The Gilda Stories by Jewelle L. Gomez

The Gilda Stories is quite chill for a vampire novel. I really wasn’t expecting anything in particular, but the lack of vampire politics was actually quite refreshing. Most of the vampire books I’ve read have some form of ridiculous political stuff going on. The Gilda Stories is definitely not a book with that kind of bent. The vampirism mostly just serves to give Gilda a long life with which to explore said life.

I’m not really in a good headspace to go deeper into meaning and such. I believe the foreword and afterword do that well enough. I’m not even sure I really even “get” everything The Gilda Stories lays down. I found Gilda herself rather flat, actually. The side characters are more vivid in my head.

I liked The Gilda Stories well enough. Might revisit in the future to see if it hits differently. Hopefully those last few chapters don’t hit like a freight train… if you know, you know.