Review: NYV: PUNK by K.D. McQuain

Published September 2015

NYV: PUNK is an original coming of age story of adventure, music, romance and bloodthirsty horror set in the harsh 1980s New York Punk scene.

For fifteen year old Christian, living in rural isolation with only his mother for company was as boring and bleak a life as he could imagine. Nothing ever happened and the most exciting thing to look forward to were monthly visits from the nice old lady who took his mother shopping in town. After being subjected to a bizarre and humiliating birthday ceremony, Christian decides to leave home to think things through. And when the opportunity for adventure presents itself, he jumps at the chance.

But being on his own is more terrifying than he ever dreamed. Barely surviving a brutal attack, Christian finds himself being hunted across the country by an ancient bloodthirsty evil, putting himself and those he cares for in mortal peril. He must learn to navigate the hazards of the tough Punk music scene if he is going to survive on the gritty streets of New York City long enough to discover his destiny.

Can he survive on his own? Will he find the life he hoped for? And what the hell does OMFUG mean anyway?

I have no idea what to say about this book. I have so many questions. This book made me question everything but in a good way.
I liked how this book was written, the writing style was really good, but at times it was vague and I couldn’t really grasp what was going on. The prologue has a header saying it’s taking place in Mexico City, 1984 but chapter one doesn’t say anything about what year it is or the location. It was little things like that messed me up.
I did start this book thinking it was YA but some scenes kind of made me wonder what genre NYV: Punk actually is. I think the combination of the main character’s age and the scenes with explicit sex and violence wasn’t the best fit. I didn’t have a problem with the sex and violence but paired with a 15 year old main character, I had a hard time making sense of everything.
The vampire aspect was actually pretty cool. I’m not a big fan of vampires but I really liked K.D. McQuain’s version of them.