Vampire Diary: The Embrace
Review by Beverley Richardson, submitted on 29-Mar-2002

VAMPIRE DIARY: THE EMBRACE: by Robert Weinberg and Mark Rein-Hagen 1995.

Part of this book's charm is its unusual design. Published in a diary, complete with lock and key, the text is in a handwritten, not typewritten format. The pages are filled with the dark and anguished drawings of the protagonist whose diary this is. He is Auston, a bartender in a gothic nightclub who dreams of owning his own bar someday. But Auston has been having disturbing dreams and his girlfriend persuades him that writing a diary will be therapeutic. As the diary proceeds, the dreams and the drawings become more anguished. Auston is spiralling out of control and under the influence of a vampire.

I really enjoyed this book. The drawings and the text combine beautifully to illlustrate a mind under siege and losing the battle. On some pages, there are red splotches that look very much like smeared blood. I can't think of another book which does such a good job of portraying the anguish of a person falling under the influence of a vampire and becoming lost to humanity.