Recommended Vampire Readings For Teens
" 'I am glad you found your way in here, for I am sure there is much that will interest you. These friends' - and he laid his hand on some of the books - 'have been good friends to me,'... "
I'm always happy to pass on information about a book that I've read and fallen in love with. Most of the favorites I have found over the years have been in the horror genre, primarily vampire books. I fell in love with vampire stories as a teen, and have followed through with a voracious reading appetite to this day.
Andy Rose wrote in "Is There A True 'American Vampire' Myth?":"The vampire has been portrayed in Hollywood...as a creature of the night who is suave, debonair, quite beautiful and hypnotically seductive. This vampire is a desirable creature, one that many mortals would become, yet in the ancient myths of other cultures, the vampire is an ugly, vile, evil creature, one that no mortal would choose to become."
There are as many reasons for the appeal of vampires as there are readers. The special appeal of horror for teen readers can be simplified to their daily struggles, where they are exploring their place in the world, and the limits it places on them. The growth of vampire literature and all associated media is not suprising. The primary example of how these new vampire shows, books, and movies has exploded can be seen in the popularity of "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer."
As Steve Erickson stated in his Unspun column for
Salon.com:
"Buffy" is the best and most currently prominent example of a cultural phenomenon I'll call...Teen Millennium...As a movement Teen Millennium may have begun in the mid-'70s with Brian De Palma's "Carrie," but it really coalesced 10 years ago with Winona Ryder in "Heathers" and David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" TV series... In these shows and movies, teenage life is the millennium, with every kid born after 1981 his or her own walking apocalypse. In "escapist" fare like "Buffy" or "Scream," in more serious efforts like Larry Clark's "Kids" and somewhere between the two...epic themes of cosmic judgment, moral retribution and spiritual redemption are as commonplace as the horrors that engender them: kids abused, violated, assaulted, overdosed, murdered, possessed and haunted as a matter of routine."
WARNING: Do not read these stories late at night, as they may cause nightmares or uncontrollable urges to read till the crack of dawn
Sometimes we all need to take a break from the horrors of our own reality, and exploring vampire fiction is a great way to do it.
The following list contains interesting, spine-tingling stories of vampire fiction...peruse them at your own fright!!!
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes -- Demon In My View
Elaine Bergstrom -- Shattered Glass
Laurell K. Hamilton -- Guilty Pleasures
Annette Curtis Klause -- The Silver Kiss
Anne Rice -- Interview With The Vampire
L.J. Smith -- The Awakening
Additional Resources
This website was originally created by Denise DeBrock in the Spring of 2002 as a project for LIS 304FO at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Please do not copy any portion of this project without the permission of the author. Last updated on July 1, 2002.