Bite Club

A West Hollywood Vampire Novel

By: Hal Bodner

Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to West Hollywood. The Creative City. Liberal and welcoming. Free from discrimination and hatred. A safe place to live if you’re gay.

But West Hollywood isn't safe anymore....

Someone in town has a macabre passion for beautiful young men. Healthy, gym-toned male bodies keep turning up, tortured, drained of blood, missing parts, and quite, quite dead. Someone is using the Creative City as a canvas of gruesome, sadistic creativity. Someone is using West Hollywood as a warped psychotic playground. Someone... or something.

WeHo city coroner Becky O’Brien is helpless to stop the accumulation of gym-toned corpses. At the end of her investigative rope, Becky calls upon the aid of an old college friend, Christopher Driscoll, who is an expert on serial killers. Rushing to her aid, Chris arrives in WeHo with his quirky boyfriend Troy in tow. Prowling the dark alleys and cruisy bars of WeHo in search of the psychotic fiend, the trio soon realizes that something possibly not human has taken up residence in Boys' Town - something with an insatiable hunger for the flesh and blood of hot young men.

Following the trail of mangled corpses, Becky has another realization - nothing is what it seems. Even her old friend Chris has secrets... dark secrets.

Accompanied by the compulsively orderly sheriff's captain, Clive Anderson, and West Hollywood’s irritable and outrageous octogenarian city manager, Pamela Burman, Becky soon discovers the ominous truth behind the creature stalking West Hollywood’s pristine streets.

Sexy, scary, and very, very funny, Bite Club is a macabre black comedy that'll have you screaming bloody murder.

©2005 Hal Bodner (P)2017 David N. Wilson

Entertaining!

This was a good fun book to listen to. While the premise of it is all about a serial killer, don't take this one too serious. It is full of fun campy humor and the narrator Kitty Hendrix did a good job relaying that in the narration. There are a few very enjoyable characters, the coroner Becky O'Brien, sheriff Clive Anderson, Chris and Troy are the most memorable. My only complaint is that the story gets pulled away in too many different points of view, which makes the story a bit longer than it needs to be and slows down the pace.

kick butt PNR book!

OK, this book has it all! Its funny, its good, it has action, and it has the steamy parts added to it.
It makes one great book if you like PNR. i thought it was a very fresh take on the Vamp world. and since I have been to W Hollywood often, i could totally "see" this happing there!
WTG Hal.

This was my first listen from Kitty. I thought she did fantastic job, and would totally listen to her read to me again.

Struggled

this book is quite long and I felt some pieces could have been easily left out and it would have been I better book. I struggled to finish this book not because of the narrator or even the story line he put a lot of in my opinion unnecessary information and or scenes that made it almost monotonous for me. I kept listening and saying to my phone come on get to the point hurry up, finally only 3 hours left. I will not be listening to another of this author's books anytime soon but I would like to try if there is another series

Original, fun, and creepy!

This was a terrific vampire story with lots of interesting characters. I found it completely original and entertaining. Some parts made me a little ill, then others made me laugh out loud. Both the author and the narrator did a great job here, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to other adult fans of vampires and campy yet dark humor.

Excellent Book And Performance! Just Excellent!!!

This Book Was So Much Fun!! The Story Was Convincing Enough To Make You Think Do Vampires Really Live Among Us???...I Love This Story! And I Am Absolutely Head Over Hills With Troy The Renfield...And The Narrator..Did She Fall From Heaven? She Is Phenomenal! I Definitely Look Forward From More Work From Hal Bodner And Kitty Hendrix Together.. Fantastic Combo!

Even After Ten Years This Novel Stands Up

It was August 2010 when I first read BITE CLUB, and I loved it! It is now 2020, and I thought it was about time to revisit West Hollywood with the novel that started it all. This time, rather than reading, I listened to the audiobook. Listening in 2020 is significant; listening in October 2020 made it eye-opening.

On the surface, BITE CLUB is still a cozy mystery, yet there is an undercurrent that has new bite today.
One does not usually think of a murder mystery as a fun book, but BITE CLUB will surely change your mind. Hal Bodner has a way with a story that will suck you into the action then deliver a right cross to your funny bone. Oh yes, and get your mind out of the gutter. This is not gay pornography; it is a character driven tale that provides very human insight into alternate lifestyles, including those of some alternate species.

WeHo has a serial killer. The bodies are piling up. The mayor is a straddle-the-fence, please everybody politician. The city manager is the other side of 60, opinionated, foul-mouthed, and with the fashion sense of a blind drag queen. The chief of police works at not pissing off the city manager. The coroner eats junk food with one hand while examining the dead body with the other. Can you see where this is going? What about the bite? That would be telling.

Overall, the narration is pretty good. I was a bit nonplussed by Kitty Hendrix's pronunciation of some simple words… "wanely" for "wanly" - "r-sing" for "arcing" - "esque" for "eschew". There were several others. I also found that her character voices didn't match the voices I've had in my head for the past ten years. She is a pleasant enough reader, but I feel that there are surely others that could have done a better job.

Here is a tale that will keep you listening well into the night to see who is going to come out on top. It's not quite a roller coaster, but you may find yourself biting your nails, then welling up with emotion, and last, but not least, laughing out loud at the antics of this diverse cast of characters.

Listen and enjoy!

Awesome

Great book, kept my attention all the way to the end, amazing audio delivery, loved it. Will be reading again, every chapter was received amazingly do recommend you give it a read.

funny

I don't always consider a book being cheesy as a bad thing. There have been plenty of cheesy stories I've really enjoyed laughing along with. Bite Club is unabashedly cheesy, purposefully camped up and totally over the top, and I mostly enjoyed that about it. I liked the fat, Jewish heroine. I liked that the rest of the cast was diverse. Mechanically the writing is fine and the narration by Kitty, that I listened to, is well done.

However, there is a thin line between having characters play up to and with their stereotypes and writing a stereotype. On several occasions I felt Bodner crossed the line into making fun, whether purposeful or not. I cringed more than once.

But my biggest problem with this book, and if I'm honest it barely made 3 stars because of this, is that Bodner frequently goes off on long, descriptive histories of characters that divert the plot. If a character is being introduced for the sole purpose of dying immediately, I don't need 15 pages of their life story. I certainly don't need that for a dozen or so victims that play no active part in the book, plus all the actual characters. It broke the story up into small chunks between long sections of unneeded exposition, making it feel very jagged.

All in all, I'll call this an all right read, not bad but not too good either.

Note: I received a free copy of this book. But it was my choice to read and review it.

An audible gem

When a series of gory murders threaten to destroy the peaceful existence of the liberal inhabitants of West Hollywood (California), a befuddled Becky O'Brien, City Coroner, decides to call for help to his old University friend, Christopher Driscoll, who seemed to know a lot about strange murderers, even back then. But Chris knows much more than what Becky expected, and he soon identifies the murderer as a vampire, because Chris is a bloodsucker himself. With his irrepressible boyfriend Troy as companion, and with the aid of a series of bizarre beings, both human and inhuman, Chris sets to stop the dangerous immortal who threatens them all…
What a great story! I must recognise this audio gem kept me entertained and laughing out loud for most of the more than twelve hours of its duration. The crazy adventures and misadventures of Chris, Troy, Becky, Sheriff Clive, Scotty the ghoul and a long list of very special characters wisely mix terror and humour, thus creating a very enjoyable dark comedy. From this colourful gallery of extravagant characters, my favourite is undoubtedly Troy, aka monkey, a harebrained twink who despite making himself a nuisance most of the time, is fiercely loyal and has a heart of gold… or sort of.
As for Kitty Hendrix’ performance, it was just perfect. Her rendition of the characters, and her ability to provide her narration with different nuances make the experience of listening to this novel an utterly enjoyable one: Her Troy is hilarious, her Chris has a melancholic vibe, her Becky is naive but sharp as nails… She provided every single character with an unmistakable personality with easy. I loved every one of them (even Rex!)
In short, and audible gem I would not doubt to recommend.

Humorous Satirical Look at Vampires

Vampires exist and for the most part, they live quiet hidden lives among the “breathers.” When one of their own shows up in West Hollywood killing young men with abandon and publicly, they have to take strong steps. His actions risk exposure to them and their secret lives. Christopher Driscoll, a vampire in Pennsylvania, is tasked to hunt down the maniac and put him down. The local coroner is a longtime friend of his from his brief time in medical school. She is unaware of his vampire status and he wants to keep it that way but needs her help, well they need each other’s help.

Bite Club is set in the flamboyantly gay city of West Hollywood. Christopher’s gay lover and vampire familiar, Troy causes more harm than good most of the time with his flamboyant antics. All of the characters are caricatures for the most part. Becky, the local coroner, is a husband-seeking obese slob who is constantly stuffing sweets into her mouth. The police captain is a neat freak who is cowed by the aged, overbearing city manager and the inept mayor. Even Christopher, the beautiful vampire supposed to put down one of his own is constantly flummoxed by his ridiculous gay lover.

Flamboyant homosexuality is the overarching theme. And while not offensive for the most part, may be off-putting for some listeners. It is mostly meant as humor and should be taken that way. Everyone bumbles their way through the story, ridiculous to the extreme and the listener wonders how they can possibly catch a vicious vampire let alone run their foolish lives.

Kitty Hendrix performs the story and is generally good, though she does stumble a bit. Certainly competent and able to keep the story moving forward and rarely in the way. Her character voices are good and easily discernible. She does a good job with difficult material. The production quality is good with no obvious flaws.

Bite club has a strong homosexual theme which may turn off some listeners. Otherwise, it is a satirical look at vampires with a humorous approach that is amusing, rather than truly funny. The characters are simply ridiculous to the extreme and unbelievable. The vampire killing is barely a plot, more of a thread to link the characters.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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