Lions, Tigers and Vampires, Oh my!
I'm going through my Vampire phase now
As I’ve mentioned before, I was a teen when Twilight exploded like a supernova into American cultural conscience. While many people enjoyed this newfound outburst of vampiric content, I did not. It was too ubiquitous for my liking.
I don’t knock Twilight because I never tried it. I knock it because I did. My brother forgot a book on his swim training trip, and one of his teammates lent him Twilight.1 I decided to see what the fuss was about. I could not make it through the first two pages, the writing was so bad. I’m not against comfort reads. Heck, half of the books I’ve read this year are faerie or dragon or vampire adjacent. So it’s not that I don’t appreciate them. It’s that I want there to be a minimum viable product, aka, writing that’s actually decent.
A further anecdote to seal my tale: my semester abroad corresponded with the other well known phenomenon of our recent past: Fifty Shades of Grey. I went to the Librarie Galignani, and though it pains me to say this, asked for the book in person. My accent was, as always, enough to betray me as an American, and I didn’t even try to disguise it. My reasoning? I was a political science and French language major: I had spent all semester reading either intense political treatises and writing papers on them in French, or reading arcane Georges Sand texts.2 My brain was fried and I needed something 1) in English and 2) that I didn’t have to think about. Fifty Shades of Grey fit the bill.3
Anyways, I didn’t go through the time honored tradition of teen-girls-becoming-obsessed-with-vampires-phase of my adolescence. I do think vampires as a concept are fun to play around with. Like elves, they live forever. But unlike elves, vampires are often billed as dark and dangerous, and canonically, incredibly horny.4 The allure of immortality is thrilling: you’d have so much time to do all of the things that one doesn’t have time to do in a mortal life. Just think of all the books you could read! I could live with the paleness, after all, I’m nearly one of the fanged folk myself.
So why now? Why have I now decided to accept my fate amongst the pale folk? Last year I wrote about Carmilla, and that’s where my reintroduction to vampire lore began. While Carmilla is old, pre-Dracula old, both it the more modern vampire tales I’ve been reading differ greatly from Twilight in ways that I’ve found more to my taste. That is:
Magic
Actual age appropriate yearning/longing
No teenagers
I think what’s happened is that I’m now choosing to be a part of the popular zeitgeist rather than having it foisted upon me. I can weigh the merits of vampire tales without being forced to consume them.
I don’t have to confront Twilight in magazines, social media, movies, wherever I go. I don’t have to double down on my mild disinterest because I’m no longer being asked to co-opt vampires as an entire personality. The algorithm has helped in this way - while it has absolutely siloed our newsfeeds and media, it also means I can opt in and out of my own interests. So when I want to read about vampires, I can read about vampires. When I don’t want to, the robots will learn soon enough.
Vampires are fun to play with because they have certain characteristics, and along with those come certain tropes. Namely, being excessively dramatic, wearing puffy shirts, and being pale. I’m already halfway there, so below, all the vampire content I have read this past year (and still plan to.)
The Serpent and the Wings of Night
By Carissa Broadbent, this is the first in the Crowns of Nyaxia series. There will be 6 books in total, but broken down into 3 duologies. I think this is a neat way to do things, as it means that we get to follow different characters while staying in the same world. This also allows Broadbent to worldbuild with her 3 different types of vampires: Nighborn, Shadowborn, and Bloodborn. (This has to do with their different powers, just roll with it.)
Serpent can best be described as The Hunger Games meets vampires. There’s good character work, a really intense cliffhanger, and some very interesting interactions with deities. That was my favorite part of these books: the gods interact with their mortal/human/vampiric subjects, and oh boy are they petty.My book club picked this for our next read once we finished all of The Locked Tomb books, and I had such fun with it that I decided to make Vampires my entire personality. Even more so when I realized that this duology was completed and that there were more standalone books to read.
The Ashes and the Star Crossed King
The sequel to Serpent and the second half of the Nightborn duology. In layman’s terms, these are the first 2 books in the 6 book series, and represent a completed story. I had some qualms about this one, namely that there should have been more groveling (IYKYK). I actually thought it could have been a trilogy, as there are some plot points in the middle that got glossed over too quickly, but I respect the commitment to a duology. There were also some good quotes, and the most realistic set of fantasy swears I’ve ever seen.
Unlike Serpent, I have no idea what this book title references. I am going to a book event with Carissa Broadbent in November for her newest book (more on that shortly) and going to ask her what in the world this title references because truly, I do not know. My book club is stumped, too. Will report back.Six Scorched Roses
Six Scorched Roses is technically 1.5 and comes between Serpent and Ashes. It’s not necessary to read, but it is a novella and does give some backstory to some side characters that will appear in the remainder of the duologies.
We have science! Petty gods! Hoarder Vampires! Blunt female protagonists! Sweet romance! A realistic reason why someone would want to be turned into a vampire! I feel like the Stefon skit from SNL so I’ll stop, but not before saying that all of Carissa Broadbent’s works include romance of some kind, so if that’s not your tea, I’d get off this ride.
Slaying the Vampire Conqueror
Originally written as part of an Amazon series, Slaying the Vampire Conqueror is about a different continent, Glaea, though we still don’t have a decent map to understand where everything is. Carissa, I beg of ye.
Anyways, we have a cursed Bloodborn vampire and a blind priestess as protagonists, and why they end up teaming up. This book is not part of any duology, and is a standalone and can be read out of order. The characters will appear in future books, though.This book moves quickly, which was surprising given that it’s nearly 450 pages. I prefer the original indie cover, (as I explain here) though this new one is nice, too. The reason these are all getting republished is that Carissa Broadbent originally indie published these, before getting officially picked up by a traditional publishing house. For once in my life, the completionist/feral raccoon within me does not feel the need to have both sets of books.
The Songbird and the Heart of Stone
While it seems like I am president of the Carissa Broadbent fan club, I can assure you I’m not. (Though I do enjoy that our names are nearly identical.)
Anyways, this follows a new set of characters that we have met previously and deepens their stories. This one comes out in November, and is my book club’s pick for *checks notes* November, because we’re all crazy people.
Carmilla the original and Carmilla the comic
Sheridan le Fanu’s Carmilla preceded Dracula by decades. As I wrote last year, this book also does an excellent job of capturing female friendship/situationship/relational dynamics. Plus, look at that dazzling special edition cover. It’s a novella, so it’s a short read, and within it, you’re able to clock all of the modern vampire tropes.
Carmilla the comic, made possible due to the wonders of public domain, follows many of the same plot beats as the original. What makes this an innovative and enjoyable read is that it 1) a graphic novel 2) set in 1990s New York with 3) Asian protagonists and 4) fully centers queer characters. While the original definitely trended in that regard, Carmilla the comic was able to do so fully. Plus, in the middle of writing this, I realized that the second comic came out, so now I’m going to have to go get that the next time I break my streak.Silver Under Nightfall & The Court of Wanderers
After Songbird, these are next on my list. I got the special editions from Illumicrate earlier this year, and they are very, very pretty. Again, vampires: very dramatic.
Just look at them! By Rin Chupeco, this duology involves bounty hunters, vampires, spreading disease, and so much more. I figured if I’m going to be staying in Vampire Land for a while, I should diversity my interests. These are also the only books I haven’t read yet, and if I had better timing I would have read them this month but oh well.
What have we learned here? When something is enjoyable, it can be fun. Hence why I am still reading a variation on a theme.
At this point I should probably just read Dracula. I also probably have more books on vampires in my house that I’m not aware of. But this will do for now.
If you are looking for more spooky content from The Chaotic Reader, I also wrote this post last year on my love of cemeteries and the one book that accurately depicted the creation and destruction of a cemetery.
Halloween isn’t really my thing so this is the best I’ve got. Happy Spooky season, eat all the candy, may your costumes be great. I will be inside, wrapped in a blanket burrito, being pale and reading a book surrounded by candle light. #vampirecore
What other vampire books should I read?? Tell me all of them, as clearly I’m going to be a citizen of Vampire Land™️ for a while.
No New Books™️ Challenge
I really thought I was going to be able to do it, but alas, I had to break my book buying streak. Mainly because I have a super secret cool project coming up and I needed to go buy the affiliated book. I could have classified that as work and therefore exempt, but alas, I do need to hold myself accountable to my own rules. At this point I most likely will not reach the highwater mark of earlier in the year, as I have a very VERY bookish trip planned for mid November. If nothing else I am wildly competitive, so this makes me sad to say the least.
Streak to Beat: 50 days (January 1st - February 19th)
Last streak: 37 days (September 18th - October 24th)
Current streak: 2 days (October 28th- present)
Mug Moment of the Week
As part of my recent travels, my writing group went up to New Hampshire to try one of those Getaway houses. You know, the ones that you keep getting marketed. Oh just me? Anyways it’s a tiny house in the middle of the woods (10/10 New England Fall Foliage vibes) and on our wanderings, we went to Teatotaller, a delightfully pink, LGBTQ+ owned and operated cafe. With tea, most importantly. Fellow writing friend Olivia took this picture, as I was too focused on my own chai. A very wonderful guest mug moment.
What I was more concerned with:
That’s all from me folks. Happy Halloween and I’ll see you back here next week.
And this is why I always bring at least 3 books with me wherever I travel.
True story: our professor made us read a book that was out of print. Out. Of. Print. She refused to change the book, so we went to our program’s head. Our program head, who either didn’t want to get involved or was placating this woman, said there was not much she could do as the book was technically available - on Google Books. I had to read a 300 page French book on google books because this one French teacher could not be bothered to assign something in print. I proceeded to barely participate in class and only parrot her lectures back to her, because that’s clearly what she wanted anyways. This was also the professor who, in her comments on one of my papers, said she quote, ‘hated my style of writing.’ I gave up after that. My French advisor at home was horrified when she heard.
I did, however, read the second two online for free. I was not going to keep paying money to read barely-there-smut disguised as an abusive relationship.
There are not enough horny elf stories and I will die on this hill.
I need that coffee sleeve stat
Also “It’s that I want there to be a minimum viable product” - truer words were never spoken. I read all the twilights right after college at the apartment pool because I was also drowning my brain in booze every night and that was all I could muster.