Confession: I was one of those teenagers who loved vampires. I went through Salem's Lot and the whole Interview With the Vampire series, in addition to every young adult vampire novel out there (anything Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, or L.J. Smith). This was in the nineties, mind you, so pre-Twilight. But before all that, there was Dracula. Really, Bram Stoker was the reason I always ended up in the occult section of Waldenbooks at the South Hill Mall (much to my mother's quite vocal dismay), as well as the reason why I know so much about vampire mythology and also so much about being buried alive. Information about being buried alive just goes hand in hand with vampires...
Many people who love contemporary vampire novels (which I haven't really gotten into) are super-annoyed by Stoker's Dracula. True, you have to be patient with the novel. It's another Victorian work, and sometimes the exposition seems to go on and on, but some of that is due to the epistolary form (a novel written in letters or diary entries) and some of it's just Stoker's style. Anyway, I was prepared to hate Dracula when I reread it, but turns out: I'm still a fan.
Anyway, if you think Bram Stoker's Dracula is the bee's knees, or if you're in the mood for a Gothic tale of terror, forbidden love, and murder most foul, I'd like to recommend "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (part of his collection: In a Glass Darkly) or the very progenitor of the villainous, but alluring aristocratic vampire character, "The Vampyre" by John Polidori (who was Lord Byron's physician, LB was pretty vampirey himself).
Welcome to the month of Halloween! Open your books, my dear ones, but never your doors to strangers...
1. Ernst Haas, via Grace(ful) Things; 2. Moon; 3. Wolf; 4. Denbigh Asylum, by Howzey; 5. Mirror Mirror, by Howzey; 6. Via Cocained; 7. Velvet quilted blanket coat, by Burberry; 8. Valentino, via Felice Fawn; 9. Bracelet, via The World My Way; 10. Via Nomecalles; 11. Via Amoelbarroco; 12. Wild Woman, via The Lighthouse Keeper
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