“What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.” Much blood was spilled forming the American West into what it is today, so perhaps it should be no surprise this setting would make such fertile ground for a vampire tale. When I heard that Stephen Graham Jones—who has quickly become one of my favorite horror authors (check out my reviews of The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and I Was a Teenage Slasher)—was coming out with a historical vampire novel, I knew it would be right up my alley. When The Buffalo Hunter Hunter came out last March, I went to a release event at The Strand in New York City and got a signed copy of the special edition with red sprayed edges. I savored the book slowly all through the fall until last week when I got to the point where I had to stay up until 1:00am to see how it would end. Though this is my very first book review of 2026, I can already tell that The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is going to end up on my favorites of the year list. Continue reading Review of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter—Vampires in the Wild West
Tag: vampires
Review of The Bewitching—Witches of Folklore
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches…” Is there a single element of horror fiction that Silvia Moreno-Garcia can’t write? She first hit it big when she blended traditional Gothic tropes with post-colonial mushroom horror in Mexican Gothic. She put a unique, multicultural noir spin on vampires in Certain Dark Things. And she mixed her love of old horror films with cults and curses in Silver Nitrate. And that’s not to mention the books of hers I haven’t gotten to yet, like The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, which reimagines the classic sci-fi horror tale by H. G. Wells. This prolific and multi-talented author tackles witches in her latest novel, The Bewitching, which came out last month. Continue reading Review of The Bewitching—Witches of Folklore
Review of Overgrowth—Vampire Plant People from Outer Space
I, for one, welcome our new alien plant people overlords. If you love alien invasion stories like The Day of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or The War of the Worlds, then you don’t want to miss Overgrowth, the first new novel in several years from Mira Grant, the horror/sci-fi alias of celebrated fantasy author Seanan McGuire. Mira Grant’s terrifying take on carnivorous mermaids, Into the Drowning Deep, is still one of my all-time favorite horror novels. So when Overgrowth came out last month, it went straight to the top of my TBR. Continue reading Review of Overgrowth—Vampire Plant People from Outer Space
Sinners—Vampires and the Jim Crow South
Okay, I think it’s been long enough that nearly everybody who wants to see Ryan Coogler’s new vampire film Sinners has, by now, and I can talk about it here. (Beware, minor spoilers ahead for the film’s overall themes and its depiction of vampires.) If you didn’t catch this spectacular film while it was in theaters, it is now available to stream. I highly recommend all vampire-lovers check it out, as well as any music-lovers—as long as you can handle a bit of gore. Sinners uses an action-packed tale of a fight against vampires in the Jim Crow South to explore questions of identity, agency, and racial equality. Continue reading Sinners—Vampires and the Jim Crow South
#AScareADay Reading Challenge Reflections
I just spent the past month reading a scary story or poem for each day of October! This ambitious task was part of a reading challenge created by Dr. Sam Hirst, founder of Romancing the Gothic. I had such a great time last year participating in Sam’s inaugural #AGhostADay challenge, that I was thrilled when they announced they were doing a new challenge this October. While last year’s stories were mainly tales of revenants and hauntings, this year Sam broadened the focus to include as wide a variety of scary stories as possible. Subjects ranged from variations on classic vampires, werewolves, witches, and demons to more unique horrors like infectious fungi, primeval animals, and portals to other dimensions. You can see the full reading list of thirty-one stories for #AScareDay here. And check out the #AScareADay hashtag on (the platform formerly known as) Twitter or the #AScareADay feed on BlueSky to follow the discussion. Continue reading #AScareADay Reading Challenge Reflections
Gothic Tropes: The Cursed Wanderer
“I pass, like night, from land to land…” I mentioned the cursed wanderer in my recent post on Nautical Gothic, so I wanted to examine the concept here in a bit more detail. This is a character archetype that finds its way into many Gothic works both new and classic, either in the form of a villain, a tragic side character, or an antihero. The cursed wanderer is an outcast from society, usually immortal or otherwise supernatural, and never establishes roots but rather is compelled to wander from place to place as the consequence for some past sin. Continue reading Gothic Tropes: The Cursed Wanderer
Review of Night’s Edge—A Vampire Pandemic
You’re not sick of pandemic books yet, are you? Liz Kerin uses the premise of a vampire pandemic—and the restrictions and lockdowns that come with it—to explore complicated family relationships in her sophomore horror novel Night’s Edge. The book, which follows a young woman who has devoted her life to being caretaker to her infected mother, comes out tomorrow, June 20. Continue reading Review of Night’s Edge—A Vampire Pandemic
Review of An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales
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. Continue reading Review of An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales
“My Wild Heart Bleeds” Carmilla Conference Rundown
This past weekend I attended “‘My Wild Heart Bleeds’: 150 Years of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla,” an online conference organized by Romancing the Gothic. If you’ve been following my blog, you may have seen me mention Romancing the Gothic (RtG) in some of my book reviews and year-end wrap-ups over the past couple of years. RtG is an online education project that was started by Dr. Sam Hirst at the beginning of the pandemic and brings together scholars and enthusiasts alike from all over the world to share our love for and deepen our understanding of Gothic, romance, and horror literature and other media. RtG offers free weekly lectures and book club meetings over Zoom, and last year they organized their first academic conference: “‘My Poor Devil’: Georgette Heyer’s The Black Moth at 100.” This year, our conference was themed around another literary milestone—the 150th anniversary of the publication of the vampire novella Carmilla.
Continue reading “My Wild Heart Bleeds” Carmilla Conference Rundown
Review of Certain Dark Things—Vampire Noir
Urban noir with vampires? Sign me up! I knew from the moment I finished reading Mexican Gothic that I would need to go devour all of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s previous books. Of course, I had to start with the one with vampires in it. Certain Dark Things was originally published in 2016, but after going out of print for a while it was re-released by Nightfire last year. And good thing it was, since it would be a shame for this fresh take on vampires to pass into obscurity. Continue reading Review of Certain Dark Things—Vampire Noir