Nov 11, 2025
Santo vs Dracula: Wrestling with masculinity Luchador style
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Santo vs Dracula: Wrestling with masculinity Luchador style
A no-boys-allowed vampire coven terrorizes modern day Berlin--but is it female empowerment or a cautionary tale?? Either way, 2010's We Are the Night aka Wir Sind Die Nacht was a much needed breakthrough to Germany's epic vampire film drought.
Vampire Reviews: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Lucy from Dracula Deserved Better
Revive Vampire Princess Miyu: Call on Dark Horse to License and Translate the Manga!
American fans of Vampire Princess Miyu were only given tiny portions of the manga, when they should have all of it. I need as many people as possible to convince Dark Horse Comics to save this franchise from being stuck in Japan. Now get out there and make a difference!
The Fire Within My Heart (Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series #1) Review
Ayshen Irfan @thevampireaesthetic kindly sent me a copy of this book to review. I will start by saying I have immense respect for them as a self-published author. I think that’s frankly kick ass and incredibly inspiring. The last couple of chapters especially gripped me and I have a lot of thoughts I wish to convey. I’ll try to keep the first part spoiler free and then add some thoughts after going more in-depth. Disclaimer: These are just my personal thoughts, not aimed to hurt or offend anybody. If you disagree or have a different opinion that is just as valid. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. I strongly encourage anyone to form their own opinions by reading this book regardless of what I have to say about it.
Review:
The Fire Within My Heart follows Scarlet as she is catapulted into the world of the supernatural after being horrifically murdered by a serial killer and next granted immortality when the vampire Nikolaus finds her before she can take her last breath. Throughout the book, we follow her navigating seeking justice for her murderer, her new supernatural existence, and her complicated romantic relationship with her vampire master.
The story unfolds in a rich universe mixing your classic vampires with high fantasy and the arcane. I’d say that for the most part, the lore of the world and the supernatural powers are explained and described in a way that makes it easy to follow and doesn’t feel too heavy.
It has a great cast of characters. I think it’s very apparent in the text that the author has a great affection for their characters and there are some great character dynamics. I especially loved the ragtag family dynamic that develops amongst the most unlikely of supernatural creatures. The strength of the story in my opinion is really the characters and their strong and yet at times troubled ties to each other.
There are undoubtedly some heavy themes in here of death and violence and very questionable morals at best but the book manages to balance it with humor. There are tropes in here that I loved as well. The main character and her vampire master share a special bond almost like a contracted demon in which they can feel each other's pain and emotion. I thought it an interesting layer to their dynamic and I’m curious to see how it will develop. That said, the romance here is not a slow burner and the attraction between the two is apparent instantly. Some people might enjoy that, although for me personally, it felt a little rushed and I didn’t quite buy into the justification that the vassal/master relationship justified the instant attraction.
Ayshen's iteration of vampires takes the symbolism of vampires and makes it very literal. The sensual and tempting are explicit. It’s described in various places how vampirism in this book is quite literally sex, orgasmic, all the guilty pleasures you know you shouldn’t enjoy but do. An iteration I’m inclined to think writes itself into a wave of continued contemporary vampire fiction. It’s an evolution in vampire fiction that I’m interested in but haven’t read enough contemporary works of this sort to form a conclusive theory on.
The language in the book I feel can best be described as purple although I know this tends to have a pejorative meaning and that’s not my intention. It’s very rich with descriptions. Illustrious with poetic and ornate metaphors and imagery. I find that it’s very much a matter of taste whether this style is something that engages you or not. Personally, there were some parts I loved and found beautifully phrased and cleverly constructed. In some scenes, I appreciated how detailed a picture I was painted to imagine. Without any spoilers, I can’t come up with examples but in general, everything has a very gothic and decadent vibe. Other times I found it a bit redundant. I didn’t always care to get a detailed description of every character's outfit and sometimes I felt like the description of rooms or feelings stunted the pace of the narrative. I’d forget where a conversation was going or had to be reminded what the characters were doing amongst all the beautifully described scenery. Towards the end, I felt it may have added unintentional suspended tension waiting for the plot to move on or for someone to reply.
I’m still not sure what to make of Scarlet, the main girl of the book. She seems like she has the potential to be a great strong female character. First-person narratives are hard because the narrating character is under the constant scrutiny of the reader. I loved when she’d put Nikolaus in his place and insist on her independence. That to me was the real meat of the story. At other times I couldn’t sympathize with her in scenes where I’m pretty certain I was supposed to. She seemed very self-aware almost as if the narrator anticipated the reader's judgment. In general, I think I would have liked Scarlet better if she wasn’t so carefully written to be sympathetic and likable, I found myself almost rooting for someone to corrupt her a little to make her more interesting emotionally.
My final thoughts will contain light spoilers, you have been warned.
This mix of vampires and high fantasy is something I’ve only encountered in Empire of the Vampire and I’d say it’s a fun subgenre of vampire fiction that can be fun to explore but It’s not a genre I normally gravitate to. I think that my experience with the book is very much affected by the fact that romance and fantasy are two genres I’m somewhat cautious with. I think people who are avid readers of these two genres are gonna love this book. For me, all the supernatural stuff about her exploring her heritage and powers just wasn’t that interesting to me and all the feeling of aura and metaphysical battles just got too aloof. I felt like some of the potential of the plot was wasted on it. I would have loved it if the serial killer wasn’t a supernatural creature for example. I would have loved it if there had been a point to his murders. I would have loved it if Scarlet’s gift for reading memories played a bigger part in finding him. I got very excited at first thinking they were gonna go around and revive the undead to read their memories and piece together a puzzle to catch the killer, like the vampire version of Pushing Daisies. Instead, she reads the memories of ten zombies in paraphrase just to practice and then subtracts the killer’s identity the first time she tries. Even that I thought could have led to more. Like when discussing altering a memory could prove fatal I thought “oh! She can’t just sit and watch the victim be murdered, she’s going to alter the memory!” but no. I’m left to conclude that some of these things might not get a payoff until later books perhaps and furthermore that the serial killer plot wasn’t the focal point of the story. As much as I would have liked a more intriguing mystery, the priority in the story was on Scarlet figuring out what she was, and to some people, that’s a riveting story too. Her being a nymph is almost more centralized than all the vampire stuff.
I found the most gripping part of the story to be the strange dynamic she has with Nikolaus. The climax of the book to me is the confrontation she has with him right after he kills her killer, robbing her of the justice they all worked so hard to get her. The way he reveals himself to her. Reveals that he takes pleasure in her fear, how she’s just another vulnerable woman to him who gave herself to him blinded by his beauty. The fact that he isn’t at all very different from the person who murdered her, he loves murder himself. There’s so much at stake here, one because she can’t sever her ties to him because of the master/vassal relationship, and two because not only has he revealed this but he also proved to be terribly selfish and emotionally inept in a situation where she needed his understanding and support the most. He turns out to be more harrowing in my eyes than the two-dimensional serial killer. This was a moment I felt actually had some weight to it because it was built throughout the book. Their lust at first sight, magical connection, and insecurities come to a collision. After this fight, when there wasn’t a confrontation later, no talk or apology, no consequence I was left looking at my kindle in disbelief haha. I really hope this goes somewhere in further books. There’s potential for some interesting outcomes. Either Nikolaus becomes powerful enough to control Scarlet and their love turns into hatred, or Scarlet somehow manages to become the master because her powers keep growing too, what would that do to his wounded pride and desire to own her? Maybe they do sever the connection, I can almost see a sort of Geralt and Yennifer dilemma here of not knowing if you’re in love or just under a spell. Or perhaps Nikolaus manages to admit his faults?
In conclusion: This is a typical contemporary iteration of vampires with an arcane fantasy twist. The plot is a little simple to give way to the main character's self-exploration. The mystery of the narrative is just a backdrop to project the complicated character dynamic between the two protagonists but it does hold its punch. For anyone who enjoys romance and fantasy with ornate language, this might just be your thing. I had some hesitations with the genre but ultimately still found lots of things to like about it and I’m curious to see how the story develops further.
Thank you again, very much for letting me read this. I appreciate the art you put into the world and the bravery it takes to share it. You can buy the book on amazon.
Empire of the Vampire Review
3/5: This might possibly be the edgiest book I've ever read and honestly I can appreciate a book for not being afraid to read like its entir
Rating: 3/5 stars Sadly tumblr has decided for some very strange reason to put a character limit on posts despite this literally being a blogging website.. Quite baffling to me. But after scouring the internet for an alternative when I realised tumblr wasn't going to be able to accommodate the kind of mad ramblings I'm trying to put out, I've sadly not been able to find anything as easily accessible to me. Therefore the full review will be accessible on goodreads. You're free to come interact with this post or comment on the review on goodreads. The below review is more so an except of thoughts and commentary than a full on review. This is still a completely new blog to me so I'm still sort of figuring out the format.. Review: Empire of the Vampire is an attempt at going against the contemporary evolving vampire and reverting it to what Kristoff remembers vampires to be like when he grew up; monsters. There's definitely a real sense of an "original vampire" or trope of vampire fiction here that contemporary fiction has somehow distorted. I don't agree with this notion simply from a historical point of view and I might very well make a more in depth post about this later on. but I don't actually think kristoff manages to create a new sort of "old school" vampire here. I think his vampires are very contemporary. There are both attractive alluring villains and anti-heroes despite that being Kristoff's claim of what contemporary vampires are like. His vampires are definitely monstrous but I don't think I would quite define them as monsters the way his idea of "reverting the vampire back to its origin" leads me to assume a monster would be. Sure there are some corpse almost zombie like vampire creatures that definitely categorise as monsters but what makes all the vampires that matters in this book monsters are more so their disregard for human life and delight in carnage and suffering. So what is new about this iteration of the vampire? To me this book flips what is vampiric on its head. Often the vampire is used to express otherness, wether that be queerness, femininity, race, imperialistic foreign anxieties, degeneration, critique of the aristocracy and what have you. In some of the most defining works of the genre I dare say vampirism is especially the sensually feminine, but in Empire of the Vampire the vampiric is masculinity. And that is something I have not seen before, at least not to this extent. The vampiric in Gabriel's blood is often described as some kind of beast lurking under the surface. It's powerful and in all respects a masculine energy. To Gabriel it's both a physical strength and special supernatural skill but it's also sturdiness and lust. The lust especially isn't something sensual or emotional necessarily. It's a physical temptation that he has a hard time controlling. There's something animalistic about it, instinctual and the fact that women can't be halfbloods, that it's a "burden" only men can bare really hones it in. A burden of animalistic instinctual masculinity and how it's both a source of power and strength but often times also violent and apathetic. That to me is interesting, I'm not sure if I like it but it fascinates me.
Welcome!
On this blog I review, discuss and analyse mostly (but not limited to) books about all things vampiric. You're very welcome to join in with your own thoughts, recommendations or suggestions. If you have a book you'd like me to review or just a question about something vampire related the ask box is there for you. Don't be shy, I don't bite... - ,,-