Book Review - Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with a Fresh Bite by Various Authors

Title: Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with a Fresh Bite
Series: -
Author: Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Mark Oshiro, Julie Murphy, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, V.E. Schwab, Kayla Whaley
 
Description: Eleven diverse vampire stories from YA leading voices. In this collection, you’ll find stories about lurking vampires of social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than just blood, eager vampires coming out, and other bold, breathtaking dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night.
 
Review: It’s always difficult to rate an anthology book, but I always do it the same way. Rank each story and then take the average rating as my final one. And that’s the way to review them too, one story at a time.
 
The most important reason these stories stand out: the vampires aren’t stereotypical and neither are the vampire hunters. They are all tales with a fresh take on the genre, or fresh bite in this case.
 
Seven Nights for Dying by Tessa Gratton
A good start to the anthology. We meet a teenage girl who wants to become a vampire. It’s her choice, she doesn’t get dragged into it and then has to deal with the fact of being a vampire. The story deals with grief, the death of a parent. Over the course of seven nights, she gets to decide if she want to become a vampire. 3/ 5
 
The Boys from Blood River by Rebecca Roanhorse
This was my favorite story in the book. It’s atmospheric and haunting. It had major “The Lost Boys” vibes, one of my favorite vampire movies. In this story, when you sing the son of the boys from Blood River, you’ll summon them and you’ll end up with a choice to make. These are not the dreamy and cheesy vampires you know from most YA-books. I loved this story. The only story I gave a perfect score. 5/ 5
 
Senior Year Sucks by Julie Murphy
This story is about a young vampire slaying cheerleader. Sound familiar right, Buffy anyone? Her family is in charge of protecting the town from vampires and it focuses on the slayer. She isn’t your stereotypical vampire slayer though, in character and how she looks are describes. That part I liked. Overall, this story was not that interesting and I believe it was the shortest story of them all. 2,5/ 5
 
The Boy and the Bell by Heidi Heilig
This story has some Victorian vibes. We’ve all heard the tales of people being buried alive by mistake. It’s the whole reason why some plots had bells on the, back in the day. This story plays with that concept, only there’s a twist. I enjoyed it, it was spooky and had a historical touch. 3/ 5
 
A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire by Samira Ahmed
This was the sassiest story. And where most people loved it, I kinda didn’t. It felt out of place and I just couldn’t get into it. It had a comedic touch, but I just didn’t feel it. 1,5/ 5
 
In Kind by Kayla Whaley
The story follows a girl who has been murdered by her father, who believes he killed her out of mercy, because she was ill. Her body goes missing and she is turned into a vampire. She wants revenge on her father for what happened to her. I have mixed feelings about this story, both the girl and her father had their reasons and in a way you could side with either one of them. Both aren’t fully right or wrong. 3/ 5
 
Vampires Never Say Die by Zoraida Cordova and Natalie C. parker
This is probably the most modern vampire stories in this collection, written by the editors of the book. The vampire herself is pretty classic, but she is using Instagram, hiding the fact that she is a vampire. She has befriended a human on social media an the human girl decides to throw her a surprise party. She doesn’t know that her friend is a vampire. I liked it, a modern tale of an ancient vampire. This sounded like a story I would hate, but I highly enjoyed this. 3,5/ 5
 
Bestiary by Laura Ruby
This was perhaps the most interesting story of them all. Instead of being a stereotypical vampire, Jude still has the thirst for blood but she also has wings that threaten to emerge from her back. A good and horrifying story, one of my favorites. 4/ 5
 
Mirrors, Windows, and Selfies by Mark Oshiro
The format of this story is unique and that’s the main reason it stand out. It’s written in the form of a blog. I think it was the longest story in the book, but I didn’t mind that. It’s a new look on the myth of vampires having no reflection, but combined with a whole world of vampire lore. If the format was standard, so would the story. 3,5/ 5
 
The House of Black Sapphires by Dhonielle Clayton
Forbidden romance anyone? It’s about a black family who are forced to move around and run an apothecary shop. The atmosphere is on point and I really liked how, in this short time, Clayton created a world of immortals and vampires with such depth. But the forbidden romance thing has been done better. 3/ 5
 
First Kill by V.E. Schwab
Another story that had Buffy-vibes, but then done way better. This story is also told from the perspective of a vampire slayer, who falls in love with a vampire. It’s a LGBTQ-story as well, which I found wonderful. This is the kind of forbidden romance I was talking about earlier. My second favorite story of the book. 4,5/ 5
 
The books has, as any anthology book, hits and misses. I really liked that all the stories had a different take on vampires, each in their own unique way. For people who are sick of reading about emo-vampires, pick this up.
 
Rating: 3/ 5