Vampire Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into
Vampire stories have bewitched readers forever. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula all the way up to Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster hit Sinners, there are enough vampire tales for everyone. Luckily for readers, there are a wide range of vampire reads to quench your thirst.
To help you get started on your vampiric journey, here are some recommended readings to expand your bookshelf, including everything from vampire comics and manga to romance and historical fiction. It doesn’t matter if you have been curious about vampire stories or if you are a vampire horror junkie, this list has everything for everyone.
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1
Interview with the Vampire
by Anne Rice
No one has made vampires more titillating than the late, great Anne Rice. Her Vampire Chronicles, which is her most popular work, centers on the destructive relationships between the former French nobleman Lestat de Lioncourt, who turns into a bloodthirsty, lustful vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac, and the vampire Armand. Rice humanizes these creatures of the night by combining their “dark gifts” with internal conflicts that involve love, identity and survival. The first book follows the unreliable narration of Louis as he recalls his pre-vampire life and everything that he has experienced since turning.
This dazzling 50th anniversary special edition features a jacket with foil and embossing, sprayed edges, designed endpapers, a new foreword from Leigh Bardugo, an afterword by Christopher Rice, and never-before-seen bonus pages from the original manuscript.
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$21.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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2
‘Salem’s Lot
by Stephen King
Sink your teeth into Stephen King’s second horror novel as he takes traditional horror elements and adds his now-renowned frightening prose that has made him one of the most recognizable and successful authors of all time. Inspired by the classic, Dracula, King starts his frightening tale in a small town in Maine, where a darkness is evident to the residents who live there. Now the remaining survivors in this town must rely on each other to fight the thirsty monsters that prowl in the dark. However, in true King fashion, readers will be stunned once they discover that the fanged beasts are closely related to the humans trying to remain alive in this ghostly town.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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3
The Book of Blood and Roses
by Annie Summerlee
A vampire hunter goes undercover at a mysterious university — and finds herself falling in love with her roommate, an alluring vampire, in book one of a seductive sapphic paranormal fantasy.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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4
Bride
by Ali Hazelwood
Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast — again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans is over: She has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange — again. But what happens when a dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into?
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$31.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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5
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
Where would vampiric lore be without Stoker’s masterpiece, Dracula? Despite the numerous interpretations and remakes of his work, nothing truly compares to the original. Stoker doesn’t romanticize vampires like his contemporary counterparts. Instead, he relies on epistolary storytelling to deliver the impressions others have of Dracula. This vampire is less slasher and more refined, like Anne Rice’s Lestat. Dracula sips blood from a cup, but that doesn’t stop the locals from wanting to execute him for taking the blood of women without their explicit consent. In this classic, vampires are not heroes, however, they are not all-out villainous, either.
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$11.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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6
Be Still My Unbeating Heart
by Josh Winning
A cozy vampire vacation mystery set in a seaside Italian village, featuring a reformed vampire, his magical talking cat, and a handsome, brooding detective. Charming, twisty, and laugh-out-loud funny, Be Still My Unbeating Heart by Josh Winning is a delightful romp through a swoon-worthy magical murder mystery.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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7
The Blood of the Vampire
by Florence Marryat
Published the same year as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire introduced readers to one of the most revolutionary protagonists of her time: The biracial, bisexual, feminist psychic vampire Harriet Brandt. Feeding off life force rather than blood, Harriet is a charming, caring young woman in search of love who is accused of killing those who get too close. The Blood of the Vampire is a timeless critique of gender norms, racism, and medical discrimination — a fresh, century-old spin on the expanding canon of vampire fiction written by a forgotten legend of Victorian horror.
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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8
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
It was almost a decade before Butler published her vampire horror, which further solidified her influence in the science fiction genre. Her unique and fresh take on vampires also tackles racism, sexism, and mental health themes. A young girl named Shori awakens but realizes she doesn’t have any memories. However, slowly but surely, she begins to piece everything together and concludes she is a vampire that is almost 60 years old, despite still looking like a girl. Butler uses vampires as a vehicle to explore philosophical topics such as free will while reinventing Gothic vampire lore into something that is truly her own.
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$27.95Buy from Other Retailers:
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9
The Vampyre and Carmilla
by John Polidori and Sheridan Le Fanu
The first vampire short story and novella, both of which predate Bram Stoker’s Dracula, together in one Penguin Classics hardcover, a Penguin Speculative Fiction Special, with a foreword by the #1 New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab.
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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10
House of Hunger
by Alexis Henderson
Oftentimes, vampires can take pleasure in the misery of humans, such as the case in this depraved, sapphic vampire tale. Marion is down on her luck and is tired of struggling to have her basic needs met. She stumbles across a job ad in the newspaper that is seeking to hire a bloodmaid. With nothing to lose, Marion travels north to her prospective employer to apply for the job. Days later, she is offered a position and when she arrives at the House of Hunger, she meets the charismatic, yet mysterious Countess Lisavet, who is also the head of the hedonistic court.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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11
A Vampire in the Bathhouse
by Niko Izuki
Add another comedic vampire tale to your TBR with this must-have manga. Luka is just like any other stereotypical vampire. He’s gorgeous, dark, charming, and enjoys the fast-paced nightlife of partying. He decides that the best thing he can do for himself is get some much-needed self-care sessions and relaxation at a human bathhouse. At Full Moon Baths, the owner’s grandson, Sakura, runs the day-to-day operations while taking care of his younger sibling. Luka uses this opportunity to completely unwind as Sakura tries to juggle the family business and an eccentric vampire who also cooks!
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$13.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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12
The Gilda Stories
by Jewelle Gomez
First published in 1991, The Gilda Stories is a groundbreaking speculative fiction vampire novel that begins in 1850s Louisiana, where a young Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. After being initiated into eternal life as one who “shares the blood” by two women there, Gilda spends the next two hundred years searching for a place to call home. Gilda moves through the centuries up to the dystopian future of 2050. Gomez’s classic, with a Black lesbian heroine, has endured as an auspiciously prescient book in its explorations of Blackness, radical ecology, redefinitions of family, and the erotic potential of the vampire story.
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$30.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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13
A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire
by Sarah Hawley
Perhaps you want to entertain a different dynamic between vampires. If so, you are not going to pass up this sexy but slightly dark romantasy. Ben is a werewolf, but he is content with his life. After all, he is a single entrepreneur with a growing plant emporium. Despite all of his success, his family urges him to settle down to start his own family. However, after a long night of drinking and placing bets, he finds himself the new owner of a crystal he got from eBay. He now has to accept the fact that he has awakened a beautiful but vexed vampire.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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14
My Vampire Plus-One
by Jenna Levine
Nothing sucks more than fake dating a vampire in this paranormal romantic comedy from the USA Today bestselling author of My Roommate Is a Vampire.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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15
Coffin Moon
by Keith Rosson
From the author of Fever House and The Devil by Name: A Vietnam veteran and his adopted niece hunt — and are hunted by — the vampire that slaughtered their family. Gritty, unforgettable, and emotionally devastating, Coffin Moon asks what will be left of our humanity when grief transmutes into violence, when monsters wear human faces, and when our thirst for revenge eclipses everything else.
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16
American Vampire 1976
by Scott Snyder
Dive into the unbelievably frightening graphic novel by New York Times bestselling and award-winning comic book writer Scott Snyder. Taking place in America during the height of social and political change, the devil himself decides that this is the perfect opportunity to cause more chaos amongst mankind. That is the case with Skinner Sweet, a vampire who used to be a bank robber. But now, Skinner has spent the past decade fighting a new challenge. With the inability to no longer be immortal, Skinner will do just about anything to get his powers back. When his protege Pearl presents him with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regain his powers, Skinner knows that if he accepts this mission, it could mean his death, and he happily accepts.
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$34.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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17
Tillinghast
by Clare Cavenagh
A dark and utterly original literary horror debut, following a priest whose bloodthirsty life has extended far longer than any mere human’s — and is upended when a stranger comes to town …
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