When I read the first paragraph in the prologue, I was immediately hooked. For a couple of days, I simply couldn't put this book down!

Then I told myself to take it easy and enjoy it while it lasted. So I did, since it's my first time reading a McCammon novel.

It's total 80s style horror, and as I was reading, I got a little Lost Boys and Salem's Lot vibe. I'm now decided that this book is better than Salem's Lot. The way McCammon wrote his characters, like Andy Palatazin, is so realistic. There are a lot of characters, but he made sure that as you read, you didn't forget them.

Of course, there were a few things I disliked, such as how annoying some of the antagonists were. Other than that, I enjoyed every single thing.

I'm looking forward to reading more of McCammon's work. His storytelling is amazing! It keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes you want to keep turning the pages. I can't wait to see what else he has in store for us.

I did not finish this book at 10 percent.

I truly have nothing much to say other than the fact that the writing really hurt my head.

I either love Robert R. McCammon or I don't, and this is definitely one of the ones that I don't love.

There is just so much going on, so much is thrown out there, and yet none of it seems to make much sense.

This is a real shame because the prologue was actually really freaking good.

But then when the story moves to LA, I just started to feel completely overwhelmed.

Since I only got up to 10 percent, I can say that there are way too many characters and the book probably should have just focused on vampires.

Instead, it just jumps around a lot and I had no clue what was happening.

These seem to be vampires as we have known them in older horror novels like Dracula, not the Twilight and Discovery of Witches kind of vampires.

I still can't get over the idea of vampire yoga. Seriously? So that part was kind of good.

I just thought that the writing was a bit too convoluted and I didn't have a particular character to really follow and anchor the story.

This book read to me like "Swan Song" but with vampires, which made me drop it quite quickly.

I really couldn't handle another long read this weekend as this is 531 pages, so I gave up around page 55.

I did skim to the end and, wow, that ending was just really odd.

And it also seemed to borrow heavily from "The Stand."

So now I understand why other reviewers were complaining about it.

I don't usually write reviews.

However, McCammon's work is truly captivating. He is similar to Stephen King, but with an added element of entertainment. There are so many characters in his stories, and most of them are quite likable. They seem to have walked straight out of a comic book of the imagination.

Take, for example, the Mexican ex-heroin-addicted street gang tough who has now become a Catholic priest. He is experiencing a crisis of faith after learning he has Lou Gehrig's disease. Then there's the Hungarian police captain whose father was turned into a bloodsucker when he was a child, and whose mother went insane after witnessing her love and her town become the undead.

There's also the midwestern boy who has made a name for himself as a comedian in LA, and the African girl with shamanistic powers whom he won in a card game but truly loves. And let's not forget the plucky girl reporter who is determined to make her mark in the journalistic world. Oh, and the 11-year-old high school freshman who is a horror movie aficionado.

Every angle is covered in McCammon's stories. Even the bad guys are interesting caricatures. There's the albino biker who gets a thrill from killing and robbing, and is psychically called to join the prince vampire's army. The "roach" killer, who victimizes hookers that remind him of his mother, a hooker he killed when she tried to leave him. And the vampire prince, eternally a teenager and not quite the master general king he envisions himself to be.

The stories in McCammon's work weave and intertwine, bringing us a lot of action and rich characterization. And ultimately, there is some deus ex machina, but it's not the annoying kind at all. In fact, I was so impressed that I think I'll read Swan Song too.