Over the past several weeks, my fellow staff writer Heather and I have been writing a series of posts about worldbuilding to help get you writers ready for our worldbuilding short fiction contest. Here’s a list of the posts for those of you who are still putting the finishing touches on your entries:
For the rest of you, though, you’ve already turned in your contest entries and are likely looking forward to some well-deserved relaxing time. Why not pick up a good vampire novel? There is something undeniably alluring about vampires and the lore is fascinating—they live forever, don’t have reflections, and can’t handle crosses, sunlight, or garlic (depending on the author’s framing of things, of course). Literary critics keep thinking vampires are over, but one bestseller after another over the past several years shows that vampires aren’t going away anytime soon.
Here are ten vampire novels you can really sink your teeth into.
1) Dracula by Bram Stoker
Young solicitor Jonathan Harker leaves 19th century England for Transylvania to organize Count Dracula’s estate at his falling apart castle in the Carpathian Mountains. Harker keeps notes and writes diary entries about the horrors he witnesses at the castle. Harker is eventually able to escape Count Dracula and his supernatural powers, but his experiences lead to a mental breakdown. Meanwhile, back in England, Harker’s fiancé Mina’s friend Lucy had been bitten and is starting to turn into a vampire. They enlist the help of Van Helsing, a former suitor of Lucy’s, and Lucy’s fiancée Holmwood to fight back against Count Dracula and his attempts on Lucy and Mina’s lives.
What better way to start a list of great vampire novels than with the one that started it all? Sure, stories that predated Dracula like “The Vampyre” by John William Polidori introduced the suave, sophisticated vampire. But Dracula is the book that brought this type of vampire into the mainstream, where it has stayed for good.
2) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
While exploring her father’s library, a young woman discovers things she never wanted to know about her family and Vlad the Impaler. Her family’s secrets hide a time-defying pact that may have kept his terrible work alive through the ages. The search for the truth spans from monasteries to old libraries, to the capitals of Eastern Europe.
This book features beautiful writing and suspenseful storytelling. It is not only a fantastic vampire story but it will give you a tour through Europe and European culture. This is a good one to read along with Dracula since Vlad the Impaler provided much of the inspiration for the famed vampire.
3) Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
200-year-old vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac shares his life story with an intrepid journalist. He tells the tale of how he first became a vampire—indoctrinated by Lestat. Louis lives a restless life in New Orleans until he decides to go looking for others like him. But other vampires may not have the answers he’s searching for.
Interview with the Vampire is considered a classic of vampire literature, and it’s a title the book deserves. It is a compulsively readable thriller with deep, well-developed characters. This book is the first in Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, so if you like it, you’ll have plenty more books to keep you busy.
4) Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot to explore the history of Marsten House, an old mansion, and hopefully, find inspiration for his new book. Then two boys wander into the woods and only one returns, and Ben realizes something sinister must be at work. His hometown is being attacked by forces of darkness and only he and a few others have any hope of containing the evil that threatens to overtake this small town.
Salem’s Lot is only Stephen King’s second novel, but you wouldn’t know his inexperience from how masterfully written it is. Many consider it to be one of his greatest works. It is because the story takes place in such a familiar, idyllic town that the horror makes your spine tingle all the more. This novel’s tightly paced plot will keep you reading deep into the night.
5) Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
Shori wakes up in a remote cave with amnesia. She looks like a young Black girl, despite the fact that she is actually a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Wright, who finds her on the side of the road, thinks she is a missing child. When Shori feeds on him, it creates an unshakable bond between them. She fights to recover her memories to save herself and those she cares for.
Fledgling is a riveting book and it was the great Octavia Butler’s last novel. Like many great vampire novels, this one delves deep into what it truly means to be human. It offers a brilliant deconstruction of many vampire myths and is all in all a captivating read.
6) Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
A year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman who was more interested in partying and meeting girls than going to biology class. Now, after an encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become his life. He was infected with a parasite and while he’s only a carrier, he has infected girlfriends he had after Morgan. All three have since become ghoulish vampires, which Cal calls Peeps. Now Cal has to hunt them down before they can create more of their kind.
Peeps is an extremely intelligent book with a ton of sly humor. Vampirism as a sexually transmitted parasite is a highly original idea, and one Westerfeld executes very well. This story is a thrilling reimagining of vampire myth that feels fresh and will keep you turning pages.
7) Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Sookie Stackhouse is a typical cocktail waitress in her small town of Bon-Temps, Louisiana. She mostly keeps to herself and has a hard time making connections with people—mostly because she can read minds. Then Bill Compton comes along. He’s tall, dark, handsome, and Sookie can’t hear a word he’s thinking. But it turns out he’s a vampire with a bad reputation. When a string of murders happens in Bon-Temps and a gang of truly evil vampires come looking for Bill, Sookie wonders if a vampire boyfriend was the best idea.
This book is the first in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series, which provided the basis for the hit HBO show, True Blood. The book has an exciting plot but it’s the vividly drawn setting and well-developed characters that will really draw you in. In addition to vampires and mind readers, you’ll find shapeshifters and werewolves in Harris’ intricate world.
8) Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
In 1981 in a Swedish suburb, the body of a teenager is found emptied of blood and the murder is rumored to be a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar hopes that revenge has come for the bullying he endures at school each day. But the murder is not the chief thing on Oskar’s mind—a strange girl moves in next door who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube but can solve it instantly. And she only comes out at night…
Let the Right One In is a fantastic combination of sweet, tender moments and disturbing, scary scenes that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s a dark and twisted story with a unique take on vampire lore. There are also both Swedish and American adaptations of the book for you to enjoy!
9) Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
Abner Marsh is a struggling riverboat captain who is suspicious of a wealthy aristocrat that approaches him with a lucrative offer. Too pale Joshua York doesn’t care that the hazardous winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s fleet, nor does he seem to care about earning back his investment anytime soon. York’s reasons for wanting to traverse the powerful Mississippi are none of Marsh’s business. It isn’t until the maiden voyage of the Fevre Dream that Marsh realizes he’s joined a mission both more sinister and perhaps nobler than his wildest imaginings.
Not everyone knows the famed author of the Game of Thrones series ever tackled vampires, but he does so brilliantly in this book. It’s interesting to witness a vampire story set on a steamboat and the novel works to blur the lines between good and evil—no one is strictly a villain or a hero. This is a gory and entertaining story from the modern fantasy master.
10) Blood Awakening by Randy Boodram
The notorious creatures of the night were always thought to be a myth, but it turns out they’re real. Rohit Surya is a loner type working his way through college when one fateful night changes his humdrum life forever. During his graveyard shift at work, he encounters a young woman and quickly discovers her dark secret—she’s a vampire. The heiress Ingrid von Anfang ran away from the vampire world and takes an interest in Rohit, who she thinks will be able to help her. But with vampire hunters after her, Ingrid works to blend into the human world and learns she’s not alone. Rohit ends up involved since he harbors a power unbeknownst to him that could change his and the vampire world for good.
You will immediately get swept up in this vampire romance. The novel includes compelling characters (Ingrid von Anfang is particularly intriguing) and a complex, intriguing world. The best part is that you can read this one right here on Fictionate!
Hopefully, you can kick back with one of these great vampire novels to relax after submitting your contest entry. Just don’t forget to send yours in if you haven’t already, since the deadline is August 19, 2022, 11:59 PM EST!
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