Fantasy/Horror/Scifi Book Club - Vampires

Hello everyone

In September we had a meeting on the theme of Conspiracies, a picture of some of the books we read is attached.

For October we are hungry for the theme of VAMPIRES.

So going for a very traditional horror monster for Halloween, but for those who don’t want to read horror, vampires should offer some choice as they pop up in various fantasy settings, paranormal romance and sci-fi. You might also want to think outside the box and go with other blood or life-force drinking creatures that are vampire adjacent, like chupacabra .

As always you are free to read whatever you wish, as strictly or loosely as it fits the theme, and come and tell us about it on the day and whether you’d recommend it.

Below are examples from our members to set the mood and give inspiration, but you are not limited to them.

• The Vampyre, by John William Polidori (1819) - The progenitor of the more romantic noble vision of vampires, featuring a young man trying to protect his sister from a vampire noble.
• Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872) – A novella predating Dracula again furthering the more aristocratic vampire trope, when a female vampire boards with a rich family and starts preying on their daughter.
• Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1897) - The book that established modern vampire lore.
• I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (1954) – A post-apocalyptic horror where the last surviving man on a plague-devastated Earth must hunt the infected, vampire-like masses by day.
• Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King (1975) – An author who returns to his hometown only to find it overrun by a nest of vampires.
• The Space Vampires, by Colin Wilson (1976) - A sci-fi example, energy vampires from outer space invade Earth.
• Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice (1976) - A vampire tells his 200-year-long life story to a reporter.
• The Keep, by Paul Wilson (1981) - In WW2, German soldiers occupy a remote Romanian fortress not knowing a vampire lives there.
• Necroscope, by Brian Lumley (1986) - Harry Keogh can talk to the dead, as he uses his unique power to fight monstrous, parasitic vampires.
• Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman (1992) - An alternate history where Count Dracula defeated his pursuers, married Queen Victoria, and turns Britain into an empire ruled by vampires.
• Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris (2001) - The book True Blood tv show is based on. Vampires have gone public, and a waitress starts dating one, meanwhile there’s someone killing people in town.
• Empire of the Vampire, by Jay Kristoff (2001) - High fantasy example, set in a world where the sun has stopped rising for decades, an aging holy warrior recounts his journey fighting bloodthirsty vampire dynasties in a crumbling empire.
• Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2004) - A young boy befriends a new girl in the neighbourhood, who turns out to be a vampire.
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005) - A young woman and her father embark on a continent-spanning quest through archives and monasteries to track down Dracula.
• Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer (2005) - A high school girl moves to a small town and discovers the boy sitting next to her in biology is a vampire.
• Blightsight, by Peter Watts (2006) - Sci-fi example, where vampires are put in charge of a first-contact mission to the outer solar system
• Out of the Dark, by David Weber (2010) - Sci-fi example, where Aliens invade Earth, things happen.
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones (2025) - A professor discovers a manuscript that narrates the story of Good Stab, a Blackfeet native american who encounters a vampire.