Erica Manfred is a self-professed lover of Anne Rice's vampire books, and clearly some of that comes through in "Interview with a Jewish Vampire." Mostly because she references it (and Dracula and Twilight…).
I really wanted to like this book, but I just had too many problems with it. The lead character Rhoda, a divorced, middle-aged, zaftig freelance writer, had so few redeeming qualities that it was hard to root for her. She is selfish, whiny, paranoid, and childish. I spent most of the book hoping that the Jewish vampire, Sheldon (a rabbi who was turned into a vampire by Dracula) would run away with one of the other more agreeable characters (Rhoda's best friend or one of the group of granny vampires they meet in Florida). Anyone but Rhoda. And the though of her being turned into an immortal. Oy vey! An eternity of kvetching and tsouris.
After reading the book, I assumed that Manfred had self-published. That would explain the pacing problems (the book could have been half the length without losing any of the story), the occasionally ham-handed plot issues (at one point Rhoda finds a book on how to date a vampire and decides to follow "The Rules," as she calls them. They make no sense, and really only serve to kill time while other plot issues come to a head with Rhoda's mother), and some huge continuity problems (more on those in a moment).
However, revisiting the book's intro, Manfred thanks her editor. Given that the book shows almost no signs of an editor's hand, I was blown away by that.
Two obvious examples (and ones that really annoyed me) concerned important bits of information for the plot. The first is that vampires have the power to "glamour" a human into doing something - basically overpower their will and have them do the vampire's bidding. This is established early in the book when Sheldon uses the power to get to a table at a deli for a date with Rhoda. And he goes on to explain to Rhoda what the glamour is and how it works.
Later in the book, the glamour is reintroduced by another character, and Rhoda has never heard of it, and Sheldon claims to have never used it for ethical reasons.
Similarly, early on Sheldon confesses to Rhoda that his brother is also a vampire, and that Sheldon turned him into one because the brother was dying. Later in the book, the brother is mentioned again, with Rhoda never having heard of him, and Sheldon relating the entire story again.
I can't believe that an editor, or even a proofreader would miss something that obvious.
Overall, the book had some good points - decent humor, some well-written characters, a generally strong overall plot - and with a strong editor (and a couple of red pens), this could be a tight funny novella. In fact, with a little work, I could see this turning into a series (some of the side characters could carry their own books).
But as it is, if I hadn't gotten it for free, I would have been annoyed.
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