New from PsychoToxin Press, available from 11 March 2024.
“LIFE IS BLOODY GOOD”
In Australia, vampires are a protected class.
Twenty-two towns are picked to siphon vampires, aka ‘redheads’, out of capital and regional cities. When polled, most Australians agree with this strategy. But most Australians don’t live in a ‘designated area’. Don’t have to step over drowsing redheads during the day. Or live in terror of marauding redheads during the night.
Mark Murphy is a nightshift worker in the designated area of Oleg’s Creek. His house is now worth nothing, and he can’t afford to leave. He’s heard rumours of The Refusal. Desperate, will he risk a grab at freedom?
Written by award-winning author Deborah Sheldon, Redhead Town is a dark tale of government overreach, societal breakdown, and one man’s love for his wife and son.
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EXAMPLES OF READER REVIEWS
Steven Paulsen (Goodreads) 5/5 stars – Redhead Town is a vampire tale like no other. It subverts the cliched tropes to create a compelling story of a family caught in a government ‘designated area’ where vampires are essentially corralled and protected. Told in a compelling style, the book brims with paranoia, fear and subversion, focusing on one man’s struggle to protect his family and escape the overwhelming horror of the blood-crazed ‘redheads’ as society breaks down around them. Highly recommended.
Robyn O’Sullivan (Goodreads) 5/5 stars – This is another great read by Deb Sheldon. A new type of vampire living in a different kind of town. The human characters are ordinary people who are existing in what amounts to a parallel universe; a town that is set aside as a safe place for vampires. The horror is palpable, permeating every aspect of life, every day. Is there any way out? Read it, and find out!
Cat Voleur (Goodreads) 5/5 stars – I had the pleasure of working on the formatting for this book, and it was such a joy. It’s such a unique twist on traditional vampires, and the stylized prose sells the world entirely. Fantastically well-realized.
Emily Haynes (Goodreads) 5/5 stars – Vampires are real, and in Australia, they are protected. Mark is tired of them. How far will he go for his family?
ROBIN KNABEL OF INKY BONES PRESS REVIEW
Redhead Town by Deborah Sheldon is an Australian dystopian vampire novella where “Life is Bloody Good” for most people, but not all. Chock full of suspense and intriguing characters, it’s a quick and enjoyable read.
This is definitely not your everyday vampire story.
This book almost didn’t happen. Originally penned as a virus story, Covid quickly shut down Sheldon’s desire to release it during a pandemic. In a brilliant twist, she changed the theme of the book and created vampires who lived more like “meth-heads,” needing their next hit of blood to function. Much like her characters, it got a second chance! I’m so glad it did.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The main non-vampire characters, Mark, Bernadette, and their young son Nathan, come alive on the page. The struggling family lives in one of the designated areas, places where Legal Ingestion Centers are located to both feed and lure the vampires away from large cities. Unfortunately, this creates a problem. Mark and his family stuck with a mortgage payment in an area that’s quickly declining. No one wants to purchase a home in a designated area. Jobs are scarce, and neighbors are willing to sell you out if you disobey any of the government’s new rules regarding vampires. Most people in their situation either give up and turn into a redhead or escape in a much more dire way – suicide.
Here, vampires have rights, too. Just using the derogatory term “redhead” can result in being fired. Despite the menacing creatures trespassing (feasting, defecating, or worse) on Mark’s front lawn, disposing of their waste without contacting the proper authorities can result in steep fines. Here, freedom of speech no longer exists. Someone is always watching, and you better stay inside after sundown. Life is regressing for the “normies” in these zones as redheads pollute the areas and take over.
I enjoyed following Mark throughout the story. Even though we aren’t experiencing a vampire infestation in our world, the mental hurdles he goes through after “The Occurrence” happens are realistic and hit home today for many people who feel like they’re stuck in their lives or careers. Aside from the very entertaining story Sheldon created, so many things Mark and his family experience also harken to very real situations today regarding power struggles between people, governments, and human (and vampire) rights.
As for Mark, the majority of this story takes place in his psyche. How far can he be pushed before he breaks – or anyone for that matter. When push comes to shove, what would you do? How do you remain true to yourself and still tow the line? It’s a fascinating look into how he navigates some very tricky situations, especially when he allows himself to have hope and possibly even believe there could be a light at the end of the tunnel.
This is one of those books where I like to inject myself into the main character and think about how I would handle things if it were me. I recommend grabbing a copy and checking it out.
We all know what vampires are, right? Yeah, bloodsuckers. And pretty much undead. As in, no longer alive. Unalive. Now take everything you know about vampires and imagine that is someone you have to work with.
That’s the situation for Mark Murphy in Deborah Sheldon’s new novella, Redhead Town. Except the vampires in Sheldon’s story are not IMMEDIATELY vampires once they’ve been bitten. They go through a process first, slowly transforming into bloodsuckers.
Except, you can’t call them a bloodsucker. Or a vampire. Or even the popular term, “redhead,” as it is a derogatory term for vampires in this story.
In this dystopian world where vampires live and walk among mere mortals, Mark Murphy is scared shitless. He is not only scared of the redheads, which he loathes with a fierceness, but he is also scared for his wife and son’s safety. He’s scared of the kind of world his son must grow up in, where he is forced to live alongside vampires, forced to work with them, and may even get attacked by them despite all precautions that are taken, such as armed guards looking out for the civilians, and anti-bite collars people can wear and the ankle alarms some vampires who work with mortals must wear.
For Mark Murphy, it’s just not enough. He does not feel, as the county does, that vampires deserve a place in society. If he had it his way, they’d all get a bullet in the head. But he cannot have it his way and he feels trapped.
That is, until someone he meets provides a way out: A rebellious group called The Refusal.
And as I continued to read this story, I asked myself the same question the author poses in the book’s blurb: Will he risk it all and fight back?
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is SUCH a unique story! Accept vampires as productive members of society? Allow them to wander the streets and mingle with the people? Oh, no. God, no. But YES. That’s exactly what happens in this story.
And I kept asking: WHY?? Are you insane??
Apparently, the vampires in this story are not the same as the vampires popularly depicted in movies and TV shows. Maybe that is why they are allowed to co-exist with people? And even have jobs?
I admit that I totally understood the way Mark felt about vampires. I mean, no matter what stage they are in or how they act, they ARE still vampires! I mean, at some point, they’ll get to the stage where they start attacking people. Is it really worth the risk?
I mean, personally, I think the best solution is to lock them up in a kennel and shoot them when they go full vampire, just like in Old Yeller!
But that’s not what happens here, and that’s part of the thing that kept me reading the story. On one hand, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and watch this whole very-thought-out and well-planned system of having vampires co-existing with humans all go to pot. On the other, I wanted to know if that’s really what happens. Does the whole structure really collapse? Or does it actually work?
And as a parent, I also understood Mark and Bernie’s concerns about raising a child in this kind of society. Was their child going to be safe? Will their kid live to adulthood? Mark and his wife, Bernie, are unable to move out of the town that was established specifically for vampires to live among humans (thus the title, Redhead Town), so they make the best of things. But it’s hard. And it’s scary.
This and all of the silly rules, weird society norms and a secret voice of rebellion is what awaits readers of this book. I read this story and kept wondering if there was any chance to get away from all the Designated Areas, the bulging population of redheads and the governmental restrictions making life unbearable. It’s the kind of story that made me think, made me worry, but ultimately made me ask myself how much of this was fiction…until it became reality?
Five stars.
JENACIDEBYBIBLIOPHILE’S BOOK BLOG
In a world where vampires have begun to take over, the government and most of its people support the rights of blood users vehemently. Say a word against them or call them a Redhead, and you can lose your job, be fined or thrown into jail. This story follows a young man named Mark as he tries to navigate this new world, while trying to protect his family.
Redhead Town is a super fast read and an interesting twist on the typical vampire story. It’s set in a world where you tattle on your neighbors, aren’t allowed freedom of speech and must follow one way of thinking or else you’ll lose everything you’ve worked for. It’s a frightening place to exist and I found quite a few themes that are even starting to feel true in today’s world.
I found the world Deborah Sheldon created to be creepy and almost realistic. It wasn’t as frightening, bloody and horrific as I was expecting, and not a lot happens, but it was still an enjoyable read that I wouldn’t mind seeing turned into a full series. Especially with where things turn for our MC (wasn’t expecting that!) I want to see what this new life brings!
DEBORAH SHELDON 