The Readers' Advisory Interest Group

Vampires

The vampire in legend is defined as an incubus who sustained itself by sucking blood from the living. In Eastern Europe vampires are known as Nosferatu. Fire was the enemy of the undead from pagan times, used to drive out the demon and as a way of ensuring they didn't keep coming back to bother the living. Other ways to fight the vampire included garlic and wolfbay, holy water, crucifixes, sunlight, wooden stakes, and silver bullets. Vampires in literature began with John Polidori's book The Vampyre in 1819. Polidori, a friend of Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley who were fond of telling ghost stories may have written it to entertain them. Bram Stoker's Dracula written in 1897, had the jacket inscribed with, "Mr. Bram Stoker did not invent the idea of the Vampire - it is as old as the human race and is to be encountered in the histories of all countries. Anyone reading this story will get an indelible impression of the awful possibilities by which human existence is surrounded."

	M. T. Anderson. Thirsty. 1997. Chris's voracious appetite and increasing restlessness aren't just growing pains. To his horror, he acquires a thirst for blood and an instinct to avoid the sun. Chris's society lynches vampires. Anderson blends the mundane with the fantastic in this sly rebuke of the sexy-vampire genre.
	Charlaine Harris. Dead Until Dark. 2001. A waitress in small town Louisiana becomes romantically involved with a vampire, then fears for her life when other women in her town who are friendly with vampires start turning up dead.
	Tom Holland. Lord of the Dead. 1996. His debut novel, Holland writes an excellent tale, closely interwoven with the actual events in the life of Lord Byron. A young woman, Rebecca Carville, petitions her lawyer for the keys to the family crypt where she hopes to find the sole copy of Byron's memoirs. Instead, she finds Byron himself, as the Lord of the Dead and a member of the undead. He explains how he became a vampire, weaving a long tale. He tells of the powerful Greek Vardoulacha, who pursued him until the deed was done. Holland skillfully writes how this dark side of Byron might have affected his relationship with the women in his life. Byron discovers he must take the life of a relative in order to maintain his youthful beauty, but who will the victim be?
	Annette Curtis Klause. The Silver Kiss. 1990. A teenage vampire and a teenage girl are in crisis. Emotions come into play as they begin to have feelings for each other. Simon's family crisis with his brother and Zoe's with her mother are critical factors in their coming to believe in and helping each other deal with their problems. The unexpected ending is timely as each realizes what must be done!
	Robin McKinley. Sunshine. 2003. Sunshine is leading a rather normal life as a baker in a coffee shop when she is kidnapped by a gang of vampires and chained in an abandoned building to be a meal for another vampire they are holding captive there. Instead of harming her, he wants to talk to her, and she is able to use her latent magic skills to free them both. After this, there is a bond between them as they try to destroy his archenemy, the very powerful vampire that is the head of the gang.
	Christopher Moore. Bloodsucking Fiends. 1996. Jody wakes up under a dumpster in an alley with a burned hand, feels terrible, clothes torn, and a sense of smell that's incredibly heightened. She can see heat and has superhuman strength and an insatiable thirst for blood. C. Thomas Flood (Tommy) has just arrived in San Francisco, full of dreams of becoming a great writer. Instead he ends up working at the local Safeway and playing frozen turkey bowling with the motley night crew. One night he meets the strikingly beautiful Jody on one of her nocturnal visits to the supermarket and gets the surprise of his life when the casual date they make (after sunset) triggers a relationship destined to span eternity.
	Terry Pratchett. Carpe Jugulum. 1998. When King Verence of Lancre kindly (but very stupidly) invites a family of vampires from neighboring Uberwald to a party at the castle, they move in and refuse to leave. Dislodging them proves difficult, as these are a "modernized" family of vampires, immune to garlic, sunlight, and other traditional means of removal.