Epeolatry Book Review: You Can’t Take It With You by Marcus Hawke
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Title: You Can’t Take It With You
Author: Marcus Hawke
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Hawke Haus Books
Publication date: 26th November, 2024
Synopsis: What would you do for more time?
Christmas Eve, 1984. Montgomery Nolan is about to die. Even at ninety years old it’s never enough. But he has a way out. A way to live…beyond death. No longer hunted by time, he will become the hunter. And the night will be anything but silent.
From Marcus Hawke, author of The Miracle Sin and Grey Noise, comes a bold new vampire tale. One of greed and lust. Power and immortality. Age and youth. And of course, blood!
“Things come full circle” is a statement we often hear. Whether fashion, movies, or books, the old becomes new again. I’ve noticed that vampires are returning to their roles as beasts of hunger. We still get our fair share of overly beautiful and highly sexualized vampires but it’s fun to see the old become new again, and vampires as true villains again.
You Can’t Take It With You by Marcus Hawke is just such a story. Wonderfully written, the story follows Montgomery Nolan, a millionaire in Manhattan who has reached the end of his life. In order to stave off death permanently, he injects himself with a liquid acquired many years ago. What follows is a romp through depravity of all kinds.
Hawke writes with a near Dickensian quality as the reader is immersed in the first ninety years of Mr. Nolan’s life. Major moments are told in empathetic detail, painting the way to December 20, 1984, when the fateful syringe is placed into the arm of the old man. What follows is a vampire transformation experienced for the first time. I didn’t realize until reading this book how much I’d written off vampire transformations. Often, it’s become a foot note in the process to keep the story moving, but not here.
The newborn vampire’s first experiences, too, are conveyed in depth as Mr. Nolan tests his powers against an unsuspecting New York City. He exercises every depravity he’s ever withheld, finding that the only thing that matters now is sating the hunger for blood. During this period, there are one or two extreme moments, but they don’t linger longer than necessary.
The question is asked during the novel, “if vampires can exist, then what else could exist?” This is the closesst explanation to a scene at the end of the novel that acts as “the last straw” for Mr. Nolan (I aim to avoid spoilers, but when you read the book, you’ll get what I’m referring to). This moment comes out of nowhere, but it didn’t change my opinion of the book which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially around the Christmas season.
You Can’t Take It With You by Marcus Hawke is a vampire story set at Christmas time in New York City. Don’t let the Christmas aspect throw you, this book can be enjoyed any time of the year. Fans of true monstrous vampires and/or deep immersive writing will enjoy this book, and I highly recommend it.
/5
Available from Amazon.
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Joseph Pietris is a member of the United States Coast Guard by day and heavily involved in the horror community by night. His work has appeared in several anthologies. When not writing, he’s produced reviews and interviews preferring those works generally lost in the cracks. As an associate editor, Joseph has weeding through the submission piles of horror podcasts.
Joseph’s work can be found at Amazon.com: Joseph P. Pietris: books, biography, latest update
