Well... that was something. I absolutely adored the premise of this - vampires that want to fly to the moon because King Ludwig II, also a vampire, has built a castle up there? That's just so strange, I NEEDED to know more.
I also genuinely enjoyed the first act. The prose is a bit pretentious, the author clearly wants to sound lyrical, but I liked the vibe, the mysteries, the protagonist's yearning for so many things - happiness, most of all. It was an interesting take on vampire culture focused on a very small cult, strongly believing in aforementioned premise. They even built wings in order to fly to the moon, and while I have no idea how they actually manage to do so (as vampires apparently do breathe and all in this version), it was interesting on a conceptual level. Then Act II changed things up dramatically, including turning from first to second person narration (which I admittedly rarely like) and with our protagonist stripped completely of agency, trapped in the role of suffering observer - but I still was kind of intrigued by it. It's mostly one long discussion between vampire hunters, but I liked the differences of approach to dealing with vampires and it always felt like it was leading to something big.
Then that big thing happened and it was GLORIOUS, and it promised more things to come.
And then came Act III. And nothing really happened. It was basically an entire act of meandering, with some antagonists that were built up dying off the page, with big anticipated confrontations turned into short conversations. The world finally opens up and we get little glimpses into the supernatural societies, be it vampires or otherwise, but they are just... glazed over. Little breadcrumps here, some mentions there. It felt weirdly disjointed, like it was teasing us with greatness, and left me wholly unsatisfied.

So yeah, interesting premise, intriguing world, beautiful prose - but in the end the concepts failed to deliver anything truly meaningful and exciting. Still, 2,5 stars rounding up to 3 because I did enjoy the first half for what it was.

2 stars

this was gothic and eerie, and creepy(?) and the prose was beautiful, but the story itself didn't grab my attention. I honestly don't know what it was
it says it's for fans of T. Kingfisher and SMG, and I feel like Mexican Gothic fans will probably like this one, too.

thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Highlights
~broken snowglobes as a threat
~the moon’s not an escape
~never trust a cult leader

:be warned of spoilers ahead! see the end for trigger warnings:

I have no idea what the point of that was.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, but it ended up being a disjointed snoozefest.

It really doesn’t help that the synopsis is wildly misleading: Ambrose isn’t ‘hunted’ in any way you’d expect from hearing that he is – isn’t aware he’s being hunted, so there’s no plotline where he knows he’s in danger, and who he’s in danger from. Which means that functionally, in term of it affecting the story the reader gets, he’s not being hunted. The secret society isn’t ‘bent on his destruction’; it’s being torn apart by its internal politics, only one faction of which wants vampires wiped out. And referring to Ambrose’s family as ‘the rest of his kind’ is just flat-out lying; Regina’s ‘clan’ is made up of FOUR vampires, including her and Ambrose. There is in fact a whole WORLD of other vampires out there, none of whom are involved in this nonsense at all.

I’d like to file a complaint with whoever wrote the synopsis and whoever approved it. Gah.

The first third or so of Blood as Bright is perfectly fine, sometimes rising to good: Ambrose and his bizarre little family live in a ruined castle until the day Regina leads them to the moon, where, she claims, Ludwig 2nd, himself a vampire, rules a beautiful realm that’s a paradise for vampires. It’s a cult, basically, with Regina as obsessed cult leader, telling them parables and holy stories of Ludwig’s vampiric life, with all sorts of rules that must be followed to prove themselves worthy of Ludwig. (Bits of vampire!Ludwig’s life are interspersed throughout the book, jarring and adding nothing at all to the book.) Ambrose feels oddly ambivalent about all of it, but he’s very close to another of the vampires, Agata, and their friendship seems to be the main tether keep Ambrose in place. When he can sneak out from under Regina’s eye, he goes into the nearby town to spy on the doctor Martin, who Ambrose is attracted to – but more importantly, he harbours a hope that Martin might be able to cure vampirism if Ambrose ever reveals himself to him.

The prose is lovely, but there’s a very Literary Fiction (derogatory) feel to it all – introspective in a way that feels pretentious and over-indulgent, kind of rambly, with zero impetus driving the story forward. The story drifts, barely disturbed by the strange broken snowglobes that appear around the vampires’ castle, and the murder of the sacred-to-Ludwig swans. So I was very surprised that near the 33% mark, Regina announced it was time to head to the moon, and everyone started strapping their wings on.

(They do not, alas, have their own biological wings like the figure on the cover. These are mechanical, vaguely steampunk-y wings.)

But! Catastrophe! Ambrose’s wings break. And when he crashes to earth, he is staked by a vampire hunter who comes out NOWHERE, narratively. It’s a painfully random, jerky series of events, but for a second I thought Morstabilini had gone where few authors dare to tread and killed off her main character!

She didn’t, though. Ambrose isn’t dead. Instead he’s paralysed, unable to move or react to stimuli, but still aware of what’s around him and, unfortunately, very able to feel pain.

Part two opens with Ambrose laid out on an operating table. He’s ‘examined’ (read: tortured) and then a bunch of men arrive – the Diurnal Society – and gather around him to debate what to do with him.

I’m not kidding: the whole second part (no longer in first-person, by the way, switching between second-person and formatted-like-a-script third-person) is these mostly awful men, who are all COMPLETE STRANGERS TO US, enumerating on how great they are (and how awful their political rivals within the same society are), how it’s high time they Do Something after only studying vampires from afar for centuries, and what the different factions within the society are. Oh, and how gross vampires are, and Amrbose in particular, since he’s also gay as well as being a vamp.

It is stunningly boring. Everyone is despicable (the one guy who calls the rest of them monsters leaves without trying to get Ambrose free, so yeah, I’m counting him as despicable too), everyone is long-winded and grandiose, most of them are clearly narcissists, and hi, I don’t care about the internal politics of bigots actually??? Or their history??? Never mind their completely ridiculous, zero-evidence-for opinions on vampires??? And you’ve given me NO REASON TO???

The ending of this part would be satisfying if, you know, I had any emotional connection to any of it. As it was I kept turning pages in a haze of outrage, waiting for the moment it would all click together and I’d understand what the fucking point was.

Alas, no point ever manifested.

Part three shifted gears: I went from bored to furious. Because finally, at last, Morstabilini starts giving us the most tantalising glimpses into the wider magical world: it’s revealed that vampires have their own culture (none of which we’ve seen before) and their own dialect/language; there are vampire-adjacent beings who can talk to the dead, and magical spiders who can recreate buildings that have been lost to fire. It’s extremely cool! But these are just glimpses: a sentence or two about each thing, and then it’s gone, never brought up again.

THE FUCK. Why weren’t we seeing all of this from the beginning?! You made me read through vague plotless rambling in the first part, boring and disgusting bigots pontificating in part two, and only at the END prove you had the good stuff all along, but I can’t have it???

Oh, and the moon was a total disappointment: Ambrose doesn’t get there, but we do see it, and it’s just like our moon – ie barren and white and dusty – except the vampires can somehow breathe there. And there are probably monsters. But I was hoping for some fantastical weird realm like the not-Earth planets in Radiance by Catherynne Valente, and nope! That did not happen! Because of course it didn’t.

The first two parts should have been cut, and part three should have been expanded into its own novel. Show me the rest of the vampire world! Why do some vampires set jewels in their teeth? Explain the taboos around speaking to the dead! I want more of the spiders! Plus, you know, the whole travelling quest-of-vengeance thing (even if I’m still mad about how that went down) and the love story that’s so fast it’s practically instantaneous. BUILD IT UP AND MAKE IT A FULL NOVEL. It could have been amazing!

So I’m enormously frustrated. There was so much potential here, but it was let down at every turn – so thoroughly that it almost feels purposeful. The synopsis is a lie, but in complete fairness I don’t know what else the publisher could have written, since there isn’t really anything coherent enough to be a story here. I cannot wrap my head around why the choices that were made were made; I don’t know what Morstabilini was trying to say, or do, but I’m pretty sure the intent wasn’t to entertain (if it was, it failed miserably). The torture and bigotry felt gratuitous at best; you wrote vampires that don’t need to drink blood; every time something cool was held out to us, it was snatched away. The whole book’s wishy-washy and vague, jumping from Thing to Thing at random, pulling 180s and flip-flopping all over the place. The tone is pretentious (see: the whole narrative thread of the freaking tarot cards)(and I say that as a tarot reader!) and there’s no meat to it.

Just. Wow. Absolutely not.

Don’t waste your time.

Trigger Warnings: torture (graphic), dehumanising treatment, homophobia, leeches, cults, animal death (off-page), graphic mass-murder, lobotomies (off-page)

With the premise that I’m giving this two stars only because NetGalley won’t allow a non rating, I don’t normally rate books I haven’t finished reading and as much as it pains me to say I quit this at 50%.

Unfortunately the author started losing me somewhere around 35% but I kept going hoping it would get better and wanting to give this a fair chance. After all I did find the protagonist Ambrose an interesting character and the overall take on vampires fairly fresh.

The premise is intriguing and the writing atmospheric if a little too self indulgent. It was charming to start with as it fit with the melancholy and ennui going on in the protagonist’s mind. But it ended up becoming tiring. There’s lyrical writing and there’s verbose and I’m sorry to say Morstabilini fell into the latter for the sake of vibes(tm). The switch up in the narration tense also jarred with me. I understood the stylistic choice but I didn’t feel like it worked well enough to get me through and pull me into continuing the story just now.
There were also instances of really peculiar and random focus on details I found either redundant or hilariously out of place which broke me out of the narrative on more than one occasion.

Finally I’m pretty versed in Italian literature having grown up studying it and I could appreciate the author's influences and subconscious homages but that’s as far as my appreciation went.

This story will find the right audience for it, I’ve no doubt. And perhaps in a future I’ll pick it up again, but for now at least, I’m setting it aside.

Until next time,
Eleni A.E.

Dnf at 40%
The writting style is not for me, almost halfway through and I don't know what's happening and I couldn't care less about any of the characters

Andrea Morstabilini’s Blood as Bright as the Moon is a haunting, lyrical foray into the gothic tradition of vampire literature. It is steeped in atmosphere and vivid prose that often reads like poetry. Morstabilini’s command of language is undeniable—there are passages so rich and strange, I found myself rereading them just to savor the cadence.

The novel’s early chapters bristle with promise: an eerie setting, complex queer undercurrents, and characters who seem poised to unravel something dark and meaningful. It’s clear that the author has deep reverence for the gothic genre, and for much of the first half of the novel, I was fully immersed.

Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I found myself drifting. The narrative momentum began to falter for me in the second half, and the emotional grip I’d felt early on loosened. While the prose remained beautiful, I struggled to stay invested in the plot and characters as they moved toward the novel’s conclusion.

That said, Blood as Bright as the Moon will no doubt find its ideal readers, and I genuinely admire its aesthetic boldness. Though it wasn’t ultimately a match for me, Morstabilini’s talent is clear, and I’ll be keeping an eye on what they do next!

..: Disclaimer :..
I received an ARC of A Blood as bright as the Moon by Andrea Mostabilini, published by Titan Books via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Many thanks to the author and publisher for the trust!

A BLOOD AS BRIGHT AT THE MOON is filled with lush prose and has a unique take on the vampires. Beautiful.

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In Andrea Morstabilini's mesmerizing English-language debut, readers are taken into a gothic horror story with queer vampires, secret societies, and grotesque experiments.

A Blood as Bright as the Moon is such a beautifully unique story that I find it difficult to review, but I'll do my best to put my love for this book into words. I was originally drawn in by the idea of vampires creating wings to fly themselves to the moon. It's a refreshingly original plot that sounds just strange enough to make sure I wouldn't be able to move on from the idea of this story.

Morstabilini's writing style is particularly noteworthy, capturing readers from the very beginning. From the first line, this book will sink it's teeth into you and pull you along. Though it doesn't have to pull very hard because you won't want to look away. The pacing is able to take a slow and steady approach because of its addictive eeriness. It's not a horror book filled with constant scares, but it's one that gets under your skin and into you head, and it will build itself a home there as well.

Although this is a horror story, it also felt like a story about love--love for people, for places, and, perhaps most of all, love for identity. Vampires aren't just an aesthetic in this book, they're a tool for exploring the individual and showing why we're important, and why we don't need to be changed. It shows how our flaws and our love and our choices, both good and bad, make us what we are. This book masters weaving beauty into horror.

This book is rich in complex character dynamics, breathtaking atmosphere, and perfectly intertwining subplots. It's a story you'll never run out of things to talk about. You could fill each page with countless annotations and spend hours telling everyone you know about it. It's beautiful and it's strange and it's heartbreaking. Andrea Morstabilini has taken on vampires and he has absolutely perfected them. If you're counting down the days to any 2025 release, it needs to be this one.

Review on Goodreads (sophreadingbooks https://www.goodreads.com/sophreadingbooks) expected 9/1/2025
Review on Instagram (sophiesreading https://www.instagram.com/sophiesreading/) expected 9/1/2025

★★★ ¾

What an interesting title this was! Filled with lush prose and a unique take on the vampire stories we all know and love (I wasn't expecting a book about a vampire cult building wings to fly to a castle on the moon to work as well as it did) and absolutely teeming with magic, this book so easily drew me in. With its mythology, side characters that felt like three-dimensional figures that could really exist rather than being used simply as vehicles, and a parable that felt reminiscent of classic gothic literature but that did not draw away from the story at hand, this book felt like a fairytale in all the best ways—a world that I could enjoy delving into and savoring—and I appreciated all of the historical references to help cement the world into being, even if I didn't understand all of them (and I think I may benefit for a reread to put together all of the threads I missed the first time around).

The main things that drew me away from the immersion were firstly that the historical elements were expected to be known by the reader, which—though not necessarily a negative—expected a certain amount of knowledge that the reader may not initially possess or know to cross-reference, what with the fantastical feel of the rest of the novel. A bit of extra telling to clarify which parts of the story are myth and which are not so that the reader can truly immerse themselves into the experience may be to the work's benefit. Furthermore, I simply wish the title was longer. The author did a wonderful job packing a story that felt so rich and full of love into under three hundred pages, but I think the underlying story would move from "great" to "perfect" if just a little bit more meat was included to tie all the different threads together.

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

This book is a mesmerizing blend of gothic horror and historical fiction! I was captivated by the narrative, especially in the second act, which was downright chilling. The horror was visceral, and the tension built with such a slow, haunting burn. The setting is absolutely stunning, the atmosphere thick with unease, and with the eeriness of it being a perfect backdrop for this dark tale.

It's both grotesque and beautiful, nauseating at times but impossible to look away from. A gripping, intellectually stimulating experience that will stay with you long after the final page.

I highly recommend it for anyone who loves gothic fiction that blends history, horror, and a deep exploration of human nature. It’s dark, haunting, and so wonderfully thought-out.

This book was impossible to put down. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This was such a fascinating take on vampires and also a blending together of different events from history. I loved the Frankenstein setting, the vampire characters, the anatomist horror and the mythos of Mad King Ludwig. It just all worked together so well! This book just embodies gothic literature so beautifully.

I found myself mesmerised by this book. I was genuinely horrified at times (act two). I had so much empathy for the main character. It was such a fascinating tale that challenges the traditional view of what a monster is.

The setting was incredible with the seemingly abandoned castle in the town of Frankenstein. The cult like residents, the desire for the moon. This felt like such a reverent collection of certain gothic elements from the 1800s and I just loved it.

Highly recommend this, it was gripping, thoughtful, nauseating at times and an incredible reading experience.

This book was such a ride, and I was glad to be on it the whole way through.
Beautifully written, and full of excitement.
Would absolutely love to read more from this author in the future!

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the DRC.

This book is essentially in 3 components. The first and third read like a dark fairy tale with flourishes of fantasy and fable. The middle is more of a gruesome horror that is a notable tonal shift from the other parts. Depending on how you feel about that, this will either work for you or feel a little disjointed. I personally didn't mind the tone shifts but overall found it difficult to really relate to the main character or get fully invested in this story. The dark fable-like writing and pacing of the first part had me feeling largely removed from the character and some of the events of the book which again were tinged with fantasy and almost magic kept me further away from the story rather than closer.

you love literary horror with psychological depth, symbolic storytelling, and vampires as metaphors for trauma and transformation—this book will quietly wreck you.

“A Blood as Bright as the Moon” by Andrea Morstabilini

Summary: Ambrose is a vampire trapped within a group, who have all fallen under a fantastical tale of a saviour, who lives on the moon. They believe they can fly, and join them; fly with their handmade wings and be at peace at last. Ambrose, having been told this story for many years now, wishes for something else and decides to seek out someone who may be able to help. Unknown to him, someone is watching his little vampire family, someone with insidious plans.

⭐⭐⭐

Thoughts: This was an ARC, so thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to have read this earlier.

I must admit, the cover pulled me in. It’s gorgeous.

The story is split into three parts; interestingly the second part it switches perspective to second person (i.e you). This, to me, really disrupted the flow to an otherwise interesting concept. I feel the best way to go into this story is by not assuming anything.

The vampires are different from traditional portrayal; this wasn’t a bad thing, but the author definitely made some choices. In some cases, the story felt like a fever dream. Ambrose, our main lead, has some character development, and grows into himself I feel.

It is a queer novel, but with that, there are some derogatory and homophobic terms towards Ambrose, which could make people feel uncomfortable, so be aware of that.

It’s a short book, and if you are wanting something different and odd, you may enjoy this. I can’t compare this book to another because it is so unique in it’s storytelling, and story itself.

weird and gorgeous gothic, dark work with some excellent vibes and interesting stories. great flips in vibe throughout. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

"A blood as Bright as the Moon" is complex book to rate and review. I'm glad it is rather short, because I might have gotten lost otherwise. Not because it is written in an overly complicated way or not well thought through, but because the author plays with elements of historical fiction and contemporary, with horror/fantastical. I had a hard time placing the story in a timeline until a few chapters in, which meant I had to revise my understanding of things a few time. For some reason, the writing gave me a very strong end of victorian era feel.

Beside the timeline thing, the prose is sharp and well used. I am not a fan of first POV narration except in specific type of story, but I see why it was chosen here. I did enjoy the bit in the middle switching the second person POV, with pieces of theatre writing. It might confuse some reader but it felt ritght and easy to follow to me.

The plot is less straighforward while still being quite simple, if that makes sense? Deeply, it is straightfoward but wrapped in a mystical logic and convulted storyline (since there is a link with Ludwig of Bavaria). These kind of workings are ore stimulated that confusing to me so I enjoyed in reasonnably enough.

My main cricism would be my lack of investement in the mais character trouble. He felt distant, as did the secondary characters. Given the very graphic content going on in the middle of the book, I wished I had cared more about all of them in a way or another, so the events would have more weight on me. Similarly, I might have liked a bit more information on the world and the place of the different creatures, but I think it might have hindered the story.

Overall a nice read, with well researched historical elements, nice ideas and good writing!

This was a strange, fanciful and heartbreaking tale. It was told from a number of different perspectives and in a variety of ways, which was confusing at first but soon became second nature. I loved the cast of characters. Definitely one where you have to read twice

CW: Blood, Paralysis (Induced), Medical Experimentation, Vivisection, Mutilation, Homophobia, Racism

Morstabilini’s prose is the real strength of this book. His descriptions of interpersonal relationships, internal observations and emotions, and casual cruelty are all rendered beautifully. I also liked his descriptions of vampires, generally, and the tying of them to the moon. I’m sad to say, though, that despite these strengths, this book wasn’t for me.

The beauty of the first segment, contrasted with the brutality of the second, was a great switch on an artistic level, but just didn’t suit my taste. I did like the final section of the book, which may round it all out. I also struggled consistently with the switches in points of view and emergences of what is ”true” or not.

I would still recommend the book for others who find the premise interesting, even though it wasn’t to my personal taste.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. The writing is lovely and atmospheric, but the scenario and world-building just couldn't keep me reading. It seemed a little too odd and obtuse. I've no doubt this book will find its audience who vibe with its universe, but alas, not for me. Apologies.