80 books like Vampires Today

By Joseph Laycock,

Here are 80 books that Vampires Today fans have personally recommended if you like Vampires Today. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Religion and Its Monsters

Steve A. Wiggins Author Of Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies

From my list on bringing horror and religion into conversation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up religious but loving scary things—horror movies, scary comic books, Dark Shadows, and The Twilight Zone. Even the music of Alice Cooper. While I’m no longer religious, I have a doctorate in religious studies and I still have a fascination with media that cause fear. I also write horror stories. Beyond Holy Horror I have written two more books on religion and horror and I read every book about this odd combination as soon as I can get my hands on it. I believe you should never judge people by their tastes in media—they can be decent folk even if they like horror.

Steve's book list on bringing horror and religion into conversation

Steve A. Wiggins Why did Steve love this book?

Religion and Its Monsters started this whole conversation.

Timothy Beal successfully transitioned from an author of academic books to an author of trade books, and this one shows how he did it. He selected two unexpectedly compatible subjects and demonstrated that they lurk in the same mental spaces.

I was inspired by this book to allow myself to reclaim my childhood interest in monsters as an adult. If serious scholars wrote about such things, why shouldn’t I read about them?

Unfortunately, Beal never followed up with another book on the topic.

By Timothy K. Beal,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Religion and Its Monsters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Religion's great and powerful mystery fascinates us, but it also terrifies. So too the monsters that haunt the stories of the Judeo-Christian mythos and earlier traditions: Leviathan, Behemoth, dragons, and other beasts. In this unusual and provocative book, Timothy K. Beal writes about the monsters that lurk in our religious texts, and about how monsters and religion are deeply entwined. Horror and faith are inextricable. Ans as monsters are part of religious texts and traditions, so religion lurks in the modern horror genre, from its birth in Dante's Inferno to the contemporary spookiness of H.P. Lovecraft and the Hellraiser films.…


Book cover of Maps of Heaven, Maps of Hell: Religious Terror as Memory from the Puritans to Stephen King

Steve A. Wiggins Author Of Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies

From my list on bringing horror and religion into conversation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up religious but loving scary things—horror movies, scary comic books, Dark Shadows, and The Twilight Zone. Even the music of Alice Cooper. While I’m no longer religious, I have a doctorate in religious studies and I still have a fascination with media that cause fear. I also write horror stories. Beyond Holy Horror I have written two more books on religion and horror and I read every book about this odd combination as soon as I can get my hands on it. I believe you should never judge people by their tastes in media—they can be decent folk even if they like horror.

Steve's book list on bringing horror and religion into conversation

Steve A. Wiggins Why did Steve love this book?

Thinking of this book still leaves me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. I can’t say precisely why, but this book by a Jesuit monk discussing horror struck me as intelligent and deeply personal.

Conversant with many kinds of scary stories associated with religion, this is the most academic book on my list. The fact that Edward Ingebretsen discusses Stephen King really gives readers something to think about. This isn’t the only book to discuss Stephen King and religion—Douglas Cowan also wrote a book about this—but it does so in a way that brings some “aha moments” to your reading.

By Edward J. Ingebretsen,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Maps of Heaven, Maps of Hell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From its beginnings in Puritan sermonising to its prominent place in contemporary genre film and fiction, this book traces the use of terror in the American popular imagination. Entering American culture partly by way of religious sanction, it remains an important heart and mind shaping tool.


Book cover of Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen

Steve A. Wiggins Author Of Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies

From my list on bringing horror and religion into conversation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up religious but loving scary things—horror movies, scary comic books, Dark Shadows, and The Twilight Zone. Even the music of Alice Cooper. While I’m no longer religious, I have a doctorate in religious studies and I still have a fascination with media that cause fear. I also write horror stories. Beyond Holy Horror I have written two more books on religion and horror and I read every book about this odd combination as soon as I can get my hands on it. I believe you should never judge people by their tastes in media—they can be decent folk even if they like horror.

Steve's book list on bringing horror and religion into conversation

Steve A. Wiggins Why did Steve love this book?

This book opened my eyes to how a scholar of religion could engage with horror films. I sat in my hotel room and started reading it the day I purchased it because I couldn’t wait until I got back home to start it.

Douglas Cowan deftly demonstrates how horror films engage in conversation with religion and he does this in non-technical language. In a culture where religion, or at least organized religion, is in decline, it still has incredible power in pop culture.

Many religious people avoid horror like they would a real monster. Sacred Terror, apart from suggesting a title for my book, shows horror and religion both benefit from the discussion. Cowan has written other good books on the subject as well.

By Douglas E. Cowan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sacred Terror as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sacred Terror examines the religious elements lurking in horror films. It answers a simple but profound question: When there are so many other scary things around, why is religion so often used to tell a scary story? In this lucid, provocative book, Douglas Cowan argues that horror films are opportune vehicles for externalizing the fears that lie inside our religious selves: of evil; of the flesh; of sacred places; of a change in the sacred order; of the supernatural gone out of control; of death, dying badly, or not remaining dead; of fanaticism; and of the power--and the powerlessness--of religion.


Book cover of Lurking Under the Surface: Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us

Steve A. Wiggins Author Of Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies

From my list on bringing horror and religion into conversation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up religious but loving scary things—horror movies, scary comic books, Dark Shadows, and The Twilight Zone. Even the music of Alice Cooper. While I’m no longer religious, I have a doctorate in religious studies and I still have a fascination with media that cause fear. I also write horror stories. Beyond Holy Horror I have written two more books on religion and horror and I read every book about this odd combination as soon as I can get my hands on it. I believe you should never judge people by their tastes in media—they can be decent folk even if they like horror.

Steve's book list on bringing horror and religion into conversation

Steve A. Wiggins Why did Steve love this book?

Brandon Grafius is a prolific author in this area and I found this book to be a very good interaction between someone who is a Christian minister and a horror movie fan.

While this isn’t Grafius’ first book on the subject, it is his first to attempt to explain “why”—why would a normal, upstanding citizen watch horror? It helps debunk the idea that only social outcasts or disgruntled individuals watch horror. (Surveys indicate well over half of people in the United States admit to liking horror films.)

This coming out of the horror closet is a personal and very readable account.

By Brandon R. Grafius,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lurking Under the Surface as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Horror can be a valuable conversation partner for the spiritual questions that animate so many of us.

Whether through a movie, television show, novel, or even myth, horror as a genre has always spoken to our deepest human fears and anxieties: fear of death, of the unknown, of knowing too much. Whether you're looking at classic narratives like Frankenstein, which shows us the consequences of stretching knowledge farther than it's safe to go, or contemporary films like Get Out, which explores racism and white guilt, horror provides a window into our culture and what makes us human. The same can…


Book cover of The Vampire, His Kith and Kin

Joseph Laycock Author Of Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism

From my list on vampire lore.

Why am I passionate about this?

In 2009 I published a book on the real vampire community. I didn’t know that Twilight was about to sweep America and I inadvertently became a “vampire guy” for a few years. I appeared on Geraldo and NPR. I was interviewed by the Colbert Report (but it never aired). I even talked to MTV about hosting a show where I interview teenage vampires. Then we all got into zombies instead and my fifteen minutes of fame were over! I learned a great deal researching my book and giving talks on vampires. In 2010 I taught a special class at Tufts University on vampires where I assigned selections from these books.

Joseph's book list on vampire lore

Joseph Laycock Why did Joseph love this book?

Montague Summers was a really unusual fellow for the early twentieth century. He was a closeted gay man (closeted because homosexuality was brutally repressed at the time) who was obsessed with the occult and liked to present himself as a religious witch hunter/demonologist. Reportedly he was often seen leaving libraries with a big black file that read “Vampires” across the front where everyone could see it.

Despite being a colorful character, Summers is one of the best early scholars of vampire lore. His work is even more interesting because it reflects the occult revival underway at the end of the nineteenth century. Occult groups such as the Theosophical Society and the Order of the Golden Dawn were reimagining what vampires could be. They hypothesized that vampires could be real but are perhaps more akin to invisible ghosts that feed on human life force. Summers also discusses things like…

By Montague Summers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Vampire, His Kith and Kin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

. Summers wrote numerous serious books about the witch hunts, vampires, werewolves, and other occult subjects.

This book has all of the apparatus to qualify as an academic study, including footnotes, extensive quotations in the original languages, and references to rare source documents. Of particular interest is the final chapter, which traces the development of the vampire craze in 19th century literature.


Book cover of Greywalker

Sarah J. Sover Author Of Fairy Godmurder

From my list on dicks in urban fantasy (detectives, that is).

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Sarah J. Sover, and I adore smashing genres together, especially when there’s magic involved. My first book, Double-Crossing the Bridge, is a comedic fantasy about drunk trolls pulling a suicidal heist, and my new release, Fairy Godmurder is like Jessica Jones with sparkle. The novels are wildly different from each other, but they both exist in the crime-fantasy sphere, where I can delve deep into character motivations, explore wrongs in the world through a fantastical lens, and play with well-loved tropes, inverting and subverting in unexpected ways. I love that this is a growing genre, and I hope I get an influx of suggestions added to my own TBR tower because of this list!

Sarah's book list on dicks in urban fantasy (detectives, that is)

Sarah J. Sover Why did Sarah love this book?

After a near-death experience, PI Harper Blaine gains the ability to navigate the occult world of magic. But the realm between our world and the next is filled with monsters. Some are malicious, but some are looking to hire. The concept of the Grey is fascinating and slightly terrifying to me. Harper deserves to be on this list because only a true badass could survive her client list.

By Kat Richardson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Greywalker as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Meet Harper Blaine. She also sees dead people...Harper Blaine is a small-time private investigator trying to earn a living when a low-life savagely assaults her, leaving her for dead. For two minutes, to be precise. When Harper comes to in the hospital, she begins to feel a bit ...strange. She sees things that can only be described as weird-shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring. But Harper's not crazy. Her "death" has made her a Greywalker - able to move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night…


Book cover of The Cambridge Companion to 'Dracula'

Philip Ball Author Of The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination

From my list on vampire myths and their cultural fascination.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have written more than 20 non-fiction books on a wide range of topics. I was trained as a chemist and physicist, and as both an author and a journalist I am mostly concerned with the sciences and how they interact with the broader culture – with the arts, politics, philosophy, and society. Sometimes that interest takes me further afield, and in my new book The Modern Myths, I present a detailed look at seven tales that have taken on the genuine stature of myth, being retold again and again as vehicles for the fears, dreams, and anxieties of the modern age. Ranging from Robinson Crusoe to Batman, this list also inevitably includes Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula – leading him to examine how we have used the legend of the vampire in the past and present.

Philip's book list on vampire myths and their cultural fascination

Philip Ball Why did Philip love this book?

Although this book focuses on just the most famous vampire narrative of all, you don’t need to look far into Dracula to find universal vampire themes: sexuality, paranoia, misogyny, xenophobia, psychoanalysis, and the sacred power of blood. This collection of essays also sets Stoker’s tale within the wider context of the Victorian vampire boom, and looks at what became of his tale on stage and screen. It shows how Stoker was tapping into richer, deeper seams than even he realised, making Dracula “one of the most obsessional texts of all time, a black hole of the imagination”, in horror expert David Skal’s words. “The most frightening thing about Dracula’, says Skal, “is the strong probability that it meant far less to Bram Stoker than it has come to mean for us.”

By Roger Luckhurst,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Cambridge Companion to 'Dracula' as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bram Stoker's Dracula is the most famous vampire in literature and film. This new collection of sixteen essays brings together a range of internationally renowned scholars to provide a series of pathways through this celebrated Gothic novel and its innumerable adaptations and translations. The volume illuminates the novel's various pre-histories, critical contexts and subsequent cultural transformations. Chapters explore literary history, Gothic revival scholarship, folklore, anthropology, psychology, sexology, philosophy, occultism, cultural history, critical race theory, theatre and film history, and the place of the vampire in Europe and beyond. These studies provide an accessible guide of cutting-edge scholarship to one of…


Book cover of Iron Kissed

L.R. Braden Author Of A Drop of Magic

From my list on urban fantasy brings magic to modern world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been obsessed with fantasy stories for as long as I can remember, but the books I read growing up usually took place “somewhere else.” When I first started seeing books that brought magic to a world that resembled mine, I fell in love. Reading magic in a modern setting brought it home and made it real. Now, I gobble up every story I can find that brings magic to the mundane, and I even write my own. I hope the books on this list inspire you to look for the magic in your own life, as they have for me.

L.R.'s book list on urban fantasy brings magic to modern world

L.R. Braden Why did L.R. love this book?

This book holds a very special place in my heart because this is the book I was reading on the day I decided to become an author. The way the characters, world-building, mythos, and action came together in this story was pure magic, and I wanted more.

I’ve since read the entire series, though it’s ongoing, and I haven’t been disappointed. The heart and soul of this book is how much the main character cares about her friends and how far she will go to keep them safe. Joining Mercy’s pack, even for just a few pages at a time, feels like coming home.

By Patricia Briggs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Iron Kissed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The third novel in the international No. 1 bestselling Mercy Thompson series - the major urban fantasy hit of the decade

'I love these books!' Charlaine Harris

'The best new fantasy series I've read in years' Kelley Armstrong

MERCY THOMPSON: MECHANIC, SHAPESHIFTER, FIGHTER

It wasn't hard to follow the scent of blood to the living room where the fae had been killed. It had been a violent death, perfect for creating ghosts.

Mercy Thompson enjoys life as a mechanic, but life is never simple given her increasing closeness to the local werewolf pack, and her ability to change into coyote…


Book cover of Of Shadow and Moonlight

Emilia Dashfire Author Of The Viper's Library

From my list on vampire novels to sink your teeth into.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always had a wild imagination and have been creative and expressive through various art forms since I was young. After a series of crazy and vivid dreams, I decided to turn them into a story. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had over 20 projects, each with a different style but all with my voice. I grew up in Cheshire and studied digital media at the University of Bradford, but moved to my paternal home in Spain in 2009, where I now teach English and moonlight as a fantasy author.

Emilia's book list on vampire novels to sink your teeth into

Emilia Dashfire Why did Emilia love this book?

Vampires, shifters, and reincarnation; I’ll read that again and again and again. It’s like if A Walk to Remember met The Mortal Instruments with a dash of Twilight. This was a fun read that I sailed through far too quickly. 

Each character had their own mini story which makes this book a well-rounded story with a main focus but also intriguing characters. With the female main character having a fatal disease, and the male main character being immortal, the desperation to hang onto each other makes for a rare romance.

By Luna Laurier,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Of Shadow and Moonlight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Take a story inspired by Black Dagger Brotherhood's vampires, add a dash of a modern twist on A Court of Thorns and Roses/Throne of Glass and a splash of Greek mythology and you get Of Shadow and Moonlight. Vampires, Monsters, Greek Mythology, Gods, Magic, Heartbreak, and more!


A woman fated to die young, a man cursed to live forever, and a darkness that threatens to destroy everything they love.



Cassie was never able to experience the life that many take for granted, the freedom to dictate her own journey. No, her life had been spent sheltered, protected from an inevitable…


Book cover of A Quick Bite

S. G. Blinn Author Of Rebellion

From my list on rebellious characters with a villainous twist of fate.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write what I see. Dark Fantasy has been the escape I have needed my entire life. It helped me understand hard topics such as war, greed, and loss. Working through a character's struggles has saved me from the darkest parts of my mind and guided me to where I can love myself.

S. G.'s book list on rebellious characters with a villainous twist of fate

S. G. Blinn Why did S. G. love this book?

A world exists around us that we never knew existed. When all you want is to be accepted, it is hard to find love.

I found that two people can find love regardless of what creature bore them. Family may not always understand what you want, but as long as there is trust and a little bit of humor, anything is possible. 

By Lynsay Sands,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Quick Bite as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

True love: good from the first bite ...

Etienne Argeneau can turn one human into a vampire in his lifetime - an honour his kind usually reserved for their life mates, to let their love life forever.

But it's all a bit more complicated than that. Rachel Garrett, a beautiful coroner, has just saved his life and now she's about to lose hers. Etienne has a choice: he can save her life in turn, and thus doom himself to an eternity alone, unable to create his own life mate. Or he can watch his saviour die in the name of…


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