Best Vampire Books
Horror and Romance
The word vampire has been around for so long now and vampire fiction is always fun to read or watch.
The stories that are related to vampires are always packed with mystery, thrill, many times horror, almost always romance, and a lot more that makes these books that we are about to review here a few of the best vampire books you can possibly read.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Classic
Old Format
You will find that this book is written in an old epistolary format, what this means is that it’s not a straightforward story. It’s a bunch of pieces tied together from letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and most of the story takes place in the same year, between May 3rd and November 6th. The only event that is not at the same time is a short note at the end of the book that is written 7 years after the events that happen in the novel.
Jonathan Harker
The character who starts out this fantasy story is Jonathan Harker who is on his way to Count Dracula’s castle located in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Moldavia. Jonathan is going to provide some legal support for real estate plans that the Count is currently in the middle of. Jonathan has no idea that vampires live there or that the Count is a vampire himself.
What a Greeting
When he arrives, he is greeted by Dracula’s three sisters and Jonathan quickly finds out that they are vampires. He meets the Count soon after he rescues Harker from his sisters and realizes that Dracula too is a vampire. After finishing with the business about Dracula moving to England and taking care of his real estate here, the Count leaves Harker to his vampire sisters and he barely escapes with his life.
Plans
The story from there focuses on the Count himself although Jonathan Harker is not out of the story yet. You get to read about the plans that Dracula has in mind and truly find out what excitement this character will bring to the story and for you. If you like vampires, then this book about the master vampire himself is definitely a must-read.
‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Legend Himself
Ben Mears
This book by him is a story about vampires, a town that gets overrun by them to be more specific. It starts with a character named Ben Mears who is returning to his old childhood hometown.
Nothing is out of the ordinary then as he catches up with a high-school friend of his and gets into a passionate relationship with Susan Norton, a college graduate. Things are definitely peaceful there until a certain event sets a few horrible ones in motion.
Kurt Barlow
Ben has returned to this town to write a story on an old abandoned house, the Marsten House, and he finds out that a creepy man named Kurt Barlow actually owns that house now. The thrill in the story finally arrives when a terrible secret is revealed about Barlow after two boys were pronounced missing and the one was somehow killed and then resurrected again.
This was the doing of Barlow himself as he is an actual vampire who turned one of the boys into a vampire. After that, most of the town was turned into vampires and these characters’ lives became super difficult. For more info, visit our review of ‘Salem’s Lot book.
Slaughter
You get to see a lot of killings in this book, more humans than vampires as Stephen King writes his stories differently than many other writers, that’s what makes his novels especially fun to read.
Characters that you don’t want to die get slaughtered by vampires and it is definitely safe to say that this book is very unpredictable which makes it one of the best vampire books out there for sure. If you are interested in King’s books, take a look at our The Stand book review!
Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice
Louis
LouisAnne Rice writes a story that has one of the best vampire-related plots out there. The story starts out as a character named Louis gives an interview about his very complicated, but definitely exciting, life from before and after he got turned into a vampire.
Lestat
His story begins when he meets a weird fellow named Lestat. This guy is the first vampire who you get to meet in this book and the one who starts this wild adventure that this best vampire books review will reveal to you.
Louis is a plantation owner and one day, his whole life changes when Lestat turns him into a vampire because he was lonely and was seeking someone’s company. Now the two are immortal and Lestat will never feel alone again.
Senseless Killing
They start to get along after a while, despite what Lestat did to Louis and they both live at the plantation now, but not for long. The slaves and the people around them start noticing some weird stuff as Lestat kills slaves at will to drink their blood, unlike Louis who only feeds off animals.
They burn down the plantation so that no one can tell their story and flee. Another character gets mixed up in the story when they see a 5-year-old girl crying on top of her dead mother’s body. Louis has been thinking of abandoning Lestat because he wanted to kill this girl and for other reasons so Lestat bites and turns this little girl into a vampire.
Forever Stuck
After 60 years, the little girl starts to despise Lestat more and more because she will forever be stuck in this young child’s body even though her mind is getting more mature.
The events that follow after this are too good to be spoiled in this review about some of the best vampire books, so you can keep all of the excitement for yourself of finding out what happens next and how this fascinating story ends.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Fascinating Story
Vlad Tepes
There has been a myth around the life of a 15th-century prince of Wallachia, Vlad Tepes, that he is a vampire.
Rossi is the one who begins his research and crazy adventure to find this vampire when he uncovers a mysterious book that changes his life. His search ends when he is forced to return home after some strange things that scare him off. He is then found missing with blood all over his office but not before he tells this story to his student, Paul, who carries on his research after him.
Suspense
The book shows no signs of vampires for some time and the suspense just keeps building up, but that final reveal is what makes every single page from this 700-page long novel worth it. Paul’s and Rossi’s daughters get involved and their journey takes them around the world until they finally come very close to locating the vampire.
They see Rossi again, locked in chains, and waiting for his full transformation to become a vampire. They strike him with a silver dagger before he completely turns and Rossi reveals something crucial to the investigation to them right before he dies.
Scholar
The vampire who they are looking for is a scholar and Rossi has found out that he has a secret library near, that’s where they might finally find him. Definitely give this book a read if you enjoy more in-depth mystery stories about vampires and an investigation that has so much suspense that you will want to read the whole book in one sitting.
Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Oskar
You read about Oskar, a twelve-year-old boy who is definitely not having an easy childhood as he is constantly bullied and beaten by other kids. These events force Oskar to have dark thoughts and to be prone to violence.
Eli
His loneliness ends when a new girl moves to his neighborhood. Her name is Eli and she looks around his age but is actually around 2 centuries old. She is a vampire who lives in her new house with her human servant, Hakan, who is a very strange man and he is in love with Eli. Oskar and Eli become friends, they discover more things about each other and don’t find anything weird about one another.
The Eli parts of the story are definitely fun to read as you find out how Hakan chooses and traps the perfect human prey for Eli to feed off. The story introduces a few thrilling twists when one of Hakan’s hunts for humans fails and he gets caught.
Mindless Vampire
When in the hospital, he offers his blood to Eli because he knows he won’t be free after this and just before Eli finishes him off, they are interrupted by a guard and Hakan jumps off the window. He survives because he was still turned into a vampire, a mindless one who is powered by his desire to be intimate with Eli.
There are definitely some strange scenes in this book, but they are far from not entertaining as you are probably going to remember this book for a long time. The events that happen in this book are what make this novel like the others in this best vampire books review and the author has definitely written a unique and memorable story.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
11 Stories
11 StoriesThis book is a collection of some of Richard Matheson’s most interesting novels and short stories. As you can see from the title itself, the main attraction here is his story I Am Legend.
A story about vampires that will definitely be to your liking if you enjoy vampire fiction and epic fantasy worlds. A few of the 11 stories in this collection have plots related to vampires and the others are still as exciting as them.
Robert Neville
In I Am Legend, the most popular story of the ones in the collection, you read about a character named Robert Neville, the last remaining human on Earth because of a deadly plague that has killed most of the people on the planet and turned the survivors into blood-thirsty vampires.
Routine
Robert’s everyday life includes him chasing vampires during the day as they can’t come out into the sun, and barricading himself in his house at night and hoping that he makes it until sunlight.
Reading about Robert’s life definitely makes you feel safer reading this book from the comfort of your own home as he is all alone in the world despite the fact that countless vampires are all around him.
Looking for a Cure
Robert reads books and learns anything he can about the vampires, how to kill them, what kinds of weapons and methods work against them, and so much more. He is trying to figure out a way to make a cure and reverse what has happened to humans.
If you are into vampire stories and the thrill, romance, drama, and suspense that comes along with them, then you can choose some of these best vampire books freely to make sure you pass the time in an exciting way.
Robert Hazley
Robert is a science fiction and fantasy geek. (He is also the best looking Ereads writer!) Besides reading and writing, he enjoys sports, cosplay, and good food (don't we all?). Currently works as an accountant (would you believe that?)
