A People's History of the Vampire Uprising

 A People's History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal, 432 pages.

A young woman dies of a mysterious disease in a small town in Arizona. Later, she walks back out again. This disease "re-creates" people stronger, faster, slower aging, and with a taste for human blood. Soon, with some clever social maneuvering, these vampires (who prefer to be called gloamings) come to make the disease not only accepted but sought-after, even with its high mortality rate. This fictional oral history follows doctors, FBI agents, priests, and many others for a complete look at the gloamings in America.

This is a book with a whole lot of really cool ideas, which unfortunately often go nowhere. Many plot points are picked up and then never resolved, and the whole novel feels like it lacks a through-line to make it work as a book. There are two chapters that imply that nuclear weapons were launched in relation to vampires, but we're never told what actually happened, nor is it ever mentioned again after those two short interludes about 2/3 of the way through the book. This book has some interesting world-building material to chew on, especially for people interested in vampires, but I'm not sure I can recommend it as a cohesive novel.