Top Ten Vampire Novels!

In honor of Blood of Midnight being free on Kindle for one last day, I decided to countdown my top ten vampire novels. I have read a lot of vampire novels. What qualifies? Every genre, from urban fantasy to paranormal romance, ya to na to adult. No holds barred.

For me, vampires are a fixture of both horror and sex appeal, and they can make or break a book, depending on how they're depicted. The books aren't organised by literary merit (for example, I believe Carry On is a much better book all around than Shadow Souls, but as far as the depiction of vampires themselves go, Shadow Souls takes the cake.)

10 - City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes isn't technically a vampire novel, but this fantasy novel has a few of my favorite bloodsuckers in it; Simon, Raphael, Lily, Camille - Clare has a some of the best members of the undead masses, here. Plus, that scene where Simon bites Jace is really, really hot. Jimon for the win, bitches!

9 - Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

These books annoy me, I'm not going to lie. They're also addicting. As much as I often want to punch Sookie in the head (mostly in the later books, as opposed to the first few) there's something about these that is just undeniably fun and entrancing. They get more watered down as the series progresses and other entities are introduced, though.

8 - Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

This is easily the best of the Vampire Academy series, at least in my opinion. It's hot, sure, but it's also got a broad scope - Minnesota to Moscow, people - and a deadly romance. Rose really rises to the occasion in this book and the emotional arc + intense final action sequence leave their mark.

7 - Interview With The Vampire

This is self-explanatory. It's set primarily in the south. It's homoerotic. It has Lestat. Lestat is my husband, people. Stay the fuck away from him, we're gonna get married someday.

6 - New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Yup, I'm gonna go there. Why does this make the list, you may ask? Because while the Twilight Saga is hella problematic and cheesy, it has its moments. I like New Moon the most, mostly because Bella is less insufferable in this, and because we get to meet the Volturi. Meyer focuses on romance too much, but when she focuses on horror, her horror tends to work. Also, you know, Emmett is my husband.

5 - I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

This is a treasure. If you haven't read this you're missing out. There is a certain sadness and hopelessness to this novel, but the vampires are very evocative of sheer, unbridled tear.  I consider this a must-read.

4 - My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

My Blood Approves is, essentially, Twilight with normal teenagers. I.E. what if Bella acted like an actual teenager instead of a forty year old woman? Hocking has said she wrote these with the Scream franchise in mind, having a conversation with the vampire romance genre the same way Scream is a conversation with the slasher genre, and it works. It's fun, funny, and kinda adorable.

3 - Carry On by Rainbow Rowell 

Another book that isn't actually a vampire novel, but is, instead, a fantasy. The love interest is a vampire though. A gay vampire. A gay wizard vampire. Baz is also my husband. I now have a harem of vampire husbands. There is nothing you can do about it.

2 - The Return, Shadow Souls by L.J. Smith

This is just, I don't even know, it's the best. The Dark Dimension was a world that fascinated me, and of course, Smith is like, the vampire queen. The Return Arc took the Vampire Diaries into high fantasy territory, and it worked. For me, at least.

1 - The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike

Like all Pike books, the last vampire isn't for everyone. It's dark, kind of ruthless, and also corny as fuck at times. but it also has competent writing, a fascinating main character, and a very rich mythological tapestry. Also, slight sci-fi and thriller elements.

Honorable Mentions: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Frostbite,The Vampire Lestat, Black Beast (Shadow Thane), Insatiable.

So that's that, folks. All in all I think we can agree, if not on specific titles, then at least on the fact that we all loves the fanged undead. Also that, more than anything else, I deserve a harm of vampire husbands. If Dracula can have three brides, I can date a bunch of immortal studs, okay? Let me live.

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If you like what I have to say you can find more from me on Twitter, or buy my books here! I also have a YA parody twitter.

Why Fangs Matter

A lot of people like to talk about how annoying it was that Stephanie Meyer made her vampire sparkle, but I never minded that. The affront, to me, was that she took away their fangs. Fangs have to be the most important part of the vampire anatomy, even more so than pallor, ugly capes, bad accents, and red eyes. Fangs are my bread and butter.

In all honesty I just love the aesthetic. Something about a pair of vampire fangs with some blood dripping or biting into a throat, that's picturesque. I think that's why vampires will never go out of style; they manage to be sexy and really, really fucking scary and disgusting, all at once, there aren't many other paranormal creatures who manage to be both alluring and grotesque in the same way.

Werewolves come close, but most of the time its no dice. It takes a special author to really do werewolves right, at least for me.

Vampires are another story. That's not to say that I haven't read my fair share of vampire stories, because I have. I've read and reread them.

Twilight, obviously, was the Big One, back when I was thirteen I had that whole Twilight phase, yes. Dark times.

But also, My Blood Approves, The Vampire Diaries, I Am Legend, to a lesser extent the Mortal Instruments, among countless other traditionally- and self-published books. And there are so many popular vampire series; House of Night and Vampire Academy both blew up in the YA genre, so there's even room for vampire stories that prey on some of the same tropes.

To some extent Blood of Midnight (which is free today and tomorrow!) was an inevitable book for me to write. But I also know its not the last vampire book I'm gonna write.

Every once in awhile, you just need to shove a Dracula insert into a high school romance, you know?

And I think there's still a market for it. Despite how saturated it is, yes. How many people rewatch The Lost Boys once a year? How many people still troll Twilight forums or tune in to watch Vampire Diaries every week? Quite a few.

So that's me: secretly rooting for the vampire genre from my post in the doorway of your bedroom closet or the swath of shadows in the space beneath your desk, every night from twelve to four am. I kid.

Maybe.

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If you like what I have to say you can find more from me on Twitter, or buy my books here! I also have a YA parody twitter.

Blood of Midnight is free for the next two days!

Blood of Midnight is going to be free in the Kindle Store for the 24th and 25th! If you're looking for a fast read with some dark subject matter, intense action scenes, and vampire court intrigue, pick it up!

You can find the book here! And here's a quote;

Take This

This is the face I make when I remember the sheer amount of editing I have to do in the next seven days in order to get this book out by my entirely self-imposed deadline. This is life.

The Place of Disappointment

A lot of writing Desperation comes from a place of disappointment; it's waking up and finding out you're special, you're the chosen one, there's magic around you - but it doesn't matter because you feel alienated and none of your problems are fixed and it doesn't make up for the fact that you're an orphan and your Dumbledore is kind of a grouchy bitch who has no clue how to help you. Throw in boys kissing boys, insect metaphors, and old mansions, and you've got this book.

There's this place Val, as a character, comes from, where it's all indecision and self-resentment. He feels like he's wasted precious time and he's always one-step behind, and he's suffered this big loss to the point where he doesn't know who he is anymore, if he's not the person who just. . .survives.

Essentially, what happens when you move past trauma and realize you have lost a lot of your own identity, as a person? How do you redefine who you are? How do you do it when everything around you is unfamiliar?

How do you do that while magical creatures try to seduce, steal, or murder you? That's what this is about.

It's also about paranormal romance and urban fantasy, in general. Those books have these moments where there are big speeches and romantic declarations and dramatic feuds - but what happens, in reality, when you're trying to relate these complex feelings and the words just won't come out?

How do you work around awkwardness and fear and internal conflicts in order to really, truly reach a place where you can communicate with someone? And how do you reach a place where you don't blame yourself for the past? When stuff isn't all big declarations of emotion and destiny and fate, when there are so many moments of wondering and questioning everything, how do you really fight evil or save the world? Because Val is thrust into this spot where he's got warring factions fighting over him, and monsters hunting him and harming the people around him.

He's got something, not essentially, but close enough to, a destiny to fulfill, and at the same time he's dealing with the first true romantic relationships of his life and leaving behind not only childhood, but his home.

Throw in mourning over his father, and the boy has issues. It's a dark book.

It's also a very light book, at the same time, because while so much of his story is despair, Val really comes from a place of Joy, and kind of this childlike wishing of everything to fit together and be simple and easy. He's got a kind of innocent soul, when its stripped to its barest level.

I'm in that place right now, as a writer, where his voice is starting to click for me, and the story is starting to grind together in the right way where I'm feeling the ball start to roll. I can see myself drafting the rest of this in a very timely manner before moving on the the two Dreamwalker books. AKA; projects are going well.

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On that note, you can buy the Dreamwalker novella, a standalone story, here! Or, you can hit me up on twitter here, for more talk about work, writing, pop culture, and pretty boys. (A very important subject, clearly!)

Again?

Here's a Desperation quote! Again? Yes, again. I am having a lot of fun writing this book:

Desperation...

I'm going to draft the next 3 or 4 chapters of Desperation tonight, concluding the first act of the novel, and then have the next two acts done within the next four days. That means that this book will be out sooner than I thought!

It helps that it's a lighter, fun project to take my mind off a more intense beast I'm about to tackle another round of edits on. Plus, gay faeries. It's just a fun, romantic story with lots of action.

Here's an extract:

The lingering echo of death filled my mouth like the taste of copper, and I turned around and plunged into the forest after the rude boy who’d just saved my life.

Rowan led the way through the dense forest without a word.

I spent most of the walk staring at the rippling muscles of his back. He was muscular, but not overtly so—more lithe and slender. There was something slightly feline about the way he walked, graceful and silent, while I crashed through the underbrush like a bull in a china shop.

By the time we reached the edge of the forest, the sun was setting. It had been only four in the afternoon when I’d pulled myself out of bed and left the house, but now the balmy summer air had taken on a slightly cooler level and the sky was a rippling canvas of pink and purple.

We stopped at the edge of the forest, a silent agreement, and stood together for a moment. Across the lawn, George looked up from where he was tossing his tools into his wheelbarrow and spotted me. He had clearly been at work for a while, sweat beading on his dark brown skin. His eyes widened, face registering surprise, and he began to wave me over.

“Thank y—” my words cut off abruptly as I turned to face Rowan.

He was already gone.

And, as always, a link to the first chapter!