A review by wardenred
Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Natalie C. Parker, Zoraida Córdova

emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 
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!
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