Black Ambrosia

Paperbacks from Hell

By: Elizabeth Engstrom

Narrated by: Karly Hutchins

Angelina is a killer. You'd never know it to look at her — until you look into her eyes.

Angelina doesn't kill out of hatred or fear — she kills out of love, bringing solace to her victims, guided by the seductive Voice that speaks only to her.

Angelina offers you eternal peace — at the cost of your soul!

©1988, 2020 Elizabeth Engstrom (P)2020 Valancourt Books LLC

Outstanding author

I’m so glad I’ve found EE. I’m going to be reading a lot more of her work, and looking into her lectures on creative writing. I’ve been a lifelong vampire fan and this is easily one of the best novels I’ve ever encountered. It reads a bit like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night watches. I love the traditional vampire elements being reimagined in a way that is classic without being cheesy. (The cane really works beautifully, for example.) And you can’t get much more compelling than this awesome vampire character.

Best vampire novel I’ve read!

Absolutely wrapping, wickedly well written vampire story! Poetic and disturbing. Loved being in the head of the monster.

If you love Vampires...

I really enjoyed this dark story about Angelina’s “thirsty” journey. Elizabeth Engstrom is a great story teller with her fantastic writing skills describing all the characters, their actions, and their thoughts, with Karly Hutchins so eloquently taking it to the next level and bringing them to life with her amazing voice. All around a great listen, story, narration and sound quality, and I highly recommend it to all the “night people” out there that love their vampires.

An unnerving tale of vampirism

Elizabeth Engstrom's BLACK AMBROSIA follows Angelina's descent into darkness as she decides that she's had enough of the world around her and feeling weak so decides to become a vampire. Engstrom's prose is almost romantic as she describes Angelina's journey, and what ends she'll go to to achieve her goals. At turns both perverse, depraved, and beautiful, Engstrom does not shy from the darkness found in humanity.

Karly Hutchins narration is clear and understandable and perfectly captures Angelina's detached emotions. My only drawback for the audiobook are the chapter ending interviews. As Angelina makes her way across the country, characters give interviews of their impression of the young girl at the end of each chapter, and sometimes there is no break between the chapter and the interview, making it sound like it's part of the continuing story. I found this confusing at times. Had there been a slight pause before these interviews, or if they had even been narrated by someone different, I think these breaks would have been much more clear. Overall, however, it doesn't detract from the story's telling.

I would like to thank Valancourt Books for providing a free audio download of BLACK AMBROSIA in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Nice creepy vampire read

I really enjoyed this book- it had the spare, low key feel of a Romero movie and reminded me a lot of Martin meets Saloms Lot toward the end. The audiobook is bare bones but well narrated.