Vampire Loves is not so much a novel-length story as a series of vignettes. Ferdinand is a relatively ineffectual vampire, preferring to bite his victims with only one fang in an attempt to disguise the vampiric nature of the attack and make them think it was an insect instead.
But while using the reader’s knowledge of the mythical vampire elements as a route into easy comedy, it’s almost an aside to the main thrust of the book. So we also follow Ferdinand through his search for a girlfriend, a gently comic-tragedy, which sees him fail to start or hold down a series of relationships with ghosts, tree spirits, monsters and even the odd human. Sometimes the fault lies with Ferdinand, sometimes the ladies he’s aiming for, and sometimes plain old fate gets in the way.
It’s gentle stuff, eliciting chuckles and empathy. The art has a cartoonish feel that masks the sophistication of the narrative, though its loose collection of themed stories disappoints a little at the end when there’s nothing more than the main character to tie them together.