28 Striking Vampire Books—including horror, romance, fantasy, and comedy titles
Looking for stories to sink your teeth into? Check out our list below.
This list of remarkable vampire books celebrates classics like Dracula and Camille to blockbuster series like Vampire Diaries and Vampire Academy and everything in between.
Are you drawn to reading about the blood-thirsty undead? The list below includes imaginative vampire books that offer intensity and profoundness to rulers of the night—ranging from horror and romance to fantasy or even comedy.
With this wide a list, you might not like all of them—but you’ll surely find something that offers you a fun and surprising new angle to the category.
Our list includes blood-sucking fiction from such authors as Anne Rice, Tananarive Due, Bram Stoker, Kendare Blake, Stephen King, Octavia Butler, Grady Hendrix, Nalini Singh, Richard Matheson, Jessica Cage, Charlaine Harris, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Richelle Mead, Larry Hama—and lots more.
Presenting some worthwhile vampire books to check out—many of them launching you into a whole dramatic series…
Revised December 2024.
Related links:
60+ Special Vampire Book Series—from Anne Rice, L.A. Banks, Charlaine Harris, more
‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Fans—16 Vampire Books You Should Check Out
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28 Striking Vampire Books
#1 Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 1 by Hideyuki Kikuchi
The first book in the long-running Vampire Hunter D series is set in a bizarre and deadly far future.
The most dangerous thing of all is not a vampire, but the one who hunts them—the one who is half them—a dhampir, the unearthly beautiful wanderer known as D. This human-vampire hybrid occupies a post-apocalyptic world terrified by the elegant but cruel vampires known as Nobles—a world where his half breed status has obvious advantages… but ultimately means that he belongs to neither faction.
Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 1
by Hideyuki Kikuchi (Author), Yoshitaka Amano (Illustrator), Kevin Leahy (Translator)
12,090 A.D. It is a dark time for the world. Humanity is just crawling out from under three hundred years of domination by the race of vampires known as the Nobility.
The war against the vampires has taken its toll; cities lie in ruin, the countryside is fragmented into small villages and fiefdoms that still struggle against nightly raids by the fallen vampires—and the remnants of their genetically manufactured demons and werewolves.
Every village wants a Hunter—one of the warriors who have pledged their laser guns and their swords to the eradication of the Nobility. But some Hunters are better than others, and some bring their own kind of danger with them…
The author, Hideyuki Kikuchi, is one of Japan’s leading horror authors. He explained his fascination with vampires:
“Unless they get a stake through their heart or are taken down by another weakness, vampires can live forever. However, I don’t know that vampires actually want to live forever. I think eternal life would be incredibly boring and painful. I thought that when put in that situation, the ageless and immortal superhumans might seem even unhappier than ordinary human beings. I think that’s probably the greatest draw for vampire stories.”
One of the best-selling series in history, Vampire Hunter D books have sold more than 17 million copies around the world. As of April 2022, 40 novels have been published in the main series (spanning 52 volumes).
Find the Vampire Hunter D series HERE!
Related link: Vampire Hunter D: Six Questions for the Creators
#2 Interview with the Vampire (Vampire Chronicles #1) by Anne Rice
This is the spellbinding classic that launched the blockbuster series Vampire Chronicles.
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses.
A gothic horror published in 1976, Interview with the Vampire was Anne Rice’s debut novel—and offered a take on vampires that inspired a whole lot of what we think about them today. Based on a short story the author wrote around 1968, the novel was written shortly after the death of her young daughter Michelle, who served as an inspiration for the child-vampire character Claudia.
Though initially the subject of mixed critical reception, the book was followed by many widely popular sequels. Rice also went on to write novels with a werewolf, a trilogy about a mummy, and even books retelling the life of Jesus Christ.
A film adaptation of Interview with the Vampire was released in 1994, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and a TV show premiered in 2022. The novel has also been adapted as a comic three times.
Find Interview with the Vampire on Amazon
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#3 Fledgling by Octavia Butler
One of the most noted elements of Fledgling is that the novel offers a unique type of vampire, the result of author Octavia E. Butler melding her vampire story with science fiction.
This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.
Fledgling, Octavia Butler’s final novel, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of “otherness” and questions what it means to be truly human.
“Fledgling explores an incredibly interesting vampire / human dynamic unlike any other. Darker and nowhere near as lighthearted as What We Do in the Shadows, but if you’re looking for incredible vampire mythology—what else would you expect from SFF legend Octavia Butler?—this is the book for you.” (Tor.com)
Related links:
25+ Black Authors for fans of Horror, Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal Fiction
[Flashback] ‘Dawn’ by Octavia E. Butler explores out-there aliens
It's Lit: Octavia E. Butler, The Grand Dame of Science Fiction
Best Zombie Books: 50 Great Zombie Novels from Colson Whitehead, Seanan McGuire, Isaac Marion, more
#4 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Winner of the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award for best vampire novel of the century: the genre-defining classic of horror sci-fi that inspired three films.
This 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel influenced a whole generation of zombie and vampire authors—as well as injecting into pop culture the concept of a disease that brings a global apocalypse. The novel was an inspiration for George A. Romero’s watershed film Night of the Living Dead (1968).
It’s been adapted for the screen three times: in 1964 as The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price; in 1971 as The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston; and in 2007 as I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.
Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth—but he is not alone. An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him. By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn…
Matheson said that he considered it silly to ascribe metaphors to his book:
“I don’t think the book means anything more than it is: the story of a man trying to survive in a world of vampires. If people want to assume it later, that's up to them. It has been said that a writer is entitled to an interpretation of his work that people choose to give it.” (SOURCE: I Am Legend Archive)
Buy the book I Am Legend from Amazon
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In urban fantasy author Jessica Cage’s vampire series High Arc Vampires, Alexa is forced back into the land of the living, where she is introduced to a world she had no idea existed. Even more shocking—she learns that she is the intended Queen of a hidden race of vampires. With Darkness coming, and Alexa must train, fight for her right as Queen, and protect her people.
If someone offered you a solution to all your problems, would you take it? Alexa has been living a life of seclusion since her body slammed to the ground in the middle of her championship track run. She was at the height of her high school career one moment and strapped to a hospital bed the next.
Years later, her grandmother offers her a way out, a potion to removes what ails her. But to accept this offer would be to go against her dead mothers wishes. When an old friend returns to her life along with a mysterious new guy, Alexa struggles with the decision of what to do next. There is something about the new guy and his stormy grey eyes. There is a secret there that she is dying to know. How far will she go to find out what it is?
As a little girl, Cage wondered why there were no black vampires, werewolves, and fairies in the stories she read. Today, she’s an award winning, best-selling author who can do something about that. Her many series include Djinn Rebellion, the Siren series, the Alpha series, and Scorned by the Gods.
She counts among her influences L.A. Banks, Richelle Mead, P.C. Cast, and Rachel Caine. “All of these authors have influenced my writing today in some way,” Jessica tells Monster Complex, “because of the way that they created something entirely new. Their stories felt unique and true and I hope for all of my stories to feel the same.”
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#6 Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy Series #1) by Richelle Mead
Love and loyalty run deeper than blood as Rose dedicates her life to protecting her best friend Lissa from the dangerous undead Strigoi.
Love and loyalty run deeper than blood. St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger…
Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.
Mead told the Los Angeles Times that she doesn’t actually know why vampires are so popular:
“I would think by now I would have an answer. I don’t know. People have always had a fascination with the supernatural going back to the beginning of time and with vampires in particular. This phenomenon is not new. When I was in high school, it was Anne Rice. Go back farther, and it was Bela Lugosi and Bram Stoker. People like vampires because they’re kind of human like, but they’re still sort of dangerous and supernatural, so maybe it’s a relatable mix. I’m not sure. It’s something I would like the answer to as well.”
She also says that the success of Stephenie Meyer and ‘Twilight’—which came after the launch of Mead’s ‘Vampire Academy’—has been a help for pretty much all vampire fiction authors:
“People really want to set up these rivalries because there’s a lot of vampire books out there. People want to believe we’re all fierce rivals, and really there’s just so much camaraderie with authors. Everyone kind of boosts each other. If readers like one vampire book, they’ll want to read more, so ‘Twilight’ kicked it off, and it’s really helped my series, but I like to think it’s more than it being just a vampire book. I like to think it’s the characters and stories that appeal to readers.”
#7 Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore.
Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized. Atl needs to quickly escape the city, far from the rival narco-vampire clan relentlessly pursuing her.
Her plan doesn’t include Domingo, but little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm.
As the trail of corpses stretches behind her, local cops and crime bosses both start closing in. Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?
The author explained to My Life My Books My Escape the basis for Certain Dark Things:
“Atl, a descendant of Aztec vampires, is on the run from a rival vampire cartel. She hides in Mexico City where she meets a street kid called Domingo, hoping to evade her pursuers, but they are hot on her tracks and now there’s a cop also looking for her.
“I wrote the book as a love letter to Mexican noir and to the movie El Vampiro. I loved when Ninón Sevilla appeared in movies and lured men to their doom.”
Praise for the book:
“Moreno-Garcia has created a world that pulses with life and terror and honesty.” (Daniel José Older, author of the Bone Street Rumba series)
“I pictured this book as the offspring of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction with a dash of telenovela and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s own seasoning.” (The Book Smugglers)
“If The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo met (and devoured) Interview with the Vampire to the twined rhythms of Octavio Paz, Bram Stoker, and Ozomatli, you might come close to the layers and textures of Certain Dark Things.” (Fran Wilde, Andre Norton Award-winning author of Updraft)
Find Certain Dark Things on Amazon
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#8 Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
“You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever.” 1872 Gothic novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu is one of the early works of vampire fiction. This cult classic has influenced all the vampire stories that followed…
1872 Gothic novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu is one of the early works of vampire fiction. In fact, the book came 26 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). First published as a serial in 1871, Carmilla—steeped in the sexual tension between two young women—this cult classic which influenced all the vampire stories that followed, including Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.
In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, teenaged Laura leads a solitary life with only her father, attendant and tutor for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest—the beautiful Carmilla.
So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her entrancing new companion, one defined by mysterious happenings and infused with an implicit but undeniable eroticism. As Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day…
Carmilla heavily influenced the later novel Dracula. As Slate points out, the aesthetic of the female vampire, for example, is very much the same in both stories. “But what makes Carmilla so endearing are not its similarities to other works of the genre but its distinct differences.”
Related link: [Flashback] Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
#9 My Soul to Keep (African Immortals series #1) by Tananarive Due
The award-winning master of horror, acclaimed author, screenwriter, and scholar Tananarive Due’s classic African Immortals series starts with an electrifying piece of dark fantasy, My Soul to Keep.
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost.
Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever.
Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force that Stephen King called “an eerie epic” is sure to win Due a legion of new fans.
“I loved this novel.”—Stephen King
Buy My Soul to Keep from Amazon
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#10 Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
Acclaimed novelist Kim Newman explores the darkest depths of a reinvented Victorian London in a rich and panoramic tale, combining horror, politics, mystery and romance to create a unique and compelling alternate history.
It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort Vlad Tepes, the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. Peppered with familiar characters from Victorian history and fiction, the novel follows vampire Geneviève Dieudonné and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club as they strive to solve the mystery of the Ripper murders.
Anno Dracula is a rich and panoramic tale, combining horror, politics, mystery and romance to create a unique and compelling alternate history. Acclaimed novelist Kim Newman explores the darkest depths of a reinvented Victorian London.
This brand-new edition of the bestselling novel contains unique bonus material, including a new afterword from Kim Newman, annotations, articles and alternate endings to the original novel.
“Once you start reading this Victorian-era thriller, you will not be satiated until you reach the end.” (Ain’t It Cool)
“Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula…was the first mash-up of literature, history and vampires, and now, in a world in which vampires are everywhere, it’s still the best, and its bite is just as sharp. Compulsory reading, commentary, and mindgame: glorious.” (Neil Gaiman)
“Stephen King assumes we hate vampires; Anne Rice makes it safe to love them, because they hate themselves. Kim Newman suspects that most of us live with them… Anno Dracula is the definitive account of that post-modern species, the self-obsessed undead.” (New York Times)
“Kim Newman brings Dracula back home in the granddaddy of all vampire adventures. Anno Dracula couldn’t be more fun if Bram Stoker had scripted it for Hammer. It’s a beautifully constructed Gothic epic that knocks almost every other vampire novel out for the count.” (Christopher Fowler)
“The most comprehensive, brilliant, dazzlingly audacious vampire novel to date. Anno Dracula is at once playful, horrific, intelligent, and revelatory.” (Locus)
Kim Newman is a popular and respected author and movie critic, known for his acclaimed alternate-history series, Anno Dracula. He has won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and James Herbert Awards.
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#11 Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse Book 1) by Charlaine Harris
Sink your teeth into the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series—the books that gave life to the Dead and inspired the HBO original series True Blood.
Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Bon Temps, Louisiana. She’s quiet, doesn’t get out much, and tends to mind her own business—except when it comes to her “disability.” Sookie can read minds. And that doesn’t make her too dateable. Then along comes Bill Compton. He’s tall, dark, handsome—and Sookie can’t hear a word he’s thinking. He’s exactly the type of guy she’s been waiting for all her life...
But Bill has a disability of his own: he’s a vampire with a bad reputation. And when a string of murders hits Bon Temps—along with a gang of truly nasty bloodsuckers looking for Bill—Sookie starts to wonder if having a vampire for a boyfriend is such a bright idea.
Harris explained the origins of her popular series:
“My initial thought on the series was I wanted to write about a woman dating a vampire. But to make them less frightening, to give them a reason for being out, I had to develop a theory that would let them look less vicious. So they would have to have another food source. So I read some articles about synthetic blood, which never has really worked out before now—though people have made the attempt—and it seemed to me like a viable synthetic blood would be the perfect answer to my problems. Vampires would say, Oh no, we’re not dangerous. We drink synthetic blood. We don’t want to grab you and bite you. And people could believe that because people are gullible.”
Find Dead Until Dark on Amazon
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Built centuries ago, The Vampire Hunters Academy is responsible for the training those possessing gifts within the realms of the supernatural for use of defending humanity. The Academy’s purpose however, is not only to prepare future Guardians for the task of defending humanity against Evil, but to specially train the select for the highest esteem ever: to protect and stand with the Most High’s top weapon known as the Akhkharu Alal, better known as the Huntress.
Destiny was written in the name of Sanaya Scott, the newest and most powerful Slayer born in this millennium and the first ever of her kind to be admitted into The Academy. Street smart, independent and a bit of a loner, Sanaya’s abilities are developing too quickly for her Guardians to keep up with. Not to mention the typical teenaged woes of being the new girl on the block, her abilities leave her isolated among her peers as a bit of a freak-with the exception of her best friend, Maya.
As more truths are revealed about Sanaya’s future, relationships are created and tested…
Jenkins told Monster Complex what inspired her unique take on the vampire mythos for the Vampire Hunters Academy:
“Well, it began as a sort of homage to the late L.A. Banks. When she died, there was a hole in the (black) Sci-Fi community and I (at the time) was a new author and I loved her work so much I needed a way to thank her. So, long story short, The Vampire Hunters Academy started out as a Thank You to Ms. Banks. It was a way for me to keep her memory alive. But the characters I created are not based off of her. The storyline is a intricately woven web of everything that I know about vampires and their origins, mixed with everything I’ve learned about religion, spirituality and mythology.”
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#13 The Vampyre by John Polidori
It’s crazy to consider that two of the most important monster stories of all time were part of the same writing contest.
While we often look back on Bram Stoker’s 1897 literary classic Dracula as the iconic beginnings of modern vampire legend—the fact is that there are some earlier relevant examples.
Like the 1819 story The Vampyre by John Polidori. The author revised the vampire of folklore, changing it into the humanistic monster now often seen in vampire stories today.
In fact, the classic 1931 Universal Monster movie Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, wasn’t just an adaptation of Stoker’s novel. There were stylish character elements that actually came from Polidori’s approach.
(ALSO: Polidori’s The Vampyre and Mary Shelley’s legendary novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus were both entries in the same monster story contest! That event, of course, Monster Complex has talked about here and here and here. Frankenstein is a big deal to us.)
About the book The Vampyre
A wealthy man named Aubrey meets Lord Ruthven at a social event in London, and they travel to Europe together but part ways in Rome. Aubrey travels to Greece, where he falls in love with a local woman named Ianthe, who tells Aubrey of local vampire legends.
When Ianthe is killed, the townspeople believe it is the work of a vampire. Lord Ruthven rejoins Aubrey, but Lord Ruthven is fatally wounded and dies during their travels. When Aubrey returns to London, he sees Lord Ruthven alive and well, seducing his sister, who he kills on the day of their marriage before disappearing.
Find The Vampyre by John Polidori at Amazon
Related link: [Flashback] ‘The Vampyre’ by John Polidori—revising vampire folklore into the monster seen today
#14 Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In Every Generation by Kendare Blake
Return to Sunnydale in a brand-new trilogy set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Frankie Rosenberg wasn’t yet alive when her mom, Willow, her aunt Buffy, and the original Scooby Gang destroyed the Hellmouth and saved the world from the First Evil. These days, life in New Sunnydale is blissfully quiet. Frankie is just trying to survive her sophomore year at the rebuilt high school and use her budding magical powers to make the world a better place.
But that world is suddenly plunged into danger when the slayer community is the target of a deadly attack, leaving the future of the line uncertain. Then Frankie discovers she's sort of freakishly strong. Oh, and there's something Willow never told her about her true identity.
Cue the opening credits.
Quicker than she can carve a stake, Frankie discovers there’s more to saving the world than witty one-liners and stupid hot demons. now everyone looks to her for answers, but speaking up has never been her strong suit. And it’s hard to be taken seriously when your mom is such a powerful witch she almost ended the world once, while your greatest magic trick is recycling.
Despite the many challenges standing in her way, Frankie must assemble her own bumbling Scooby Gang, get dressed up in Buffy’s (vintage ’90s) clothes, and become a new slayer for a new generation―before whatever came for the rest of the slayers comes for her next.
The author—who was already the bestselling novelist of her own worlds—is a big fan of the original Buffy show. Blake talked about the process of adding her own spin:
“My only job was to be a Buffyverse vessel, to recapture the tone and feel, to grab that nostalgia and hold tight. I tried to structure the book like a pared down season of the show, with episodic monsters of the week and smaller arcs tied into the overarching mystery. It was great fun cooking up a new Big Bad!”
Find Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In Every Generation on Amazon
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#15 The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this horror novel about a women’s book club that faces a vampiric threat in their small Southern town.
Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list.
The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.
One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years.
But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.
Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.
Writing the novel, author Hendrix chose to set it in his childhood home town of Charleston and drew upon some of his personal experiences. As he told NPR:
“Getting some blood on the page is the only way I know how to write, so all my books are really personal. This one’s set in the neighborhood where I grew up, around the time I graduated from high school, and it’s the first time I’ve had to run a book past my family before publication because so many of our stories wound up in it. Fortunately I’ve fictionalized everything pretty heavily so no one had too many problems.”
Find The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires on Amazon
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#16 Minion (Vampire Huntress Legend #1) by L.A. Banks
There is one woman who is all that stands between us and the eternal night: A successful hip-hop artist by day—come nightfall, Damali Richards hunts vampires and demonic predators.
Author L.A. Banks (1959-2011) wrote the Vampire Huntress Legend series—in fact, she wrote more than 40 novels in various genres, including African-American literature, romance, women’s fiction, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror and non-fiction. She won several literary awards, including the 2008 Essence Literary Awards Storyteller of the Year.
All Damali Richards ever wanted to do was create music and bring it to the people. Now she is a Spoken Word artist and the top act for Warriors of Light Records. But come nightfall, she hunts vampires and demons—predators that people tend to dismiss as myth or fantasy.
But Damali and her Guardian team cannot afford such delusions, especially now, when a group of rogue vampires have been killing the artists of Warriors of Light and their rival, Blood Music. Strange attacks have also erupted within the club drug-trafficking network and drawn the attention of the police.
These killings are a bit out of the ordinary, even for vampires. No neat puncture marks in the neck to show where the life's blood has been sucked from the body. These bodies have been mutilated beyond recognition, indicating a blood lust and thirst for destruction that surpasses any Damali has encountered before.
Damali soon discovers that behind these brutal murders is the most powerful vampire she has ever met, and this seductive beast is coming for her next. But his unholy intentions have also drawn the focus of other hellish dark forces. Soon Damali finds herself being pulled deeper into the vast and horrifying vampire world.
Ms. Banks once recounted one of her early influences—and the impact it had on her:
“I’ll never forget going into movies to see Night of the Living Dead with my cousins. This was the one movie to have a Brother in a heroic role. And he was tearing it up! All the way to the end! And at the last minute, they shot him—30 seconds out at the end of the flick and threw his body on the pile. I was traumatized. I was like, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to write something and this will not happen. My guys are gonna make it.’
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#17 The Stranger by Larry Hama
“Each have their own rationalizations and have modified their worldviews to fit those rationalizations.”
For vampire novel The Stranger: Aemon Diaz and the Queen of the Undead, author Larry Hama fuses together action and horror with historical research as it details the intersecting lives of a vampire hunter, a vampire, and a film student.
For the book’s research, Hama avoided reading vampire fiction—instead digging into the real stuff. He “prowled used bookstores” in university towns, he told The Beat, buying up obscure volumes about vampire lore, Jewish folk-tales, the Third Crusade, Teutoborg Forest, and the Spanish Civil War.
“I went to the restored Carousel in Central Park and took three rolls of 35 mm so I would get the details right,” he said. “I rode the subway routes taken by the characters. I interviewed a collector who owned over a dozen Russian sniper rifles. And I picked the brains of all my Irish, Puerto Rican and Jewish friends endlessly.”
Hama also used these characters to explore different ideas about good and evil. “Each have their own rationalizations and have modified their worldviews to fit those rationalizations,” Hama said. “The ways in which the characters deduce these things and how they act on them is what interests me. Not in using the characters and situations as a means of expressing my own views.”
In addition to writing prose fiction, Hama’s artistic talents have also taken him in lots of other directions. In the world of comic books, Hama is well-known as a writer, editor, and artist. He is also an illustrator, cartoonist, actor, and musician.
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Elena Gilbert is a high school golden girl, used to getting what she wants. And who she wants. But when the boy she’s set her sights on—the handsome and haunted Stefan—isn’t interested, she’s confused.
She could never know the real reason Stefan is struggling to resist her: Stefan is a vampire, and Elena’s in danger just by being around him. What’s more, Stefan’s dark, dangerous vampire brother Damon has just arrived in town. And wherever Damon goes, trouble always follows…
The Vampire Diaries books by L. J. Smith (and other authors) offers heart-stopping suspense, fierce romances, and jaw-dropping surprises that captured millions of readers and inspired the hit TV show.
Author Smith explains why her fiction includes strong female characters:
“Because I want to create role models for teenage (and even younger) girls who read my books. If you look at the books, just about every heroine has a future career or goal in mind.”
She points out that some of her characters are already immersed in their careers as vampire-hunters:
“Some of my characters don’t start out as strong girls. They start out as shy, introverted or gentle girls. Then the story is about how they become stronger, through their terrifying experiences and their concern for other people.”
The original Vampire Diaries books were written by author L.J. Smith—but the books that followed in the series were written by a ghostwriter (or ghostwriters).
Find all the Vampire Diaries books in order
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#19 The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
A lesbian novel that has won awards and been adapted to the stage, The Gilda Stories explores Blackness, radical ecology, re-definitions of family, and yes, the erotic potential of the vampire story.
The Gilda Stories begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. After being initiated into eternal life as one who “shares the blood” by two women there, Gilda spends the next 200 years searching for a place to call home.
The author talked to the San Francisco Bay Times bout what led her to write this vampire novel:
“The first Gilda story was written as an angry response to being harassed on the street by a couple of guys. Instead of scurrying away, I screamed at them so hard they ran. They thought I was a mad woman, and I was.
“That led me to think about a character that people think is powerless and how she could turn the tables on them. Kind of a revenge story at first, but it developed into being more than that.
“I developed Gilda over time thinking about how a woman with power might act differently from those who’d abused the power they had over her. I wanted a kind of lesbian feminist hero rather than a serial killer.
“So the book is focused on how Gilda learns to restrain herself and use her power. She’s not wracked with guilt like some literary vampires because she finds her place among mortals without exploiting them.
“How we create families is always a central ingredient in vampire stories, and that’s something Gilda has in common with others. She has to learn what’s the safe way to create family around you.”
The Gilda Stories was the recipient of two Lambda Literary Awards, and was adapted for the stage by the Urban Bush Women theater company in 13 United States cities.
Find The Gilda Stories on Amazon
Related link: 75+ Urban Fantasy Writers Who Aren’t White
At 5,000 years old, the vampire Alisa thought she was smart enough to stay out of trouble. But when her creator returns to hunt her, she must protect herself by befriending Ray, the boy who may be her only chance at finding her maker.
When she begins to fall in love with Ray, all of a sudden there is more at stake than her own life.
Kicking off the series that chronicles the life of Sita, The Last Vampire was published in 1994—and for some follow-up novels, the series was called “The Last Vampire.” In 2009, the series was renamed Thirst, with the first three novels repackaged in the omnibus Thirst No. 1.
On Facebook in 2020, Pike talked about wrapping up the series:
“I know everyone is still waiting for Thirst 6. As I’ve said before, I’ve written a draft of the novel. The book is very exciting, deeply moving, if I may be so bold; it is by far the best Sita book I’ve written. It doesn’t complete Sita’s story – there will have to be a Thirst 7. However, there will NOT be a Thirst 8. Her story will end with Thirst 7, and I know exactly how it will end. But I don’t know when I'll be able to release these books. Sorry! I’m working on another story, a very large and complex tale that’ll take several books to tell. I’ve never spoken about this story before, to anyone, but it’s been in the works for a long time.”
#21 Angels’ Blood (Guild Hunter series #1) by Nalini Singh
USA Today bestselling author Nalini Singh introduces a world of beauty and bloodlust, where angels hold sway over vampires…
Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she’s the best—but she doesn’t know if she’s good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option…even if the task is impossible.
Because this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.
The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…
Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter novels take place in a world where archangels hold sway over both mortals and immortals—with the Guild Hunters caught in between, tasked with retrieving vampires who break contracts with their angelic masters. In an interview, the author shared her inspiration for the Guild Hunter series:
“I just saw this image in my mind one day of an archangel high in tower above New York and immediately wondered who he was, what he was doing there. And that’s how it began. I sat down and started writing and the story flowed from page to page to page.”
Find the Guild Hunter books on Amazon
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#22 Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
With ’Salem’s Lot—his second novel—Stephen King established himself an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.
In the book, Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.
But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work.
In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.
On his website, King shared his inspiration for ’Salem’s Lot. When he was still a high school teacher, he taught about Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula as part of one class:
“I was surprised at how vital it had remained over the years; the kids liked it, and I liked it, too. One night over supper I wondered aloud what would happen if Dracula came back in the twentieth century, to America.
“‘He’d probably be run over by a Yellow Cab on Park Avenue and killed,’ my wife said.
“That closed the discussion, but in the following days, my mind kept returning to the idea. It occurred to me that my wife was probably right—if the legendary Count came to New York, that was. But if he were to show up in a sleepy little country town, what then? I decided I wanted to find out, so I wrote ’Salem’s Lot, which was originally titled Second Coming.”
Adaptations
Salem’s Lot has been adapted twice for television: The first was directed in 1979 by horror icon Tobe Hooper, known for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and starred David Soul and James Mason. Buy the 1979 adaptation from Amazon. The second miniseries was released in 2004 on TNT starring Rob Lowe. Buy the 2004 adaptation from Amazon. They are currently working on a new film version.
Buy the ’Salem’s Lot novel from Amazon
Find the ’Salem’s Lot adaptations on Amazon
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#23 Blood Debt by Kenesha Williams
The founder and editor-in-chief of Black Girl Magic Lit Mag, author Kenesha Williams, has a unique spin on vampires in Blood Debt. In our interview with her, Williams told Monster Complex what inspired her take on the vampire mythos:
“I started thinking what would make a Black vampire different from vampires of other races and I thought to myself what if their melanin (the pigment that darkens skin color) was a natural sunscreen for those vampires and they could live in the daytime like humans, but with the powers of regular vampires. Then that lead me to think about the history of Black people in America and how would that coincide with the history of Black vampires…”
About Blood Debt:
100 kills or 100 years. That’s the contract. That’s the deal. But this kill is personal.
32 years ago a rogue vampire murdered my best friend in front of my eyes. I’ve spent the last three decades wracked with guilt over my friend’s death. Why was I spared and she not? But I wouldn’t wish this life of the undead on anyone.
Black vamps are natural daywalkers. For that reason, our numbers are controlled and we are contracted out as assassins or servants. And it still doesn’t guarantee our freedom.
A Master Vampire has been murdered and one of his progeny is suspected. My mission, to find the killer and eliminate them. The prime suspect, the vampire I thought was put down all those years ago.
If the price of my freedom is retribution, I’m ready to pay all debts in BLOOD.
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#24 Twilight (The Twilight Saga #1) by Stephenie Meyer
Fall in love with the addictive, suspenseful love story between a teenage girl and a vampire with the book that sparked a “literary phenomenon” and redefined romance for a generation (New York Times).
Isabella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn.
Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife—between desire and danger.
Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.
Kicking off a whole series of fantasy romance novels and one novella, Meyer’s books have won multiple awards. Translated into like 40 languages, the series has sold more than 120 million copies around the world. The books have been also been adapted into whole movie series The Twilight Saga.
The origins of the Twilight Saga
Meyer talked on her website about how she got started writing Twilight:
“I know the exact date that I began writing Twilight, because it was also the first day of swim lessons for my kids. So I can say with certainty that it all started on June 2, 2003…
“I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately…
“I was so intrigued by the nameless couple’s story that I hated the idea of forgetting it; it was the kind of dream that makes you want to call your friend and bore her with a detailed description. (Also, the vampire was just so darned good-looking, that I didn’t want to lose the mental image.)
“From that point on, not one day passed that I did not write something…”
#25 The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate
A reimagining of Dracula’s voyage to England, filled with Gothic imagery and queer desire.
It’s an ordinary assignment, nothing more. The cargo? Fifty boxes filled with Transylvanian soil. The route? From Varna to Whitby. The Demeter has made many trips like this. The captain has handled dozens of crews.
He dreams familiar dreams: to taste the salt on the skin of his men, to run his hands across their chests. He longs for the warmth of a lover he cannot have, fantasizes about flesh and frenzied embraces. All this he’s done before, it’s routine, a constant, like the tides.
Yet there’s something different, something wrong. There are odd nightmares, unsettling omens and fear. For there is something in the air, something in the night, someone stalking the ship.
The cult vampire novella by Mexican author José Luis Zárate is available for the first time in English. Translated by David Bowles and with an accompanying essay by noted horror author Poppy Z. Brite, it reveals an unknown corner of Latin American literature.
All the different traditions about the vampire are mentioned as the ship passes through the different countries from whose traditions Stoker drew elements for his novel Dracula. Ultimately, though, what stands out most is the creation of the captain as an individualized character and deep, repressed homosexual who must hide his sexual preferences to maintain discipline as his ship plunges into horror.
One of the most respected Mexican writers, José Luis Zárate has developed literary works in other genres. His fiction, essays, poetry, and narrative make him considered part of a renovating movement in Mexican literature at the end of the 20th century. He is a founding member of the Mexican Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy and the Puebla Circle of Science Fiction and Scientific Divulgation. Zárate has won various national and international awards, including the Más Allá Award (1984), the Kalpa Award (1992), the MECyF Award (1998 and 2002) and the UPC Science Fiction Award (2000).
#26 SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire, edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz
A revolutionary anthology celebrating vampires of the African Diaspora, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire is a groundbreaking unique collection and will be a must-have for vampire lovers all over the world.
Few creatures in contemporary horror are as compelling as the vampire, who manages to captivate us in a simultaneous state of fear and desire. Drawing from a variety of cultural and mythological backgrounds, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire dares to imagine a world of horror and wonder where Black protagonists take center stage—as vampires, as hunters, as heroes.
From immortal African deities to resistance fighters; matriarchal vampire broods to monster hunting fathers; coming of age stories to end of life stories, SLAY is a groundbreaking Afrocentric vampire anthology celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the African Diaspora.
Featuring stories by authors Jessica Cage, Delizhia D. Jenkins, Sumiko Saulson, L. Marie Wood, Kai Leakes, Sheree Renée Thomas, Craig L. Gidney, Milton Davis, Michele Tracy Berger, Alicia McCalla, Jeff Carroll, Steven Van Patten, and many more.
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#27 Draculas: A Novel of Terror by F. Paul Wilson Blake Crouch, J. A. Konrath, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand
Four writers from the edge gather together to share their unusual takes on vampire thrillers. This is the Anti-TWILIGHT, with each author pushing to out-do the others—giving everything an air of urgency...
A DYING MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE…
Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion—an artifact he paid millions for…a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer’s field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull’s razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.
OPENS THE DOOR TO AN ANCIENT EVIL...
A rural hospital. A slow night in the ER. Until Moorecook arrives strapped to a gurney, where he promptly codes and dies.
WHERE DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
Four well-known horror authors pool their penchants for scares and thrills, and tackle one of the greatest of all legends, with each writer creating a unique character and following them through a vampire outbreak in a secluded hospital. The goal was simple: write the most intense novel they possibly could. Which they did…
About the Authors: F. PAUL WILSON is an award-winning, NY Times bestselling novelist whose work spans horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, young adult, and virtually everything between. J.A. KONRATH is known for his Jack Daniels thriller series and the Konrath Dark Thriller collective. JEFF STRAND is a Bram Stoker Award-winning author who often walks the line between horror and comedy. BLAKE CROUCH is the author of several thrillers.
Review:
“I always get excited when I talk about this book. It’s one of the most entertaining books I’ve read. There is humor, there is gore, there is action; there is everything that you could ever want in a book such as this. There are tributes paid to past horror writers and those of pop culture in general if you look close enough as well.” (Horror Novel Reviews)
Find Draculas: A Novel of Terror on Amazon
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#28 Dracula by Bram Stoker
Published in 1897, Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula did not invent vampires—but it did launch a whole genre that has generated interest for more than a hundred years and counting…
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the ‘Master’ and his imminent arrival.
In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.
(By the way—in case you didn’t already notice—the edition of the original book that we linked to on Amazon is a version that also includes the original monster novel classics Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Plus an introduction from Stephen King!)
The legacy of the novel Dracula
One of the most famous pieces of English literature, many of the characters in Stoker’s novel Dracula have entered popular culture as archetypes. The book has been adapted into other media dozens of times, with its characters making lots of additional appearances all over.
A century of copycats has done nothing to decrease the public’s interest in Stoker’s charming but deadly monster as he stalks his prey—whether in a Transylvanian castle, a British insane asylum, or the homes of his swooning victims. A classic of Gothic horror, Dracula is a lasting story that continues to entice readers even today.
Find the novel Dracula on Amazon
Find Dracula adaptations on Amazon
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Find more unique vampire novels here: ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Fans—16 Vampire Books You Should Check Out
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Sink Your Teeth into the Best Vampire Comics of All Time (Comic Book Herald)
28 Blood-Suckingly Good Vampire Books for Adults (Book Riot)
50 Best Vampire Books To Cure Blood Lust (Uncorked Librarian)
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Sarah Michelle Gellar Explains How Wolf Pack's Werewolves Are Similar To Buffy's Vampires (CinemaBlend)
Vampire fiction that doesn't suck: Where to start reading (Grimdark Magazine)
The Vampire Diaries: 10 Crossovers That Would Have Been Awesome (Screen Rant)
Sink Your Fangs Into Our 20 Favorite Vampire Books (Esquire)
Remember When Elton John Made a Flop Broadway Musical of The Vampire Chronicles? (Pajiba)
The Best Vampire Books to Read, Besides Twilight (Oprah Daily)
Giant monster legend Godzilla returns to American comic books in 2025—with brand-new stories scheduled at both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. The King of Monsters will meet up again with the likes of Fantastic Four, Justice League, and more in brand-new comics stories.