Redhaired Librarian

Conference: Bite Me! Vampires in Current Fiction

This is the first session I attended at the conference. It was led by Kansas City, KS librarian Kaite Mediatore Stover. She started with a brief overview of the horror genre, and then moved onto vampire books specifically. She covered the history of vampire legends and the history of vampires as characters in books. The word vampire first appeared in the English language in 1732, according to Ms. Stover.

She discussed current sub-genres of the vampire subgenre, including historicals, westerns, romances, mysteries, and young adult. Some of the titles I’m interested in reading include the Fat White Vampire series by Andrew Fox and the Mary Janice Davidson Undead romantic comedy series. An audience member said that the vampire story The Historian is popular among teens at her library.

For readers’ advisory, Ms. Stover suggests both volumes of Hooked on Horror.

I have to admit, I don’t think I have ever read a vampire book. I’m not sure why I completely skipped over that sub-genre, since I really enjoyed at least three vampire movies when I was a teen: The Lost Boys, Once Bitten, and Love at First Bite.