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Vampire and Werewolf Stories
An invigorating mix of classic and contemporary vampire and werewolf short stories includes contributions from authors such as Bram Stoker, Rudyard Kipling, Saki, and Angela Carter, providing an introduction to classic fiction and gothic horror. Original.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Alan Durant
154 books17 followersAlan Durant is the author of books for a wide age-range, from picture books such as Burger Boy to top-end teenage thrillers (Blood, Flesh and Bones). Having worked as a copywriter at Walker Books, he is now a full-time author.
He's married, with three children and lives just outside London. He does a lot of school visits throughout the UK and abroad and also runs writing workshops.
He's married, with three children and lives just outside London. He does a lot of school visits throughout the UK and abroad and also runs writing workshops.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 14, 2010
It’s hard to rate a book of short stories (especially when the tales all come from different authors), because some entries are just going to be better than others. That’s just the way it is. There’s definitely some 5-star material in here, but there are also some things that are much worse. I’m torn between giving this book a 3 or 4; on the one hand, I don’t think it’s good enough overall to be a 4, but on the other hand, there wasn’t anything about it that was particularly bad (with the exception of one story, which I’ll cover in some amount of detail later).
One of the unfortunate things about many of the stories in this collection is that they’re predictable. The book is called Vampire and Werewolf Stories, after all, so I already know going into it that every story is going to involve either a vampire or werewolf. This removes a lot of the mystery factor. When someone’s acting odd, I don’t think, “Whoa, what’s with this person?” Instead, I think, “OK, it’s either a vampire or a werewolf.” And it doesn’t take very many pages to figure out which.
The sad thing is that the initial assumption about each story is rarely wrong. There’s never a twist. The character that you suspect of being a werewolf or vampire pretty much always ends up being the werewolf or vampire.
So, being that the collection is pretty twist-free, one big opportunity for making things interesting has already been lost. The other opportunity is to just re-imagine werewolf and vampire stories all together, and unfortunately, this is an idea that’s also largely ignored. More often than not, the stories seem rather “stock.”
With all that being said, I’ll go ahead and give a quick story-by-story review. If there’s an asterisk by the story name, that means I felt it was one of the better tales in the book.
Dracula (an extract), Bram Stroker: I’ve never read Dracula, though I know the general story. This excerpt was decent, but nothing that made me want to run out and get the book. Actually—looking back on it, it was probably one of the better entries in this collection. But at the time I read it (before I knew what kind of competition it was up against), I didn’t think it was all that special.
The Werewolf (A French Legend), Barbara Leonie Picard: An unhappy baroness learns a secret about her man and uses it as a weapon against him. As the title states, this is very clearly a cultural legend, because the writing has that feel to it. You don’t feel like you’re reading something crafted by a modern author so much as a tale that’s been passed down by campfire storytellers through the ages. For that reason, it’s not the most complex or deep story in the book, but it does have that “cultural fable” charm to it.
The Vampire of Kaldenstein, Frederick Cowles: This is one of the very “stock” stories in the book (it’s about a traveler who’s warned about the dangers of a mysterious castle on a hill, but decides to check it out anyway), and as such, there’s not really anything exciting to say about it. It’s not written poorly or anything, but it doesn’t give me anything new to think about.
*Freeze-Up, Anthony Masters: This is where the book starts taking off. I was drawn into this story right away because it’s about a family who’s staying at an Antarctic research station and finds something unusual frozen in the ice. This was the first tale that got away from the haunted European setting, and that’s what excited me.
*Drink My Blood, Richard Matheson: My opinion will be biased here, as I knew going into the book that I was going to enjoy the Matheson story. He tells the tale of an unusual kid who wants to be more than just a kid, and the strange things he’ll do to find uniqueness.
*Dayblood, Roger Zelazny: My favorite story of the book, but that’s because I’m a total Zelazny whore. Really, this was lined up to be my favorite story before I’d even cracked the book open. Still, it’s not just the byline that gives this tale a favorable review—Zelazny did the best job of any of these authors of creating something truly unique, while still fitting his work into the vampire/werewolf genre. It’s only seven pages (and that’s counting an illustration), but damn, is it ever good.
Terror in the Tatras, Winifred Finlay: A decent story about a forester helping a mysterious stranger who’s been lost in the woods. The ending seemed a bit anti-climactic for my tastes, but oh well.
*Getting Dead, William F. Nolan: The very definition of “short but sweet.” This humorous entry tells the story of an extremely old vampire who wants nothing more than to kill himself, but always manages to thwart his own suicide attempts at the last moment. I didn’t expect to read something so funny in this collection.
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, Arthur Conan Doyle: My previous experience with Sherlock Holmes is limited entirely to the Robert Downey, Jr. film. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and liked seeing how Holmes’s mind works when he’s seeing all these clues that we (the viewers) aren’t. I expected more of the same here, but was a little disappointed. Holmes gets a letter from someone who suspects vampiric activity in the area, and before even going to investigate it, Holmes decides he has it all figured out. When he investigates, he confirms his initial suspicions. I guess I just didn’t like it because I thought it was a little hard to believe that he could put together such a theory based on what little info he had, then find out that his theory was right. (And no, that’s not a spoiler, because he never actually mentions what his initial theory was until he reveals it at the end.) Yes, I realize this is supposed to be Holmes’s “thing,” but this instance just seemed too far-fetched for me.
The Werewolf (an extract), Clemence Housman: A ten-page chase scene that’s pulled out of a larger work. I read the first eight pages or so, skimmed the ninth page, skipped the tenth. The problem is that most of the chase scene involved just that: chasing. Nothing really exciting happened along the way. And since this was drawn from a larger work, I didn’t know as much about the characters as I feel I should have, so there wasn’t any emotional attachment involved.
Mama Gone, Jane Yolen: A young girl has to accept that her mom is dead and has probably turned into a vampire. She decides she needs to confront this problem herself. This story didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
*Revelations in Black, Carl Jacobi: I immediately saw hints of Lovecraft in this story about a man who finds a mysterious series of books in an old antique shop and must know more about them. The author wrote them in an insane asylum, and now the protagonist finds himself pulled into the same madness, reliving some of the dead author’s memories by hanging out in the courtyard of a seemingly abandoned mansion.
Gabriel-Ernest, Saki (H. H. Munro): This story was a major let-down. It started out so well—I could really visualize the tiger-eyed wild-child lounging on a rock overhang above a pool, moving like an animal but speaking like a human. Unfortunately, the story didn’t really go anywhere exciting. Sad, considering how vivid the visuals in the initial pages were.
*The Horror at Chilton Castle, Joseph Payne Brennan: There was also a slight Lovecraft vibe to the beginning of this story, in that it’s about a man who is delving into his family history and finds that he’s related to a long line of Earls who have been tasked with guarding the secret chamber buried deep beneath their castle. Even though the whole “ancient secrets in a European castle” thing is a bit overdone in this genre (and even in this particular book), the imagery created here is solid, so I’ve got to give this story the coveted asterisk.
Count Dracula, Woody Allen: Another humorous piece, though I don’t think this one is as funny as “Getting Dead.” Dracula finds himself misjudging the celestial cycle of night and day and now has to hide himself from the sun’s harmful rays, while humorously dodging the questions of his hosts who don’t know he’s a vampire. The story may have been good enough to earn an asterisk if it hadn’t ended on a horribly unfunny attempt at a closing joke. (Although, I suppose in 1971, when the story was written, that stock joke may have still been funny.)
*The Werewolf, Angela Carter: A new take on the Red Riding Hood tale. The shortest story in the book, and I have to give credit to anyone who can create an entertaining read out of three pages of text.
The Drifting Snow, August Derleth: Derleth did a good job of taking standard vampire/werewolf mythology (I’ll never tell which, as that would be a spoiler) and giving it a slight twist. This story takes place in a remote home owned by an old woman who has invited her niece and nephews to come stay with her just before a snowstorm arrives. Everything seems fine until the guests start to wonder why the curtains to the western windows must never be opened at night . . .
Howl, Alan Durant: Nothing about this story will surprise you. Everything is predictable, from start to finish. Regardless, I enjoyed the tale of the Park Warden who feels a strong desire to keep people out of the wildlife habitat he protects—not for the safety of the animals, but for the safety of the visitors.
One of the unfortunate things about many of the stories in this collection is that they’re predictable. The book is called Vampire and Werewolf Stories, after all, so I already know going into it that every story is going to involve either a vampire or werewolf. This removes a lot of the mystery factor. When someone’s acting odd, I don’t think, “Whoa, what’s with this person?” Instead, I think, “OK, it’s either a vampire or a werewolf.” And it doesn’t take very many pages to figure out which.
The sad thing is that the initial assumption about each story is rarely wrong. There’s never a twist. The character that you suspect of being a werewolf or vampire pretty much always ends up being the werewolf or vampire.
So, being that the collection is pretty twist-free, one big opportunity for making things interesting has already been lost. The other opportunity is to just re-imagine werewolf and vampire stories all together, and unfortunately, this is an idea that’s also largely ignored. More often than not, the stories seem rather “stock.”
With all that being said, I’ll go ahead and give a quick story-by-story review. If there’s an asterisk by the story name, that means I felt it was one of the better tales in the book.
Dracula (an extract), Bram Stroker: I’ve never read Dracula, though I know the general story. This excerpt was decent, but nothing that made me want to run out and get the book. Actually—looking back on it, it was probably one of the better entries in this collection. But at the time I read it (before I knew what kind of competition it was up against), I didn’t think it was all that special.
The Werewolf (A French Legend), Barbara Leonie Picard: An unhappy baroness learns a secret about her man and uses it as a weapon against him. As the title states, this is very clearly a cultural legend, because the writing has that feel to it. You don’t feel like you’re reading something crafted by a modern author so much as a tale that’s been passed down by campfire storytellers through the ages. For that reason, it’s not the most complex or deep story in the book, but it does have that “cultural fable” charm to it.
The Vampire of Kaldenstein, Frederick Cowles: This is one of the very “stock” stories in the book (it’s about a traveler who’s warned about the dangers of a mysterious castle on a hill, but decides to check it out anyway), and as such, there’s not really anything exciting to say about it. It’s not written poorly or anything, but it doesn’t give me anything new to think about.
*Freeze-Up, Anthony Masters: This is where the book starts taking off. I was drawn into this story right away because it’s about a family who’s staying at an Antarctic research station and finds something unusual frozen in the ice. This was the first tale that got away from the haunted European setting, and that’s what excited me.
*Drink My Blood, Richard Matheson: My opinion will be biased here, as I knew going into the book that I was going to enjoy the Matheson story. He tells the tale of an unusual kid who wants to be more than just a kid, and the strange things he’ll do to find uniqueness.
*Dayblood, Roger Zelazny: My favorite story of the book, but that’s because I’m a total Zelazny whore. Really, this was lined up to be my favorite story before I’d even cracked the book open. Still, it’s not just the byline that gives this tale a favorable review—Zelazny did the best job of any of these authors of creating something truly unique, while still fitting his work into the vampire/werewolf genre. It’s only seven pages (and that’s counting an illustration), but damn, is it ever good.
Terror in the Tatras, Winifred Finlay: A decent story about a forester helping a mysterious stranger who’s been lost in the woods. The ending seemed a bit anti-climactic for my tastes, but oh well.
*Getting Dead, William F. Nolan: The very definition of “short but sweet.” This humorous entry tells the story of an extremely old vampire who wants nothing more than to kill himself, but always manages to thwart his own suicide attempts at the last moment. I didn’t expect to read something so funny in this collection.
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, Arthur Conan Doyle: My previous experience with Sherlock Holmes is limited entirely to the Robert Downey, Jr. film. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and liked seeing how Holmes’s mind works when he’s seeing all these clues that we (the viewers) aren’t. I expected more of the same here, but was a little disappointed. Holmes gets a letter from someone who suspects vampiric activity in the area, and before even going to investigate it, Holmes decides he has it all figured out. When he investigates, he confirms his initial suspicions. I guess I just didn’t like it because I thought it was a little hard to believe that he could put together such a theory based on what little info he had, then find out that his theory was right. (And no, that’s not a spoiler, because he never actually mentions what his initial theory was until he reveals it at the end.) Yes, I realize this is supposed to be Holmes’s “thing,” but this instance just seemed too far-fetched for me.
The Werewolf (an extract), Clemence Housman: A ten-page chase scene that’s pulled out of a larger work. I read the first eight pages or so, skimmed the ninth page, skipped the tenth. The problem is that most of the chase scene involved just that: chasing. Nothing really exciting happened along the way. And since this was drawn from a larger work, I didn’t know as much about the characters as I feel I should have, so there wasn’t any emotional attachment involved.
Mama Gone, Jane Yolen: A young girl has to accept that her mom is dead and has probably turned into a vampire. She decides she needs to confront this problem herself. This story didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
*Revelations in Black, Carl Jacobi: I immediately saw hints of Lovecraft in this story about a man who finds a mysterious series of books in an old antique shop and must know more about them. The author wrote them in an insane asylum, and now the protagonist finds himself pulled into the same madness, reliving some of the dead author’s memories by hanging out in the courtyard of a seemingly abandoned mansion.
Gabriel-Ernest, Saki (H. H. Munro): This story was a major let-down. It started out so well—I could really visualize the tiger-eyed wild-child lounging on a rock overhang above a pool, moving like an animal but speaking like a human. Unfortunately, the story didn’t really go anywhere exciting. Sad, considering how vivid the visuals in the initial pages were.
*The Horror at Chilton Castle, Joseph Payne Brennan: There was also a slight Lovecraft vibe to the beginning of this story, in that it’s about a man who is delving into his family history and finds that he’s related to a long line of Earls who have been tasked with guarding the secret chamber buried deep beneath their castle. Even though the whole “ancient secrets in a European castle” thing is a bit overdone in this genre (and even in this particular book), the imagery created here is solid, so I’ve got to give this story the coveted asterisk.
Count Dracula, Woody Allen: Another humorous piece, though I don’t think this one is as funny as “Getting Dead.” Dracula finds himself misjudging the celestial cycle of night and day and now has to hide himself from the sun’s harmful rays, while humorously dodging the questions of his hosts who don’t know he’s a vampire. The story may have been good enough to earn an asterisk if it hadn’t ended on a horribly unfunny attempt at a closing joke. (Although, I suppose in 1971, when the story was written, that stock joke may have still been funny.)
*The Werewolf, Angela Carter: A new take on the Red Riding Hood tale. The shortest story in the book, and I have to give credit to anyone who can create an entertaining read out of three pages of text.
The Drifting Snow, August Derleth: Derleth did a good job of taking standard vampire/werewolf mythology (I’ll never tell which, as that would be a spoiler) and giving it a slight twist. This story takes place in a remote home owned by an old woman who has invited her niece and nephews to come stay with her just before a snowstorm arrives. Everything seems fine until the guests start to wonder why the curtains to the western windows must never be opened at night . . .
Howl, Alan Durant: Nothing about this story will surprise you. Everything is predictable, from start to finish. Regardless, I enjoyed the tale of the Park Warden who feels a strong desire to keep people out of the wildlife habitat he protects—not for the safety of the animals, but for the safety of the visitors.
October 16, 2019
Classic scary gothic fiction.
March 5, 2014
a fine collection and it made me like vampire and werevolves kind
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews