The Unlife of Lisa Cooper
A story about a reluctant vampire by J.M. Celi
Lisa a Bostonian vamp who hates the nightclub scene. Unfortunately, nightclubs are the easiest way for reluctant vampires to feed themselves. And Lisa is very reluctant. She walks unenthusiastically among the undead, whose anemic pigmentation fills her with dread. She craves the rosy cheeks of the living. The techno bass in the nightclub (the vampire’s den) is to her a horror show, making her long more for the much more pleasing and energizing swing of Benny Goodman. Her “unlife” is dominated by her resistance to her reality and she barely hangs onto it by a thread. There is a line in the first episode where she explains her precarious situation, telling us that she can’t “pull” on her “curse too heavily,” because when vampires pull on their “curse,” the curse pulls back. We learn in episode two that what Lisa calls a curse is what acquiescent vampires call power. She elaborates: It is the power of the “charming gaze,” something a vampire can deploy on his/her victims with a single look. In the story, she happens to use it on someone with an unusually strong will. The power still works on the willful; it just requires more effort. More pull. The more she pulls, the more the unlife pulls her in. It’s a balancing act, she further explains. She takes the blood, but then must deny herself if she wants to regain the look of the living. That, she does indeed. Lisa Cooper does not want to be like other vampires. She does not wish to look like them. She does not want the “curse” to consume her. She takes what is necessary, then retreats.
It’s a solid story because it is well-tested. The best vampire stories are always the ones where there’s a reluctant bloodsucker. Think Brad Pitt in Interview with a Vampire, and Angel of the Angel/Buffyverse. I also kept thinking of Spike, aka William Pratt, aka William the Bloody. Alive, Spike was a poet—sensitive, romantic, even a mama’s boy. As a vampire, initially, he thought it was pretty awesome. He was enchanted by the idea of “living” forever and perhaps even making his mother “one” too so that they could share in eternity and rule the galaxy as mother and son. We know, of course, that vampire lore doesn’t quite work that way. You make a very dark trade. You have to die to “live” and your “life” (unlife) can only sustain itself on the lifeblood of others. Spike, who adores his mother, ends up having to kill her because he cannot endure the monster she becomes. He then embraces his dark power (his curse) and goes on through the centuries to become one of the most feared vampires (slayer of slayers!) of all time. That is exactly what J.M. Celi’s Lisa Cooper does not wish to emulate. Lisa’s goal is to get through it, day by day, to do what is necessary, take what she needs, and retreat. She abstains as much as possible, but at least every third night, becomes hungry enough to need a fix. As much as possible, she drinks the blood of the “thrall”—basically a vampire-groupie who is not only willing but enamored (turned on) by the experience of a vessel for the vampire’s drink. Drinking from a “thrall” doesn’t require use of the “charming gaze.” There is no pull, hence no pull back. But thralls don’t come cheap, and among vampires, they are jealously hoarded and prized. How sustainable is Lisa’s hellish unlife when she admits herself that she has only one real friend in the vampire community. Most of her fellow vampires laugh at her reluctance. She hates their unlife together, but ironically, her disdain puts her at increasing dependence upon their charity. In Episode 3, she sets out to find her missing friend, Brian, where she encounters his starving, neglected dog. Brian has gone missing and his dog has, thus, been abandoned. It is interestingly analogous to Lisa’s situation.
There are 36 episodes, at roughly five tokens apiece. Just by signing up for Kindle Vella through your Amazon account, you’ll be given 200 free tokens.
Read The Unlife of Lisa Cooper: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0B3PF2B5R
My rating: **** Four Stars
If you enjoy my reviews of 1,2,3 (free) episodes on Kindle Vella, consider supporting my work and buying me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/heavycrownpress.