The New York Times Book Review
The short novel Vlad…provides ample evidence of Fuentes's powerful abilities…somehow Fuentes refreshes tired tropes. The novel is genuinely scary…Will readers appreciate a novel that pivots between hilarity and fear, insightful characterization and flamboyant fountains of blood? Let's hope so, because Vlad displays the strengths of a great writer's late oeuvre to excellent effect.
—Jeff VanderMeer
Publishers Weekly - Audio
Narrator Robert Fass’s crisp narration enhances this audio edition of Fuentes’s riff on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in which the undead eponymous antihero travels to Mexico City for blood (having drained all of Europe’s supply). As in the original, the first-person narration is by a young attorney—one of many parallel plot developments that will bemuse Stoker fans. The Mexican setting calls for convincing Spanish accents, which Fass ably handles. He also demonstrates versatility in creating unique voices for the book’s many characters. As with other fantastic stories, listeners will only suspend disbelief if the story’s everyday elements are convincing. And Fass’s matter-of-fact delivery of passages such as the description of Navarro’s breakfast routine, lulls listeners into imagining that the supernatural elements are fully believable. A must for Dracula fans. A Dalkey Archive hardcover. (July)
Publishers Weekly
In this short novel, Fuentes (1928–2012) follows the pattern of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but infuses the story with a modern sensibility and vivid imagery: a bedroom filled with eerily identical dolls all dressed in pink; a flock of bats that resemble monstrous winged rats, with “filthy, long, hairy ears.” In place of Stoker’s Jonathan Harker, Fuentes has lawyer Yves Navarro, devoted to his beautiful wife, Asunción, and young daughter, Magdalena. Navarro makes a house call to the title character, a mysterious and wealthy new resident in overcrowded and somewhat lawless Mexico City. When Yves sets out for his appointment one dark and stormy night, the door to Vlad’s elegant new home (procured by Asunción, a real estate agent) is answered by a hunchback servant, and the vampire even uses the classic Dracula line, “I never drink... wine.” Navarro, however, does lose consciousness, and wakes knowing neither where he is nor how he got there. By the time Navarro realizes the danger around him, he’s already in too deep. A deliciously barbed bagatelle from a fiction master, with perhaps a strain of allegory for a world devoured by rapaciousness. (July)
From the Publisher
"A deliciously barbed bagatelle from a fiction master, with perhaps a strain of allegory for a world devoured by rapaciousness." - Publishers Weekly
Library Journal
10/01/2014
In his last published novel before he died, the iconic Fuentes dabbles in the gothic in a haunting tale of vampires whose hapless victims try to extricate themselves from a nefarious scheme.
Library Journal - Audio
The noted Mexican author provides a modern update of Dracula in which the Count moves to Mexico City in search of fresh blood. A lawyer has been assigned to find Vlad a very special home with tunnels, drains, and blacked-out windows. The attorney's wife locates the perfect house…and discovers some horrifying information about their new client. There is a satisfying mixture of old-world descriptive writing and contemporary horror—listeners will never look at a squirrel the same way again—and reader Robert Fass does an expert job of keeping the sometimes clunky narrative from overpowering the truly gut-churning terror. The ending is unexpected; credit goes to Fass for keeping readers guessing right up to the very last sentence. VERDICT Recommended for large public libraries and academic collections. ["For those who like the gothic or who are diehard Fuentes fans, go for it, but for others it may be more appropriate to pay him a fitting tribute in light of his recent passing by rereading some of his classics (The Death of Artemio Cruz or Old Gringo) and pass on this one," read the review of the Dalkey Archive hc, LJ 7/12.—Ed.]—Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA
AUGUST 2012 - AudioFile
VLAD is a modern sequel to the Dracula legend that feels oddly anemic. Written by the legendary Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, the novel seems more like a novella with lots of setup and a plot that ends as quickly as it begins. Robert Fass resists the urge to channel Bela Lugosi, even though the images conjured up resemble him. His deep, rich voice is hypnotic, just like the vampire himself. Fuentes finished the book shortly before his death, and one wonders if he’d planned to delve more deeply into the story of Dracula moving his home to Mexico City in search of fresh prey. Fass's calm, controlled voice adds to the deliberate creepiness of the work. M.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
