Book recs for anyone else upset that Near Dark is one 1.5 hour long movie with an almost unwatchable last ten minutes.
Below the cut, I've listed each title with an author and synopsis.
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See more notes at the end of the list.
I Travel By Night by Robert McCammon. This is technically the sub-genre of "Weird Western" rather than horror; a Civil War soldier turned vampire wanders a strange west. Mysteries, ghosts, etc. Despite being from a major voice in speculative fiction, this is only available in digital.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. A First Nations vampire revenge story. If you don't know the historical event it was based off of, I'd suggest going in blind but following up your read with non-fiction: this one is heavy.
In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson. Pitch-black neo-noir Texas vampire novel. Takes place almost exactly in the same locales as Near Dark, only set a few years earlier. A killer is turned into a vampire, and hides out on property belonging to a young widow and her son. Gnarly and mean, the prose is rich without being flowery.
The Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson. RELEASE DATE: 9/9/25. Family tragedy, vampires, serial killers, and western vengeance set against a backdrop of the PNW and the Badlands in the 1970s.
Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite. Rice is the biggest name in late 20th century vampire literature, but Brite is right behind (note: he has gone by Billy Martin since the 00's, however still prefers the books to be under this name). These guys make the Lost Boys look like The Little Vampire. A punk and shock-goth classic, this southern gothic road trip is well worth the read.
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones. Yes, he's on here twice. A young boy travels from town to town with his aunt and uncle; they are werewolves, some of the last of their kind, trying to keep themselves safe and sane by any means necessary.
Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville. A single mother on the run with her teenage daughter becomes a serial murder suspect as she tries to dodge cops, FBI agents, creeps, and keep her strange daughter fed. The word ''vampire'' is never mentioned, but if you're into vampires to be reading this list, this is not a spoiler.
You're Always Welcome at the Bloodridge Motel by J. Hunter Richardson. A small motel off of the highway plays host over decades to a strange family comprised of people who look like they're from different eras, don't seem to age.
The Bloody Red Barron by Kim Newman. This is #2 in the "Anno Dracula" series, and does heavily rely on knowledge of the first book. An alternate history where Dracula's arrival in England and attempt to take over Europe gets farther than he did in the novel, this one makes the list because Severen actually has a very small cameo on it.
Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas. Four midwestern horror novels; there's one specifically that I could see taking place in the same universe as Near Dark.
American Vampire by Scott Snyder. The first volume is told in two timelines: the closing days of the American West that Never Was, and the early days of Hollywood in the 1920s. Skinner Sweet, extremely un-glamorous outlaw, becomes the first American vampire after trying to rob the wrong train. He goes on a killing spree
The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilonovich. Part Outsiders, part Clockwork Orange, and part Near Dark. Teenage ''vampires'' wreak havoc in the Pacific Northwest as they wander in their respective packs. The writing for this is unique and wild and the novel is worth it for that alone.
The Lesser Dead by Chris Buehlman. Another novel where the author went out of his way to make his vampires into monsters, crooks, killers, without the frills and melodrama of the more gothic-leaning stories. Set in NYC in the 1980s.
BONUS NON FICTION: Near Dark by Stacey Abbot. A revisit of the making of, structure, and final story of the film from a pop-culture film and television critic and historian. Part of the BFI Great Films series. Yes, it's more or less a 100 page essay about the film, but if you made it this far in the list, you'd probably enjoy it. The writing wavers between that of a nostalgia review and an actual academic dive into the film.
BONUS NON FICTION: Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach. VITAL reading for vampire fans, tracing the development of the vampire from the early 1800s through Near Dark (a WHOLE academic chapter on the latter!) as a mirror to our own cultural and social turmoils.
Honorable mention to The Morganville Vampires series by the late and great Rachel Caine: she managed to include an evil vampire patriarch, his significantly younger blonde girlfriend, and their leather-clad attack dog/body guard/friend. They're YA novels from the 00s and the writing reflects this, the books didn't age very well, and I'm not sure I'd really suggest them, but damn did she ever pull that off and in the process get an excuse shoved in there to refer to the head vampire as "daddy."
.......if you think I'm reaching on why I'm 99% sure the trio was meant to be the gang from Near Dark, the leader's name was Bishop, and Ms. Caine was a noted Aliens fan--her short story "Broken" actually managed to get a reference in Alien: Romulus.
ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMERS AND DISCLOSURES:
-Why these titles? Because I found a couple of them and realized that there's a hyper-specific genre of vampire novels of (mostly male) authors trying to avoid the cliches of the ''gothic'' vampire novel (at least aesthetically, if we're talking gothic as a mode of literature then nearly all of these are gothic or heavily feature gothic elements).
-I have NOT read all of these, however I DO own them all, so I cannot personally vouch for most of them. Some that I read I loved despite any flaws, others I didn't care for despite them being ''good'' and three I'm still in the middle of. Unless someone specifically asks for books that I have enjoyed, I try not to let personal opinion influence recs.
-These are all adult horror novels, please check trigger warnings first.
