deborahmarkus7

This book is just what it ought to be -- great, varied, and complete without being boringly exhaustive. It's a good mix of classic and modern writers, each given a brief but informative introduction at the beginning of his or her story.

Some of the stories won't make sense unless you know some legends about vampires that have dropped out of common knowledge. It used to be thought, for instance, that suicide was a direct path to vampirehood.

This collection also has a few stories from an early twentieth-century fad for psychic detectives -- Sherlock Holmes with magical powers. Not great literature, but good clean fun.

Every possible variety of vampire is represented here, and the stories are arranged by category rather than chronologically, which keeps the collection lively.

I read this via audiobook. There are several narrators, all very good and carefully chosen to suit each story -- no American women reading stories told by British men or vice versa.

If you don't already love vampires, this isn't the book that will convert you -- though I dare anyone not to be intrigued and disturbed by Gahan Wilson's "The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be," or Mary A. Turzillo's "When Gretchen Was Human." I think my favorite, though, is Tanith Lee's "Bite-Me-Not, or Fleur de Fur."