Someone once pointed out to me that vampires represent both humanity’s longing for immortality and our fear of the Tantalean. They’re constantly ravenous, but their hunger cannot be satiated. They’re permanently dehydrated, but can never quench their thirst. They’re always horny, but…well, you get the picture. That’s the trade-off vampires take to live forever: eternal dissatisfaction. If vampires are really about how we all want to live forever in cursed debauchery, it makes sense that they sprang back to deathly life in the last decade. Between Brexit, global wildfires, the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections, and COVID-19, much of the world has spent years in existential crisis. Our renewed interest in vampire novels, then, might represent our longings to cheat death and party like it’s 1999. Meanwhile, more queer books are being published now than ever before, so it makes sense that these trends would meet in the form of an increase in queer vampire books. Still not convinced? Read a few of the queer vampire books on the list below and see if they can’t change your mind. Need more vampire books for your TBR? Check out these diverse vampire novels for adults and this list of 2022’s YA vampire releases.
