistencies such as the Chinese banning all vampires, then a few chapters later, a vampire with bodyguards walking down the street in a Chinese city.

Logically, the 50% death rate should have produced a very large number of distressed relatives fervent and vocal in their anti-vampire sentiments, much as Lauren became after her sister's death. Where were all those people? For me, it was a glaring omission. There should have been grieving relatives clamouring for answers and bringing lawsuits all over the place.

I actually think this would make much better television than it did a book, because of the nature of the story, without a single protagonist to follow. While I enjoyed the read, I was left with a lingering feeling of frustration because of the unanswered questions and illogicalities I mentioned above. I'm giving it four stars.

A People's History of the Vampire Uprising is not your typical vampire tale, but rather it follows the NOBI virus from when it is first discovered by Doctor Lauren Scott, and is unleashed on a world that is not prepared to handle it.

When I read the synopsis for this novel I was excited. It looked like just the sort of book I'd love, and the cover was eye-catching. But unfortunately for me, it was a struggle to read. We frequently jumped from voice to voice, and because the detached 'historical' way in which things were told, it was really difficult to find myself connecting with the characters, so when they died, it just felt like a statistic rather than a creepy-horror scene.

The scientific explanations I actually kind of loved, with a science background myself, I love it when books get a bit technical, but what I didn't like were the excessively long paragraphs that went on for over a page, making it really difficult to keep reading.

The world building was great, and the world felt detailed and well thought out, but the pacing was slow, with very little in the way of action, further adding to the problem staying focused on the story.

Review scheduled for 28/05/2018.

Vampires are out of the coffin and going by the name Gloamings. This collection of accounts from a CDC scientist, people labelled as terrorists, an FBI special agent and many more details the events from the time the virus first hit to the global epidemic it has become.

I love vampire stories. (Not Twilight.) I love vampire movies. (Not Twilight.) And I love the evolution of the vampire from being a creature of pure terror to also being a creature with depth. That’s why I decided to take a chance on A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising despite having thoroughly disliked World War Z, a book with a similar premise but different creature.

I’m sorry to say that I really struggled to get through A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising for so many reasons.

The book is supposed to be “sweeping yet deeply intimate fictional oral history - told from the perspectives of several players”. Which could have been fascinating. Except that the oral histories from several people all sound exactly the same and don’t sound anything like how people generally speak. If it were just the CDC scientist who is “speaking” like she is using a thesaurus and reading her college application essay, I may have bought it. But everyone has the same dull and convoluted tone.

In terms of story, A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising manages to go nowhere very slowly. The plot often gets bogged down in retelling the same events from different perspectives. Which would be fine if they felt like different perspectives. As far as the overarching plot goes, there are a lot of things mish-mashed together and most of them end up lost in a trite ending.

I thought A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising had a lot of potential and there are still a couple of things I liked about it. I enjoyed the threads of current pop culture being wound through it, though would have liked to see how it had more of an impact on the wider world. Let’s face it, if a pop star does something then a huge majority wants in on it too.

Overall, the idea behind A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising was great. But I found that it just missed the mark in too many ways to be enjoyable.

If you’ve read World War Z then your feelings towards it will likely be able to give an indication of how much you will or won’t enjoy A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising. Personally, I found the writing to be clunky and unconvincing, and the story was not memorable enough to stand out amongst the giants in the hugely saturated field of vampire literature.

Rating: 2/5

The last boomtime for vampire stories was about ten years ago. Books series like the True Blood and Twilight, which went on to became movies and tv series, ruled the airwaves and cinemas. And plenty of pretenders flowed in their wake. But they were just the longest in a line of vampire tales stretching at least as far back as Bram Stoker and probably further. So it is perhaps no surprise, after a short period of relative dormancy (driven into the shadows by zombie hordes perhaps?) that vampires are back.

A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising tells the story of the rise of the vampires (or Gloamings as they prefer to be known) and a small resistance movement against them. The story is delivered in documentary style. Following the discovery of a new virus by the CDC in New Mexico, each chapter is a form of testimony and many are also preceded by snippets from newspapers and magazines. While this gives a feeling of authenticity it also serves to distance the reader from the action. There are lengthy chapters devoted to legal battles and there is a thread about a schism in the Catholic Church. The narrative is almost all telling rather than showing, four hundred pages of exposition, an approach that wears thin after a while.

Despite all of the medical terminology and discussion of viruses, the Gloamings are pretty classic vampires. They drink human blood, they sleep during the day, they live longer, have preternatural strength and speed, they can mesmerise humans and they die if they go out in the sunlight. Much of the book is devoted to exploring how they hide this true nature from the broader population.

A People’s History is, if nothing else, an original and interesting reinvention of the genre. Villareal uses his narrative to explore how a small, powerful few can use existing structures and protections to manipulate the rest of humanity and get exactly what they want. That metaphoric aspect of this book is probably scarier than the Gloamings themselves.

The story of an outbreak of a vampire virus and its spread across the world are told by various points of view, including transcripts, diary entries and reflective reports in this ambitious but ultimately dull novel.
With a story that's told after the fact, it's a book that relies heavily on exposition, clogging the story down, while the variety of narrative styles make it hard to engage with any of the characters, leaving little to endear a reader to the story.
Points for effort in trying something different. It just didn't quite come off.

From the outset, I have to admit that I am a fan of the genre where some virus thing alters the human condition (whether it be vampires, zombies or werewolves) and the fight for survival that ensues. I particularly like the books that use a mixture of eyewitness accounts, media articles and classified government memos to give legitimacy to the alternate universe that is constructed.
In ‘A people’s history of the vampire uprising’, Raymond A Villareal has undertaken to bring a new spin to this genre by recreating the vampire myth. The time is now, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber are still selling music and down in New Mexico a new disease has emerged where people like to drink blood and shun the sunlight. First on the ground to examine this new disease is Lauren Scott from the CDC, who tries to prod the Government into action and discover the source of the virus. Partnering up with Hector, a law enforcement official, they quickly begin to realise the scope of what is occurring. As the disease spreads the impact reverberates across society. The vampires quickly organise themselves to seek legitimacy as a species. They undertake a re-branding exercise to become gloamings, go all out on a publicity blitz by seeking equal rights and ensure re-creation is highly selective. Opposition comes from concerned community member, law enforcement and a religious sect that undertakes to eradicate the gloamings.
There is no traditional narrative coursing through this book and no real central protagonist, but Lauren is probably the closest to that traditional tag. There are several other major players, who weave through the book and provide further context to what is happening. For some readers not being purely a character driven story may be difficult to adjust to as the history of the uprising is told through a mixture of first-hand accounts, media articles, interviews, legal decisions and government documentation.
Villareal has done an outstanding job in creating a rich detailed world that oozes authenticity. You could easily believe that this event is actually happening. The scientific, legal papers, interview transcripts and news articles add to the realism and are well researched and planned out. The writing is highly descriptive and allows you to immerse into the different locations and times. The characters are all well developed and have their own traits and foibles.
There is a great of complexity on the differing political and religious views as to the value and negative impact gloamings have on society. Are they a positive force assisting with development or are they behind an increase in crime and lawfulness?
The strength and the weakness in this book is the level of detail. I mean Villareal must have created some in-depth character sheets. I know this because at one point a character remembers as he walks into a bar how his Dad had brought the exact same jukebox from a junkyard in Chicago. It may be interesting to know but it did not drive the story forward. There are other moments like this where layers of detail keep coming and it does slow the momentum down. The court case documents is another example where less would be good.
You have to give Villareal credit he has created a richly detailed historical account in modern times of how vampires sought integration into mainstream society. He has mixed in conspiracies and questioned what tolerance is by giving us a world that leaps of the page with realism.
‘A people’s history of the vampire uprising’ works because of the uncertainty of what and who is good or bad is this new world order. Villareal has given the vampire race back its dark roots, questionable morality and untrustworthy nature.