The Everything Vampire Book: From Vlad the Impaler to the Vampire Lestat - A History of Vampires in Literature, Film, and Legend

I teach a college class on vampires and I read this book to see what it had to offer. Bottom line, it's ok. It gives basic information on the subject and serves as a possible entry point to the subject, but not a very thorough one. It is definitely worth reading if you are first exploring the subject, but your reading should be supplemented to get more complete, in-depth information. The beginnings and endings of the chapters are the most frustrating. In the beginning of each chapter the author offers a paragraph to introduce the subject of the chapter, and then when the reader turns the page the author takes up more space with another introduction. So, there is a good page and a half of wasted space that sets up the chapter that gives no useful information (not a characteristic of a concise history). It wouldn't be a problem if the introductory portions had good information, but they do not. Another factor that is troubling is the presence of watered down information. Definitions, explanations, and anecdotes are only on a surface level, not giving the reader the whole story. That is not to say that the information is inaccurate or not useful or that some portions are, in fact, thorough, it just doesn't paint the whole picture of vampire legend and lore in a satisfactory way. The book does present some insightful nuggets that other books that attempt to give a survey of vampire lore do not. For example, the section "The Indian Effect" explores the Native American blood legends that are concurrent with vampire lore. This is the only book that I have seen so far that gives that information. Those parts alone make the book worth reading.

I've reading up on my horror films these days, and recently picked this up with The Vampire Film: From Nosferatu to Bram Stoker's Dracula - Third Edition and Monster Rally. The Everything Vampire Book isn't just about Vampire movies, but the total mix of history, entertainment, and literature gives the reader a full feel for how vampires have managed to pervade our culture. The book doesn't manage to mention every single vampire book or movie ever made, but considering the vast amount of material out there, it is quite exhaustive and more than complete. If you're into vampires, you'll want to pick this up.