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The author writes "your" as "yr". Let that sink in for a second before you continue reading this review.

This is avant-garde...risky...experimental... and it didn't really work for me.

The lyrical, poetry aspect of the book had the potential to be interesting. But the writing itself feels like a word vomit stew. Excessive use of very obscure words to the point that it felt like I was reading from a thesaurus. And the novel is presented as a series of vignettes, so I thought with that combined with the writing style that it made to story very hard to follow.

I appreciate the attempt at trying something risky, and there were certain aspects of it I did like, but ultimately this wasn't for me. I've seen some other high reviews though so I'm sure there's an audience out there that is going to love this book.

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This was sadly not for me. The cover is intriguing and tells a different story than the story itself.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

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The premise of this book, and the amazing cover, was really intriguing and I had high hopes for this novel. Unfortunately I didn't get out of it what I had hoped for.

I enjoyed the lyrical aspect to the writing--I love an unconventional narrative. When I read it like poetry, the language did give me a pulp horror vibe. The language was really evocative and quite visceral at times. But with the exception of the erotic aspects of this novel, I couldn't ascertain what was going on. Through the words, I could get a futuristic feeling or a vibe of being in space. But vampires? Hardly got that at all!

All in all, this book gave me the feeling that I was missing something and everyone else is probably smarter than me and 'gets it'.

As this was an eArc (thank you Net Galley), I'd be curious to see if the formatting of the final printed version changes the feel of the narrative. The pdf line breaks seems, at times, to allude to illustrations or page breaks.

This is a book for someone! And while there were parts I enjoyed, that person wasn't 100% me.

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The premise and cover intrigued me and I had high hopes but unfortunately I was disappointed and I had to DNF.

The way this book is written is really throwing me off. It feels like it was meant to be poetic but instead it confused me through and through. I was not one chapter in and I was already lost and had no idea what was going on. And I couldn’t get past the use of “yr” instead of “your”.

I’m sure there is an audience for this type of writing and work, but I’m not one of them.

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honestly i just wanna say what?
had to dnf, i just god confused with everything. the writhing is weird, every sentence made me more confused and lost. i can’t even explain the few 50ish pages i’ve read. i thought it would be a fun read but i guess it isn’t made for me ):

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Unfortunately this is my first NetGalley DNF. The concept of this novel was perhaps too good to be true.

The grammar made reading the novel difficult, leading to multiple rereads of the same sentence. And what I read appeared more as an accumulation of vignette style fragments placed alongside one another. I think the novel is trying too hard to be intelligent, which appears more as regurgitation than integration of subject matter, philosophy, and complex vocabulary. Having read many outwardly pretentious works at university, I can grasp the inspirational matter used as a framework, but I struggle to see how this will engage a modern audience without a deep understanding of obscure vocabulary, excessive adverb usage, and strange grammar. Truly disappointing as this could have integrated those complex ideas and repackaged them as part of the plot instead of being fed it overtly, falling victim to ‘telling’ the reader rather than showing the reader.

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This is a properly brilliant fever dream fused with queer brilliance. There's some great writing in this and there's certainly some bending of rules too! There's bits that didn't agree with me, but I enjoyed it overall.

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Was very enticing, however I feel like I was massively missing something. Reading through other reviews I believe this is part of a series? I'm interested enough to find the the first book.

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I love this cover, and the synopsis of the story sounded very interesting! Unfortunately I could not get past the first chapter, due to the writing style. Hopefully this book will find its readers, but for me it was just not it…

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I anticipated this to be a good read by the description and the cover. GAY PULP FICTION? SIGN ME UP. But—— I was left confused more than I was satisfied. Did I miss some chapters or something?

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It was really upsetting to find out after receiving this that it is the third book in a trilogy. Nothing on netgalley mentioned this and I was very lost and confused at first until a friend did some research and pointed this out. I ended up giving up very early on.

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I found this kind of a slog to read mostly because it’s not what I was going in expecting. The writing was strange and hard to follow which really irritated me. Then the story just was meh.

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The writing on this was hard to understand, to the point of which I don't think this will be a generally successful read. The "avant-garde" in the description is important– the literature often functions more poetically and strangely than a traditional narrative. I think the intention is fascinating and some of the language on it's own is beautiful. The execution was not exactly as I would hope or really enjoyable to me personally, but I respected the intention and the risk taken by the author. I think this will find its audience and has the chance to become a cult classic novel, with the strangeness that a lot of readers are craving these days.

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I expected suspense, I expected heavy atmosphere filled with erotic disgusting syrupy air and it didn't disappoint. The book was far from perfect and I wouldn't be surprised if many people didn't finish reading it. I have to admit I had a great time tho. I have to mention I was not the biggest fan of the writing. At times I thought to myself "the author is trying to create the literary masterpiece using mighty vocabulary", it just didn't work for me. But I think if Ulrich Baer develops those skills I won't be against reading more from his pen.

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I like the prose mostly, some of it loses me though. It's a quick read, but also one to think about and I do wonder if in a few weeks it'll pop back into my head and really resonate afterward.

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DNF @ 27%

The cover looked SO COOL, but unfortunately this was just ... huh? What am I reading?? Too convoluted to make sense and honestly my brain was working overtime. I finally said NOPE I QUIT.

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Beyond the Planet of the Vampires was a DNF for me. I think there’s a specific target audience for this book and I unfortunately was not it.

This book sounded like something I could really enjoy and honestly, I would have picked it up just for the cover art alone because, wow! But unfortunately I really couldn’t get into this one. The writing style was pretty much unreadable to me which meant that I had to DNF pretty early on. It was confusing and had far too many big words that I didn’t understand, (I’m not stopping to google the definition of a word every two seconds, sorry) which basically meant that I was very lost and had little idea what was going on. Majorly disappointed that this wasn’t really for me because damn that cover is just so cool!!

I do think there’s people out there for this book, so if you like poetic, queer stories that are a bit confusing, then definitely give this one a chance!

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described as speculative avant garde, queer vampire horror
the grammar was TERRIBLE but poetic and fun to read
written in an old school 1950s drive in horror style, the narrative is erratic, lose and moves in an out of a constructive storyline
the before, during and after of a vampire alien invasion searching the universe for new and future victims
4/5 spicy peppers for the experienced reader

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Great book! It had all the fears of growing up. Make a choice. Turn the page or close the book. Enter the darkness if you wish!.it was super cool and odd.

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DNF at 20%

This book is the third of a trilogy, which I learned from GoodReads. I am honestly surprised there are three books, if the other two are like this one. I am not often turned off of books due to form, but I found this book incomprehensible. There is no narrative that I could piece together, despite my best efforts. There are shifting, barely connected scenes with some strong imagery and poetic wording -- which only got more irritating the longer I read. I tried really hard to push past the 20% mark, but I just couldn't force myself to read it anymore.

I am sure there is an audience for this work, particularly those interested in avant-garde and more experimental writing, but otherwise I cannot recommend it.

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