Needing some holiday reading (what, you don’t read horror at the holidays!?) I got myself a copy to read over Christmas, and can I just tell you how wonderful it is! It is! So wonderful! I mean that. It’s dark. The vampires are evil, depraved creatures. The people are terrified and bloody. It’s full of all that is awesome about vampire stories.
I used to love vampire stories. I say used to because they lost the wicked that was part of the myth. These are evil creatures hunting and feasting on humans not kind vampires who are happy chasing down wildlife and feeling guilty about it. Cruelty has been reinserted into their personalities once more with this collection. And I like it. Happy go lucky vampires are not my thing.
The stories and authors in this collection:
A New Life by J. F. Gonzalez
What Once was Flesh by Tim Waggoner
The Darkton Circus Mystery by Elizabeth Massie
Robot Vampire by R. J. Sullivan
Beneath a Templar Cross by Gord Rollo
The Weapon of Memory by Kyle S. Johnson
The Excavation by Stephen Zimmer
Skraeling by Joel A. Sutherland
Dreams of Winter by Bob Freeman
Dracula’s Winkee: Bloodsucker Blues by Gregory L. Hall
I Fuck Your Sunshine by Lucy A. Snyder
A Soldier’s Story by Maurice Broaddus
Rattenkönig by Douglas F. Warrick
Vampire Nation by Jerry Gordon
Curtain Call by Gary A. Braunbeck
Favorites, because I have a few:
The Darkton Circus Mystery by Elizabeth Massie — A traveling circus full of wonders but what if one of those wonders is a blood sucking beast kept hidden and abused? What would happen if the mystery were solved?
Beneath a Templar Cross by Gord Rollo — How far will someone go to exact revenge? Far.
Skraeling by Joel A. Sutherland — Vampires in a frozen wasteland. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about.
Rattenkönig by Douglas F. Warrick — What if things, unexplainable things, appears in your house? Would you fight? Or would you succumb?
If you crave vampires without the sparkle, go ahead, get lost in this book like I did. Another great thing about this book, a part of the proceeds will go to support cancer research.
No sparkles, if it pleases.
Thanks to Andrea at Little Red Reviewer for mentioning this one.
Vampires Don’t Sparkle
Edited by Michael West
Seventh Star Press
ISBN: 9781937929602
Just Book Reading 
Happy go lucky vampires might could be my thing, but I know for a damn fact that my thing is NOT vampires who mope about how they are too sparkly to ever find love. Give me an evil vampire over a mopey vampire any day.
So happy you enjoyed this one! It was a book I bought on a lark, and ended up really enjoying. ya, cheery happy emo vampires aren’t my thing either. Reading the Dracula’s Winkee story, omg, I was laughing my butt off!
I was reading that one in public and got a few strange looks, mostly because I was trying not to laugh and making it so much worse for myself. 🙂