Hello Pride Month revellers, how about we talk blood and biting today? I mean, let’s be honest, vampires and monsters have always stood in for queerfolk, whether we’re talking through the lens of panicked othering of anyone different (who must, then, be soulless monsters!) or just because so many queer people are the first to look at outcast monsters and be like, “That’s hot.”
I mean come on. Carmilla? There’s some major sapphic bite happening there. It’s not subtext. It’s just text.
Sorry, where was I? Vampires! Right. I, too, have delved into the writing of the queer vampire with Luc, a French Canadian vampire who is one of the three protagonists in Triad Blood (and the rest of the trilogy). Contemporary urban fantasy is full of awesome vampire types, and I have two more suggestions for you today…
Suggestions with bite, even.
First off, if you never thought to combine sororities and fraternities with blood-sucking demonic creatures of the night but wished you had, I have good news for you: Rebekah Weatherspoon was on the case years ago, and you now have three awesome books ahead of you, starting with Better off Red.
Weatherspoon’s world building is awesome, the characters sink their teeth in and don’t let go (I know, I know, sorry), and Ginger’s path from “I’m just here to get my education, damnit!” to “Sorry, the sexy lady is a what-now?” to “Yeah, okay, I want this!” is fantastic, and all against the backdrop of a freaking sorority. Like, I cannot tell you how much of an uphill climb an author has getting me to want to care about a fraternity or a sorority setting. Turns out the answer is vampires.
And, when you’re done, hop on right into Blacker than Blue and Soul to Keep. You’re welcome!
Every sorority has its secrets…
And college freshman Ginger Carmichael couldn’t care less. She has more important things on her mind, like maintaining her perfect GPA. No matter how much she can’t stand the idea of the cliques and the matching colors, there’s something about the girls of Alpha Beta Omega—their beauty, confidence, and unapologetic sexuality—that draws Ginger in. But once initiation begins, Ginger finds that her pledge is more than a bond of sisterhood, it’s a lifelong pact to serve six bloodthirsty demons with a lot more than nutritional needs.
Despite her fears, Ginger falls hard for the immortal queen of this nest, and as the semester draws to a close, she sees that protecting her family from the secret of her forbidden love is much harder than studying for finals.
Next up, we go down-under to Sydney. Now, if you’ve been around here long, you know I don’t often visit horror-like or horror-adjacent reading because I am a giant wuss. That said, I make exceptions whenever Christian Baines puts out a new book, and that’s because of his Arcadia Trust series, which began with The Beast Without.
First off, you don’t get to call Reylan a vampire to his face. He’s a Blood Shade, thankyouvery much, and that’s just one of the components of Baines’s world building I love so much in these books: it’s not just that we get to see a place that rarely gets the contemporary fantasy treatment, it’s that he takes most of the staple beings of the genre, and gives them a unique twist or two. They’re still vampires and werewolves and the like, but they’re also Baines’s vampires and werewolves.
The series is currently four books strong, too, continuing with The Orchard of Flesh (that title!), Sins of the Son, and the newly released Tears in Time (and to answer the question does “Tears” mean tears as in ‘from the eyes’ or tears as in ‘rips’? Yes.)
Reylan is everything a Sydney vampire aspires to be: wealthy, handsome and independent, carefully feeding off companions plucked from the gay bars of Oxford Street.
When one of those companions is killed by Jorgas, a hot-headed young werewolf prowling his streets, Reylan reluctantly puts his cherished lifestyle of blood and boys on hold to help a mysterious alliance of supernatural beings track down the beast. It can’t be that hard… not when Jorgas keeps coming after him. But there’s more to this werewolf than a body count and a bad attitude.
As their relationship grows deeper and more twisted, Reylan tastes Jorgas’ blood, reawakening desires the vampire had thought long dead. And what evolves between them may be far more dangerous than some rival predator in the dark…
Any good queer vampire books bitten you of late? Let me know!
'Nathan Burgoine 