Vampires Never Get Old

I’ve had this collection sitting on the shelves for quite a while now waiting for the right time to read it.

and it was well worth the wait as I shot through it in two sittings instead of in nice bite-sized sessions that short stories sometimes demand.

The really good news is that not one of the stories sucked…

Though they were all good there were two or three that really stood out for me, the main one which was ‘The House of Black Sapphires’ by Dhonielle Clayton which reimagined the lore of vampires and added in a slaving and colonial angle which put a different twist to the Antebellum, the world of the Eternals is so rich with hints of fae and voodoo all thrown in, but with a spice of forbidden love.

Another that really worked for me was ‘The Boys from Black River’ by Rebecca Roanhorse, a twist on the Bloody Mary myth, vampires will come to you when you sing their song. Embracing loss and otherness with a wish fulfilment of power this story works on so many levels.

and ‘A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire’ by Samira Ahmed was a good laugh, but again with the spectre of colonialism hanging over a well crafted tale.

A great read that takes us on a nice tour about various aspects of vampiric lore and updates it in such a good way.