The Last Vampire
Review by The Princess of Cups, submitted on 8-Jun-1992

THE LAST VAMPIRE by Kathryn Meyer Griffith. Zebra Horror June 1992, ISBN 0-8217-3771-6, $4.50 352 pages

Some of you may recognize Kathryn Meyer Griffith as the author of an earlier vampire book, the exact name of which escapes me. After reading her first vampire book, I decided she was neither a great, nor a terrible writer. Her mechanics were fine, but the spark was missing from her story.

Well, this book isn't much better. It does pick up in the final 50 pages or so, but the rest of it makes me buggy. Too many things happen out of the blue with no other purpose but to move the plot along its inconsistent way.

I don't want to call this writer a hack, but she borders on it. The "reality" her story functions in seems to be that of TV shows, movies, and other mediocre books. Within that context, her plot is ok.

THE LAST VAMPIRE is an end-of-the-world novel. We are given theories about why the world is being destroyed, but the characters never learn the answer and neither does the reader. The protagonist is woman who goes from being a graphic designs artist to the next to the last vampire. (Even the title bugs me. She isn't the last vampire.)

There are plagues from mysterious government labs, lava spewing cracks in the earth, terrorist with nuclear bombs. Add nuclear winter, human cruelty, survivalist mentality, a half breed Indian, dead families, and wolves in abundance.

What can I say? It's all there. Most every setting and incident I've ever seen in a film or novel detailing the end of the world. She even names some of her vampires after prominent authors of vampire books.

I don't want to trash this book. I think that Kathryn Meyer Griffith shows improvement from her first vampire novel. If she can get her head out of the B-movies and back into reality, her books might take on a more professional polish. She has the potential to become a better than average writer.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, but only if you have money to waste. I find the faults in this book more intriguing than the story. It's so trite it's almost good. (My favorite example: There is a sequence of pages where the odor of decaying bodies is constantly referred to even though these bodies are in water that would freeze the heroine if she tried to swim it.)