The Fangs of the Morning

Leslie H. Whitten

Picture this. You have one of those 2-novels-in-1 books with both novels from the same author. How bad does novel #1 have to be to make you not want to expend enough energy to read novel #2?

Perfect example: Leslie Whitten's _The Fangs of the Morning._ Though it weighs in at only 135 pages, the book is hysterically overwritten. Adjectives are piled onto metaphors are adverbially linked to... you get the idea. I'd provide an example if I hadn't already blocked the whole thing from my mind.

But if you look past the writing, is there a worthwhile plot? A story? Characters? No, no, and no. Whitten sets the story up as if said fangs will be attached to something other than a vampire, but then, whoa, guess what the villain is? The characters are too flimsy to be called cardboard and hit every possible stereotype in the book, expressing feelings that only the shallowest of readers could possibly think have any backing to them whatsoever. Predictable from beginning to painful end. Gets half a star simply because, for some strange reason, I did finish the stupid thing.