I’ve been a huge fan of Christopher Moore for several years, ever since Ray and I were goofing off at the surprisingly gay-friendly outlet of Half-Price Books in the suburb where we live and he discovered a book called The Island of the Sequined Love Nun in the clearance section. (For the record: yes, that was one heck of a run-on sentence, and no, the fact that the bookstore is gay-friendly has very little to do with the rest of what I’m going to say here). After we finished Love Nun, Ray and I culled the aisles at Half-Price Books for other titles and eventually had to graduate upwards and purchase them new at Barnes and Noble (and we don’t do that for just anyone).

Christopher Moore is, to put it mildly, a very sick, twisted individual. But in a good way. His stories generally feature strong-willed female characters (including a former B-movie actress who appears in The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and The Stupidest Angel: a heartwarming tale of Christmas Terror who used to play She-ra kinds of characters and occasionally morphs into believing she actually is said character, metal underwear and all). The strong alpha women are mirrored by laid back, complete loser male characters (see: Charlie Asher, who becomes Death … or something like it … in A Dirty Job) of a variety that Moore eventually comes to refer to as the “beta” male. Beta males have survived over the years, Moore explains, because they were the ones left to console the women of the alpha males after they all got killed fighting dinosaurs or waging crusades.

The New York Times rather liked You Suck, Moore’s latest book, a sequel to 1995′s Bloodsucking Fiends. On the other hand, the Times didn’t seem to care for A Dirty Job, last year’s new release, a book I actually enjoyed quite a bit (it probably helped a bit that I listened to A Dirty Job as an audiobook, read by Fisher Stevens, who sounds like he’s trying not to laugh hysterically throughout).

I tend to take issues with sequels, especially ones that start minutes after the first book ends. We seem to have misplaced our copy of Bloodsucking Fiends, and I got a little irritated with the fact that I didn’t know who half the characters were, and that they seemed to be referencing events from the previous book without much explanation. It’s a bit like walking in on a conversation between old friends who are referencing things that happened before you met either one of them. The story took a little while to progress beyond that point, but did eventually get there.

You Suck is the story of C. Thomas Flood, who wakes up on the very first page to discover that his girlfriend, Jody, has turned him into a vampire. He’s not particularly happy about this new development, but he’s head over heels in love with Jody so he’s willing to give it a try. In Moore’s world, vampires automatically go unconscious at sunrise, so the pair needs a minion (“What are we going to do with an onion?”), which they eventually find in Abby Normal, a disaffected high-school aged goth princess (and friend of a supporting character in A Dirty Job, who makes a cameo).

An aside: Abby and her similarly disaffected gothed out gay boy pal Jared remind me more than a little of the Saturday Night Live sketch “Goth Talk,” which featured Molly Shannon and Chris Kattan.

For me, Abby was the funniest part of the book as several chapters are lifted directly from her journal, written in teenage girl (I’m all: “What?” and he’s all: “Get over here,” and I’m all … you get the picture), and frequently referencing her “Nosferatitude.”

On the villainous side of the story is the old vampire Elijah – a character from the last book whose role in all of this I don’t remember (he’s the one who sired Jody, but that’s about as far as I can recall). There’s a subplot involving half a million dollars in cash stolen from Elijah after his yacht was destroyed — man, I need to find that book! — Tommy’s former coworkers from the Marina Safeway and their newly acquired blue hooker, which allows for the inevitable setup, “Haven’t you always wanted to bone a smurf?”

There’s also a shaved cat in a red sweater, but I won’t go there. It’s funnier to read it for yourself.

As I said, I really like Chris Moore, and I really wanted to love this book. It’s a pleasant enough read, and I was giggling aloud at bits (Abby: “I, like the toaster, control the darkness”), but I was lost through a good chunk of it — especially the end when … well, I won’t give it away, but I am aware that I missed the significance of certain events that literally materialize from the fog.

If you’re new to Chris Moore, may I heartily recommend that you begin with one of his other books. Perhaps Bloodsucking Fiends, after which you’ll be all caught up and ready to read this one. And then maybe you can shoot me an e-mail and let me know what I’m not getting?