eARC provided for free by NetGalley for a review.
This was fun! My second book by Mike Chen and I really enjoyed it. We follow Louise, a punk rocker vampire, who reconnects with some extended family, introduces music to her teenage relative, and navigates a new vampire app with serious implications for the entire vampire community.
This was a pretty quick read, and I enjoyed the storyline and Louise's character growth, but I didn't love the way flashbacks were integrated into the writing- sometimes it was a little confusing to me what was happening when in the timeline.
Overall, pretty enjoyable but not too deep.

I really enjoyed this book as a quick, easy read. Louise is a vampire, but as she is quick to tell us, being a vamp isn't all it's cracked up to be. First off, vamps don't have all of those cool powers we read about, vamps are long-lived beings who eat only blood and are allergic to sunlight, garlic, silver, and wood. Then there is the sad point that blood is hard to come by. Vamps can't glam anyone like in the stories and the truth is, their fangs aren't really very efficient. Being a vampire is pretty depressing.

Louise has been a vampire for about 50 years. Her love is music, all kinds but particularly punk. She works as a janitor in a hospital so she take the expired blood. Fortunately for her, she inherited her house from her aunt so her housing costs are minimal.

One day there is a knock at the door and some relatives show up at the front door, clutching an old family address. Yikes, Louise doesn't want these people around but she gets sucked into their lives and thus back into her own history.

Meanwhile there is a distressing blood shortage and some recent "vampire attacks" in the city. Through the local vamp network, Louise gets involved in a blood delivery program and all hell breaks loose.

About 90% of the writing here is good. Mike Chen knows his music. The last few chapters feel a bit rushed and I think that the wrap-up could have been stronger.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to you.

I was given an ARC to Vampire Weekend all the way back in July. I kept putting it off, saying I was going to read it for spooky season in October. But then October came and I hit a slump hard. I think I read maybe two whole books that month, and none of them were what I needed to be reading — ARCs. But time marches onward, and here I am finally finished reading this book.

Vampire Weekend was really not at all like I thought it was going to be. The vampires in this book are neutered in a way that I wasn’t really a fan of at all. I like my vampires sexy, dangerous, and mysterious. The vampires in this book are…not…any…of that. Seriously, the fact that they were vampires almost didn’t really matter besides Louise needing to find way to eat. I’m still just a little baffled that someone would choose to write vampires this way. As boring. This book read more like a bad paranormal series entry than anything remotely like a vampire book that I’m used to. It was okay, but Vampire Weekend is probably not something I’ll be picking up again any time soon.

Louise Chao is a vampire. A punk rock vampire who spends her time working a hospital janitor and hanging out with her dog. Seriously, when we meet her she’s doing nothing remotely interesting. She’s got some serious issues with her family in her past, but I mean…that was it. There was not much else to her. Then we meet her distant nephew, and he’s more interesting but his entire story wraps around his mom who is dying of cancer. There’s a little mystery wrapped up in the general plot of the book, but overall I just wasn’t impressed with this one. It reads very easily, though, which is why I didn’t put it down. Three unimpressed stars.

If you are a fan of Mike Chen's you will enjoy this book.
His books are about finding family with a sci-fi/horror twist.


I just reviewed Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen. #VampireWeekend #NetGalley

Come for the vampire-lore, stay for the punk-rock references!

This, however, is not your ordinary vampire story. It is more contemporary than it is a fantasy, truly displaying how vampires would exist in our modern world. Phone apps for blood ordering, graveyard shift jobs and more!

While I enjoyed the main character of Louise, and the concept of how a vampire lifestyle would fit into a contemporary world, I found this book had some missed opportunities. Great family conflict that I did not feel got much resolution. Foreshadowing that was done in a manner that made me think I was reading a second-book in a series, and not just that I was getting hints of things to come.

Despite Louise's middle age (though she's technically older, you know, the whole Vampire thing!) I think this book would be great for Young Adult readers and punk-rock fans. I also think this is a great read for those who don't typically love fantasy but are eager for a Vampire read. It reads as contemporary.

Thank you for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A novel about a middle-aged, punk-rock vampire sounded like it would be a quirky change of pace for me, and it was, but I don't think I was the right audience for this novel. It held my interest, but I didn't really connect with the main character or find myself overly interested in her life. I expected her to be a lot more interesting than she was.

I enjoyed the overall premise while not loving the particulars of the execution. It is for sure a music and vamp heavy book, to the expense of anything else it could have been on some level. I have enjoyed Chen's work in the past, this just didn't hit me the right way.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this arc. I really did not like the main character and I found her annoying. The story dragged for most of the book.

Vampire Weekend
by Mike Chen
Fantasy Paranormal Vampire
NetGalley ARC

Louise Chao is a vampire, a vampire who is a musician that loves punk rock and dreams of joining a band, but being a vampire makes things difficult, not because of the things everyone believes vampires can do, like being able to fly, turn into a bat, or mist. It's the sun, blood bags, and keeping what she is a secret.

This is her story, and what happened when long lost family knocked on her door, told in first person, of what it's really like to be a vampire and the issues that come up. Sadly, her present-day story is interrupted repeatedly with her past in overly drawn-out paragraphs that for most could've been summed up in one or two. Yes, it was good to know how she became a vampire, and what she had to sacrifice, and while there are connections, I felt that the history was a little overdone and took away pages that could've been used to make the characters feel more real and have the 'present day' story more than just a quick this and that happened, and then this. It made for a shallow present-day plot.

For the first few chapters, I honestly thought the MC, Louise, was male. I don't know why I thought that, but it wasn't until my confusion got to the point that I had to re-read the blurb to realize he was really a she. Maybe it's because I'm old school, but knowing that little detail gives me something to relate to. I'm female so I relate to female characters differently than I do males. (I'm not judging or saying one is better than the other, it's just a different mindset for me to read in so I can relate to them.)

The story wasn't bad, and there were things that I could relate to and understand her ways of thinking, but there's nothing scary about this, nothing extremely 'vampire' about it. It read more like a general fiction story. And this is not a 'love' story either. I think that it is suitable for readers fourteen and over.

The chapter headings about vampire myths were used as a way to give the vampires more of a human character than a monstrous one and was a nice touch.

But because of the lack of depth for the present-day plot and for the plainness of the characters the MC interacted with, I can only give this story,

2 Stars

This is the most Mike Chen™ book by Mike Chen that I've read to date. Music and corgis? San Francisco? Through in vampires and you have this Nick Hornby-esque spec fic full of badass band references, Star Trek, and debunked vampire lore. Very enjoyable read! Will recommend my store bring it in.

Louise has structured her life around access to blood, a necessity for a vampire. But this cycle of subsistence living keeps her from being able to make a go of other opportunities when they come along. Her few close connections (her aunt and her friend Marshall) have both died, and she hasn't really tried to make any new ones in the years since. She has an adorable dog, and the pattern of her nights is shaped by working at the hospital, getting blood, occasionally trying out for music gigs, and taking care of her corgi. There's a vampire trying to organize the community, but Louise mistrusts his sunny personality and his technologically invasive methods, mostly trying to avoid him as much as possible. When a local blood shortage threatens her and many other vampires' continued existence, this becomes much more difficult to manage.

The worldbuilding is a mix of musical ideas and music references, facts about being a vampire, and the slowly unfurling tale of how Louise ran away from home and become a vampire in her early twenties. I'm not musically inclined and didn't know most of the songs and musicians being referenced, but each time they were discussed in context with what they invoke and their place in the history of music in a way that was interesting and informative without feeling like a lecture.

The plot revolves around Louise receiving an unexpected visit by a grandfather and grandson as the boy's mother is in the hospital dying of cancer. The pair are somehow related to Louise but it takes a while before she figures out exactly how (plus her vampirism means she looks only a decade older than the kid). The main story proceeds pretty linearly, punctuated by flashbacks as Louise is processing previous events with new understanding of herself. Interacting with these new people shakes her out of her normal patterns and it takes a bit to adjust.

The ending feels a bit neat, like too huge of a thing manages to be sorted out in a way that supposedly fixes things as much as possible. I think the bit that's bugging me is it feels like Louise is the supporting character for both of the main storylines (Ian dealing with his mother's impending death, and Eric trying to make things better for vampires), but by being present exactly where she is she ends up helping with both things. She actually feels like if a regular person who happened to be a vampire had to deal with this stuff but didn't budge an inch on taking care of her dog and talking about music.

This was great and I highly recommend it for anyone who wishes music, vampires, and family trauma overlapped more often.

This was interesting. I like Chen's writing style-I'll say that right now. However, I am extremely particular when it comes to my vampire fiction because, well, I'm a vampyre.

In reading this book, two things-no, three things-are super obvious:

1. Chen is a musician and is really into it. That's great. It can drone on a bit in the details, but the narrative is kind of a punk success story as much as vampire tale.
2. The author was a hybrid. He should have never been turned, had no business being a vampire, and is way better off being a human. Most humans expect vampire life to save them from boredom, lonliness, and death. Usually it does the opposite. There isn't some hunky aristocrat there to whisk you off to a life of luxury. We are hunted, discriminated against, and used. Chen might have been lucky to be able to revert back.
3. Sometimes the book sounds like a human story with fangs. A vast majority of vampire and werewolf fiction is written by humans (particularly hunter lines) and it shows. If written by a vampyre, the POV is 100% not human. But Chen, in being hybrid and reverted, never got fully into that POV to begin with, so it might explain why everything sounds so human.

This is not the usual vampire story and I appreciated the hell out of that. So vampire fans should buy this, read it, and promote vampire fiction diversity.

Vampires and punk rock? Mike Chen's VAMPIRE WEEKEND is the crossover of my interests. Beyond bloody adventures through San Francisco, this book is a testament to the growing pains that come with family and the path towards self-acceptance. As someone who spent many angsty teenage nights hiding from the world in the crowd of a punk show, I think that vampirism is the perfect allegory for that feeling of "otherness" that can drive us away from living our most authentic lives. I saw myself in both Louise and Ian as I read this story, and I loved seeing both of them come out of their shells. VAMPIRE WEEKEND shows us that even for an immortal, life is too short to shut everyone out.

The main character was a bit of a snob and defined herself only by how much she liked music (while being rather judgmental to those who don’t or who don’t live up to her standard of a music knowledge). Despite a main character I found hard to like, it was overall a light hearted, mostly fun read. The storytelling felt clunky at times (and not helped by a consistent extra space in words that contained an f… hopefully a beta reader problem). Some of the relationships in the book had promise but most weren’t explored to the degree I would have enjoyed. This felt more like (not great) fan fic than a main stream published book. I wouldn’t recommend it to friends but if it sounds like a book you might like, I wouldn’t dissuade you from it either. No regrets on the time spent reading it but it’s not a book that will stand out as a favorite either.

A vampiric ode to punk rock music and loners.
Louise, a forever-young vampire, lives a routine life, working as a janitor at a hospital to get ready access to blood, with music the only thing connecting her to humankind. But her last few attempts at joining a band and connecting with others have gone badly, so when the family she fled years ago turns up on her doorstep, she's ready to turn them away, until she discovers a kindred spirit in Ian, her loathed brother Stephen's grandson. She delights in teaching him guitar and bringing him to his first concert, welcome distractions from his ill mother.
However, Louise's life is complicated when a blood shortage forces her to join a vampire community app, where a vampire organizer has an uncomfortable focus on her activities. When Ian discovers she's a vampire, both Louise and Ian face dangers from both within and without the vampire world. Meanwhile, Louise fights to reconcile her memories of her family with decades-older versions of them and wonders if there can be space for a homecoming after all.
Louise is delightful as the girl who never grew up, fighting for connections through music, only to have them ripped away. Ian's moody teenage broodiness was a great contrast to Stephen's awkward pain as a grieving grandfather struggling to help him. Also, I loved Louise's relationship with her animal companion.
Above all, this book is a tribute to family and how good it feels to go home, no matter how long it's been.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book.

I was surprised at how underwhelmed I was with this one. I absolutely loved Chen’s We Could Be Heroes. Heroes was such a fun and exciting read about an Asian female superhero. What we have here is another Asian female lead (yay!), but in the body of the most boring vampire I didn’t know could exist.

Vampire Louise is a far cry from all the sinister, sexy, powerful vampires we’re used to in books and film. Instead we have vampires who simply just drink blood, look for jobs and housing, and can’t die. They also hurt as easily as us and there are several mentions of breathing and blushing. This sounds more like a horrible medical condition as opposed to sci-fi/fantasy. I would be more forgiving if the plot carried. Unfortunately, the plot was just as bland.

The book finally picks up at 88% in and frankly, that’s too little too late my friend. Also, there is a reveal towards the end that Louise gives Ian and it just falls flat.

I will still continue to seek out this author, but this one missed the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

The plot premise of the story was so very interesting to me. A middle-aged vampire (I did the math, I think Louise would be considered an older GenX) who wants nothing more than to join a band, while keeping her vampirism a secret from her teenage relative. So interesting! But something about this story just fell a bit flat to me. The first half of the story is just weighed down by so many introspective moments and constant flashbacks of Louise's past. I know this is to try and explain who Louise is a person, but there's is barely any plot happening. The story doesn't get interesting until the second half of the story, but even then, it scoots by the juicy parts way too fast. I really wanted to know more about the other vampires, but it flew right past those plot points, much to my disappointment. I found Louise as a character to be interesting only at times. Her memory flashbacks highlight her struggles with her family's refusal to accept her genuine self, her rift with her brother, and finding her estranged Aunt, who was disowned for being a lesbian. The brief mention of Covid was an interesting choice. Did not expect to see Covid mentioned in a book about a punk middle-aged vampire. I have many mixed feelings about this book. I want to like it more, but I find myself feeling neutral about it. I don't love it, but I don't hate it.

This was really interesting, I can’t say I was the target audience or that I would read it again. But for a vampire novel in which there are so many out there, this is original.

I really wanted to love Vampire Weekend. The premise is wonderful: a middle-aged vampire and punk rocker who just wants to join a band. There's a lot of comedy and pathos to be mined in the "normal person vampire" story. And, in the beginning of the novel, Mike Chen does present these very interesting ideas about vampires as a race, and vampirism as a way of dealing with the finality of death (especially in light of COVID, which is mentioned in the novel -- definitely the first time I've seen COVID in a vampire novel!). I also was intrigued by his take on a Chinese-American vampire and excited to see how this might influence the story.

Unfortunately, Vampire Weekend is just boring. There's a lot of exposition, a lot of repetition, and those intriguing themes I mentioned? They never get explored with any depth.

But that's okay, maybe the plot will make up for that? I have bad news on that front. There are hints that there will be a big conspiracy or twist that never materializes.

Ultimately, Vampire Weekend is a story of family and acceptance with a side of comedy, but it takes much too long to get where it's going, and is often hampered by its own mythology.

I feel awful giving this review, both because the premise of Vampire Weekend is excellent, and because in the acknowledgments, Mike Chen seemed so very excited about this book, but in the end, I need to be honest and say that the novel was a disappointing read for me.

Thank you, MIRA, for allowing me to read Vampire Weekend early!

This book was lots of fun in novel form. I didn't stop reading for a second once I started.