Sensual, striking and funny, this novel examines the vampire genre through a modern lense. Lydia explores her dual identities of demon and human, and Asian and British, searching for belonging in food, art and relationships. This is a gripping, thrilling and immersive read to sink your teeth into.
The blood runs as through it is fresh again. Diluted by the water on the towel, it travels in little pink lines down the exposed part of Ben’s skin, and soaks into the waistband of his boxer shorts. It spreads across the T-shirt around the towel, making a pattern like lichen. Gradually, I start to pull the now-wet shirt off of Ben’s skin. Underneath is one fairly deep cut that has small pieces of gravel in it.
'There’s gravel in it,’ I say.
’Yeah,’ Ben says. His eyes are closed. ‘I saw that.'
I ask him if he has tweezers. He does.
I can't tell whether all of this is agony for me or the complete opposite. My mouth is close to the cut that still seeps blood as I carefully remove the little black stones. I breath in deeply through my nose. When I do, I get double vision: two great big cuts in front of my face. I want to put my tongue inside Ben's flesh. I want to eat.
