Pretty Young Things

What’s a girl to do these days? If she’s not worrying about her make-up or her drop-dead outfit, it’s the total lack of anyone hot to pick up at the local nightclub. Someone strong and silent, someone good looking ... someone who might not mind a bit of rough and tumble. And if he ends up being hung in the cellar with the other bloodcalves then that’s too bad ... After all, a girl’s gotta drink.

Chelsea is a vampire, one of a nest of lesbian rave-bunny vampires, but when the nest picks her ex-boyfriend as their newest food source, she takes matters into her own hands ...

The debut novella from an impressive new talent, featuring sexy vampire girls, blood, horror, and enough cat-fights to sate even the most jaded of vampire lovers.

’McDonagh’s neat and tidy prose is ice cool, and packed with plenty of cultural references but no unnecessary bloat or redundant backstory. The pacing of his story can only be described as breakneck, the reader is dragged through the dark world the author has created, and left with no time to catch his or her breath. This book exists in the moment, and for the duration of the story we are there too, staring into the face of sudden death or dismemberment, and risking our life alongside Chelsea and her erstwhile companions. I genuinely enjoyed this book.’ Gary McMahon, scifibooks.org

’It’s reminiscent of I Am Legend, and maybe Irvine Welsh, and the stone cold descriptions of violence reminded me a little of Douglas Hill. All told, though, it’s more suggestive of modern cinema thrillers than of any book I’ve read. There’s an element of exploitation movie in it as well, albeit done with class. Think Layer Cake, Reservoir Dogs, Hostel. It’s nasty, violent and fascinating.’ Jason Towers, Goodreads

’Despite the blurb’s suggestion that it might be soft porn, Pretty Young Things is a clever, unpleasant and sharply written horror story. It completely eschews the more usual tendency to construct sexual or power fantasies around vampirism in favour of a rigorous SF underpinning for the mechanisms of vampirism on display. The characters are nicely drawn, the prose is elegant and the storyline takes several unexpected twists but still seems inevitable on building to its climax. There’s a strong sense that the vampires are interlopers, completely divorced from the reality that surrounds them, yet several still come across as very sympathetic characters. A neat trick, and one that is executed almost flawlessly. This is a fine novella, and one that might appeal to fans of hardboiled thrillers as much as horror buffs.’ A Winchester, Amazon

’It does a nice job of deglamourising vampirism, and stressing that there’s nothing sexy about eating people. Crisply written, deeply nasty, and a lot of fun for people who want to read a vampire novel that owes more to Matheson and Newman than Rice and Brite. One of the few vampire novels in recent years that doesn’t take it for granted that you get a full set of Bahaus albums and a black lipstick the second you rise from the dead. Also, it’s really nice to see an SF rationalisation for vampirism rather than a magical one. The way vampirism works in this novel is not a mechanism I’ve ever seen before, and is very clever.’ Marianne Jones, Goodreads