Fiction Reviews
Thirsty
(2025) Lucy Lehane, Bramble, £9.99, pbk, 323pp, ISBN 978-1-035-07739-7
Lucy Lehane’s Thirsty is an – ahem - low-stakes take on urban fantasy and human/vampire romance.
As a struggling online advice columnist, Charlie is running low on both inspiration and cash. It’s not just the pressure of being paid by the view that’s bringing him down: it’s all the questions about dating supernatural beings that he has no idea how to answer.
Five years ago, a whole community of vampires, werewolves, witches and things that go bump in the night came out to humanity. Their aim was to live peacefully among us instead of lurking in the shadows. But – in a turn of events that will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Twilight or My Alpha Shifter Adonis Harem, Homo sapiens eagerly swiped right on the whole lot of them.
Charlie hasn’t dated outside his species though, nor does he know any magical creatures who could give him some much-needed perspective. Things have gotten so bad that he actually left New York to save on rent money, returning to his hometown in Virginia.
However, a chance encounter with a casual acquaintance who turns out to be a 200+ year old vampire could be the answer to his problems. Unusually for his kind, Lorenzo is a pretty civilised guy who drinks animal blood and has long since shed most vampire clichés. Well respected by the local supernatural community, he is well-placed to help, were it not the fact that he still resents Charlie enormously for breaking up his relationship five years ago with some well-intentioned advice.
Despite this, Lorenzo somehow lets himself be fast-talked into answering questions for Charlie’s ‘research project.’ In exchange, Charlie will become his own personal minion, carrying out daylight hours favours and dealing with mortal bureaucracy.
From these unlikely transactional beginnings, a friendship slowly blossoms, fuelled by a growing mutual attraction. Lorenzo becomes Virgil to Charlie’s Dante, introducing him to friendly lycanthropes, druids and witches, not to mention his housemates (a poltergeist, a troll and an anthropomorphic unicorn). Other vampires, on the other hand, are just as awful as Lorenzo describes them.
Charlie, for his part, gets a second wind as an advice columnist, throwing himself wholeheartedly into the monster-dating problems filling up his mailbag. Does his inspiration come just from being immersed in a new scene, or is Lorenzo actually making him happy? And what will happen when will he tells his vampyric boyfriend the truth about his work?
As the pair become physically intimate, might Charlie even want to be bitten?
There is a lot of background in Thirsty for a relatively short novel, as this summary shows. And it is good, vibrant world-building too, with the extracts from Charlie’s inbox and advice column a particularly nice feature.
On this well-constructed stage, Lehane gives us rounded characters in Charlie and Lorenzo; neither of them perfect but undeniably better for being together. The dialogue is good, their actions believable. The supporting cast is extensive but memorable.
However, if I were to offer any constructive criticism of Thirsty, it would mostly be to ask for more. By the end of the book, even if the main plot has been resolved, much is still left hanging: Lorenzo’s lengthy and chequered history; a romantic subplot between secondary characters; a potential antagonist still offstage. In leaving these threads untied, Lehane is in all likelihood doing the set-up for potential sequels. However, while understandable, this did leave this reader wanting more in this instalment.
Similarly, while Thirsty is a smooth ride, and never less than enjoyable, it would have been nice to see it move into a higher gear and do something really interesting with the setting and the story. Instead, it is a book that just cruises.
Being at the cosy end of urban fantasy is no crime, to be sure, but the story could have stood a little more jeopardy too, with the outcome of Charlie and Lorenzo’s romantic adventures never really in any doubt.
Hopefully future instalments will give us more risk, more drama and more plot to build on what Lehane has started here. But as matters stand, Thirsty is still fun, frothy and a jolly good frolic with fangs.
Tim Atkinson
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