 A soul-sucking vampire taking children Christmas in front? I can confirm this is not her best work. Oh, it's damage! Hey guys, it's Leanna and I'm here today to talk about vampires. So yeah, today we're talking about books that have vampires in them, or that are tangentially related to vampires. I feel like there's there's only one on my list today that technically doesn't have any vampires in it. But I think you'll see when we get to it why I feel like it absolutely earns its place on this list. Without further ado, let's talk about the vampires. The first book on my list is actually that book. I didn't do that on purpose, but I kind of stacked them by size, and this is kind of the smallest one. Oh, it's damage! Sad day. Well, the first book on my list is And I Darken by Kristen White. This is the first book in the Conqueror's Saga, so if the Conqueror's Saga really is what's on my list. And this series is about Vlad the Impaler if he was a she. So instead of Vlad, it is Lata, Lata Dragulia. So it's retelling the sort of life and times and story of Vlad the Impaler, but reimagining it and then therefore recontextualizing it as a girl. I think this series is brilliant. I absolutely love it. This isn't fantasy. This isn't supernatural. The only thing about it that is fantasy is the fact that it is a female. So it is alternate history fantasy because obviously Vlad, that's what makes it not historical fiction. It's fantasy because he was a he, not a she. So that's fantastical. But there's no magic in it. There's no vampirism in it. This isn't the origin story of Vlad and now Lata to become Dracula. It's about Vlad the Impaler. So it is like historical fiction except it's changing the gender of the person. But I mean, if you don't know, Dracula is largely inspired by Vlad the Impaler. So I think you see why this is on the list, even though it doesn't have any vampires in it. It is an amazing trilogy. I love it. Love it. Love it. It is, it did the rare thing of sticking the landing. The ending of the trilogy is Chef's Kiss. So good. And yeah, I love Lata. What a character. If you like Vassia from the Winter Night trilogy, I feel like you would like Lata. There are some similarities between the two. Any Hoosies, yeah. And I doubt it. Next up I have Fledgling by Octavia Butler. I actually read this this year and I, it wasn't nearly as harrowing as I had been led to believe. Now that's not to say that it's not kind of rough. Uh, it's not, it's not a light read. I just, I guess people had really, really overemphasized, at least to me, how hard it is to read. Hard in terms of it being harrowing, not in terms of it being hard to follow or anything like that. So Fledgling takes a slightly more realistic approach to vampires and vampirism and treats it more like, you know, people who are biologically different and have to live their own lives. And it takes quite a anthropological approach to vampires and vampirism and how they kind of, what social, like family units they form naturally and how that does and does not complement life alongside humans who are both part of their social environment and also part of their, like, food, food source, food supply. So it's really just a fascinating examination from that perspective. It kind of didn't, there were things where it sort of pulled its punches or didn't do quite enough to truly satisfy me. But overall, I thought it was a really fascinating endeavor and I really enjoyed reading it. And a lot of what people find, what I'm told is the reason people find this so incredibly harrowing is that the main character, she presents as a youthful, almost childlike, but she is not a child. She's not even like a human child that was turned into a vampire. She's just, she just looks like a child because of being this non-human thing that she is and she does have sort of sexual relations and interests in adult males. And those adult males, some of them realize that she's not a child and they're totally, like, on board with this thing that she is that is way more mature than it looks. There is that element of like, or is it pedophilia because they're also into it and she does look, she presents as a child. But so there isn't actually any pedophilia or any child abuse going on whatsoever. And because this is not a film, because I'm not looking at a child actor which is what you'd need to have, interacting sexually with an adult male, it's all very, you know, conceptual. So I, it doesn't bother me even a little bit because it was all just sort of like a fascinating examination of how these creatures are similar and get entirely different from humans and just examining those differences on every level, social, cultural, biological, et cetera, et cetera. So I found it more fascinating than harrowing but again, just want to call it out since it's a thing that people have trouble with. So don't want you going in blind. Next up I have Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman. This is a collection of short stories. So not all of the short stories in Smoke and Mirrors have vampires in them, but there are short stories or a short story that has vampires in it. But overall, this is a good spooky season type of read because this what unifies this collection of short stories is the all sort of tales of the peculiar tales of the supernatural tales of smoke and mirrors. For being on this list, it had to have a vampire story to make the list, but it is just a good spooky season read because all of the stories are in some way speculative, supernatural, unsettling, a bit haunting, et cetera, et cetera. Gaiman in general tends to write in that way that is haunting and supernatural and a little eerie, a little spooky. So I do recommend this short story collection and again, it does have vampires in it. Next up I have Shadowhunter World. I have here City of Bones, which I did read, didn't really love. The part of the Shadowhunter World that I have read and loved is the Infernal Devices, which is the prequel trilogy. I read it a few years ago and I don't remember that vampires showed up ever in that trilogy, but they all take place in the same universe and in this universe, vampires are very much a thing that is known and that is interacted with and that exists and has to be contended with. And I definitely remember vampires showing up in the City of Bones. I cannot really recommend the City of Bones. This is the first book in the Shadowhunter series. I mean, that was written. So as is true with a lot of authors, their first book is honestly their best book. I can confirm this is not her best work, at least in my opinion. I much preferred the Infernal Devices. I kind of love Infernal Devices, even though it does have problems. But for being on this list, i.e. having vampires in it, I can really only guarantee that City of Bones has vampires in it. The world of Shadowhunters has vampires in it. Just waited for all devices instead. Next up I have The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. This is another situation where like, I actually, I don't remember if that character shows up in the Blood of Elves. I feel like he didn't. I read The Witcher books pretty back to back, so they kind of blur together for me and to sort of like one big story. It's really only, I distinguish between the short stories and then like the end of the series is where I started to not like it so much. The middle bits, like from Blood of Elves on through Baptism of Fire and through half of Tower of Swallows, I'm like all of that I'm not sure which things happen in which installment where the cut-offs were. Anyway, all that to say, there is a vampire character in The Witcher series and it is, if you know anything about The Witcher verse, a lot of the time Andrzej Sapkowski is taking familiar pieces of folklore, of legend, of, from other stories, from fair tales, from folk tales, et cetera, et cetera, and sort of subverting them or using them in unexpected ways, twisting them on their head, either the story or they figure from that story or this type of mythical being. So once again, with a vampire character in The Witcher series, vampiric tropes are subverted. They're definitely acknowledged, nodded to and subverted. And I absolutely adored the treatment of the vampire character because it was just, I thought it was done so cleverly and it was just so, it, I mean, it wasn't stopping the story to do that. I mean, definitely fit in with the whole story and I thought it was a great addition to the story but I also just by itself enjoyed so much what Andrzej Sapkowski was doing with the fact of a vampire. So I, in general, I tend to, I mean, I have a video talking about The Witcher series overall and my feelings about it and overall I do recommend The Witcher series. Again, I don't think it's perfect. It's not my favorite series by any stretch but I do think it's a good series. And again, the vampire character, I think is excellent. Next up I have Nosfer A2 if you're in America or R2 if you're in the UK. So guess which copy I have. This is a horror book and I guess it's more of a Christmas book than a Halloween book because the vampiric character or witch it is named steals children away and it's kind of like a vampire, not in a vampire, the traditional sense of sucking your blood, but a vampire of the soul. So it's definitely the trappings of vampirism and the way that this is done is very vampiric but it's sucking the sort of life and soul out of children. And he takes these children to Christmas land. So it is very much a, you know, stranger danger type situation. Don't get in the car with a stranger even if he does promise to take you to Christmas land. This is a definitely a horror book. And it's also, I think, too long but it is a long and horrific harrowing book. Very much for adults, for adults who like horror. It is not a light read. It is quite macabre and gory and gross and the interactions with the children in particular are, yeah. So yeah, if the premise intrigues you, I do recommend reading it. I do think overall it's pretty good. I just, my main problems with it have to do with its length. I do think it's way too long and yeah. But overall, yeah, if you want to read about a soul-sucking vampire taking children to Christmas land, then I recommend. Next up I have The Deathless Girls by Kieran Millwood Hargrave. This is a book about the brides of Dracula. So sort of like an origin story for them. But it's less, I want to think of origin story. I think of sort of how they became specifically vampires. And obviously that's a part of this story. That has to be a part of the story. But it's more just sort of what emotional journey they were on. Who were they as people? What has happened to them? What led them to this point in their life and then made that their reality? And who were they to each other? So it's definitely more of like a human story. It is very lush and atmospheric. Definitely puts you in this sort of old land of folklore and folk tale in Eastern Europe. And it is just a very beautifully told book. I mean it goes, it can't really surprise you too much in terms of where it goes because it's an origin story. So you know that they will become the brides of Dracula. But it just does so much with them as people emotionally, their journey and just the physical environment they're in as well as the emotional situation they're in. But I just thought it was just such a lush and atmospheric read. So I do highly recommend this. Next up I have The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. If you've never heard of The Graveyard Book it is Neil Gaiman's retelling of The Jungle Book by Richard Kipling. But instead of a jungle it is a graveyard. And instead of animals it is ghosts and a vampire. So I don't think it's ever specifically, I don't think they use the word vampire. But it is clear from all of the art and all of the sort of everything unspoken around the character that the main sort of, I suppose the Bagheera character if you're linking it to Jungle Book is a vampire. So this young boy whose parents are brutally murdered, he escapes to a graveyard where then those ghosts who inhabit the graveyard along with this vampire take on the responsibility of raising him. So this boy is being mentored and caretaker, his godfather, whatever is a vampire and a graveyard. So this is this is a beautiful little book. I had so many feelings reading it. It was one of my absolute favorite Neil Gaiman books and Neil Gaiman is my favorite author. So what more praise can you ask for than that? Next up I have The Bear and the Nightingale by Catherine Arden. I know I mentioned this earlier and I kind of forgot that I had it on my list. Bear and the Nightingale you wouldn't think of as having vampires in it. But the Russian folklore version of a vampire, Bear and the Nightingale in the Winter Night trilogy is not a retelling of any specific Russian folktale but it is a sort of story that involves and invokes and references and makes use of various stories and figures and creatures and myths and things out of Russian folklore. So you see just a whole bunch of things including the Russian version of vampires in this trilogy. So yeah, it's not the kind of vampires that you're necessarily used to. It's not necessarily in the castle in Transylvania. It is not Blade. It's a different flavor of vampire than you're necessarily used to. Absolutely vampiric. And as the season gets colder is when other areas of the world unlike where I live that tends to begin to happen around October and it's hot as ever here so it doesn't make any difference to me. Where you live it might be starting to get colder so starting to look at something like this might be already good for the season. I don't know maybe. And last but certainly not least I have the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendricks. I loved this a lot more than I thought I would which is to say I didn't think I would like it and I loved it. This is again a horror book for adults so content warnings etc for you know if you don't like horror then I'll read it. There is sexual violence in it so if that's going to bother you don't read it. But this is it's a very funny book. I mean it's very obviously black comedy or dark you know very dark gallows humor but so this is basically I believe it takes place in the 90s and a bunch of sort of suburban housewives who have a book club they're somebody that moves in to their neighborhood who seems to be a vampire. And so it's up to these ladies no one takes them seriously they're just you know a bunch of homemakers who have a book club who's going to listen to them if they've seen something spooky they're just being hysterical so it's down to them to save the town from the actual vampire who has moved in next door. And so this book is I mean it was very frustrating in terms of sort of like what the women women are facing in terms of being gaslit and not believed the way that they do it to themselves as well because they internalize that misogyny and then also like their interactions with the vampire character who is very charismatic and charming in his own way and also absolutely horrifying you know the vampire side of him and it takes so many twists and turns again there there's some pretty visceral horror when it comes to sort of encounters with the vampire it's pretty gross so again if that's going to bother you don't want you going in blind but for a book that is a horror book that has a lot of dark stuff in it I was surprised by how quickly I was reading it and how generally speaking I was very I was having a good time reading it you know aside from like clenching my fist at the patriarchy so yeah I mean I do recommend this book if again none of its content is going to bother you so that is my list let me know in the comments down below if you've read any of these books if you plan to read these books if you never plan to read these books if you've read them all and you think they suck if you've read them all and you think they're great whatever you want to let me know I post videos on Saturdays other random times as well but definitely Saturdays so like and subscribe, join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you bye