Being immortal can be a very painful thing. Alice Ann has known this ever since the day a drifter came calling to her family house in the 1800s. Her parents were brutally slaughtered and she and her sister Hannah Grace woke up changed. A vampire navigating her way through perilous times, Alice Ann’s life consists of guilt, longing, sorrow, murder, and holding on to the last bonds she has.

Scott J. Moses’s Our Own Unique Affliction puts us in the head of a vampire struggling with grief and searching for something more to live for. It may sound like a familiar story, but Moses provides for a cinematic portrayal through the eyes of Alice Ann as one of the most fascinating viewpoint characters yet delivered in a vampire book.

Alice Ann’s tale is a grim one, and Moses wastes little time in romanticizing her. She’s a killer who enjoys hunting, with references to humans as “sheep.” Her only real connections are Hannah Grace and their human confidante Bodachi.

With a life plagued by hallucinations, Alice Ann grows steadily more complex and sympathetic as Moses paints a vivid picture of someone who never chose the life that was forced on her. Her attachment to Hannah Grace is not merely one of sisterly affection but a desperate desire to hold on to something that won’t be torn away from or leave her.

Then things go wrong and Alice Ann is forced to make decisions that will have long-term consequences. When you live forever, each choice must be weighed carefully. Our Own Unique Affliction is a truly terrific vampire book that puts a fantastic spin on well-traveled ground. When life is the ultimate affliction, sometimes the only cure is to keep going forward.