Winner of the Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy and Best Horror Novel
With brilliantly evocative, hypnotic prose, Trent Jamieson crafts a coming-of-age, elevated horror story about a headstrong boy—and the monstrous vampire who taught him to be a man.
The Masters, dreadful and severe, rule the Red City and the lands far beyond it. By night, they politic and feast, drinking from townsfolk resigned to their fates. By day, the Masters must rely on their human servants, their Day Boys, to fulfill their every need and carry out their will.
Mark is a Day Boy, practically raised by his Master, Dain. It’s grueling, often dangerous work, but Mark neither knows nor wants any other life. And, if a Day Boy proves himself worthy, the nightmarish, all-seeing Council of Teeth may choose to offer him a rare gift: the opportunity to forsake his humanity for monstrous power and near-immortality, like the Masters transformed before him.
But in the crackling heat of the Red City, widespread discontent among his fellow humans threatens to fracture Mark's allegiances. As manhood draws near, so too does the end of Mark's tenure as a Day Boy, and he cannot stay suspended between the worlds of man and Master for much longer.
“Poetic and meditative—at times frightening, visceral and bloody—this is a dark journey worth making.” —Aurealis
Praise for Day Boy:
Winner, Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel AND Best Horror Novel, 2015
Shortlisted, Ditmar Award for Best Novel, 2016
Shortlisted, Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award, 2016
Longlisted, International DUBLIN Literary Award, Ireland, 2017
“This book dances to the beat of its own drum. It comes waltzing into your life and leaves footprints on your heart…A one of a kind story you’d be foolish to miss.” —Marianne de Pierres’ Escape Club
“Thankfully, gratefully, delightedly Trent Jamieson has been able to summon up a vampire novel without relying on the now apologetic modern day Vampire norms…. The world that has been created is highly expressive in its imagery... a quintessential Australian piece of literature, which draws the reader in a withered and fading outback of a ‘to be’ Australia, mixing in refined fantasy fiction masterfully.” —Fantasy Book Review, 9 out of 10 rating
‘In Day Boy, Jamieson has kept all of the central facets of vampire mythology while fashioning something new and often riveting. Poetic and meditative—at times frightening, visceral and bloody—this is a dark journey worth making.’ —Aurealis
