A review by wardenred
Walk Among Us: Compiled Edition by Cassandra Khaw, Genevieve Gornichec, Caitlin Starling

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“There are rumors,” I whisper to the empty hallways of my house, “that it was Caine who spread agriculture across the early human world. He planted his crop then, a growing swell of humanity to feed upon, and we have harvested it for millennia since.“

I love classic World of Darkness, especially the VtM facet of it, even if I’m not the biggest fan of where the latest edition took the metaplot. So this book was on my radar ever since it was out, and I’m glad I’ve read it. It was a great collection of bedtime stories for my tastes.

The first of the three novellas is, I feel, the weakest even though generally I enjoyed Genevieve Gornichec’s writing. Actually, I think if it was a standalone, non-WoD-related vampire story, I would have liked it more, though there are details I still wouldn’t have appreciated much, such as literally every feminine woman being a terrible mean girl worthy of death, or the kinda heavy-handed way the big twist was handled. But overall, it was a rather interesting and thought-provoking take on a new adult experience with college, anxiety, and struggling to find a purpose. It could be very well supported by the specific VtM brand of vampires, too, but alas, the way the author used the setting just didn’t do it for me. Also, there were some rather crude blunders in terms of how vampires function.

Cassandra Khaw’s contribution was considerably more mature, way more canon-compliant, an honestly a delight. This is why you don’t try to fuck with the Ventrue! I quite enjoyed this dark story of a tech bro thinking he could get everything he wanted and pay next to no price, then getting stuck in a nightmare. The story’s take on the sheer bureaucracy of being a vampire was so interesting, and I feel like it delved really well into some of the most personal horror-inducing aspects of the Ventrue existence. Unlike the previous story, this one fits the setting really well and couldn’t exist outside of it.

Finally, Caitlin Starling’s addition to this collection of novellas was easily my favorite. I love it when quiet horror invades the safest, coziest spaces, and the vampire-ran commune for people to just come and live there and maybe make art when they have nowhere else to go? A perfect, stellar example of that, 10/10. I also liked the main character’s attempts at being an ethical monster and the way the narrative questioned if it was even an achievable goal in the first place. The high-humantiy mental gymnastics have always been a super fun part of VtM for me when done right, and this story definitely does it right. Also, despite the small size, it really creates a strong sense of setting with lots of political undercurrent—I wouldn’t mind playing in a chronicle set there. It even made me take interest in some of the more V5-specific elements of this world, even though, like I’ve said already, I’m not a huge fan of those (and really still mentally stuck in V20).
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