I’m starting this review before I’ve finished Blood and Bullets, because I am enjoying it THAT much. To say you won’t be disappointed if you pick up this book is an understatement.
He lives to kill monsters. He keeps his city safe. And his silver hollow-points and back-from-the-dead abilities help him take out any kind of supernatural threat. But now an immortal evil has this bad-ass bounty hunter dead in its sights…
Ever since a monster murdered his family, Deacon Chalk hunts any creature that preys on the innocent. So when a pretty vampire girl “hires” him to eliminate a fellow slayer, Deacon goes to warn him—and barely escapes a vampire ambush. Now he’s got a way-inexperienced newbie hunter to protect and everything from bloodsuckers to cursed immortals on his trail. There’s also a malevolent force controlling the living and the undead, hellbent on turning Deacon’s greatest loss into the one weapon that could destroy him…
Before I go into my take on the book, I’d like to leave you with a few quotes that have glued themselves into my brain. “And a vampire never sparkles unless they just ate a stripper”, is my favorite. Don’t get me wrong I love Twilight, but I want a mean ass vampire sometimes and James R. Tuck has given me just that in Blood and Bullets. The second quote is “Then again, after being a vampire’s butt-monkey, it might have”, in regards to a were-gorilla and Deacon Chalk having to kill his master. I laughed out loud at this, and have started saying things like ‘well it’s better than being a vampire’s butt-monkey’ ever since much to my husband’s dismay. Another rather sweet part was when Anita from Saint Louis, was referenced, I gave a mental high five to her; she’s even more famous than I thought.
Ok, so Deacon Chalk has a hide as hard as stone. He is still dealing with his family’s gruesome death and taking it out on all the monsters he can find. He’s funny as hell, in that dry, sarcastic kind of way, but let one thing remind him of his family and the man crumbles like any normal human being would. I LOVE the fact that he has emotions that bring him to his knees sometimes; it makes him seem real and touchable. Then you see that not only does he hunt these monsters down, but he saves people and gives them jobs and ends up being connected with them for life. LOVE IT! LOVE HIM..total crush here!
James R Tuck’s vision of vampires is hard core, there’s nothing soft about these guys. They are somewhat creepy and crazy cool. And the beastie he fights at the end, wowsa, her part of the story is awesome and I loved the history references and the surprise ‘guest’ so to speak. Did not see that coming! I hope there are more gems like that in the books to come.
Oh and I can’t not mention the smoking, drinking, cussing priest, amazeballs!
Now for the part I hate doing, telling what I didn’t like. This is only a small complaint, and more of a confused notation more than anything. Like I mentioned above, Anita from Saint Louis was mentioned, I took this as Anita Blake from Laurell K. Hamilton’s series, if I’m wrong Mr. Tuck my apologies. Anyway, I was left confused when Deacon kills a vampire and it turns to dust. It’s been awhile since I’ve read LKH but I don’t remember her vamps doing this. To me, referencing her and then having your facts/history being different than LKH’s ‘world’ is confusing. I honestly don’t have a preference on what happens to them once they finally die, whatever floats your boat in my opinion, but this left me confused.
That didn’t ruin things for me and I really love Blood and Bullets and the ride it took me on. Things were fast paced but it moves smoothly from one scene to the next and before you know it you’re done. I flipped to that last page and was like wait NO, no please don’t be over, it’s too soon. I was extremely disappointed to know I’ll have to wait awhile before the next installment comes out…sigh.
Read Order:
That Thing at the Zoo (prequel novella)
Blood and Bullets
Blood and Silver (Aug. 2012)
Also reviewed by: My Overstuffed Bookshelf, Amberkatze’s Book Blog,
I just got done reading this book last night and I loved it
Aha! I loved the quotes from this book! He also managed to mention Supernatural, Buffy, Blade, Cat and Bones and I think Tempest :)
Here is the quote:
Vampires seem to inspire the most monster fighting in this world, probably because of all the books and movies about them. I have taken out my fair share of vamps, but it is not the only thing I do. There are few proclaimed vampire slayers and they range all kinds. Anita out in St. Louis, but she has a lot of stuff going on, not just vampire executions. Cat and Bones run their crew killing vampires and do a fine job of it. I hear whispers about the Blue Woman now and again, but it’s hard to pull the fact from the fiction on that one. There’s some folks in California. L.A. and a small town east of it, who do mostly vampire slaying, but I haven’t met them yet. The black guy and old man combo who roam around do nothing but vampires, but from what I hear they have a personal stake in it, so to speak. Sam and Dean will tussle with a vampire, but usually they are chasing down daemons.
So i think they turn to dust because of Buffy :)
Wow. So much kindness. You are going to make a grown man blush!
Thank you so much.
As for the discrepancies, yes I did throw a nod to Anita Blake because I LOVE LKH and her books. Also along with the others I mentioned. However this isn’t a shared world because all those characters are owned fully and completely by their respective creators and I don’t have any rights to them. So Deacon lives in the Deaconverse which is wholly different than the Anitaverse, the Buffyverse, etc. etc. etc…
But I just had to put in the shoutouts. :) I am glad everyone enjoys them.
Oh, and I am planning on doing And a vampire never sparkles unless they just ate a stripper. on a tshirt soon. lol.
Thanks again for all the wonderful words!
OMG I must have that t-shirt!!!!! I couldn’t stop laughing
This is the best book of the year I hope they turn it into a movie.Love this book.