Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Gilda Stories

This book took me a while to get through because of the writing style. I just really hate 3rd person omnipresent, especially in the beginning the narrative switches to quickly between characters I was sometimes confused trying to keep up. My other complaint is the format, each section involves another time jump and change in location, Gilda moves between places and often friends. And I think this book does a good job of showing the value of community in black and queer cultures but almost everytime we make a jump Gilda already has an established relationship with characters. This book is very tell not show in that sense, it often tells you how Gilda feels about her new friends or her new location or job, very little scenes leeting the reader see it in action. However this book is still a classic for being such a first, even today we can't take for granted a black lesbian vampire story, especially one like this. It focuses so much of women finding their ways in non traditional ways, it's unabashedly queer, it's unabashedly black. Like I said, it's about community, to use a tik tok word, it's about found family. I heard that this book is potentially getting a TV show and I think that is a great idea, the writing style does kind of weigh this book down but the ideas are so good and so relevant.

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poirot's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

- THE GILDA STORIES is an expansive, meditative exploration of found family, womanhood, and Blackness told through the story of Gilda, a young Black lesbian vampire, as she lives through the centuries.
- It took me a bit to get into this story, as I often find older novels keep the characters at a bit of a remove for my tastes. But once I got a handle on it, I was invested in Gilda and her search for a place and people to belong with.
- It reminded me quite a bit of Octavia E. Butler's work, not just for the vampire parallels to FLEDGLING, but also for the considerations of complex relationships and families as characters navigate new situations and realities.

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stormywolf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Breaking out of my reading slump to read last month's pick in Maven of the Eventide's (aka Elisa Hansen's) Vampire Book Club proved to be no easy feat. Unfortunately, my library did not carry the audiobook, and it turned out I had other obligations the night of the meeting. Luckily I found a copy of the audio online, and, as always, the book club meetings are saved for posterity, so while I wasn't there for the live discussion, I was able to participate in some ways (unlike the previous month's when my library didn't even carry a text copy for The Silver Kiss). And though I'd never heard of this book before the club picked it out, the premise seemed especially intriguing and I was eager to experience it. Let me just say, wow.

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, this book will undoubtedly sit with me for quite sometime. From the characters, to the settings, to the long and tumultuous journey of self-discovery, I was wholly invested. The exploration of life, and what it means to live and love from the perspective of an outsider, along with powerful depictions of struggling to choose what's best for yourself and for those around you, even if that means starting over, were what impacted me the most. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction, books featuring BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+ main characters, empowering women, Afrofuturism, or just a fresh, new take on vampires—even hailing from 30 years ago!

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