Elvis Presley and the Bloodsucker Blues By: Matt Venne Star Rating: Sensuality Rating:

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Synopsis

Needing time alone, Elvis Presley takes a drive during the wee hours of the morning and accidentally runs over a young man. Fearing the worst, he gets out of his car to check on the guy only to discover that he's not dead at all. The youth bites Elvis and turns him into a vampire. Elvis gradually comes to accept his new life and even enjoy it on some level, but as the years drag on, he becomes discontented and begins to hunt vampires instead, a decision that ultimately leads to his untimely demise.

Review

"Elvis Presley and the Bloodsucker Blues" is a stand-alone, speculative, short story that presents an alternate history of Elvis's final years. In this scenario, he is turned into a vampire, but only his closest friends and associates know of this turn of events. He adjusts to his new life and enjoys it for a while, before deciding to become a vampire hunter instead, which leads to his untimely demise.

I can't claim to be an Elvis fan myself, but I have older family members who are. I also was alive for those final years of his life, so I remember some of the speculation, conspiracy theories, and celebrity gossip surrounding him. All of that rang true in this story, so I'd say that the author is either a big fan himself or did his research well. He came up with some creative reasons for many of changes in The King and the things that people found suspicious. In the end, though, this was just an OK read for me. It's written in Elvis's first-person POV, with him setting the record straight during the final moments of his life. First-person should be a deeper perspective, but I felt like the narrative merely skimmed along the surface, telling the story in a matter-of-fact way. I was also a little off-put by some crude language regarding women and a few seemingly homophobic remarks. Overall, this was a mildly diverting tale that showed some creativity, but not one that I connected with in a way that would make it memorable. "Elvis Presley and the Bloodsucker Blues" can be found in the anthology Blood Lite.

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