Best Vampire Books

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The best vampire books: from the original count to the modern bloodline. Bram Stoker's Dracula and J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla began the tradition, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire made the monster a tragic hero, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian have each reinvented it.

The vampire has been a seducer, a plague, a neighbour and a child. This list follows him through all of those, so whatever kind of vampire story you like, there is something here for you. Garlic is optional.

The ranking

Dracula

by Stoker, Bram

Dracula will always reign as the true master vampire, the one creature in horror and fantasy who can simultaneously seduce and terrify. And don't let yourself think this is an archaic story just because the novel was pub...

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Interview With the Vampire

by by Anne Rice

In a remote room in a large city, a young reporter sits face-to-face with his most astonishing subject: a onetime New Orleans gentleman plantation owner who, in vividly terrifying and haunting detail, recalls his centuri...

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Salem's Lot

by King, Stephen

Coming in at a close third, well-known thriller and fantasy author, Stephen King, shocked readers with another enthralling fantasy novel, inspired by Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. In his 1975 novel, Salem’s Lot, King takes an...

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Carmilla

by J. Sheridan LeFanu

A young woman living in a remote Styrian castle befriends the beautiful Carmilla, who is left in her family's care, while illness spreads through the neighbourhood. A vampire novella that came out a quarter of a century...

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I Am Legend

by Matheson, Richard

This is the story that influenced the zombie genre and popularized the concept of a worldwide zombie apocalypse. Robert Neville is the last human on the earth. He is immune to a virus that either killed people or turned...

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Let The Right One In

by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Twelve-year-old Oskar is obsessed by the murder that's taken place in his neighborhood. Then he meets the new girl from next door. She's a bit weird, though. And she only comes out at night--Publisher's description.

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The Historian

by Kostova, Elizabeth

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfo...

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Fevre Dream

by Martin, George R. R.

He writes stories where castration, rape, skull-crushing, and child sacrifice are parred for the course. So it should come as no surprise that George R.R. Martin conquered the sub-genre of horror fantasy before he wrote...

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The Passage

by Cronin, Justin

The Passage is a novel by Justin Cronin, published in 2010 by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. The Passage debuted at #3 on the New York Times hardcover fiction best seller list, and remained...

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Hungerstone

by Kat Dunn

An orphaned, emotionally isolated heiress with no money marries a cunning steel tycoon for a chance to build back her life. As their relationship progresses, she grows increasingly disturbed by her own desires, which are...

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Best Vampire Books

The ranking

Dracula

Interview With the Vampire

Salem's Lot

Carmilla

I Am Legend

Let The Right One In

The Historian

Fevre Dream

The Passage

Hungerstone

Trending Books in Best Vampire Books

Dracula

Interview With the Vampire

Salem's Lot

Carmilla

I Am Legend

Let The Right One In

The Historian

Fevre Dream

The Passage

Hungerstone

Trending Horror Booklists