Diving into the kaleidoscope of queer stories, amplifying LGBTQ+ authors one narrative at a time.
Who doesn’t love vampires? They are gorgeous, they are strong, they live forever, and they drink blood! Vampires tend to have a mystery factor that only adds to their appeal. Adding queerness to the mix makes it infinitely better!
Lesbian vampire stories are sensual, dark, powerful, gory, gothic and cute. We have made a list of can’t-miss best lesbian vampire books that would make for a perfect Halloween collection.
Vampires first started appearing in literature through European folklore. In the 1700s, vampire-panic gripped the Serbian countryside. People reported being visited by their dead relatives during the night who suck the life out of them. Those who had these visions died within a few days. The panic found its way into poems as early as 1745.
The poem, Thalaba the Destroyer, is the first known mention of vampires in English literature. The Vampyre is the first novel that featured a vampire as a charming but dangerous aristocrat. This was new as all vampires till then were one-dimensional monsters who just wanted to stay alive by drinking human blood. The Vampyre was written by William Polidori, doctor of Lord Byron.
Polidori is known to have modeled the vampire in his novel on Lord Byron himself. This book was a turning point in gothic fiction. It sparked many novels, unauthorized sequels, and short stories starring vampires.
Vampire fiction featuring lesbians came about around 50 years after The Vampyre. Carmilla was published way back in 1872, long before Dracula. Since then, our thirst (pun intended) for vampires has only grown. Thankfully, we have ample fiction to satisfy our greed for the bloodsucking creatures!
If high-school drama is your genre, Ex-Wives of Dracula and Young Blood is sure to tickle the bookworm in you. Darkness Embraced and Neck Deep will give you abundant vampire politics and power play. Love Bites is a cute, lighthearted rom-com.
The Gilda Stories follows a slave girl who turns into a vampire and deals with her past. For a girl-gang revenge story, check out The Lost Girls. The Wicked and the Willing is a story of Asian vampires set in Singapore. Whatever your fancy is, we have covered it in this impressive collection of books! Read on to pick your favorites.
Don't have time to read them all? Why not try listening to them? Audible is a great platform for listening to audiobooks because it offers a wide selection of books, including bestsellers and exclusive content. With Audible, you can listen to your favorite books on-the-go, whether you're commuting, working out, or doing household chores.
The Audible app also has features like adjustable narration speed, a sleep timer, and the ability to create bookmarks, making it easy to customize your listening experience. Additionally, Audible offers a membership program that gives members access to a certain number of audiobooks per month, making it a cost-effective option for avid listeners.
A great resource for people who want to maximize their time and make the most out of their daily activities. Try a free 30-day trial from Audible today, and you'll get access to a selection of Audible Originals and audiobooks, along with a credit to purchase any title in their premium selection, regardless of price (including many of the books on this list!)
For ebook lovers, we also recommend Scribd, basically the Netflix for Books and the best and most convenient subscription for online reading. While they have a catalog comprising over half a million books including from many bestselling authors, for some of the books on this list, you'll still have to purchase individually - either as a paperback or eBook to load on your Kindle - due to publishing house restrictions.
In this article we will cover...
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
19-year-old Laura lives a secluded life deep in the Austrian forest with her ailing father. She is resigned to a life of caring for her father and her daily chores, but all that changes one night when a horse-drawn carriage brings in it a beautiful and mesmerizing stranger, Carmilla.
Laura and Carmilla grow close to each other even as a mysterious disease seems to be killing young women in the nearby village. Laura starts noticing that Carmilla disappears from her room at night, and she can see a figure walking through the fog from her window. Despite Carmilla’s eerie behavior, Laura cannot help being smitten by her.
What does being in love with a vampire mean for her? As she spends more time with Carmilla, she starts having nightmares and feels like she is slipping. What are Carmilla’s plans for Laura? Does she want to turn her or leave her dead?
It is not established at the start of the novel that Carmilla is a vampire, but with the increasing vampire lore that today’s paranormal genre fans are exposed to, we can easily guess. But when the book was first published in 1872, it was quite novel and a mystery. Speaking of novelty, the sapphic romance between Laura and Carmilla raised many eyebrows back in the day.
This novella predates Dracula by more than two decades and is one of the first books in vampire fiction. The book is told in first person narrative by Laura. The gothic setting and language add to the strangeness of the story. Carmilla is a historic milestone in lesbian vampire fiction and a must-read for all fans of the paranormal.
Ex-Wives of Dracula by Georgette Kaplan
Mindy Murphy is a self-proclaimed dork. She does not care about high-school protocol and does her own thing. She is self-aware and pretty cool but not appreciated by her peers. Mindy also hates living in a small town and cannot wait to finish high school and get out of there. On the other hand, Lucia West is a star high–schooler.
She is a head cheerleader with a perfect body and a perfect boyfriend. Mindy and Lucia used to be friends when they were kids but have grown apart since. They still run into each other regularly, and lately, their friendship seems to be headed in a different direction. Meanwhile, Mindy turns into a vampire! And this is where the book begins to pick up the pace.
Ex-Wives of Dracula is both a nerd cheerleader and a vampire-human love story woven beautifully into one hell of a novel. The dialogue is written very cleverly in the book. The banter between Mindy and Lucia is enough to show us that their friendship is no longer just that.
And the ending? We are sure you will love the ending! The author has done a great job with the characters- painted them just as they are, with all the flaws and quirks on display.
Despite being set in a small town’s high school, the story is not shallow. It has humor, intimacy, evolving sexuality, drama and mystery rolled into one amazing read. If cute high school romances are your thing, be sure to pick this book up!
Darkness Embraced by Tillie Cole
Epiphany was turned into a vampire two hundred years ago by Renata, the Queen of the Russo-Lussuria clan of vampires. The first fifty years of her life are spent at the Queen’s side and in her bed. Until she is cast out to fend for herself, she doesn’t understand what went wrong or why she was suddenly thrown out.
When she was the Queen’s lover, she was loved and protected by the other clans and the Elders. Now she has no such protection, and the Elders are known to take on the underlings. She spends the next hundred and fifty years trying to maintain a low profile and not attract anyone’s attention.
Vasco, one of the Elders, takes her under his wing. His friendship becomes her sole light guiding light during these dark years. Now, she is being summoned to face the Challenges and rise to the status of being an Elder herself, but Epiphany is not looking forward to this.
Mostly because she will have to face Renata again, but the alternative is running from the Elders her entire life, so she takes up the Challenges. This sets off a web of jealousies, politics and plots. She still has feelings for Renata, and maybe, just maybe, Renata does too.
Darkness Embraced is a book about love between a human and a vampire, but it offers a lot more than that. It has a rich plot of vampire clans and the politics between them. Unlike most vampire fiction, the book does not have vampires living among humans. Instead, they live in isolation.
This enables the writer to focus completely on the vampires, their ambitions, hierarchies and desires. The sensuality between Renata and Epiphany is tantalizingly delicious. If sapphic love stories with power play are your thing, then Darkness Embraced should be on your reading list.
Love Bites by Ry Herman
Love Bites is a vampire lesbian fiction set in the 90s. Angela, a vampire turned into one by her ex-girlfriend, is still struggling to adjust to her new reality. She is doing a Ph.D. in astrophysics and can be counted as your regular astronomy nerd. Our other protagonist, Chloe, is an awkward-yet-charming young woman in her 20s. She works a boring job in publishing.
Chloe is also struggling with anxiety and depression. When she sees Angela, he falls head over heels for the soft vampire goth girl. Angela likes Chloe too! But both the characters have their secrets that get too difficult to hide as they get closer. Will the truth bring them closer or tear them apart?
The growth of characters is done well in the book. Being a reluctant vampire, we witness Angela’s daily struggle. She is sweet and sensitive, but being a vampire is not exactly a celebration of those virtues, and she low-key hates herself.
Can she accept and love the person (or should we say vampire) she is now? The book features a lesbian (Angela) and a bisexual (Chloe) F/F romance, which we could never have had enough of! Multiple narratives throughout the book give us a 360o view of the entire story.
Love Bites is a cute, lighthearted and funny story of two young girls falling in love, but it also deals with deeper topics like depression and abusive relationships. And does it well. The author does not shy away from the nuances of depression and the daily struggles of someone coping with this condition. If you are in the mood for a sweet lesbian vampire rom-com, this is the book for you.
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
We are introduced to the protagonist as “The Girl”, a young slave girl who has run away from the cotton fields after her mother’s death. She is offered shelter in a brothel run by Gilda and her partner, Bird (both vampires). Once our protagonist reaches an age where she can choose for herself, she consents to become a vampire, and the brothel owner turns her.
When she is reborn as a vampire, “The Girl” takes the name of her sire, Gilda. Gilda’s mentors have an ethical code. They live by never taking anything without giving something in return. So when they hunt, they don’t kill the humans and try to help their prey. The vampires try to figure out, by spying, what is bothering the human and then help them anonymously.
Gilda is a lesbian woman who, later in the novel, develops a romantic, sensual relationship with Bird. The erotic scenes between the two of them are sure to make set the page on fire! The story follows Gilda for around 200 years, from 1890 to 2050. She is also moving around the U.S. during this time. We get glimpses of the country’s changing political climate through Gilda’s life.
What we have here is not the typical reluctant vampire trying to accept their reality but a queer, black woman who was an ex-slave and who chose to be a vampire. This brings a completely different perspective to vampire life. We don’t often come across a black vampire, much less as a protagonist. The author tackles racism, sexism and queerness in the book.
We see how Gilda takes decades to face her past as an enslaved girl and a few more to process it. Gilda goes on to build a family for herself, a family she chooses. The relationships she develops within this family are wholesome and sweet. The Gilda Stories is a classic in queer and black fiction. If feminist classics are your go-to genre, this book will not disappoint!
Neck Deep by Sophie Lack
Elanna is an Elf. She is also blind, well, not completely blind, but she has a different vision. She can differentiate light from dark and colors from each other. She can also see through walls. Elanna is a professional assassin, and we initially meet her in a bar talking to a hunter, Oren. Neck Deep is set in a world where some people believe anyone who is not human is dangerous and needs to be killed.
Elves are acceptable, but not vampires. Oren is one of those people, and he wants Elanna to hunt down and kill a vampire, Valia. Elanna is ready to do it for the right price. But the plans quickly fall apart as Valia bites Elanna and turns her into a vampire too. Now both of them are outcasts and are hunted by Oren and his gang of hunters.
Elanna and Valia join forces to fight off their enemies, but neither expected they would fall in love with each other. The author describes the sex between the two protagonists in great detail, adding a splash of erotica to the story.
The novel is set in the fictional city of Praza, where vampires have some of the well-known characteristics- bloodthirsty, gorgeous, cunning and fast, but also a few new ones- shapeshifting! Yes, these vampires can turn into huge beasts if they want to.
This short novel follows two strong women as they fight off forces larger than them. It has a little bit of everything- action, romance, queerness and vampires!
The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl
Holly Liddel was only 16 when she was turned into a vampire by her then-boyfriend, Elton Irving. Elton promises her eternal love, but thirty-four years later, she is a lonely, immortal, forever sixteen-year-old woman. Since Elton is the one who turned her, her existence is linked to his,’ and she needs to follow him from city to city.
She is currently working a midnight shift at Taco Bell. Eventually, she meets two more vampires, Rose and Ida, who were also turned and deserted by Elton. Rose and Ida want to kill Elton before he turns his next victim, and they ask if Holly would help them.
Holly is still seething at Elton’s betrayal, but is it enough to kill her ex-boyfriend? But something shifts inside her when she lays her eyes on Elton’s newest prey, Parker Kerr. Holly cannot deny the immediate attraction she feels and wants to protect her. What will she do? How far will she go?
The Lost Girls has tons of dark humor alongside cute sapphic moments. The author has also fleshed out the main characters well by giving them depth. Vampirism is not the defining trait of these characters. They have their quirks and hobbies that make them whole. The book also has its share of gory. The descriptions of blood and death are not glossed over.
This short novel makes for a light read. If you like movies like John Tucker Must Die or The Other Woman, you will love The Lost Girls. What’s better than a revenge story with a girl gang? A revenge story with a girl gang and lesbians!
The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan
The Wicked and the Willing is a gothic vampire novel set in Singapore in the 1920s. Our protagonist Gean Choo is struggling to feed herself after the death of her parents. Thanks to the English education she had received, she bags a job at Ambrosia Hall as a maidservant to a wealthy European woman, Verity.
Verity is a vampire who thinks she is better than the others in her clan because she tries not to kill her prey and succeeds most of the time. Gean Choo has been brought to Ambrosia Hall as her sex toy and a constant supply of blood. Verity is dominating and rough in the bedroom and the sex between Verity and Gean Choo borders on BDSM. Po Lam also works for Verity and is her secretary.
She ensures Verity’s needs are met and disposes of bodies when the latter loses her control and kills. As Gean Choo gets accustomed to life at Ambrosia Hall, she feels deeply attracted to Po Lam. But can they defy Verity and be together? What is the cost?
This book promises a story full of blood, murder, sex, violence and love. The author has interestingly used vampires to depict colonial oppression. The vampires are an allegory for how a group of people with nearly unchecked power can seriously damage those they choose to.
The narrative is in first person, and the point of view keeps changing throughout the book. The ending? We are glad you asked. This book has multiple endings- two are in the book itself, and the third is delivered via a newsletter! Sounds interesting?
Moreover, a book with Asian vampires written by an Asian author! Surely, you’ve got space for The Wicked and the Willing on your Halloween reading list.
Young Blood by Sasha Laurens
Kat Finn is a teenage vampire who lives with her mom. They are poor and can barely make ends meet. Like all vampires, they have to drink Hema, an expensive blood substitute, since humans have been infected with a virus that is fatal to vampires. Taylor Sanger lives in the same city but belongs to a wealthy family.
She is a proud lesbian and the only one who has come out in her community. Though she has the comforts that money brings, she despises the old-school values of her family that make it hard for a queer person to live. Kat, with financial aid, and Taylor both get admission at Hardcore, a boarding school for vampires. To their horror, they discover that they are roommates!
This is not so good because they used to be best friends as kids but then turned enemies. They try to be civil to each other, but when they discover a conspiracy involving Hema and the virus infecting humans, they are brought closer by the secrets they know. We witness as they slowly become friends again, and then, is there something more?
Kat always thought she was straight, but that does not explain her feelings for Taylor. The story follows these two teenagers as they figure out their relationship and the secrets at Hardcore. Young Blood is a young adult novel that also explores the drawbacks of a capitalistic society.
The attraction between Kat and Taylor is pretty obvious from the moment they meet, even if it is not to them. The chemistry is just too hard to miss! High-school drama, lesbian vampires, conspiracies and love triangles, what more can we ask for?
Yes, it is hard to pick one. How about adding all of them to your to-be-read list?
