American Ghoul
A wildly entertaining debut from Michelle McGill-Vargas, American Ghoul deftly combines horror and social commentary--with a dash of buddy comedy--in an innovative twist on the vampire genre.
You can't kill someone who's already dead.
That's what Lavinia keeps telling her jailer after--allegedly--killing her mistress, Simone Arceneau. But how could Simone be dead when she was taking callers just a few minutes before? And why was her house always so dark?
Lavinia, a recently freed slave, met Simone, a recently undead vampire, by chance on a plantation in post-Civil War Georgia. With nothing remaining for either woman in the South, the two form a fast friendship and head north. However, Lavinia quickly learns that teaming up with this white woman may be more than she bargained for.
Simone is reckless and impulsive--which would've been bad enough on its own, but when combined with her particular diet, Lavinia finds herself in way over her head. As she is forced to repeatedly compromise her morals and struggles to make lasting human connections, Lavinia begins to wonder, is she truly free or has she merely exchanged one form of enslavement for another? As bodies start to pile up in the small Indiana town they've settled in, people start to take a second look at the two newcomers, and Simone and Lavinia's relationship is stretched to its breaking point ...Book discussion questions are available here: https: //s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/www.blackstoneaudio.com/docs/American%20Ghoul_Discussion%20Guide.pdf
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
Michelle McGill-Vargas writes speculative historical fiction, short stories, and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in Splickety Magazine, the Copperfield Review, and Typehouse. She is a member of the Highland Writers Group and the Valparaiso Writers Group, has served as vice president of the Indiana Writers' Consortium, and is currently on the board of Midwest Writers Workshop and the Historical Novel Society. She currently resides in the Midwest with her husband and fur babies. American Ghoul is her first novel.
"In Michelle McGill's American Ghoul the pain of American history and human and nonhuman monsters collide. Always engrossing, yet tender and heartbreaking, McGill has expertly resurrected an ancient story, yet demands that we closely examine the wicked creatures that lurk in our past."
-- "Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author""Wickedly clever and brutal in the best way. American Ghoul is a hair-raising, grimly funny American tale that's sharply observed and entertaining as hell. Michelle McGill-Vargas arrives with a totally original voice, and her debut is unmissable."
-- "Rachel Harrison, bestselling author of Black Sheep and Such Sharp Teeth""McGill-Vargas's deliciously unsettling debut adds a vampiric twist to the Reconstruction-era United States...Readers will be drawn in."
-- "Publishers Weekly""Michelle McGill-Vargas's American Ghoul innovatively merges vampires with serious social commentary and the buddy-comedy trope."
-- "Library Journal"
