#horror books about vampires

[fascinationstreetmp3]

i guess that last post is also one of the reasons i find armand/daniel compelling (referring to the books mostly right now but it also applies to the show in a way) because daniel never really seems 'seduced' right away just by armand's looks like so many others are. he's afraid of him, but drawn to him. and it's the horror of him that he becomes attracted to, it's the first thing he sees. he does still find him physically attractive and i suppose he's still 'seduced', but the way it happens is very different; it's not his innocence or vulnerability or sweet face that makes daniel drop his guard. armand purposefully acts as terrifying and strange as he can for four years, constantly following him, being off putting and haunting and demanding and oddly caring at times and excited and annoying and confusing and scary, and that's who daniel falls in love with, who he stops running to be with. it's an unconventional kind of seduction and one armand is an active participant in. daniel is someone who comes to love him because of his nature, not in spite of it; who knows armand may look like a gentle, thoughtful young man, but to daniel, that's hardly relevant.

[arc-tu-rus]

🦇 Today marks the english release of:

Set in Hungary, during the years of World War I, we follow Mina, a young woman who finds herself faced with a dilemma that will cause a major chain reaction in her life. Between hiding her gender and dealing with a threat she never believed was real, the girl must make a choice between abandoning who she was or embracing every part of herself - all while the world crumbles around her.

I finally finished translating my VtM story! I'm well aware of how much I babble about my guys, but now I can finally share this complete work with the tumblr community! Allow me a moment of sentimentality saying that this is one of the things I'm most proud of in my life :')

Buying options: Gumroad 𓋹 Amazon 𓋹 Or simply via DMs! I'll send you a link with the files after payment :)

Oh! And if you use Goodreads, feel free to log your reading progress.

I assure you that I studied a lot of the subject (from Remarque's work to real documents) so as to not be insensitive with the real event; while I publish the translation today, this project started in 2022.

I still plan on writing two more, with each being simultaneously a complete narrative and a piece of their story! But, being 100% an independent work, it won't be here for a while.

Misc. Stuff: Art 𓋹 Board 𓋹 Playlists ♪ ♫ ♪

(Since my "drawing drive" is not necessarily linear with the plot, I didn't add illustrations to the e-book file)

Extra Disclaimers: • I priced it based on a poll I made, not only on bookstore costs, but if it sounds too much feel free to haggle! My intention is simply to share this story, not to become the next Bezos- • I removed all mentions of VtM/WoD creations so as to not have any legal troubles, since this is an official publication (with ISBN and all!). The rights of this work of fiction are also already registered and protected. • No A I was used in any part of this creation! It was all my sweat and tears work. I'm usually not the proudest person, quite the contrary, but it's kinda cool to be able to say that all this, the story, illustrations, translation, graphical project and physical production of the original portuguese release were all made by me :) • Not only this is a vampire story, it's also set in war; I recommend this book for an 18+ audience.

[licncourt]

allegorical vampirism and slavery in IWTV

A couple people made comments about what I said regarding the parallels between vampirism and slavery/how they interplay in the story when I mentioned it in another post so I wanted to talk about it a little here! Adding a disclaimer though for non-followers that I am a fan of the books, so please don't take this to say otherwise!

There's a lot of crazy stuff in the beginning of IWTV, but the ideas of systemic violence and parasitism really permeate all of it. The parallels in how slaveowners like Louis and Lestat live in the human sense is very reminiscent of how vampires literally drain the life from their victims to continue. The implication here is that there's no cost too great to sustain a vampire and that vampires have a certain inherent superiority over humans (this is believed explicitly by a majority vampires in the series). There's even something to be said for the sexualized (usually non-consensual obviously) nature of vampire feeding bearing a striking resemblance to the sexual exploitation of enslaved people on many plantations.

Of course, the usual conversation about Louis' hypocrisy plays in here most prominently as we see his ridiculously selective concern and morality, leeching off the forced labor of enslaved people while refusing to feed on humans out of his own concept of mercy and goodness. Clearly he has no real problem with surviving on death and exploitation, which is why it's shocking but not surprising when he reveals the "aesthetic" nature of his objections during the interview. Even he recognizes that his moral complaints were contrarian and performative, more about resisting Lestat's control than genuine care for victims.

He's remarkably and sickeningly blasé about the whole matter, and as hard as it is to read, the way he talks about his perpetuation of chattel slavery is what I would expect. He seems to find it mildly regrettable, but ultimately a reflection of the times and of circumstance, implicitly passing off the blame for his actions. It mirrors a lot of vampire rhetoric, most of the main characters in the series seeming to simply agree that It Is What It Is and say Well, What Can You Do? Louis represents the mundane evil of slavery and of vampirism, the integration of something so horrific and unspeakable into the workings of everyday life with flimsy justifications and token moralizing on peripheral matters that obscure the violent reality of the situation.

The privilege Louis was born into really shows here. He doesn't seem to outwardly relish his position as master, but not because he sees it as morally wrong, only because he sees it as natural, as his birthright in much the same way we see vampires excuse any harm they cause as just vampire nature, therefore nothing to be concerned about. Radically normal even. The only really crimes that really matter occur between vampires in the same way that the only crimes that really mattered in the Antebellum South were those committed between white people, especially wealthy white people. We see Louis get away with all kinds of bad behavior after Paul's death because he's a wealthy white man, so he can be as drunk and disorderly as he likes, even if it crosses the line into violence. Vampires operate similarly, power equaling a license to do as one pleases because who can stop you?

While Louis is, for obvious reasons, the primary focus of the discussion around slavery in IWTV, it's important to note how Lestat plays into this too in his own way. Not only is he not innocent or merely allowing it to happen passively around him, he engages with it quickly and in a rather Draconian manner when the opportunity presents itself. Lestat approaches his interactions with the enslaved people on the plantation much the same way he approaches vampirism itself, as a means to subjugate others and affirm his own power and control over his situation. He relishes them similarly too, finally On Top after being under the heel of others for so long.

He behaves like the stereotypical school bully who was abused at home, punching down as soon as the opportunity presents itself. He immediately takes the role of an enforcer of sorts for Louis, both by request and of his own volition. In one scene, Louis mentions (sickeningly casually I should add) that he requested Lestat use his position as "a white master" to quell unrest among the enslaved people on the plantation before a riot and Lestat does so happily, even saying something similar to Louis on other occasions. In another, Lestat takes it upon himself to "mercilessly beat" a slave for lingering too long near where their coffins are kept. The behavior is egregious, both the acts themselves and the unbothered way that Louis relays it to Daniel, but maybe that easy acceptance of cruelty is necessary for vampires. Would they be able to continue living the way they do if they acknowledged this sort of reality for what it is?

The final thing I want to add is the way the context of slavery plays off of the dynamic between Louis and Lestat personally in IWTV. There's a certain dark irony to the way Louis, the slaveowner and one primarily responsible for enslavement on the plantation, reacts to his new power dynamic with Lestat. The way he chafes at Lestat's grip on him is almost comical in contrast, and while it's not stated explicitly, it seems that a large portion of the reason stems from his belief that he's inherently at the top of the food chain and that this is a disruption of the natural order he clings to so strongly. He's not poor, he's not a woman, he's not black, he's not even a mere mortal anymore, so what right does anyone have to control him the way he controls others (who in his mind should expect it)? And even then, it's nowhere near comparable. He lives in the definition of a gilded cage with Lestat, not autonomous certainly, but absolutely languishing over a tiny fraction of what others endure at his own hand.

Their microcosm of vampire life feels even more frivolous by comparison, two men of equal standing in all the important ways bickering eternally over the technicalities emasculation, philosophy, and disrespect. Still though, Claudia points out to Louis that in her opinion, Lestat "made a slave of him" and Louis doesn't say this explicitly, but that simple comparison seems to be the breaking point in him opening his mind to the allowance of Lestat's murder. Even the suggestion of such a thing, that he's been made not just a fool or an accomplice or a bitch, but a slave, flips a switch in him visibly. And that tells us just about everything we need to know.

[therefugeofbooks]

Currently rereading The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

[thatdoodlebug]

dracula problems

[mostlyvoid-partiallyflowers]

The most recent episode of Interview with a Vampire let's us see Lestat's side of the story and see how it compares to Louis' accounting of their relationship. As a result, it reaffirms just how unreliable of a narrator Louis is, but it also further illuminates elements of his character that the director and writers have been playing with since the beginning of the show.

There's this part in the episode where Lestat turns to Louis and apologizes and it's framed with Lestat turned to Louis on one side and Claudia on his other side. They're the angel and devil on Louis' shoulders, but who is the angel and who is the devil? And as my friend said, Armand and Daniel are placed into that same dynamic with Louis later on. We are being asked to decide who to trust, who's telling the truth, who's the good guy, but the fact of unreliability robs us of that decision.

This whole story is about Louis, he's the protagonist, though not the narrator, and he is constantly being pulled in two directions, no matter when or where he is in his story. He's a mind split in two, divided by nature and circumstance. He's vampire and human, owner and owned, father and child, angel and devil. He's both telling the story and being told the story. His history is a story he tells himself, and as we've seen, sometimes that story is not whole.

Louis is the angel who saved Claudia from the fire but he's also the devil who sentenced her to an life of endless torment, the adult trapped in the body of a child. He's the angel who rescued Lestat from his grief and also the devil who abandoned him, who couldn't love him, could only kill and leave him.

He's pulled in two directions, internally and externally at all times and so it's no wonder that he feels the need to confess, first to the priest, then Daniel, and then Daniel again.

He's desperate to be heard, a Black man with power in Jim Crow America who's controlled by his position as someone with a seat at the table but one who will never be considered equal. He doesn't belong to the Black community or the white community, he can't. He acts as a go-between, a bridge, one who is pushed and pulled until he can't take it anymore. He's a fledgling child to an undead father, he's a young queer man discovering his sexual identity with an infinitely experienced partner. He's confessing because he wants to be absolved, that human part of him that was raised Catholic, that child who believed, he wants to be saved. He wants to be seen.

Louis wants to attain a forever life that is morally pure, but he can't. He's been soiled by sin, by "the devil," as he calls Lestat, and he can never be clean again. Deep down, I think he knows this, but he can't stop trying to repent. He tries to self-flagellate by staying with Lestat and then tries to repent by killing him, but can't actually follow through. He follows Claudia to Europe to try and assuage his guilt. He sets himself on fire, attempts to burn himself at the stake, to purify his body, rid himself of the dark gift.

Louis is a man endlessly trying to account for the pain he has caused and he ultimately fails, over and over again, because he can't get rid of what he is. A monster. He's an endlessly hungry monster. He's hungry for love, for respect, for power, for forgiveness, for death. He's a hole that can never be filled. He can never truly acquire any of those things because he will always be punishing himself for wanting and needing them in the first place. He will never truly believe he deserves them and as a result, can't accept them if they are ever offered. He can never be absolved for he has damned himself by accepting the dark gift and thus has tainted himself past the point of saving.

[officiallordvetinari]

The funniest thing in the Silmarillion is when Sauron is described as "lord of werewolves" and names his stronghold the Isle of Werewolves, and you just have to be like "Ok. I guess they have those." And then in the next chapter you hear about how Beren was tormented by wolves in Sauron's dungeon, and how his lover Lúthien came to free him with a great wolfhound, and how Sauron sent greater and greater wolves to stop them, and you start to think "Oh, so these are just big evil wolves? Likely thing for Sauron to have actually." And then Sauron takes the form of a werewolf himself, and you get so caught up in the drama of this great battle between wolf and dog that you forget the initial incongruity of the term "werewolf" entirely. So finally the dog has Sauron pinned and Lúthien forces him to surrender the island, and then...

Sauron flies away in the form of a vampire.

[harbingerofsoup]

i will say that about 80% of the discourse (and im talking the idiotic social media style discourse) in the iwtv fandom is perpetrated by people who don’t know how to safely and responsibly engage with the gothic horror genre and i don’t care if that comes across as pretentious because it’s true

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I absolutely love the recs you've given (you've introduced me to tomione, and I love it!) and I was wondering if it's possible to give you some recs in return? There are some books and fics that definitely have dramione / got vibes, and I was wondering if I could share them with you!

So glad you've enjoyed them! Feel free to rec me anything you want. I've read most of the classic recs in terms of fic and adjacent content (Cruel Prince et al), but I'll try anything that's well-written. My tastes run towards weird and/or audaciously creative stuff, and I can forgive a lot of weaknesses in plot on the grounds of (1) ambition or (2) character work. My turnoffs are instalove, protagonists who can't fail, and most Y/A (I'm not a hater, I swear, I just need characters who can say "fuck" when their leg gets chopped off.)

I'm also a fan of weird and fucked-up dynamics.(Wuthering Heights was my favorite book for a while, and as a teenager I wrote an AU in which the book ends on a long sex scene where Heathcliff fucks Cathy's ghost and then immediately gets murdered by Catherine 2.) Obviously, I am very normal.

[lovesealedletters]

about the blogger °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

hi, everyone! my name is bailee, and this is my blog. i first started lovesealedletters a couple years ago to have a space where i can freely express my love for all things coquette, girly, spooky, etc., but i’ve been part of tumblr since middle school. at 21, i feel more comfortable with sharing these parts of myself than i ever have been. here are a few fun things about me, the blogger!

fun facts about me °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

— i’m 21 + she/her

— i have three cats that i love with all my heart

— i hope to someday be a published author

hobbies & interests °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

— i enjoy reading, writing, crafting, and watching horror movies! my favorite genres are horror, thriller, fantasy, and romance, but i have a really broad taste. i also love rock music, pop, electronic/dance music, alternative, and even classical on occasion.

favorite book: bram stoker’s dracula

favorite movies: american history x, the great gatsby, coraline, dallas buyers club, interstellar, wicked, thirteen, nosferatu (2024), dracula (1931), bram stoker’s dracula (1992), anything tim burton

favorite series: derry girls, game of thrones, the vampire diaries, true detective (s1), american horror story, and bridgerton

favorite artists: melanie martinez, halsey, charli xcx, sabrina carpenter, lana del rey, the beatles

— one of my greatest interests is vampire media. (bela lugosi, gary oldman, and bill skarsgård’s depictions of dracula/nosferatu are my favorites.) i love modern vampires, but i also adore the history and folklore of what vampires represent within deeper contexts. i’m super girly but i loveeee the goth aesthetic. american goth, southern goth, classic goth, gothic architecture, gothic literature, i love it all. pls where my girly goths at 🙏

side blog °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

my blog is largely dedicated to femininity and the nostalgia of girlhood, but i’ve also included my love for vampires and vampire media on my page. i’ve recently started a side blog which you can find here: @vamprincessss which is reserved for vampire content. rn i’m focusing on creating a series of vampy aesthetic image boards, so check it out if you’re interested :)

my pinterest °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

@lovesealedletters

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ i hope to build a lovely community of fellow beautiful weird girls, so my asks and inbox are open! thank u for reading this :’) °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

[marzipanandminutiae]

I finished House of hunger, and honestly, I have never felt so judged by a book for finding some thing it clearly set up to be sexy… Well, sexy

“oh, you thought the countess we we wrote to be a hot brooding anti-villain was a hot brooding anti-villain? Well maybe you should consider that VAMPIRES BAD aCTUALLY. You mistook it for something with both a dark love story and a capitalism metaphor, when in fact it is JUST CAPITALISM METAPHOR!!!!”

Hmph. I am going to bed

[lunatic-fandom-space]

i just saw a post that was obviously vagueing about that popular vampirism as disability post being like "OF COURSE a post being like 'what if vampires (bloodthirsty predators) were actually the victims and people reacting negatively were the villains' would do well on tumblr, this is the Nothing Is Ever Your Fault website" and it just pisses me off because its like, hey man. modern vampires (the ones that came about in victorian times, that are loosely based on eastern european folklore) have existed for like a hundred years now and people have been characterizing vampires as a 'species' in a bunch of different ways for just as long, and the person who made the original post clearly chose to characterize them as basically normal humans mentally but a bit fucked up physically. yknow, kind of like disabled people

[clarasghosts]

yes, vampires are about the biting and the blood and the sexuality and the longing for home and community, but i love that claudia in particular is also about feeling like your life has come to a standstill and no one takes you seriously and everyone else has moved onto other life milestones, while you're trapped in some hellhole of eternal adolescence, getting older but never moving forward and never finding the place where you belong

[jannacalendar]

Rewatching I Robot... You Jane. I am intrigued by the notion of Jenny casting bones in response to Sunnydale weirdness. It begs the question of what she made of the events in the episodes she missed. The kids start acting up in class? Signs point to possession. Everyone suddenly enamoured by the new substitute professor? Bones say she's a giant bug.

[cowboycannibalism]

cleaning my storage and I need yall to see my poor original copy of The Vampire Lestat that was gifted to me in 4th grade and I carried everywhere

[hanzajesthanza]

combining (one of my) favorite short story with (some of my) favorite characters ❤️