Book Review: A Vampire Christmas Carol by Sarah Gray

There was a recent trend in books (long ago enough that it was a trend in BOOKS) where authors would take famous public domain stories and add supernatural elements to them without changing much of the plot altogether. My favorite? Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Anyway, Sarah Gray's A Vampire Christmas Carol is one of these books - it is not largely different in plot, mechanics, and theme from the original text, but tacks on a largely unnecessary story about vampires in London and Scrooge's connection to them. The vampire story doesn't really add or say anything new about the main plot, and outside of one pretty chilling scene involving little girls dancing before the vampire queen, none of the vampire portions are all that memorable or well thought out. In fact, it seems more like the real excitement of the vampire storyline would take place after this book ends and follow Scrooge's son (yes, Scrooge f#cks).

Hey, it's always enjoyable to revisit A Christmas Carol and watch someone get scared out of their mind into celebrating Christmas, so you've got to give some points to this book (even though it would probably be easier for everyone if I just said "A Vampire Christmas Carol? IT SUCKS."). So, with a little help from Tiny Tim (who in this telling wields a pike to stab vampires), I'll gift this story six out of ten hot dogs. Now that's a Merry Christmas INDEED!