A whisper of blood

I wasn't sure what to think of this one when jar chose it for me. It says on the back that the book is a compilation of modern short stories that share the theme of vampirism. Also that theme is very stretched and you can't just find bloodsuckers here. Even dreams and monster like family members can take the role of a vampire. I don't really read short stories so I was rather nervous.

Now I lay me down to sleep is the first story to start of this book and I have to say I loved it. The vampire here is a ghost of an elderly lady who is scared of judgement waiting for her. She is told to get people's permission to drink blood from them in order to stay in material form and delay the judgement. The horror she feels seems very real and I can relate to it easily. Her journey as a newborn vampire is a delight to follow if not a little sad. It's definitely one of my favourites.

Snail was a rather weird story for me. Vampire was anyone who would interrupt artist while working and prevent their creative juices from flowing. You can tell what an awful toll it took off the poor writer.

Warm man was also one of my favourites. It's a story about empath through the eyes of the townies. In the beginning when this warm man finds his way in the town everything seems fine and everyone is happy. But this happiness is quickly destroyed as it usually is.

There is too many stories to just tell about them all but let's just that in whole I did like this book. There were few that I didn't really understand or care for and probably wouldn't read again. Then there are few that really disgusted me and made me hope that even though we live in a rather dark world that nothing like this happens.

One of those disturbing stories was Mother. It's about family that is formed by adults that used to be in foster care or up for adoption as kids. They needed the discipline from that time in their adulthoods, they needed Mother. All I can say is that this isn't a warm fluffy story to warm your heart before bedtime. People do desperate things to feel safe, to feel like they belong.

I would recommend this for anyone who is tired of vampire tropes and the glitterfying of mysterious dangerous vampires we seem to get these days. If none of the stories doesn't stay with you after reading then I'd say you've seen too much horrible stuff in your life.

I'll leave this with an old English poem that the last story used as inspiration. I grew to love it.

Quhen thow art ded and laid in lyme
And Raggtre rut thi ribbis ar
Thow art than brocht to thi lang hayme
Than grett agayn warldis dignite.
                                                      (around 1360)

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

I remember finding this book when I was spending the night at my grandma's as a kid. I was bored as I wasn't really ready to go to bed at 9 pm so I decided to give this book a go. I didn't get far. It was just too boring and weird for a young me. When my jar of books gave me this one to read I hesitated a bit as I remembered the struggle I had with it before. But I gave in as I didn't want to cheat and get another book.

The main plot I guess you can say, follows 12 year old Norwegian boy, Hans Thomas, and his father on their journey from Norway to Greece to find Hans' mother. She had left years ago to find herself. Only clue the guys have is a cover of a magazine with the mom's face on it as she seems to work as a model. During the journey the dad likes to drink and talk about philosophy and make his son think in a way he hasn't before. Dad also collects jokers from playing cards which Hans is used to be but embarrassed by when dad asks strangers for them. Hans acquires a magnifying glass from a dwarf and a tiny book that was baked inside a bun. The story inside this book is amazing and weird and addictive to young boy and he reads the book in secret while his dad is sleeping or off drinking.

I'm surprised by how much I actually liked this book. Dad's philosophical thinking took me back to high school classes and I actually enjoyed it. His theory of how he himself is a joker and how those are rare in this world intrigued me. If joker is someone like a child, who still thinks this Earth is amazing and full of wonders and actually has philosophical thoughts about simple things, then yes I can see how they can be rare. I also know that I'm not one of them. In almost 30 years on this planet I've gotten used to it. It is a shame how granted we take everything just because we aren't surprised by nature anymore.

I can also relate to Hans Thomas when it comes to that tiny book. Just last night I was up late to finish a book I was reading. That tiny book has a whole new world inside it. Tiny dwarves that have no names like we do but are named after playing cards. There is the beautiful and blonde hearts, hard working spades and so on. Everything in that book really happens in an island and everything in that island has something to do with playing cards. I loved finding out why that was the way and why event hough these cards can speak they are rather slow and can't say a lot. Also who is the master they talk about? Will Hans Thomas and his dad find the mom and actually bring her home? This book was about 350 pages of delightful reading and I can see myself reading it again in the future. After I've finished all those unread books in my shelves...