It is Rosh Hashana today, the Jewish New Year, and I am off work. But, thanks to the ability to plan and pre-post materials, I have a brand new "From the Haunted Stacks" column for the Lineup. It is on the resurgence of the scary vampire.
Below you can access the introduction. Click here to read the annotated book list at The Lineup and click here for every article I have written for them over the past few years. There is a lot of Horror reading goodness at that link.
Shout out to my friend and colleague Lila Denning for posting this to social media for me today. Check out her blog as well.
From the Haunted Stacks: Scary Vampires are Back
So long Twilight.
By Becky Spratford | Published Oct 2, 2024Undead creatures who attack humans by sucking their blood have appeared throughout the history of human storytelling. Still, there is no denying that the way today’s readers understand “the vampire,” comes from its most famous incarnation ever—Dracula.
First published by Bram Stoker in 1897, Dracula has never been out of print and has been translated into every major language worldwide.
Throughout the 20th century, authors such as Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire), and Stephen King (Salem’s Lot) took Stoker’s inspiration and expanded upon it, playing with the archetype, even stretching the reader’s sympathy for the vampire itself. And yet, still always making sure the audience knew when push comes to shove, the vampire is a menace, it is out not only for their blood—but also their allegiance for all of time.
However, with the turn of 21st Century, there came a new sexy, sparkly vampire, one that threatened to change the entire subgenre from being centered on vampire menace to one that was about falling in love with a misunderstood immortal being.
Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and Edward Cullen burst into the mainstream in 2005 and many horror readers feared the trope would never be the same again.
Well, it took almost two decades, but as 2024 has shown us, the sparkly vampire has been staked through the heart and some truly terrifying creatures have clawed their way back into heavy horror rotation.
Some of the more notable vampire books out this year include Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro, First Light by Liz Kerin, Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton, So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, and All the Hearts You Eat by Hailey Piper.
But we did not get from Meyer to Piper overnight.
Since the vampire menace is back and haunting our shelves, I thought it would be fun to take a stroll back in time from 2005 to the present and revisit a few key titles that reminded readers how much more they preferred their vampires menacing rather than sparkling—and as a result, convinced other authors and their publishers to give us more!
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