📚 Lord Alaric Thorne’s Top 100 Vampire Books

“The truest immortality lies not in the veins, but in the page.”

Greetings, bibliophiles of the bloodbound path. As the centuries pass, I have taken great solace in literature—the one companion whose ink never runs dry. Within these sacred tomes lie stories of desire, despair, damnation, and beauty. Below is my personal collection of the most treasured vampire books and series I have encountered across lifetimes. Light your candle... and read on.

🕯️ Gothic Foundations & Classical Works

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Vampyre by John Polidori
• Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer
• Clarimonde by Théophile Gautier
• The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy
• The Room in the Tower by E.F. Benson
• Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• Christabel by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• La Morte Amoureuse by Théophile Gautier

🩸 The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Poetic, immortal, sorrowful—Anne Rice’s works are velvet-bound masterpieces of the undead soul.

11. Interview with the Vampire
12. The Vampire Lestat
13. Queen of the Damned
14. The Tale of the Body Thief
15. Memnoch the Devil
16. The Vampire Armand
17. Merrick
18. Blood and Gold
19. Prince Lestat
20. Blood Communion

🦇 Other Works by Anne Rice

21. The Witching Hour
22. Violin
23. Pandora
24. Vittorio the Vampire

🌑 Literary & Lyrical Vampire Fiction

• The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
• Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin
• Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
• The Quick by Lauren Owen
• The Radleys by Matt Haig
• My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

🐍 Erotic, Decadent & Darkly Sensual

• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
• Sunshine by Robin McKinley
• Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly
• Kiss of the Damned by Katee Robert

📚 Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Series

• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
• Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
• House of Night by P.C. & Kristin Cast
• Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
• The Gardella Vampire Hunters by Colleen Gleason
• Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill
• Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

🔮 Young Adult Gothic

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh
• The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith
• The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
• Crave by Tracy Wolff

⚔️ Vampire Hunters & Mythic Lore

• Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
• The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
• Necroscope Series by Brian Lumley
• Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi

📜 Esoteric, Folkloric & Rare

• The Vampire Archives edited by Otto Penzler
• Vampires, Burial and Death by Paul Barber
• The Delicate Dependency by Michael Talbot
• The Scarlet Veil by Shelby Mahurin
• A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
• Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

Read deeply, and rise eternally,

Lord Alaric Thorne

Keeper of the Library at Thorne Manor

Lord Alaric Throne's Top 50 Vampire Films

🦇 Lord Alaric Thorne’s Top 50 Vampire Films

“Some drink blood. Others, cinema.”

Ah, the silver screen—how often it flickers with tales that mirror the soul of the immortal. From candlelit castles to neon-drenched alleyways, the vampire has taken many forms in film. Below lies my personal curation of fifty films worth your eternal evening. Organize your velvet cushions, pour a glass of something... vintage... and allow yourself to indulge.

🕯️ Gothic Masterpieces

1. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
2. Nosferatu (1922)
3. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
4. Interview with the Vampire (1994)
5. Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
6. Thirst (2009)
7. The Hunger (1983)
8. Let the Right One In (2008)
9. Let Me In (2010)
10. Dracula (Hammer) (1958)

🌕 Romantic & Tragic

11. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
12. Byzantium (2012)
13. Twilight (2008)
14. The Addiction (1995)
15. Crimson Peak (2015)*
16. Carmilla (2019)
17. Vampire’s Kiss (1989)
18. Blood for Dracula (1974)
19. Ganja & Hess (1973)
20. Kiss of the Damned (2012)

🩸 Arthouse & Experimental

21. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
22. Martin (1976)
23. The Night Flier (1997)
24. Vampyr (1932)
25. The Transfiguration (2016)

🧛‍♂️ Old World Horrors

26. Dracula (1931)
27. Black Sunday (1960)
28. The Keep (1983)
29. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
30. House of Dark Shadows (1970)

🔥 Action & Modern Reimaginings

31. Blade (1998)
32. Blade II (2002)
33. Underworld (2003)
34. Underworld: Evolution (2006)
35. Day Watch (2006)
36. Night Watch (2004)
37. 30 Days of Night (2007)
38. Van Helsing (2004)
39. I Am Legend (2007)
40. Priest (2011)

🎭 Cult Classics & Dark Comedy

41. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
42. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
43. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
44. The Lost Boys (1987)
45. Fright Night (1985)
46. Fright Night (2011)
47. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
48. Vampires vs. Bronx (2020)
49. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
50. The Monster Squad (1987)

*Note: Not all films feature traditional vampires, but they echo the mythos, atmosphere, or themes central to the eternal condition.

Yours in blood and velvet,

Lord Alaric Thorne

Archivist of the Eternal Screen
Thorne Manor

Lord Alaric Thorne Recommends: A Vampire's Watchlist

🦇 Lord Alaric Thorne Recommends:

A Personal Catalogue of Vampire Series Worth Sinking One’s Fangs Into

My darling night-bound souls,

There are evenings when even the immortal seek companionship—not in flesh, but in narrative. On such nights, I permit my gaze to flicker toward the strange blue glow of a screen. Below, I offer my curated selection of vampire tales—some sumptuous, some sorrowful, some deliciously dreadful—all worthy of your undivided after-dark attention.

🕯️ Interview with the Vampire (AMC)

A lavish retelling soaked in blood, lust, and velvet. Far more than mere adaptation, it is an opera of existential longing. Louis and Lestat remind me that eternal life is not always liberty—it is sometimes a cage lined in silk.

🕯️ The Originals

The bloodline politics of ancient vampires played out in the decadent heart of New Orleans. There is courtly vengeance here, layered with familial tragedy and an undercurrent of doomed romance. Quite… entertaining.

🕯️ Angel

A vampire cursed with a soul. How poetic. I relate to Angel—his brooding silences, his moral anguish, his leather coats. He carries the weight of centuries and tries—futilely, tenderly—to redeem them. A kindred spirit.

🕯️ Being Human (UK)

Far more than its premise suggests. It speaks to the ache of trying to be “normal” while forever changed. The vampire Mitchell is the embodiment of that sorrowful struggle. This one will sit quietly with your conscience long after the credits fade.

🕯️ Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Yes, I have watched it. No, I did not turn to dust. It is delightfully camp and unexpectedly wise. Buffy wields more than a stake—she wields clarity in a world of monsters. And Spike… well, I suppose even I have my guilty pleasures.

🕯️ Midnight Mass

A theological fever dream drenched in blood and hymns. This one disturbs and seduces in equal measure. What happens when a vampire believes he is the hand of God? The answer, I assure you, is unforgettable.

🕯️ Ultraviolet (1998)

A hidden gem. Cold, calculating, and painfully realistic. This isn’t about capes or castles—it’s about control, surveillance, and the quiet terror of modern immortality. Understated brilliance.

🕯️ Let the Right One In

A snow-covered poem of loneliness and violence. The child vampire Eli is both innocent and ancient. There is no seduction here—only sorrow, survival, and haunting silence. A true work of art.

🕯️ Dracula (BBC 2020)

Inconsistent, yes—but it swings for the gothic fences. When it succeeds, it pierces. When it falters, it still fascinates. Dracula here is both monster and philosopher—a shadow unafraid to question its own hunger.

Until next twilight,

Lord Alaric Thorne

Curator of Eternal Stories
Thorne Manor

A Gothic review of Penny Dreadful

🕯️ From the Writing Desk of Lord Alaric Thorne

A Gothic Review of Penny Dreadful

My dearest wayfarers of the night,

Last eve, I was lured—by candlelight and curiosity—into the shadowed world of Penny Dreadful. A curious name for such a sublime tragedy.

It is no mere tale spun for the masses. No, this series is an opium dream stitched together from the pages of our darkest myths. It is a love letter to monstrosity, a sonnet to sorrow. The characters—immortals, witches, wolves, and wayward souls—are not caricatures but wounded archetypes bleeding poetry into the London fog.

I found myself haunted by Miss Vanessa Ives, her gaze aflame with divinity and despair. And Sir Malcolm—ever chasing redemption he will never taste. Even the Creature, that broken Prometheus, stirred in me something uncomfortably close to empathy.

Here, vampirism is not glamorized—it is a consequence. A hunger with teeth that gnaw at one’s conscience. I dare say... I recognized myself.

To those who prefer their stories sunlit and simple, look elsewhere. But if your heart finds solace in ruins, and your soul feels most alive at the edge of damnation—then Penny Dreadful shall be your cathedral.

Yours in eternal dusk,

Lord Alaric Thorne

Caretaker of the Candlelit Hourglass
Thorne Manor