Mercedes Thompson in Blood Bound

May 16, 2010 9:31 AM

This question contains spoilers for the second Mercedes Thompson novel "Blood Bound" by author Patricia Briggs.

If "ghosts avoid evil" as Darryl told Mercy, and vampires are evil, how com the ghosts hang around the menagerie where they were killed and their murderer (the vampire that ate them) sleeps during the day?

Are vampires automatically not emitting evil vibes when they're in statis?

posted by ayc200 to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

That may be part of their torment.

Remember, in just about every culture's lore, ghosts are bound to something. Traditionally, this is a place, but can be a person, object, or local situation. And ghosts are not supposed to be happy.

So, being bound to an area, yet eternally uncomfortable in it, like a dog chained to siren, sounds like a classic miserable ghost scenario.

Your explanation could work, too. I think that series relies more heavily on the "vampires are more or less corpses during the day" schtick, so your hypothesis is plausible.
posted by adipocere at 11:21 AM on May 16, 2010

Ghosts in that series are definitely bound to places (died peacefully = walking along the same route and going through routines, died violently = staying where they died). Also from what I remember avoiding evil translated to, say, staying out of the same room as evil. Or "hiding from evil", more or less, rather than literally moving away.
posted by anaelith at 12:27 PM on May 16, 2010