Some Vampire and Related Fiction Recommendations
I wrote this list up for a Reddit comment and thought I'd share it here in case any of you nerds liked Vampire fiction.
This list leaves out Stoker, Anne Rice, Stephen King, etc.
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The queen of Mexican-Canadian horror. Check out Mexican Gothic and Gods of Jade and Shadow too (not vampire as such but still great reads).
"The Wide Carnivorous Sky" by John Langan. Probably the best modern Vampire story you'll read. Novella-ish length, worth getting the entire eponymous story collection as it is one hell of a ride through modern horror.
Anno Dracula series Kim Newman. The first book is the best, though the other books in the series are very fun, if a bit campy and too clever for their own good, still worth reading. His main character, Genevieve Dieudonne, is awesome and spans genres from his vamp work into his Warhammer Fantasy work (which is also great imo).
Christopher Golden's Shadow Saga (starts with Of Saints and Shadows)--absolutely one of my favorites. The first three books are great and kind of form a self-contained trilogy, but the other books are also fun, even if a tad uneven.
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly. Look, it's a bit pulpy in all the right ways while still being a really good historical-vamp-fiction, full on Victorian vampire hunters. The rest of the series gets high marks too.
S.P. Somtow's Vampire Junction and related books.
Dhampir series by Barb and J.C. Hendee. Vampire killers (a half-vampire (dhampir), an elf, and a wolf) wander around a Gothic landscape stabbin' all sorts of things. Kind of reminds me of The Witcher in that monster-bashing way, except with more romance plots as the series moves on, sometimes veering (if I remember correctly, which in truth I might not) into almost bodice ripper territory.
Brian Lumley's Necroscope series. It's maybe a bit dated, very 1980s/1990s feel but that's fine and it is still golden. Lumley's one of those workhorses of horror, just happily churning out stuff until the day he dropped dead and a lot of it was really great. I don't think he got enough notice on this side of the pond.
John Conroe's Demon Accords series. It's got vampires, werewolves, demons, and everything else…look, it's not high literature, at all, in the slightest, it's the worst of Kindle Unlimited self-published author schlock at times, like most of the time, but it kept me hooked for fifteen books until I finally hit a wall and just couldn't wade through a single goddamn page of it anymore. Am I ashamed of reading this series? Yeah, a little. Did I reread the first seven or so books? Also yes.
A lot of Laird Barron's stuff has vampiric elements re the Cult of the Old Leech, especially his novel 'The Croning,' however the Leech and devotees are not vampires in the traditional undead sense. I adore all of his work (especially his horror though, and Xs for Eyes is just, just beautiful), including the Isaiah Coleridge stuff which has hints of cosmic horror and the dark-fucked-up-ness at the Center of It All, peak modern noir.
The Lesser Dead by Christophe Buehlman. Honestly, I'm including this one even though the ending felt like a massive let down for me. There's a point where it says to stop unless you want the twist ending. Take it up on that and stop. The twist made me violently angry at the author, like I get why he did it and all, but I'm still pissed about it a year or two later. There's no need to fuck with readers like that, my guy. So, yeah, listen to the warning. Until then, the world-building was great and the vampire characters (narrator included) very fun, with a great working knowledge of 1970s New York.
The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway. Vampires? Eh, kinda. Angel-things that suck people dry and remove them from existence to 'correct' the universe, definitely. Do punks fight them? Yes. Is it overall a satisfying series: absofuckinglutely.
