I love vampires as a concept- scary, sexy, predatory, emotionally tortured, etc. I love it all. But vampires are so overdone it’s hard to find media that has something new to say about them. I’m looking for a book that uses vampires to tell a new, unique story, or shine some light a different aspect of a culture.
The only recent vampire story I’ve enjoyed is the AMC Interview with the Vampire tv show. I loved how the show juxtaposed race as vampirism as isolating factors from (white) society, and showed Louis’s struggle with knowing his new powers were useless at fighting his oppression in any meaningful way.
by Deriveit789
20 Comments
Octavia Butler’s “Fledgling” might interest you, Butler set out to re-imagine vampires. It deals with race, loyalty, and vampire-specific problems. Unfortunately, Butler didn’t live long enough to write the intended sequels, so some people feel the ending is too open-ended.
TW for some sex scenes between an adult human and an adult vampire with a childlike body.
You’ve read the Interview with the Vampire books then?
Dana Cameron’s Fangborn series.
Mercedes Lackey’s Children of the Night has both conventional vampires who’ve got it together, and disaster vampires as a sort of addiction metaphor.
Peter Watts, Blindsight. More of a scifi thing though
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
“Let The Right One In” is very different from the usual take on vampires.
I mean, you could read the book IWTV is based on! I personally like it even more than the show. It poses more philosophical questions about the nature of good and evil. Anne Rice’s prose is also excellent.
Keep in mind, it was published nearly 50 years ago, so the romantic aspects aren’t spelled out as clearly as in the show. Rice got a little more bold in later books. Also, the TV producers changed quite a few aspects of the book, so keep an open mind. If you can separate the book from the show, you’ll have an easier time appreciating it for what it is. (The same goes for anyone watching the show after reading the book.)
The Vampire Lestat is also very good! It’s the second book in the series.
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas is one of my favorite books of the year! So so good
Inamotata by Megan Chance
I only think of it as “new” because I’m old, but 13 Bullets by David Wellington definitely has a non-traditional take on vampires. They’re tall pale nudists with mouths full of shark’s teeth and they’re absolutely unstoppable as long as they ingest enough blood to fuel their magic. But the older they get the more blood they require, until it’s impossible to stay fed and they’re confined to their coffins, weak and helpless during the night and rotting into vile filth during daylight hours.
When the series starts they’re supposed to be extinct except for one who’s held in captivity because she’s been helpless so long they can’t prove she’s ever committed a crime on US soil. But then new vampires show up and start killing, and things get out of hand fast.
The southern book clubs guide to Slaying Vampires
‘Carrion Comfort’ by Dan Simmons. A disturbing story about a unusual kind of vampires.
For a truly different take:
[This Charming Man](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a431da24-68d3-4683-81fd-4b7b1605fb7f) by CK McDonnell. Part 2 of the Stranger Times series.
It’s comic urban fantasy, so it might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s truly funny, especially if you’re well versed in vampire lore.
On the comic fantasy topic, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention [Carpe Jugulum](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6b45b663-3c89-42b6-91d7-7b5beb060df5) by Terry Pratchett. Takes a critical look at very traditional vampire stories in Pratchett’s perfect style.
Both probably not exactly what you were looking for, but both very much worth your time.
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was interesting. Different cultures produce different vampires, with different traits.
Pretty sure books have already covered a lot more of conceivable vampire variations than what has been made/adapted on TV (movies have too, arguably), so I don’t know how new it needs to be for you.
But: The Lesser Dead (2014). Urban, contemporary (1980s) vampires living on the fringes of modern society and confronted with something even more monstrous than what they are.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova!
Already Dead by Charlie Huston
For something really unique, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix is just incredible. It features an unlikely protagonist and secondary cast, some really out there scenes, an uncommon setting (for vampire stories at least), and many elements of the story are familiar in the worst way. Cannot recommend it enough.
The lesser dead, by Christopher buehlman