Having been introduced to tales of “real life vampires” at an early age by the seminal Vampires (1981) by Bernhardt J. Hurwood, I consumed mass amounts of true crime (mostly serial killers, the mafia, and war crimes) in my teens but I especially preferred “real life vampire” books and stories. I especially gravitated towards books like Vampires Among Us (1991) by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today (1998) by Katherine Ramsland and those that focused on actual murder cases like the exploitative The Embrace (1999) by Aphrodite Jones. These are just the ones that still occupy shelf-space in my library today. So, when I happened upon this one in a thrift shop a few weeks ago, I snatched it up after a slight hesitation. I mean, I thought I was through with this type of book, the serial killer glut in my library came to a head when halfway through an encyclopedia of serial killers I became aware of a profound lethargy gripping me and just swore off true crime (especially serial killers) right there. As many of these “real-life vampire” books integrate stories of actual murder cases historic and contemporary, I also gave up on this subgenre as well. It has been almost twenty years since I’ve read any of this kind of book, I still read books about vampires mind you, but those that dealt with folklore, movies, and fictional creatures rather than deluded individuals that can drift into the annals of true crime. But y’know, I thought what the hell, let’s see if I still have the same misgivings or if this one can set my brain on fire like others did when I was young.
This book did not ignite any mental fires though I did read it in two sittings. I also did not have the severe reaction that the overdose of serial killer material in my teens brought. This book was just okay. I found the overly simplistic at points, it felt like I was reading a book meant for elementary school kids. It did have a few points of interest for me such as talking about being on set for a Halloween vampire-based special hosted by George Hamilton, a chapter on Sean Manchester, a purported real-life vampire slayer, and a section on the Highgate cemetery fiasco of the 1970s. The book followed several self-confessed “vampires” and became very redundant as they all followed a very similar pattern where they all felt they were born with the blood lust, were absolutely delusional about the “benefits” of drinking human blood (there ain’t any) and were emotionally very needy. This does contribute to the author’s conclusion at the end of the book but after about the third individual in conjunction with the overly simple prose, started to drag.
When it comes to these kinds of books, this one is par for the course, there are several “real-life vampire” stories and interviews, a true-crime chapter concerning a man who murdered his grandmother whom he thought was drinking his blood, and Highgate cemetery. Which is what I was expecting. However, there is also a chapter on a “vampire slayer weekend” the author took in England which was plain boring. Overall, it was a quick read and some of it was interesting. Would I recommend this one? Not really, unless you’re looking for this kind of book and even then, this is not the strongest book of the real-life-vampire subgenre that I’ve read. ( )