Although the idea is interesting, I found the development and writing style erratic, the pacing slow and heavy, and I lost interest in a short time. Two stars for good ideas (although questionable application) and one for the narration, which I found slower than it should be.

2.5 stars

I didn’t enjoy this book much. It features violence, lots of sexual assault, & imo hyper-sexualizes an underage girl (the MC) in an uncomfortable way. The story has some interesting subplots, but overall is not well constructed.

[What I liked:]

•The setting is rather interesting. It’s like a Western in a post-apocalyptic landscape, but with monsters & vampires running around. Pretty unique, at least as far as my reading experiences go.

•The way the MC’s manage to out maneuver some of their enemies is clever (though at other times, the way they get out of scrapes is improbable).

[What I didn’t like as much:]

•It’s very disturbing how heavily this story relies on sexual assault for plot/cheap drama. About every other chapter the MC, a 17-year-old girl, is almost r*ped, including one threatened/attempted gang r*pe. Why is this necessary?? It didn’t add anything to the story.

•Besides being stalked and assaulted by the count, Greco, & a band of outlaws, the MC spends the whole book dreading/anticipating paying her vampire hunter for his services with her body. It doesn’t matter that she’s attracted to him; she’s still underage, it still has shades of non-con to it, & I found it a creepy thing to emphasize.

•The writing style is not very fluid, & the scene progression tends to be choppy. It’s easy to tell this is a novelization of a graphic novel.

•The character development is lacking. The MC is a fierce, hyper-sexualized teen girl. D is *mysterious* & we only eventually learn a bit of his backstory. The villains are extremely villainous. That’s about the extent of the character work.

•The plot is pretty episodic, & therefore doesn’t hang together as well as it could if the subplots were more integrated with the main storyline.

CW: sexual assault, physical assault, murder, sexism

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I read this book 15 years ago or so when I was a teenager and I remembering that I really liked it. It is weird and fun. I am not usually into these types of books but I loved this one. I was excited to see that it was on audiobook and I really enjoyed the narrator.

This was a blast from the past and was good and very enjoyable. The narrator was good and I already want more.

Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi (Translated by Kevin Leahy)
🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5

This was so freakin’ fun! I remember this story from way back when…maybe the cartoon, I‘m not really sure. Either way, I remember it enough that when Netgalley had this audiobook, I just had to request it. I was NOT disappointed. Not at all.

I need MORE of this book.
More Doris.
More D.
Hell, I even want more of the death finger plants.
What a fun book! Incredibly well-written, timeless, funny, and memorable. I'm amazed how well it apparently translates from Japanese. I didn't feel like there were many holes if any. Not that I speak Japanese...but whatever.
I have questions...maybe the graphic novel will gimme some answers. Note to self: look for graphic novel.
Either way, 5 stars.

What a book ! It was so entertaining ! Vampire Hunter D was one of my best memories of early 2000 for anime with mature content, and I was really glad to find out there were books and all. The audio is fantastic with great acting, and the story, despite being nearly 40 years old, aged pretty well for the topic - with the default of male writing female protagonists but once again, 80"s. I enjoyed it !

I was trying very hard to get into this. I just prefer gn to this though something was lost. I see the merit though for this with different reading needs this could be such a boon

It is rare that I am unable to finish a book. However, I cannot continue listening to Vampire Hunter D because I find that none of the characters are endearing at all. I love scary vampires. Vampires and werewolves are my absolute favorite things to read about and unfortunately, I was not familiar with the Vampire Hunter D., anime. In fact, I have never read an anime novel or watched them on television.

I am well over the 50% mark, but I feel like there was too much dialogue and honestly, I felt so confused while listening to this. There was so much going on but then at the same time, there wasn't much going on. Maybe I should have read the book instead of listening to it on audio. I am so sorry to say, but I simply have to DNF this audiobook.

🧛‍♂️I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this audiobook provided in exchange for an honest review!🧛‍♂️
I struggled a lot with this book, and I don't want to stretch it even more so let's get to it, full honesty on:

The good: the lore is really interesting - a dystopic future where humanity doomed itself through nuclear war and ended up "rescued" from extinction by ancient vampires rising from the shadows to take the power, which eventually starts to dwindle as humans rebel. Great setting for so many stories! And the plot itself is not that bad, although it's a bit too reliant on a damsel in distress situation. Paul Boehmer's narration is also great!

The bad: oh boy, where to start. I'll make a list.
- There is a grand total of three female characters, one of them being a monster. All of them want to f*ck D. Likewise, most of the male characters (except D? debatable) lust over Doris. Their depth of character is "being an idiot and wanting to f*ck Doris" or "being evil and wanting to f*ck Doris".
- There is some unnecessary sexual violence. I'm not against it being in stories per se, but it adds nothing to the plot except to assert that Doris is so hot you guys! and everyone wants her! and they will do ANYTHING to get her!
- There are a lot of "ackshually" moments - convoluted descriptions involving super special secret technology to justify small plot holes. I.e.: a child is kidnapped but nobody heard a scream - well ACKSHUALLY he was gagged with a super special gag made with super special science that stops any sound! We never hear about it before and won't hear about it ever again.
- The narrator talks about Doris' "virgin senses" like some kind of spider-sense and it just grinds my gears. Other more normal albeit supernatural senses have no consistency whatsoever: Count Lee will sense a light breeze a mile away, but miss the bulky idiot in the hallway he's walking through because he kinda slinked into the shadows.

I'm gonna stop here because the list goes on. Overall it reads like a self-insert fanfic, at points too awkward for the narrative to continue being immersive. Made me groan in exasperation a bit too much. I'm clearly not the target audience for this and there is an obvious cultural rift, but still. Needless to say, I will not read the other books in the series.

When I was younger, one of my favorite anime movies was "Vampire Hunter D." I loved the atmosphere of it, and as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I was sort of obsessed with vampires in middle and high school. I was pretty pleased when I came across the audiobook adaptation of "Vampire Hunter D" by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

The story is the classic one of a half-human/ half-vampire offspring hunting full-blooded vampires. D comes to the rescue of Doris and her brother after Doris is attacked by the local vampire, Count Lee (yes, pretty certain this is a nod to Christopher Lee and his role in early Dracula films). Lee decides to take Doris for his wife, against the wishes of his daughter who believes the human will pollute their noble line. Meanwhile, Doris must also fight off the suitor from town who is in love with her and another set of hunters and their leader, a beautiful fiend named Rei-Ginsei.

A lot of people probably think this started out as a manga, but it is in fact a novel. The film and manga versions came later. And the book, being from the early 1980s, is full of tropes that we now see throughout manga and anime, many of which started off in Hammer horror films (as shared in the afterword) and science fiction films of the seventies and eighties. The mash-up of horror and decaying technology is what I really love about this world. It was so new and interesting at the time. This is a classic, and in many ways, it stands the test of time.

The narrator, Paul Boehmer, did a fine job, though I did sometimes cringe at his voice for Doris. This is a common pet peeve of mine, however: male narrators doing female voices. I admit that it is something I almost always find a weakness with. In general, his well-paced narration gave all the tension necessary to the action.

This audiobook is a great way to revisit the classic "Vampire Hunter D" by Hideyuki Kikuchi. I would definitely recommend it to fans of science fiction, horror, and fantasy.

This was quite a bit confusing. Which had also to do with the names that I couldn't keep straight at the beginning. I very much enjoyed the twist at the end.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* 3.5, not really my cup of tea tbh pretty? scifi? for me i guess, wasn't bad and was creepy but wouldn't read again

A week ago I had no idea there was an animation already so far ahead of its time made in the year I was born. Skip alot of years later and this sounds like the narration of that film. I enjoyed if quite a lot.

CWs: Violence, blood, death of a parent, sexual harassment

Vampire Hunter D is a property I've been interested in getting into for YEARS

I think my downfall with this book was listening to it on audiobook. It meant I couldn't see the illustrations which I think would probably have made the reading experience much better.

I thought the story was fascinating and I really enjoyed the characters. The worldbuilding was really unique and interesting as well.

I think this is a case of 'I'd rather watch the anime' so I'm gonna go do that instead

I received this as an audible book, and approached it blind insofar as I've never heard of VHD before.

I found this quite an inventive take on vampires, it was fun but quite simple with no particular character building. I did like Doris, our female protagonist - she's spunky - but I found her brother annoying (though this may well have been linked to the voice given by the narrator). I'd have liked to learn more about D though I understand there are other books which may build on this.

If you love Vampire Hunter D you'll love its audiobook too. It's a fun new way to enjoy this brilliant classic manga.

* Thank you for the ARC

The plot follows a young woman named Doris who hires a Vampire Hunter named D to kill the vampire that bit her.
There are a lot of elements in this plot. You have Doris relying on D to fight and defeat Count Magnus Lee, the vampire that attacked Doris. The Count aims to turn Doris into a vampire so he can have her as his wife. The Count’s daughter is trying to prevent this union. There is a lot more in this story that will take me forever to type but it is pretty good.
The book does deserve praise. Despite that Kikuchi writes kinda flowery. The characters are well-written and the setting is well developed.

My issue and the reason why It is 4 stars is because of the audiobook. I spent 4 years being an audio editor and learning how to clean them up to make them sound smooth.

Let me explain, humans, make a lot of sounds with their mouths that they might not know that they are doing. These sounds can be ticks, sighs, teeth sounds, the pronunciation of letters that are drawn out, lisps that affect how one may pronounce letters, etc. In this audiobook, the S sound is very strong. For me, it is hard to miss because that should have been cut down or noted by the editors for removal. What I mean by noted is sometimes, you need permission before you can cut something out/down in the audiobooks.
Anyway, that strong sound of S is hard to miss in the first chapter. It does get better as the story progresses but for me, it's annoying my audio editor side due to how strong it is compared to all the other words and letters within this story. There are also breath sounds within this audio that should have been cleaned up but overall pretty good book. I enjoyed it.

This is one of my favorite anime movies. The character D is one of my favorite characters of all times. Such a mysterious character with such a large backstory. When I saw NetGalley had the audiobook I had to snag it.

"Transient guests are we."

If you have watched the anime movie you will be familiar with the story. It is very similar in the basics. There are differences from the movie to the text. This story explains so much more than the anime film can. It has a rich backstory and dimension to some of the characters only touched upon in the film. I enjoyed those extra details.

As for the narration. The narration is done by Paul Boehmer. He isn't new to the audio world but it's the first time for me to listen to him. At first I wasn't sure of his narration but as I listened more. He does a good job in setting the mood with his voice. I was able to tell the characters apart and never was lost in the story. I actually could wait for more. It can be such a bummer when a narrator is boring but this reading wasn't boring or monotone. I would give him 4 our of 5 stars.

The audio recording from Tantor Audio is available Feb. 15, 2022.

The book starts with a passing vampire hunter named D being hired by a young woman named Doris who has been bitten by the vampire lord of her region. If the vampire isn’t slain she is either going to be killed, turned into a vampire herself, or run out of town. Meanwhile she faces the unwanted advances of the son of the town she lives near. Will D be able to protect her from this young man, the vampire, and yet another mysterious man that has blown into town or will the story end in tragedy.

I’ve been meaning to read this book for quite some time so when I saw the audiobook version on NetGalley I jumped on it. I have a soft spot for vampire novels and this sounded right up my alley.

Overall I really do like the story. It’s full of action right from the very beginning with very few slow spots. Even those are well used in showing the history of the characters and their relationships. The action is very well described (except for one case where a fight took place entirely off screen, which I’m still made about tbh). The book is very fast paced and can be a quick read. Doris is the daughter of a werewolf hunter so she’s far from a helpless damsel in distress and can hold her own in a fight. And the world is very well brought to life. Even though there is a bit of an info dump it’s well done in my opinion. You get so much information about the world that the characters live in and how they live they’re lives that you feel like you’re in the story.

My main problem with this is the massive amounts of sexism misogyny. The entire plot is based on threatened sexual violence against the main character and it’s very off putting. The vampire lord wants to make the main character his wife against his will and is repeatedly violating her to either drink her blood or try to. The mayors son wants to marry her whether or not she consents to that. It seems like every other male character wants to rape her. Making her a badass doesn’t make up for all of this. The way she’s described is also very off putting. She’s technically a minor but she’s described in very overly sexual ways and it’s very uncomfortable.

If you can get past that content it overall is a good book. Because of the content mentioned above and the massive amounts of violence, blood, and gore I do not recommend this for a younger audience. Recommend for fans of horror books/manga and for fans of vampire related media.

Vampire Hunter D has been around for DECADES. Times have changed.

I really enjoyed this book!!

It’s 12091 and vampires known as the Nobility have ruled the land for quite awhile, humans are just getting their foothold back. This is gripping sci-fi/horror.

Bitten by a vampire a young girl named Doris seeks a vampire hunter to kill the one who bit her (and that dirty old vampire deserves it). She finds D, an equally young dhampire. It’s just her & her younger brother on their homestead. Her community has different ideas including but not limited to marrying her off to the town bully.

The relationship between this spunky young lady, her brother and the semi-immortal D grows. It’s a little predictable due to the tropes but I loved it! I see there’s more books, I look forward to listening to them also!