Drew Stepek has balls. Big ones. In a day and age when vampires are funny, charming, sexy or even sparkly, he grabs bloodsuckers and drags them back into the gutter. Stepek’s vampires are not the tormented
lovesick cover boys that can be purchased at Wal-Mart and hung on your niece’s
bedroom wall. No, these vampires are true monsters, composed of drug addicts,
thieves, murderers, and rapists. The type that truly relish in the grotesque,
chaotic blur of drugs and served body parts left in their wake. Mr. Stepek has truly
created a counter balance to the vampire craze that has romanced us all.
Stepek’s book Knuckle
Supper focuses on R.J., leader of “The Knucklers”, a gang of vampires that
spend their days (or nights) using prostitutes and pimps as human funnels for
heroin (trust me you’ll understand once you read the first three pages). One of
these prostitutes, a 12-year-old girl named Bait, is reluctantly taken in
by R.J, though she proves to be more mascot then street walker. With his gang feeling he’s
gone soft and R.J. left holding the bag for a drug deal gone south, R.J. let’s
his second in command, Dez, talk him into selling the drugs. Of course said drugs belong to a rival gang of rasta vampires known as “The Battlesnakes”
(Yes, I know that’s an amazing name) and as you can guess not too long after
the proverbial shit hit’s the fan.
It’s hard not to feel
sympathetic for a character like R.J., all the guy wants to do is turn a no good
street pimp into a human heroin needle then sit back and listen to his vintage
punk records. Who among us hasn’t had a day like that ruined by a teenage
prostitute’s pop bottle abortion?
In a book like Knuckle Supper
there are no “good guys", only varying degrees of bad. And as if his own gang
turning on him and a bunch of pissed off rasta-pires (see what I did there) wasn't enough, R.J. also has to deal with "The Cloth", a mysterious group of religious
vampire hunters that know more about R.J’s past than he cares to know himself. The
less I say about The Cloth the better, don’t except any M. Night twists here. Just
answers.
This book pulls no punches, it's a nasty, hardcore, piece of literature that has you laughing
one minute and choking down vomit the next. A true testament to Stepek is how
he makes you relate to and even care about these characters, which is saying a lot,
as most are vile degenerates. As R.J. says in the book “I don’t know why we’re
alive or what purpose we have besides delivering misery and death, I can tell
you one thing though, there’s something human in us all.’
If you’re like me and have always
wondered what would happen if Chuck Palahniuk did crystal meth then decided to
write a mash up of the Lost Boys, Clockwork Orange and The Warriors, then this is the book for you. It's running pretty cheap right now at everyone's favorite Internet super store so do yourself a favor and buy this book.
****1/2
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