SECRETS OF THE VAMPIRE

The team behind Secrets of the Witch (2020) takes on another legendary being.

Cautiously skirting the creature’s sexual overtones, most of this conversational book provides a history of vampire lore narrated by a pale-skinned vampire who promises to do readers no harm. Following a gallery of seven vampires (and zombie or witch hybrids) from African, Mexican, Caribbean, and Asian Pacific folklore, the concise text moves from antiquity to the present. The inclusion of the obscure first vampires reflects the writers’ research: They frame demonic goddesses such as Mesopotamia’s Lamashtu and Sekhmet and the Greeks’ Lamia and Empusa as the first vampires. Roman and Hindu revenants, Lilith of Jewish lore, and the Dacian strigoi give way to medieval European reanimated corpses and to the Renaissance undead, devils incarnated in werewolves. Along the way, the definition of vampire is stretched to accommodate the fantastical figures here. Only halfway through the book do we meet Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but every forerunner is fascinating. Post-Enlightenment, after reason puts a stake through the predator’s heart, literature gives fresh lifeblood to vampires. As in the previous book, the copious dramatic art is a big attraction. Pérez’s romantic style (one drawing channels Henry Fuseli), using dark/light contrast and touches of color to chilling effect, perfectly fits its subject. Seven pages of symbols and emblems (garlic, stake, coffin, etc.) and a glossary close out the work.

An attractive, entertaining, and insightful introduction to the bloodsucking undead.