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Booklist: Vamping It Up
Vampires have been haunting readers in poetry and prose for hundreds of years.
My favorite fangy fiction pieces include:
Individually, Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski rock. Put them together and you've got some extremely good times. The Menagerie series brings together legendary characters, making this an excellent recommendation for those who like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. One of my favorite members of The Menagerie is Eve, who became a vampire after she fell from grace. She fights on the side of good now, and she is both ferocious and fashionable. The Menagerie is written for adults.
The Nimble Man
Tears of the Furies
Stones Unturned
Crashing Paradise
Now hear this: Christopher Golden's Saints and Shadows Saga is for adults. In the vein of gothic, gutsy vampire stories, it contains death, vengeance, adult language, adult situations, and violence. The Saga should be read in order, though you could easily read the last book independently.
Of Saints and Shadows
Angel Souls and Devil Hearts
Of Masques and Martyrs
The Gathering Dark
Scott Westerfeld infuses horror, comedy, and science into a funny tale for teens called Peeps. (Click for my review.) Peeps is wicked tasty, people. Delicious. Its follow-up, The Last Days, is good, but Peeps is great.
Here are some contemporary series that my teen customers really enjoy:
We all know about the basic star-crossed vampire romance in which a human girl falls for an immortal boy. Stephenie Meyer breathed fresh life into this storyline, and her books have become international bestsellers.
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Midnight Sun (forthcoming)
Check out Mari Mancusi's comedic trilogy about twin girls quasi-unwillingly become vampires and vampire slayers.
Boys That Bite
Stake That!
Girls That Growl
Brace yourself for Serena Robar's comedic trilogy about a cheerleader who is made into a vampire. The first book takes place while she is in high school; the second and third books find her at college, in a very special sorority.
Braced2Bite
Fangs4Freaks
Dating4Demons
There are plenty of teen books from the past twenty years that vamp it up, and I could list those for days. They include but not limited to those by Richie Tankersley Cusick (recommended), Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, L.J. Smith, Darren Shan, Carla Jablonski, Vivian Vande Velde, Ellen Schreiber, and Pete Hautman.
Also check out the original novels and short stories related to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Some are for teens, others for adults. I highly recommend those written by Christopher Golden and/or Tom Sniegoski, especially their BtVS/Angel crossover Monster Island and Golden's The Lost Slayer.
Need something vampiric yet innocuous for a younger reader? You must pick up Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe. The title character is a pet bunny. Instead of sucking blood, he sucks juice out of vegetables. The book is narrated by Harold the dog, who, along with Chester the cat, knows Bunnicula's secret. This book led to many more full-length books and short story collections. Here's the order of the novels:
Bunnicula
Howliday Inn
The Celery Stalks at Midnight
Nighty-Nightmare
Return to Howliday Inn
Vampire Island by Adele Griffin introduces readers to the Livingstones, a family of fruit bat vampire hybrids who are trying to lead "normal" lives in modern-day New York. Lexie, the oldest child, who likes to recite poetry; Maddy, the middle child and main character, who means well but often gets into tricky situations; and Hudson, the youngest, who can still morph into a bat and is fond of antiquated words and phrases. The family members are now trying to be vegan and are aging a year at a time, like mortals, after being around for hundreds of years. The second book in the line, The Knaveheart's Curse, will be available in the spring of 2008.
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