Vampires Never Get Old

  I confess I've been going through a terrible reading slump lately. This book of short stories has been a big help with that: whenever I felt like reading at all, I could just grab it and read another story. My relationship to short stories in general is complicated—I don't always like them, even when they're objectively well-written, because I'm more of an "epic sprawling story" kind of reader—but I always have a higher chance of liking one when it deals with one of my favorite topics, and vampires happen to be at least in the top-5 of my favorite things to read about. I can't help it; it's an obsession I never got over. I got through my teenage years watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  reading Anne Rice and Laurel Hamilton, and playing Vampire: the Masquerade with my friends. I still play VtM with my friends a lot. Vampires really never get old.

The thing about anthologies that makes it hard rating them is that any of the stories contained in the book can be hit or miss. This one contained a lot more hits than misses for me. The book is full of fresh, fun takes on the vampire myth. I was delighted by the sheer amount of diversity here. Most of the main characters were somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and there were other types of representation, too. A lot of the authors didn't shy away from choosing big, complicated topics to explore through the lens of undead bloodsuckers, be it something as expansive as colonialism or as claustrophobically private as the darkness that may be found in the relationships between disabled people and their caregivers.    The stories that stood out for me in particular were: 

• Seven Nights for Dying by Tessa Gratton: I've always been fascinated by fiction that deals with the transition from human to mythical monsters, and this story does a great job out of exploring it.
• The Boys from Blood River by Rebecca Roanhorse: This was like watching a great horror movie in my head.
• The Boy and the Bell by Heidi Heilig: I'm highly likely to enjoy anything that is set in Victorian times, deals with class differences, and has a trans MC, if it's well-written. This one was really well-written.
• Bestiary by Laura Ruby: The prose here was viscerally vivid, to the point that it almost made me want to stop reading sometimes because I was seriously feeling everything in the story and a lot of it wasn't pleasant. Definitely an author I now want to read more of!

Vampires Never Get Old is a pretty strong collection of excellent vampire tales. No two mythos were exactly the same and I loved most of the stories.

I liked almost all of the collection, so first let me cover what I really enjoyed. Many of the stories had really powerful depictions of marginalized people finding strength during their interactions with vampires, sometimes by being vampires and sometimes through rejecting them. My particular favorites are "The Boys from Blood River", "In Kind", "Bestiary", and "Mirrors, Windows & Selfies". I love the premise and the feeling of "The Boys from Blood River", the MC handles relaying backstory while being firmly anchored in the moment in a way that immersed me very quickly into the story. The ending was really good, but now I want even more with the MC. "In Kind" gives a voice to a real kind of victim whose killers are frequently excused or even praised for their murder. It handles a difficult topic well through a really superb story. "Bestiary" was a slow burn, gradually trickling in details to make the MC's backstory clear, crystalizing in one fantastic moment when the pieces are finally in place to understand what happened. I never really felt confused leading up to it, but that moment of really understanding felt really good, especially in a tale this short. "Mirrors, Windows & Selfies" is a story about using the internet to feel a little less alone when you can't leave. I wish this had a follow-up I could read, it implies a very interesting variation on a lot of vampire lore and I'm fascinated (plus I really care what happens to the MC). 

I cannot in good conscience recommend the final story, "First Kill". Minor spoilers to follow. </spoiler>It contains a gay character saying "People aren't straight... They just don't know better." </spoiler> I wasn't sure what to think about it as a one-off comment from a teenage character, but it erases a lot of people who are straight as well as queer, and it's a bizarre sweeping denial of people's understanding of their own identities. It's completely unchallenged within the narrative. The second thing which changed this from a story I was concerned about to one I cannot recommend is that <spoiler> there's a character who is a monster-hunter, and in the backstory describing the monsters her family has killed, there's reference to a "full-grown wendigo" and a teenage character tries to take a "monstrous claw" as a prize. He's not allowed to because there's a general "no-trophies" rule. </spoiler> Having that appear here just to add background details for a secondary character felt bad to read. The actual plot was interesting, but I can't recommend this collection without giving a warning about this story. Neither moment was examined, and they felt like they were there just to be filler about secondary characters, instead they're just cringey and bad.

Seven Nights for Dying: CW for <spoiler> parental death (backstory). </spoiler> 

The Boys from Blood River: CW for <spoiler> homophobia, bullying, violence, parental death, death. </spoiler> 

Senior Year Sucks: CW for <spoiler> blood, death. </spoiler> 

The Boy and the Bell: CW for <spoiler> transphobia, misgendering, gore, death. </spoiler> 

A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire: CW for <spoiler> colonialism, death. </spoiler> 

In Kind: CW for <spoiler> ableism, child death, blood, death. </spoiler> 

Vampires Never Say Die: CW for <spoiler> sexism, blood, violence. </spoiler> 

Bestiary: CW for <spoiler> vomit, death (backstory). </spoiler> 

Mirrors, Windows & Selfies: CW for <spoiler> kidnapping, imprisonment, death. </spoiler> 

The House of Black Sapphires: No major CWs.

First Kill: CW for <spoiler> death. </spoiler> TW for <spoiler> discussion of body parts as trophies (wendigo). </spoiler>