The Return of the YA Vampire – Publishers Weekly

Its been 15 years since Little, Brown published Stephenie Meyers Twilighta book that sold more than 100 million copies, launched a multi-billion-dollar movie franchise, and kicked off a vampire craze in YA and adult fiction alike. The trend eventually flamed out, and for a few years, vampires were relegated to the literary shadows.

But then, in 2019, there came hints of a possible resurrection. Rene Ahdieh released The Beautiful (Putnam, 2019), a duology-launching bestseller featuring 1870s-era New Orleans vampires. (Book two, The Damned, publishes this July.) Kiersten White published Slayer (Simon Pulse, 2019), a book set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, followed this past January by a sequel, Chosen. January also saw the release of Lana Popovis Blood Countess (Amulet), a novel based on the real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula. And this summer, Meyer will release Midnight Sun (Little, Brown, Aug. 4)a long-awaited Twilight companion novel told from Edwards perspective.

Will 2020 be the year of the vampire? We spoke with a quartet of authors and editors whose new and forthcoming books promise to breathe fresh life into the centuries-old monster of myth.

Reality Bites

Author Tracy Wolff has written more than 60 bookssome under pseudonyms, many involving paranormal creaturesbut her new YA fantasy novel, Crave (Entangled Teen, Apr.), first in a trilogy, represents her first foray into vampire fiction.

Why are vampires making a comeback after years on the sidelines? According to Wolff, when everything is going well, people are happy to read realistic YA. For the last decade or so, its been all contemporary, all the time, she observed. But when things get darkerwhen there are hints of a recession, or something happens from which readers might need a temporary escapeparanormal fiction makes a comeback. As for why, specifically, vampires, she said, Vampires are kind of the superheroes of the paranormal world. I think that for all of us, as we suffer pain and setbacks in life, the idea of becoming something that nobody can hurt is a powerful one.

When Craves teenage heroine, Grace, loses both of her parents in a car crash, shes forced to relocate from San Diego to rural Alaska, where her only living adult relative, Uncle Finn, serves as headmaster of Katmere Academy, a boarding school for the supernatural. With the exception of her cousin Macy, Graces new classmates greet herthe schools lone mortalwith a mix of suspicion and hostility. Grace does her best to blend in, but then becomes romantically involved with Jaxon Vega, a powerful vampire with more than his share of enemies, placing an even bigger target on her back.

Historically, a womans role in vampire mythology has been that of the hapless victim, but Wolff said she worked hard to avoid that trope with Grace. Doing so meant not only attempting to balance Jaxons supernatural abilities with Graces own inherent strength, but also tackling the topic of consenta task that Wolff found tricky early in the book, before Grace learns that Katmere isnt just an exceptionally private high school, and that her crush is a vampire. Trying to build sexual tension in a romance when [your heroine] doesnt know whats going onthat leaves consent very murky. [Its all about] making sure that what happens [between them] is her idea, and that nothing serious happens before she knows what world shes living in. You can still preserve much of what makes vampires what they are without taking away from the lessons that weve learned as a society.

Although Wolffs cast is ethnically diverse, she doesnt rely on skin color to drive conflict; rather, fractures form both between and within the schools different speciesvampires, shapeshifters, dragons, and witches. Theres a lot of division in the country right now, Wolff explained, and a lot of hate. She wanted to explore the reasons for it, and expose the absurdity behind it, using a fictional world. I think sometimes people are better able to confront things like that [when they happen] in a world that doesnt look like their own. Wolf acknowledges that, generally speaking, diversity has been lacking in vampire fiction, but she tried to write a tale that more accurately reflects the world in which her readers live. My own children are mixed race, and I like to see them represented in fiction, she said. I think that diversity and representation are so important. I want everyone to enjoy reading; thats the English teacher in me. I want everyone to feel a part of the world that Ive created.

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

Caleb Roehrigs The Fell of Dark (Feiwel and Friends, July 14)whose plot Roehrig encapsulates as magic, mayhem, and makeoutsintroduces Auggie Pfeiffer, a gay 16-year-old who lives in a decaying Chicago suburb with a vampire problem. When strange things start happening to Auggie, he harbors the hope that hes been mystically chosen to slay vampires; in truth, an ancient and powerful entity dubbed the Corrupter is planning to return to Earth using Auggie as his vessel. Theories differ regarding the Corrupters post-resurrection intentions and whether he should be stopped or safeguarded, but one thing is clearnobodys asking Auggies opinion, and he doesnt get a say.

I think its important to send very clear messages, Roehrig said of writing YA. Were adults writing for young readers, and we have the chance to help them develop the tools to navigate difficult situations. Consent and bodily autonomy are major themes in the booknot just as they pertain to Auggies possession by the Corrupter, but also with regard to his vampiric romantic entanglements. Understanding the complexity of consent, and what you are allowed to say yes or no to, and bodily autonomythose things are really important. Roehrig wants to show readers that consent, care, and respect can still be romantic. Whats more, he added, If something makes you uncomfortable, that doesnt mean that theres something wrong with you.

This isnt Roehrigs first attempt at a vampire novel. Ten years ago, he recalled, I read an interview with a literary agent [who] said something along the lines of, If you have any hopes of being published right now, your book better have vampires, zombies, or shapeshifters in it. He took that comment as prescriptive rather than a complaint, and got to work. The resulting book went nowhere, but Roehrigs affection for the genre remainedno surprise, given that he cites Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a formative storytelling influence. Then, last year, Saundra Mitchell invited him to contribute a story to Out Now: Queer We Go Again! (Inkyard, May 26). After struggling to find an angle, Roehrig realized he was finally ready to revisit vampires. He had so much fun doing so that when the story was finished, he didnt want to leave the universe behind. He scrapped the book hed outlined and sent his editor a pitch, which she approved.

I went to school to be an actor, Roehrig said. My big dream was that I was going to move to L.A. and be discovered, and I was going to be in an episode of Buffy. This was kind of me writing myself into my favorite episode of Buffy. Growing up, Roehrig said he never got to see himself in fiction. Books, movies, and TV shows would occasionally feature a gay character, but that character was never the herohe was always the sassy sidekick, the sexless best friend, or the murder victim. Consequently, for years, thats how Roehrig wrote his gay characters, because thats what he viewed as their acceptable roles. And thats really messed up, when you think about itthat I was writing myself into the margins of my own stories because that was the lesson that I absorbed. Thats why inclusivity is so important to him in his writing: I want to write books where readers feel embraced. Regarding The Fell of Dark, Roehrig said, I got to write that heroic story that I never had access to when I was a teenager. It means everything to me that its out there nowthat its going to be a real book.

What We Do in the Shadows

Zoraida Crdova and Natalie C. Parker were at a writing retreat on the Alabama Gulf Shore when they conceived of their upcoming anthology, Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite (Imprint, Sept. 22). We were all floating in this pool, Crdova recalled, and I remember saying, Do you know what I miss? Vampires. Parker added, Because I already had experience pulling an anthology together, I knew the mechanics behind it. Zoraida and I were already good friends, and we shared so much enthusiasm for the idea. Things snowballed from there.

Their plan was two-fanged. First, in addition to the expected slate of fantasy writers, they wanted to include authors who wouldnt normally contribute to a vampire anthology. Would you expect Julie Murphy to write a vampire story? Crdova asked regarding the author of Dumplin, a contemporary YA novel. Parker said that they also wanted the anthology to tackle issues near and dear to their own hearts, such as matters of representation in childrens literature. Vampire lore has been so dominated by a single kind of vampire. I feel like everybody pulls up the image of a very handsome white man, heterosexual, and we wanted to create opportunities for authors to engage with that trope and expand it through a number of different lenses. They never told authors to avoid the white boy vampire stereotype, and made it known that nobody would be required to self-disclose by creating characters who shared their identities or intersections. Still, according to Crdova, it seems as though a lot of authors have been waiting for their chance to bring their own world views to the vampire canon.

True to its curators vision, the anthology includes stories featuring a wide range of tones, perspectives, and social messages, which approach the vampire myth from a variety of angles. Set in 1897, Heidi Heiligs The Boy and the Bell features a transgender gravedigger who liberates the wrong corpse from its grave. In Kind by Kayla Whaley sees a severely handicapped girl turn into a vengeful vampire after her weary father decides to end her suffering. A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire by Samira Ahmed reads like a pamphlet written by Indian vampires, for Indian vampires, that offers helpful advice (Eat colonizers first.) while softening the hard truth with sarcasm and bad puns. And Vampires Never Say Die, which Parker and Crdova co-wrote, is set in modern-day New York City and explores the bonds of female friendship.

You dont need to be a huge paranormal fiction fan to enjoy a good vampire story, Parker said. We all confront questions of death in our lives, and the appeal of finding a way to live forever or to have magical healing is immediately relatable. Even though its completely inhuman, [the vampire myth] illuminates a lot of human experiences.

Parker and Crdova hope that readers come away from the collection with a sense of being invited into vampire mythologyespecially if they never before felt like they had a place or saw themselves represented there. We would love if this collection inspired young readers and aspiring writers to create their own mythologies, because thats what this is all about, Parker explained. Storytelling is a conversation, and I think its a conversation between generations. Our role, as the generation thats writing now, is to make sure that [those] coming up have more opportunities, and that their imagination gets bigger, not smaller.

Crave by Tracy Wolff. Entangled Teen, $18.99 Apr. 7 ISBN 978-1-64063-895-2

The Fell of Dark by Caleb Roehrig. Feiwel and Friends, $18.99 July 14 ISBN 978-1-250-15584-9

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite, edited by Zoraida Cordova and Natalie C. Parker. Imprint, $17.99 Sept. 22 ISBN 978-1-250-23001-0

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The Return of the YA Vampire - Publishers Weekly

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero