Lost Souls (1992) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Ghost: As lead vocalist Ghost fronts the novel's title band Lost Souls? along with his best friend Steve. In contrast to the raucous and outspoken Steve Ghost is quiet and mystic. Raised s by his herbalist grandmother, Miz Deliverance, Ghost possesses supernatural abilities which allow him to sense the thoughts and feelings of others and to see visions. He is kind and compassionate almost to a fault.
• Steve Finn: Add a description of this character.
• Nothing (aka Jason)
• Christian
• Molochai
• Twig
• Zillah
• Arkady Raventon
• Wallace Creech
• Ann Bransby-Smith
• Laine
• Ashley
• Terry
• Simon
• Eliot
• Catlin
• Julie
• R.J.
• Jack
• Charlie
• Jessy
• Lamm
• David
• Richelle
• Miles
• Robert
• Chrissy
• Miz Deliverance: Ghost's grandmother.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Steve put his hand on Ghost's head, smoothed back wisps of hair flickering from closed flickering eyes. He wondered what was unfolding beneath his hand, beneath the thin bone, inside the orb that cradled Ghost's weird brain. Who was born and murdered and resurrected inside that skull? What walked behind Ghost's eyelids, what lithe secret phantoms tapped Ghost's shoulder and made him whimper deep in his throat?Ghost often dreamed of things that were going to happen, or of things that had already happened that he couldn't possibly know about. These premonitions could come when he was awake too, but the ones that came to him in dreams seemed to be the most potent. More often than not they were also the most cryptic (Brite 16-17).”

  Narrator

• “The visions worried Steve as much as they enchanted him. Ever since they had become friends, Steve had thought of himself as Ghost's protector because he was a year older and because so often Ghost seemed to hover precariously on the edge of reality. Ghost lived with on foot in Steve's world of beer and guitars and friends, the other in the pale never-never land of his visions. Reality was often too much for Ghost; it could puzzle and hurt him.Sometimes it seemed that Ghost consented to live in the world only because Steve was there, and Ghost would not leave Steve alone (Brite 40).”

  Narrator

• “Ghost was so damned important, so valuable. When Ghost was along, ordinary surroundings--a pizza joint, a lonely stretch of highway--became strange, maybe threatening, maybe wild and beautiful. Ghost tinged reality. And Steve consented to let it be tinged and saw things he would never have seen otherwise, things he did not always believe or understand. He credited Ghost with saving his imagination from the death-in-life of adolescence (Brite 41)”

  Narrator

• “More than once he had found himself thinking about death in the middle of the night. Just drive over to Raleigh and score some barbs, then pick up a quart of whiskey on the way home. Take 'em all at once. There's one cocktail that'll never give you a hangover. But he could no more swallow that cocktail than he could have shoved it down Ghost's throat. Their friendship was the only thing keeping him sane right now, and he guessed he owed it more of a debt than that (Brite 40).”

  Narrator

• “Steve looked up into the calmest blue eyes he'd ever seen. No wonder this kid didn't mind insults or pinecones. Set in a face that was far too delicate, framed by wisps of rain-pale hair, those eyes were nevertheless at peace. Steve wondered what it felt like to have eyes like that (Brite 50).”

  Narrator

• “But already there was an easiness between them that surpassed any words they had exchanged. Standing on the path in the sun-dappled September woods staring up at the skinny kid in the tree, the kid he had not known for ten minutes, Steve felt comfortable, as if he could say anything. It was no quite déjà vu; it was not so unsettling, but it was somehow familiar. When he remembered it now, Steve thought it was not so much like meeting a friend as like recognizing one (Brite 51)”

  Narrator

• “I am in terrible pain because your idiot friend surprised me with his baseball bat and my own lover betrayed me for the sake of your worthless songs. So what? I can take pain. It will pass. And if I choose to return and take my pain out of your hide, I will, my pretty seer. Or, if you like, I'll shove my tongue down your throat and corrupt you with my spit. Or, if you prefer, I'll unzip your skin and kiss you with your own heart-blood on my lips. Are you tempted yet?”

  Zillah

• “We're leaving. We're getting in the goddamn T-bird and going home. Ann can get torn apart from inside out if that's what has to happen. If that's what she wants. You're not gonna make yourself into a whore for her. Or for me. Or for anybody. You're too good for that, Ghost. You're too goddamn fine.”

  Steve

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Missing Mile: The small fictional town in North Carolina where Steve and Ghost live on Burnt Church Road in the house Ghost's grandmother, Miz Deliverance, left him when she died.
• New Orleans
• Violin Road: A road on the outskirts of Missing Mile where the poor families live. Also a major setting in Poppy's later novel: Drawing Blood.
• Bourbon Street
• North Carolina
• Paris
• Raleigh
• Corinth
• Virginia
• Chartres

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Language of Fear.

Preceded by American Psycho, and followed by The Course of the Heart.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Poppy Z. Brite (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Bram Stoker Award (Finalist, 1992: First Novel)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3552.R4967 L67 1992
• Dewey: 813/.54 20

Notes for Parents edit see section history

This book is not appropriate for middle school or high school students. It's not a good follow-up for a Twilight fan looking for another vampire story. It has many graphic descriptions of sex (both hetero- and homosexual).

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( B ) › Brite, Poppy Z.
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › Vampires
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers

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