Live Girls is a 1987 erotic vampire novel by Ray Garton.
Davey Owen is having a rough day. His girlfriend just left him, the position he wanted at his dead-end job has been taken by the office douchebag, and he got fired for trying to turn down his boss’s advances. To unwind, he checks out the nearby strip joint, Live Girls, wholly unaware of its sinister secret.
A sequel, Night Life, was published 20 years later.
Tropes in Live Girls and Night Life include:
- The Ageless: The first glimpse of Anya's true nature that Davey gets is when he looks through a scrapbook of articles dating back to the 40s, complete with pictures of her, having not aged a day.
- Arc Words:
- Davey's mother's advice:
Remember, Davey, no matter who you fall in love with, no matter how right it seems, she'll hurt you. That's the way love is.- "You have no spine." Casey says this to Davey, and the phrase reoccurs throughout.
- Asshole Victim: Sort of. Stella Schuman and Chad were certainly unpleasant, but Davey might have gone a little overboard by choosing to snack on them. Played straight with Vincent, Beth's abusive ex-boyfriend, who Davey kills as he was assaulting Beth.
- Badass Longcoat: Anya has a long, black leather trench coat with a fur collar.
- Berserk Button: Chad hates to be called by his real name: Chadwick.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Davey is a genuinely kind-hearted man, even after he's turned into a vampire. However, he does nearly rape Casey, and murders his former coworker and boss to quench his growing thirst.
- Bittersweet Ending: Live Girls is destroyed, as are most of the vampires within. However, Davey and Casey are now vampires themselves, and will have to spend the rest of eternity with their thirst. Mitigated by Night Life, where they’re married and living peacefully amongst mortals and feeding on blood from a vampire-operated blood bank.
- Body Horror: The vampires that drink blood from the wrong victims mutate into horrible abominations with any number of deformities, such as webbed hands, tentacles, or wings.
- Breaking and Bloodsucking: Davey does this a couple times, first with Ms. Schuman, then with Vincent.
- Camp Gay: Ethan Collier's dialogue gives off a flirtatious, effeminate vibe.
- Chekhov's Gun: Davey’s discovery that ping pong balls filled with bleach are volatile. He uses this lesson to blow up the titular vampire haven.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Martin Burgess, from the point of view of most people who know him. Even then, there is something rather weird about trying to dig up information about real vampires because of an article you saw in a tabloid.
- Demoted to Extra: Just when Anya was being shaped up to be the Big Bad, she takes a backseat when Shideh abducts and turns Casey. She’s presumably killed in the fire that destroyed Live Girls.
- Depraved Bisexual: Shideh boasts that she’s slept with kings, though she clearly has a thing for women, too. The sequel reveals that Anya also falls under this.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Roger hires a prostitute to follow him to Shideh. She is drained and fed to the mutant vamps beneath the club.
- Extreme Doormat: Davey’s Fatal Flaw. It’s what drives him to keep going back to Anya, despite his reluctance.
- Fan Disservice: Despite the highly descriptive and nearly pornographic nature of the sex scenes, they're still highly disturbing, given that they often involve vampires.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Davey and Casey become this by the end. Night Life reveals that there's a whole community of vampires like this who resist feeding on humans, and in fact, try to reinforce their humanity through acts of kindness and charity.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Downplayed. The scene where Shideh seduces Casey is drawn out, and is definitely on the erotic side, but between her Nightmare Face and the fact that she pretty much raped Casey, it’s rather disturbing.
- Groin Attack: Take a wild guess where the vampires at Live Girls bite their customers.
- The Heavy: While Shideh ends up taking the role of the Big Bad, Anya is featured more heavily through most of the story.
- It's Personal: Walter Benedek lost his sister and his daughter-in-law to a vampiric Vernon Macy, leading him to plan on bringing the existence of vampires to the world. Later it becomes even more personal, when a vampire kidnaps his wife.
- Mistaken for Gay: Chad thinks that Davey is a "homo" when the latter attacks him in the bathroom.
- Mood Dissonance: Davey trying to drink Casey's period blood while Mr. Rogers is on TV in the background.Davey: Can you men-stru-ation? I knew you could.
- Narcissist: When he's not kissing ass, Chad has his head so far up his own, and fails to comprehend that women aren't all that attracted to him.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Subverted. The word "vampire" is actually used about 200 pages in.
- N-Word Privileges: Benedek jestingly calls Collier an "aging faggot". Collier takes it quite well, as the two seem to go back.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They have most of the classic abilities, such as flight, shapeshifting into bats, super strength and quick healing, are pale, and have fangs and red eyes. Their feedings lead to their victims feeling fatigued, and they turn people with an exchange of blood. Crosses don’t have any effect on them, and sunlight (or any light) apparently only causes discomfort, but garlic is apparently overwhelming to them. Feeding on less healthy blood (such as from AIDS patients and drug addicts) results in irreversible deformations. The sequel reveals that they can eat and drink as humans do, and appear to have fairly normal bodily functions.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Chad. He'd be more detestable if it weren't for the fact that he's so clueless as to why Casey keeps turning down his advances.
- Rated M for Manly: The bare bones philosophy of Penn Publishing. That Davey wrote a story about a blind magician falling in love with a woman got him into a bit of trouble.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Chad believes himself to be God's gift to women, and Casey in particular. But he's never shown to be particularly lucky with the ladies, except his grotesquely obese boss, who he slept with for a promotion.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Shideh transforms into a snake in one scene.
- Statuesque Stunner: Anya is tall, and quite beautiful.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Oooooh yes. It comes naturally with them residing in a strip club, after all. In fact, it’s their primary means of feeding and turning. However, a horde of deformed vamps live beneath the club, and Shideh occasionally throws victims to them.
- Vampires Own Night Clubs: Night clubs and strip clubs, actually.
- Villain Has a Point: Anya is absolutely right that Davey's meek nature kept him going back to her.
