Thirsty by M. T. Andersom

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Thirsty
by M. T. Andersom

One of the books I read this week was M. T. Anderson’s Thirsty. Having read his Octavian Nothing novels and Feed, I was interested in seeing what twist Anderson would bring to the supernatural thriller, and I was not disappointed.  Thirsty tells the story of Christopher, a freshman living in Clayton, where each spring the town performs rituals to preserve the binding that keep Tch’muchgar, the Vampire Lord, in perpetual prison on another plane of existence. Christopher has begun to suspect that he may be turning into a vampire himself.  As luck would have it, he is contacted by an otherworldly agent, who goes by the name of Chet and who offers Chris a chance to help the Forces of Light be finally rid of Tch’muchgar and a chance to reverse his vampirism as a reward for service.  As Chris’s thirst grows, he slowly loses his ties to his two best friends, Tom and Jerk, his family, and all the things that make him human.  He agrees to help Chet on the hopes that he can somehow go back to the way things were.  But not everything is as it appears.  The creature Chris thought was a demon on Tch’muchgar’s side might in fact have been a fifth-dimensional guardian of light, and Chet might not be what he claims to be. Chet claims that he’s playing the vampires in order to help smuggle the Arm of Moriator onto Tch’muchgar’s dimension, so that when the warlocks that are helping the vampires disrupt the ceremony of binding attempt to free Tch’muchgar, he will then be unable to free himself. Chris blindly follows along, hoping to find a cure for his ever-growing thirst.  It’s only after he has followed Chet’s instructions that he starts to question whether he has helped the Forces of Light or the Forces of Darkness. As the fateful night of the Sad Festival of Vampires arrives, everything comes to a head.  Chris attempts to disrupt the vampire church’s plans, but he only witnesses how he was played by Chet. It appears that Tch’muchgar was attempting to escape his imprisonment and embrace death, rather than continue to be a captive for eternity. Chet was only using the vampires to further his own agenda and had no plans of ever curing Chris.  Chris, totally defeated and wondering why he was selected to play a part in this greater scheme, gets his answer from Chet ,“Why did I choose you, Christopher? Because you threw the Forces of Light off my trail…They thought that because you were a child, you were innocent, working for them. It took them months to figure out the truth. And by the time they did, you were marked as mine; there was nothing they could do… But do you know the other reason I chose you, Christopher? Because I knew you were an incompetent: self-pitying; self-absorbed; self-centered. The perfect teen. I know you wouldn’t ask the right questions at the right time” (p. 224). The book ends with Tch’muchgar released from his prison and destroyed, Chet (or whatever he really was named) payed in unlimited power, and Chris slowly facing the ever-mounting knowledge that he’ll either succumb to his thirst and slay his family first or be staked as the inhuman creature he has become.

Anderson doesn’t provide a happy ending. I thought this was an interesting take on the vampire mythos, and Anderson explains on the blurb in the book jacket, “I grew up in a suburb much like Chris’s. It seemed to me that there were always a lot of kids struggling with the isolation of wanting to do the right thing when there was no right thing to do”. Anderson’s novel is full of black humor and provides a satirical take on the typical vampire tropes, but ultimately provides a chilling conclusion. I especially love a quote right as Chris faces his bleak prospects, where he writes, “And I realize that the decision to be human is not one single instant, but is a thousand choices made every day. It is choices we make every second and requires constant vigilance. We have to fight to remain human.” Chris must pay for the bad choices he has made along the way, and has given up the right to continue the struggle to be human. His actions, despite their good intentions, have brought him to his monstrous end. I really loved the sucker-punch ending, and I think this book would have tremendous appeal to teens, for whom the struggle to become the person they think they want to be doesn’t always come easily. Anderson perfectly captures the feelings of being trapped by forces beyond your control and betrayed by your body’s hungers and desires.