I’ve written before about the Vampire Literary Canon—some of the most popular works that cemented the vampire’s place as literature’s favorite monster. But before vampires worked their way into novels (like Bram Stoker’s Dracula), novellas (like J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla), or even short stories (like Polidori’s “The Vampyre”), many of the earliest appearances of these creatures in Western literature occurred in poetry. Below are a few of my favorite examples of early vampire poems:
So many stories focus on the great romance between a human and a vampire and end with that human joining the undead in a happily ever after. But when you’re immortal, that “ever after” is a long, long time. What happens to a relationship over the course of centuries? And what if the immortal being you’ve tied yourself to isn’t the perfect romantic partner after all? S. T. Gibson explores these themes and more in her new adult fantasy novel A Dowry of Blood, which comes out on Sunday, January 31. Continue reading Review of A Dowry of Blood–Vampires and Toxic Relationships
“Vampires are dead.” People have been saying this ever since the overwhelming popularity of the Twilight series led to an explosion of young adult paranormal fantasy in the mid-2000s that saturated the market. But as a life-long vampire fan, I’ve always felt that these denizens of the undead still have more to teach us. There is something universally appealing about the vampire that isn’t going away anytime soon, and there are still infinite new angles from which the topic can be approached. Instead of telling everyone that the genre has been done to death already, why not open it up to a diversity of fresh new voices that haven’t yet had the chance to tell their story? That’s exactly what Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker do in their new anthology Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite, which came out back in September. Continue reading Review of Vampires Never Get Old—Giving the Genre New Life
Vampires have been a staple of Gothic and horror literature since they first came to Western Europe’s attention in the mid-eighteenth century. And yet, they never seem to be depicted the same way twice. Can they transform into bats or pass through locked doors? Do they kill with every bite or coexist peacefully with humans? Every author that tackles the vampire must first lay out some ground rules, picking and choosing from contradictory elements of the vampire mythos. Below are just a few of the characteristics that vary from vampire to vampire:
Continue reading The Ever-Changing Characteristics of Vampires
Dracula is the vampire lord who brought fame to the undead monster of legend, the one we’re all most familiar with. But the concept of vampires didn’t spring fully formed from Bram Stoker’s mind. Who were the literary vampires that came before Dracula and paved the path for him? Editor James Grant Goldin seeks to answer that question in his two-volume collection Vampires: First Blood, published back in July. The volumes are divided by gender, with the first volume focusing specifically on “The Vampire Lords.” This is the one I’ll be reviewing today. Continue reading Vampires: First Blood, Volume I Review
Tall, dark, handsome, … and bloodthirsty. We’re all familiar with the image of the seductively suave vampire. Usually a wealthy aristocrat, he mingles with respectable society while secretly preying upon innocent young maidens in the dead of night. But how did this depiction come to dominate the popular imagination? It all comes back to Byron. Continue reading Byron and Polidori’s Vampire Tale
These days, we have a tendency to want a scientific explanation for everything—even in our most outlandish fantasy stories. Writers of vampire fiction, in particular, have come up with myriad explanations for how vampires come into existence, whether it’s a genetic mutation or some blood-borne disease. In Peeps, Scott Westerfeld has a particularly unsexy explanation: parasites. Through the eyes of teenage protagonist Cal, Peeps gives us the scoop on being a vampire, including the good, the bad, the awkward, and the gross. Continue reading Review of Peeps–Unsexy Vampires
Last week, I reviewed Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery. This brand-new A to Z compendium tells you everything you could want to know about any person, place, or thing mentioned in Rice’s popular vampire series. But who took the time to painstakingly compile all this information, and how did they become such an expert on Rice’s extensive fictional world? The Alphabettery was written by Becket, a close friend of Anne Rice who served as her personal assistant from 2005 to 2017. I reached out to Becket and he was kind enough to send back some detailed and thoughtful replies about what it was like working with his idol and writing the definitive guide to her most prominent series. Read on for our interview. Also, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the post and enter the giveaway to win your own copy of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery!
Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles have been around for over four decades now, and with the recent release of Blood Communion, the series is up to thirteen books (fifteen if you count the New Tales of the Vampires). That’s a lot to keep track of, even for the most dedicated of fans. But never fear, the ultimate Anne Rice reference book is finally here! Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery, compiled by her personal assistant Becket and with an introduction by Rice herself, comes out tomorrow, October 23. Here’s what you need to know about the hefty reference guide: Continue reading Review of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery
Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles changed the world of vampire fiction and are responsible for so much of the way the genre is today. You can see Rice’s influence in everything from Twilight to True Blood to The Vampire Diaries. Knowing this, I picked up Rice’s books quite early, reading Interview with the Vampire during my initial bloodsucker craze when I was probably about thirteen. Taken together, the first three books—Interview, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned—have been canonized as timeless classics that are essential reading for anyone who loves these creatures of the night. But as many fans would agree, after Queen of the Damned the books begin to get … weird. I pushed through for a couple more books, but after Lestat embarked on a Dantesque voyage through heaven and hell and back in time to witness the Crucifixion during Memnoch the Devil, I decided I was done and abandoned the series for half a decade. This year, however, I decided to try picking back up where I left off with The Vampire Armand. Continue reading The Vampire Armand Review: Returning to Anne Rice
