Blood and Needles

Ever since the death of his brother pushed Steven into the sweet embrace of drugs, he’s done terrible things in order to stay there. So, when he’s approached by a beautiful woman named Anna Marie who offers him all the drugs he can snort, smoke, or shoot, without any of the physical repercussions, Steven takes her offer and doesn’t look back. Now a member of the Morphia clan, Steven is sworn to serve Anna Marie and his vampiric brethren—an oath that turns deadly when an unexpected betrayal threatens to destroy them all.

A kiss of vampires who also happen to be drug addicts is certainly an attention-grabbing premise, but unfortunately the interest doesn’t last long. Lyons’ story arc is plagued by inconsistent world-building, forced emotions, acts of intercourse that read like a ninth grade report in a sex ed class acted out by puppets, and disturbingly misogynistic undertones that are evidenced by the fact that every single victim that’s killed by a vampire is female—with the exception of Mr. Blanchard—as well as degraded, via physical violence and verbal abuse, prior to being slain. Much like a strung-out junkie, this story is sloppy, incomprehensible, and more than a little off-putting.