Review: Straight Outta Fangton by C.T. Phipps

Having liked Phipp’s Weredeer books, this one, that takes place in the same world but at (I think?) an earlier time, sounded interesting. And so, this review is based around a review copy of the audiobook.

Thanks to the author for that review copy.

Peter Stone is a poor black vampire who is wondering where his nightclub, mansion, and sports car is. Instead, he is working a minimum wage job during the night shift as being a vampire isn’t all that impressive in a world where they’ve come out to mortals.

Exiled from the rich and powerful undead in New Detroit, he is forced to go back when someone dumps a newly-transformed vampire in the bathroom of his gas station’s store. This gets him fangs-deep in a plot of vampire hunters, supernatural revolutionaries, and a millennium-old French knight determined to wipe out the supernatural.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t pay to get out of the coffin.

“The only reason people aren’t all dragging vampires out into the sun or dousing us with gasoline like your group wants to do is because of a concentrated hundred-and-ten-year plan to make us palatable to mankind. From Bram Stoker to that Meyer woman, we have been subtly brainwashing humanity into believing our race could live in peace with yours.”

This is the story of Peter Stone, who is a vampire who has been exiled by his maker from his hometown of New Detroit, where vampires are actually quite numerous. He makes his way by working at a convenience store, not unlike a 7-11, with his boss the werewolf drug addict, and his friend and servant (someone who serves a vampire for a time until they change them).

When they find a newly made vampire in the ladies room of the store one night, one who was made and then left there alone without any of the support a newly made vampire would need, Peter steps in to help her out, and to see if he can figure out who she is and why someone would do this to her. In trying to figure it out he runs into all kinds of vampire shenanigans.

This story wasn’t too bad. It was well written and engaging enough that I never had a problem staying interested in it. I liked Peter, as a character, and I rooted for him to win the day, so to speak. This one, like the Weredeer series is full of pop culture references, some of which seemed admittedly a little out of place at times, but not too often.

Cary Hite, the narrator, was probably most of the reason I liked this book as much as I did. He was a fantastic narrator for this book, and he made every character in it come to life for me. I especially loved his narration of the character of Thoth (I dunno if I spelled that right, because audiobook) who is Peter’s maker. He’s described as having a very slight Caribbean accent, and Cary Hite totally nailed it. It was just perfectly slight. So super well done on the narration front. I’ll definitely endeavor to listen to books that he narrates in the future.

All told, I had a pretty good time with this one. It wasn’t my favorite vampire fantasy novel, but it was certainly an interesting idea to see things from the POV of a poor vampire in a city full of vampires and how he makes his way in the world. 3/5 stars!

Goodreads
Amazon
Audible

Thanks again to the author for the review copy.