Review by Booklist Review
Deep inside a San Francisco basement archive dwells Sol Katz, trans man, sanguivorous archivist. He secretly lives within the confinement of his subterranean office among the other cold relics to avoid any possibility of a sunlit commute. Sol deadpans to the reader, "I never meant to become such a walking stereotype." His narration captures the senses with peeks down darkish vinegar-smelling hallways, the sounds of gritty steel doorknobs turning underneath a city's palpable weight. Sol takes readers into his insightful confidence as he ponders and digests his growing, intimate relationship with the questioning Elsie. Plus, there have been strange, impalpable occurrences in the archive since the arrival of the latest bequest. Sol's effective and instinctual archivist's skills may help satisfy some haunting unfinished business. An imaginative work by a Lambda Award--winning author told through narrative, screenplay, texts, and emails. Lovers of fanfic, city-set fiction, and the supernatural will relish this book's dreamlike walk on the wild side of twilight.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lambda Literary Award winner Fellman (for The Breath of the Sun, in the LGBT Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror category) returns with a delightfully eccentric story of a trans vampire and archivist. Sol Katz lives in the basement archive of the Historical Society of Northern California, where he works as a historian while staying in the safety of the sunless offices except for visits to the blood transfusion clinic and nighttime meanderings along the San Francisco streets. His work is interrupted by a visit from Elsie, the widow of Tracy Britton, writer of the popular sci-fi television series Feet of Clay. Elsie has come to donate Tracy's documents and memorabilia, and quickly falls in love with Sol as their archival work together progresses. Fellman's description of Sol's Feet of Clay fandom sprawls into the show's universe and characters, charmingly evoking the fan fiction genre. Rife with dry humor and a creative mix of narration, texts, emails, and Facebook threads, the novel expertly balances the humorous and the heartfelt. Fellman thoughtfully examines gender, sexuality, and belonging through an unforgettable main character, who explores what it means to truly embody himself. This bold and self-aware story delivers the goods. Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An archivist who happens to be a vampire receives a collection belonging to the late creator of a cult TV show, triggering a series of dramatic life shifts. Even before he became a vampire--spurred by a freak case of tetanus, after which his body must be sustained by blood transfusions and religiously shielded from the sun--Sol Katz had always lived somewhat apart from others. A trans man who, for years pre-transition, inhabited a body he "[couldn't] bear to have touched," Sol has always worked "best with imaginary or fictitious people," first as a fan fiction writer and then a steadfastly patient archivist at the Historical Society of Northern California. Sol's reclusive life, though, is disrupted when the magnetic Elsie brings in a collection belonging to Tracy Britton, her dead wife, the creator of the science-fiction TV show Feet of Clay. Coincidentally, this is the fandom in which Sol used to write. Almost instantly, Sol's world is shaken as he forms an intimate bond with Elsie, who is stubbornly vulnerable and unequivocally herself; and as he goes through Tracy's papers, he relives the journey he's taken to understand his own gender identity. As he and Elsie grow closer, he must contend with the nearly frightening experience of desire for the first time in years and the risks inherent in a sexual relationship with a human--to whom vampire bites can be dangerous. As Sol's life threatens to disintegrate around him--Tracy's collection inexplicably decays before his eyes; he experiences near brushes with the sunlight after sleeping over at Elsie's--he's led to reevaluate his life and weighs the benefits of safely tucking himself away in the archives against inhabiting the flesh-and-blood human world. Author Fellman has sensitively constructed the complex internal landscape of a multilayered protagonist whose self-consciousness, quirks, and anxieties are palpable; vampire or not, Sol is a uniquely relatable character whose inner life jumps off the page. Though Sol and Elsie's relationship sometimes veers into the saccharine, their shared vulnerability as each grapples with their sexual and gender identities is genuinely moving. Most of all, the book's musings about bodies--their trials, tribulations, and pleasures; the ways they sometimes serve and sometimes oppose their owners--provides a deep, rich undercurrent. Unique and emotionally deep. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
