Vampire stories were some of my first reading loves, and I still have a soft spot for them today. Which is why I can never turn down a new anthology of vampire tales—especially when it includes some of my favorite authors! An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales, edited by Cliff Biggers and Charles R. Rutledge, came out back in 2021 and I’ve been sitting on it for a while, waiting for the right moment to sink my teeth in. I’m quite happy it turned out to be my first finished read of 2023, as it makes a great start to my reading year.
An Unholy Thirst is exactly what it advertises on the cover: a fairly straightforward anthology of vampire short stories by fifteen different authors. Editors Cliff Biggers and Charles R. Rutledge start off the book with a very brief introduction in which they discuss “the vampire’s undying appeal” and establish their goal of encouraging each writer in the anthology to “bring something new to the vampire mythos.” Overall, I would say that the collection succeeds in this. Though a couple of the stories tried to retread old ground and fell flat for me, the rest involve creative and varied reinterpretations of a well-worn genre. Several authors in the collection were familiar—including two long-time favorites of the blog Leanna Renee Hieber and Amanda DeWees, while others were brand new to me. Many of the stories involved recurring characters from the authors’ other works, while some stand completely on their own. A disproportionate number of the stories feature professional vampire- or monster-hunters as the protagonist, but each author manages to build out a unique world around this common premise. Other stories go in a different direction entirely, interpreting the term “vampire” as loosely as possible. No matter what kind of vampire stories you like, you’re sure to find something in this collection that strikes your fancy.
I was particularly impressed by the variety of settings featured in this collection—and not just different physical locations, but different time periods, as well. I was quite surprised to see Leanna Renee Hieber leave her beloved Victorian era behind for a near-future ravaged by plague and extreme class divisions in “A Woman’s Work.” The story has a rather steampunk vibe, as Gilded Age aesthetics mingle with the armor and respirators required to survive in this deadly future. The story incorporates clever allusions to Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” as a professional Mourner keeps vigil to see if a beloved member of the aristocracy will rise from the dead. Paul R. McNamee’s “The Wreck of the Black Swan” takes place aboard a ghost ship off the coast of Massachusetts in post-Revolutionary America. When a group of men volunteer to investigate the abandoned vessel, they encounter a soucouyant—a shape-shifting bloodsucker from Caribbean folklore—rather than a traditional European vampire. Then there’s “The Dead of Alsace” by John Linwood Grant, in which the Germans manage to weaponize a vampire alongside chlorine gas in the trench warfare of World War I.
My absolute favorite story in the collection was also the one with the most positive and sympathetic depiction of a vampire: Amanda DeWees’s “Wings of Velvet, Eyes of Stone.” This one is a sweet, melancholy story of both romantic and familial love. Set in the vague, fairytale-like past of “once, long ago,” the story centers two sisters, one of whom was blinded by an illness and consequently treated as an outcast by the villagers. She finds solace in a mysterious, winged vampire who helps her to travel and “see” the world in a way she would otherwise never be able to. The other sister, though frightened by the vampire’s monstrous appearance, overcomes her aversion in order to prioritize her sister’s happiness.
Lastly, I want to give a quick shoutout to two of the stories in this collection with the most unique and creative interpretation of vampires. Lee Murray’s “Nightshift” is told from the point of view of a being who feeds on nightmares and finds plenty of prey by posing as a worker at an eldercare facility. And “A Town Called Turtle Rock” by Cat Scully features a hidden town populated by the dead, where unwary travelers along the Tuskegee River may accidentally wash up.
If you, like me, are constantly in need of new vampire stories to imbibe, this anthology will slake your thirst. An Unholy Thirst is published by a small indie press, so you may need to request it at your favorite local retailer if it isn’t in stock. Otherwise, it is available as both a paperback and an ebook from Amazon. If you’ve read it, be sure to let me know which story was your favorite in the comments!