 “But Laine should have learned by now that when you have too much faith in something, it is bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry. In this way, all the world is a vampire.” Lost Souls (1992), published as Poppy Z. Brite, was Billy Martin’s debut novel and made Brite a huge name in Horror circles. The novel was released as part of Dell’s Abyss line, which with works such as Kathe Koja’s The Cipher (1991) was helping to redefine Horror at the tail end of the 80s Horror paperback boom. The novel remains powerful and seductive to this day. Steeped in the aesthetics of late 80s/early 90s goth rock and teenage angst, Martin celebrates queerness, rock music, alternative subcultures and magic as an escape from the mundane conformity of American middle-class suburbia. Lost Souls is also one of the key reimaginings of the vampire myth for the modern era, one that bears a strong influence over conceptions of the vampire that followed. As such it remains a potent invocation of its era, a core horror text of the 90s, and a darkly compelling read. Lost Souls is the story of Nothing, a boy born from vampires in New Orleans who is brought up in suburban Maryland. Alienated from his surroundings, he runs away from home and discovers his true nature with his first taste of blood. He hooks up with his father Zillah and his cronies Molochai and Twig, three decadent predatory immortals who have been feeding on human blood and nihilistically partying for centuries. Lost Souls is also the story of Ghost, psychic sensitive lead singer of the band Lost Souls?, with his best friend and guitarist Steve Finn. When Nothing, Zillah and their entourage show up in their hometown of Missing Mile, Ghost senses the arrival of dark times, and he, Steve and Steve’s ex-girlfriend Ann Bransby-Smith get caught up in the chaos and bloodshed. The 80s horror paperback boom, for all its strengths, frequently catered to a market of frustrated adolescent straight boys. The genre birthed Clive Barker’s transgressive explorations of sexuality in The Books Of Blood (1984-5), but far more common was a conservative portrayal of sexuality that equates premarital sex with death and is strongly focused on the male gaze, reducing its women to voluptuous sex objects likely to be menaced or killed by the story’s monster. Lost Souls’ open queerness feels nothing short of revolutionary in this context. Martin does not merely equate vampires with queerness, though his vampires are very much queer. The novel is framed as a battle for Nothing’s soul, but it is not a case of monstrous queerness versus heterosexual, conservative middle American values. Nothing rejects the latter outright, knowing that to live in this way would be to deny not just his own nature but what for him makes life exciting and worth living. Nothing is offered a choice between the nihilistic hedonism of his vampire heritage with Zillah, Molochai and Twig and a new life with his musical heroes in Lost Souls?, one that is just as alternative and queer but is not built on innocent blood. Although Ghost and Steve do not hook up in the book – fans would have to wait for the subsequent short story ‘Stay Awake’ (2000) for that – the novel portrays Ghost and Steve’s burgeoning romantic relationship, showing it as much healthier and less destructive than Steve’s abusive relationship with Ann. The novel subverts the association between homosexuality and the death drive, which would have been particularly prevalent at the time due to the AIDS epidemic and the propaganda surrounding it. The straight relationships in Lost Souls are thoroughly destructive – not only is Steve’s relationship with Ann abusive, in order to be born baby vampires chew their way out of their mothers’ wombs, almost inevitably resulting in the mother’s death. Thus, whilst Martin’s vampires are not undead humans and cannot turn their victims into vampires, their reproduction is built on death. This association of reproductive, heterosexual sex with death connects heterosexuality rather than queerness to the death drive, in defiance of then-current propaganda about AIDS as “the gay plague”. Thus with Lost Souls, Martin frees queerness from its association with death and situates it with the conservative family values the novel rails against. Lost Souls is a celebration of alternative lifestyles and subcultures. Drinking deeply of the goth aesthetic, it is a novel in which its gaunt, pale heroes prefer to wear black, put on thick dark eyeliner, and are adorned with tattoos and piercings. The clubs where all the cool kids go to escape the monotony of suburbia all play the Cure. Zillah, Molochai and Twig have Foetus and the Bauhaus logo stencilled on the side of their black van. Martin’s loving immersion in the goth subculture vividly transports the readers back to the time it was written. But beyond that, the novel celebrates any place where a relief from conformity can be found, from the dingy bars in small towns where teenagers can get served alcohol to the revelry of the French Quarter of New Orleans. In its glorification of rock music, runaways, and casual drug use, it is unafraid to explore the darker underside of the shiny “acceptable” face America presents to the world. At the heart of Martin’s novel are his wonderfully drawn characters. Everyone in the novel has suffered varying degrees of trauma, and Martin explores the various ways in which the characters respond to this, both sympathetically and unsympathetically. However dark his characters get, they are always compelling, and they are made relatable through their desire to find a place where they can fit in, to find people who they can share love with. Steve and Ghost’s love for each other sees them through the horrors they witness. Whilst Nothing may ultimately lose his soul by embracing his vampire heritage, the bond he forges with his own people sustains him through the darkness and ultimately, he does find his own surrogate family. This desire for connection unites all of Martin’s misfits and outsiders, and is a large part of what makes Lost Souls such a haunting read all these years later.  Sex, blood and rock'n'roll - from the master of gothic horror At a club in Missing Mile, just outside New Orleans, the children of the night gather. They dress in black and they're looking for acceptance. There's Ghost, who sees what others do not; Ann, looking for love; and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, seeking the deathless truth about his father - and himself. But into Missing Mile tonight come three beautiful, hip vagabonds: Molochai, Twig and seductive, green-eyed Zillah. They are on their own lost journey, slaking their ancient thirst for blood, aching for supple young flesh. In Nothing and Ann they find it. Now Ghost must pursue them all. To save Ann from her new friends, to save Nothing from himself. First published in the early 90s, Lost Souls redefined the vampire novel for a new generation and remains unsurpassed in its dark wit, graphic descriptions and its power to send shivers of panic and pleasure down your spine...   Comments are closed.
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