Drawing Blood

A Novel

By: Poppy Z. Brite

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

Poppy Z. Brite re-imagines the haunted house novel, creating a fresh, sensual, and totally original listening experience.

IT'S A PASSION. IT'S AN ART. IT'S THE ONLY WAY OUT...

In the house on Violin Road he found the bodies of his brother, his mother, and the man who killed them both-his father. From the house on Violin Road, in Missing Mile, North Carolina, Trevor McGee ran for his sanity and his soul, after his famous cartoonist father had exploded inexplicably into murder and suicide. Now Trevor is back.

In the company of a New Orleans computer hacker on the run from the law, Trevor has returned to face the ghosts that still live on Violin Road, to find the demons that drove his father to murder his family-and worse, to spare one of his sons. But as Trevor begins to draw his own cartoon strip, he loses himself in a haze of lines and art and thoughts of the past, the haunting begins. Trevor and his lover plunge into a cyber-maze of cartoons, ghosts, and terror that will lead either to understanding-true understanding-or to a blood-raining repetition of the past.

©1993 Billy Martin (P)2018 David N. Wilson

Too much romance, not enough horror

The book started with potential and then let me down. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I was looking for, which is a horror story.

Art, horror and the thin lines between love and hate

I adore Brite's work , and this novel had me starving for the next page . As an artist from st Louis, and a connoisseur for horror and erotica, I found it outstanding. I appreciated the attention to detail in describing the art that was being created by the characters, the feelings and emotions they have while creating , and how the line between love and hate is so thin. I also have a soft spot when characters from other stories intermingle within the pages. thank you for another rad, unforgettable read.

Not a haunted house story

This is a drama with a super natural twist towards the end. Strong story regardless

Gorey story very well written

It was an effort for me to stick with it but, at the same time, it's so hard to stop. I got grossed out a lot.

Excellent!!

Poppy is one of my all time favorite writers! I own all of her books.

Poppy at his best

I may have read this book before, but it was great this time. The horror comes late, but is fast and scary.

An intense and twisted ride

I decided to read Drawing Blood as part of 2020's Popsugar Challenge and I'm definitely glad I decided to read this book. Poppy Z. Brite has a gritty, sexual style and her horror voice is bold and interesting for those who are fans of the genre. The book gripped me from the very beginning and will definitely be worth another read in the future.

The story begins with a young Trevor who moves to Missing Mile, North Carolina with his family which includes his father who is a struggling comic artist. After a horror-filled night Trevor is never the same and he tries to make sense of the events that shattered his life when he returns as an adult to Missing Mile.

This is a horror book that also has a passionate and gripping love story and there is a lot of sexual moments in this story.

Overall, I went into the book knowing very little (less than what is in this review) and while some elements were not what I expected I'm really glad I read Brite and am more than willing to do so again in the future. The narration was great, the story was hard to put down and the characters were vivid and interesting.

Narration robs the story of all its magic

The narrator’s quavering voice and childlike tones are out of place for this dark and sexually charged novel. I have read this book hard copy many times and wanted to just relax and have a listen but i couldn’t even finish this one. The voice acting was that off putting for me. I’m sure there are novels that the narrator excels at but this union was lacking.

This is a most excellent horror/love story.

I always refer to this book as my second most favorite book in the world (Geek Love by Katherine Dunn will always be my #1) but I haven’t read it since it was first released back in 1993 so I approached this recent audio release with equal amounts of joy and dread. Would it still be my almost favorite? Would I find giant flaws and pick it all to hell? Would I tarnish all of those memories of book perfection by reading it now when I’m all jaded and crabby(er)?

Everything I remembered loving about Drawing Blood was still here. Granted those memories were a little fuzzy around the edges but the impressions and the emotions felt left a mark on me and once I started listening, I was immediately transfixed and reminded of all the reasons why I held this book so close to my heart. It’s full of tragedy, dark romance, and real life horrors as well as some out there, woo-woo ones. If you like those things along with a well-drawn sense of place, gorgeously lush writing, flawed characters and you don’t mind explicit sex between two men (and lots and lots of it) you should give this a listen. Or a read. Or maybe both.

This is one of Brite’s (now Billy Martin) earlier works and it has all of the gothic trappings of that era. The characters have sharp edges, are ethereally young and beautiful, the sex is explicit and often and it’s always earthy and descriptive, the characters that populate this world drink and drug copiously, fall in love quickly and deeply as young lovers tend to do and music always plays a huge part in their lives. I’d say this tale is about 50% haunted house/dealing with your past crap and 50% dark and dangerous love story and it’s all beautifully gory and messy.

Trevor is a young artist who returns to his hometown to face down the demons of his past and his demons are bad ones. Zach is a hacker on the run who lands in Missing Mile. Both have tormented pasts and when they meet everything clicks and feels right. Yes, folks, it is the dreaded insta-love in full bloom. And, yes, I am a big huge hypocrite because I typically knock off points for insta-love because it drives me crazy but in this case I JUST DIDN’T CARE. I loved them both too much to care. They don’t even meet until the book is at least a third of the way through (maybe more) but by then I knew them so well that when they finally meet it was a relief. They were both such broken souls when apart and together they just fit. They talked, they fought, they lived a lifetime of dysfunction in a few days and I will make no more excuses because, yeah, it’s insta-love and it was glorious and nothing anybody says will ever change my mind.

It’s such an intoxicating read. The love story, the setting, the darkness. All of it. Brite assaults the senses with her prose and everything comes alive right down to the scents and tastes - no matter how gross! This isn’t a book for everyone and I’m not here to pretend that it is but if any of this sounds appealing to you, grab a copy and read that sucker until your eyeballs dry up. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

If you’re an audio fan, I also highly recommend giving it a listen. Matt Godfrey’s narration is terrific. He creates distinctive voices for the characters. Zach’s voice is deeper and has just the slightest Cajun-esque accent to fit him and where he’s been, while Trevor comes off as more innocent/wide-eyed. How you express that with voice is way beyond me but Godfrey manages to do it. There are quite a few secondary characters that he voices very well too.

Now I'm off to listen all over again :)

More Poppy Please

i dont usually like horror stories, but i loved this book. the narrator did an amazing job of picking up the varied dialects and heartbreaking emotion for each character, making the audiobook just as good as when i read it.