Love in Vein: Twenty Original Tales of Vampiric Erotica

by Poppy Z. Brite (Editor), Elizabeth Engstrom (Contributor), Nancy Holder (Contributor)

A sexy new repackaging of the extremely popular anthology of vampire erotica, edited by acclaimed author Poppy Z. Brite.

The classic horror tale is about fear. But in the last few years a new literature of the macabre has arisen, one that goes deeper than horror, beyond fear, to explore our darkest, most intimate hungers. The ones even lovers are forbidden to share.

Acclaimed dark fantasy author Poppy Z. Brite has brought together this genre's most powerful and seductive authors in an original collection of vampiric erotica, a shameless celebration of unspeakable intimacies. It is not for everyone.

But neither is the night.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Erotica, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fantasy

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite, now going by Billy Martin) is an American author born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Born a biological female, Brite has written and talked much about his gender dysphoria/gender identity issues. He self-identifies almost completely as a homosexual male rather than female, and as of 2011 has started taking testosterone injections. His male name is Billy Martin.

He lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Athens, Georgia prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. He loves UNC basketball and is a sometime season ticket holder for the NBA, but he saves his greatest affection for his hometown football team, the New Orleans Saints.

Brite and husband Chris DeBarr, a chef, run a de facto cat rescue and have, at any given time, between fifteen and twenty cats. Photos of the various felines are available on the "Cats" page of Brite's website. They have been known to have a few dogs and perhaps a snake as well in the menagerie. They are no longer together.

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brite at first opted to stay at home, but he eventually abandoned New Orleans and his cats and relocated 80 miles away to his mother's home in Mississippi. He used his blog to update his fans regarding the situation, including the unknown status of his house and many of his pets, and in October 2005 became one of the first 70,000 New Orleanians to begin repopulating the city.

In the following months, Brite has been an outspoken and sometimes harsh critic of those who are leaving New Orleans for good. He was quoted in the New York Times and elsewhere as saying, in reference to those considering leaving, "If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life."

Reviews

[ᑭIᑭEᖇ⒤ᗩᗰ · Rating 1 out of 5]

*Warning* Massive fucking swearing up ahead!

I don't write many reviews but I just had to explain why I rated this 1 star. The second story in this mindfuck of an anthology is about a girl named Chris who was repeatedly sexually abused by her fucktard father. She grows up and finally moves out, but because of the abuse, she has problems connecting to anyone. She dumps her boyfriend because he fucked her while she was sleeping without a condom. She knows she's bi but doesn't want to be a lesbian even though she prefers women. This is where the story gets bat shit, balls to the wall, crazy. She meets a girl at a bookstore and they go out on a date. They end up messing around, just kissing and they fall asleep. Chris wakes up to the girl going down on her but then she starts feeling a lot a pain and then an explosion of pleasure. It turns out that Chris was pregnant from her dumbshit ex-boyfriend, and this girl, while going down on her, sucked the fucking fetus out of her and ate it, slurping sounds and all!! She's like a vampire hybrid that needs live fetuses to survive, so she glamours people into having sex with each other and as soon as there is conception she aborts the fetus the same way she did Chris's. Well Chris is spooked at first but then gets over it, she tells her she loves her and wants to be the only one to "feed" her, which means getting pregnant all the time by random men. I swear my uterus was fucking cramping from reading this!!



There's also a psychic element to what this girl does. She can erase any bad memories and people associated at the time of conception. So of course, Chris wants to forget ever being abused by her father, so what do they do? They go go to his house and she fucks him, her own fucking father!!! She "luckily" gets pregnant the first time out so she doesn't have to do it again and her girlfriend removes her memories of his abuse along with the fetus.



This was the most fucked up story I have ever read. What kind of disturbed weirdo thinks of writing something like that!!! How in the fuck is this supposed to be erotica as the title of this book states??? It's to bad because I really liked the first story, but now I'm just to disgusted to go on.

[Ungelic_is_us · Rating 3 out of 5]

My feelings about this book are deeply, deeply mixed. I think it's an excellent vampire-themed sexual horror collection, but I don't think the majority of the stories are remotely erotic. Just because something has sexual content, doesn't mean it's sexy. I have a hard time imagining anyone finding the majority of these stories very erotic. I mean, what is erotic about a ten year-old boy watching is prostitute mother have sex with a john through a crack in the door, and then seeing him suck her emotional capacity away and turn her into a catatonic? I suppose there must be someone who finds that idea sexy, but I don't know that I'd want to be writing for them.

Don't get me wrong--I think that story was one of the most powerful in the collection. But I can't see it as smut. These stories deal with rape, coercion, incest, child molestation, sadism and violence. These are not themes I like to get into during my, ahem, private time. A couple of the stories were genuinely triggery. But nearly all of them were excellently written and quite effective horror stories.

I think the "erotica" tag may just have to do with the publishing industries' tendency to relegate anything with sex to the romance/erotica corner. It feels like such a misnomer to me. Then again, what do I know? I mean, Rule 34 exists for a reason.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember thinking,where's the erotica?

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite stories in this collection of “vampire erotica” include Gene Wolfe’s “Queen of the Night,” a retelling of the Celtic myth of changelings from a boy’s POV who has been abducted by the dark fairies and lived with them for 9 years; on his return to the “real” world he is initiated into sexuality by the dark fairie queen in excruciatingly painful vampiric fashion. Wolfe tells the story with his usual reverence for character and the general paranoic feeling of the protagonist that he will always be an “outsider”. I also liked Brian Hodge’s horrific tale of a present day castrato (that story in itself a great horror) seduced by a sympathetic yet decadent vampire-like creature, “The Alchemy of the Throat.”

Among the other stories I enjoyed Kathe Koje’s and Barry N. Malzburg‘s vignette of a vampire in a garden, “In the Greenhouse.” Poppy Z. Brite, the editor of this intriguing collection is greatly influenced by the French decadent poets, and hence Baudelair’s concept of the prose-poem, and the Koje/Malzburg piece is a great example. (Brite writes of her views on French decadence in her wonderful volume of essays, Guilty but Insane.)In fact, many of the selections in Brite’s collection reflect this prosaic poesie, and generally that is very nice to see.

The longer pieces which attempt this prosaic/poetic decadence I don’t find to work as well, however – and chief among these is the volume’s final entry, “A Slow Red Whisper of Sand” by Robert Devereux. I don’t so much mind the pure pornography of this piece, indeed there are graphic instances in many of the stories, but coupling that sort of decadence with a lengthy plotlessness in which images meander around each other in confusion and general chaos bewildered me as a reader trying to piece together a narrative. This sort of puzzlework is something I usually enjoy, but here it just fell flat – which is not good for pornography.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I figured what better time to read vampire erotica than in the month of love but sadly these stories didn’t leave me feeling much love. A few were really great but the majority just left me feeling meh.

[H. Givens · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few stories were standouts -- "Cafe Endless: Spring Rain" by Nancy Holder, "Cherry" by Christa Faust, "In This Soul of a Woman" by Charles de Lint, "The Alchemy of the Throat" by Brian Hodge, and "A Slow Red Whisper of Sand" by Robert Devereaux.

However, even including those stories, it's waaaaaaaaaay too gorey and gross to be erotic. The definitions of "vampire" and "sex" were both too vague to mean much of anything. If it had been called "Twenty original tales of vampiric sex-tinged disgusting violence" then it would've been more accurate.

[Pax · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful little collection of the more...shall we say risque?....side of the well-loved vampire.

[DoctorM · Rating 2 out of 5]

As erotica, not so good. Too much self-conscious splatterpunk posing, too little actual sex or exploration of vampire sex that goes beyond the tired and overdone. It's only "Cafe Endless: Spring Rain", Nancy Holden's small gem of a story about desire and pain and longing in Japan that saves the collection at all.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Poppy Z. Brute but was disappointed to learn she only edited this book and had written no short stories among the bunch. A lot of the stories were good but most forgettable. I would still read the second anthology book though.

[Juushika · Rating 2 out of 5]

An anthology of twenty tales of vampire erotica. Or, at least, it's meant to be. Brite's arrangement is strong, but the quality of the selections leaves much to be desired. There are a cluster of decent stories from Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Christa Faust, Douglas Clegg, and Brian Hodge, and Gene Wolfe's "Queen of the Night," an oblique dreamscape of ghouls and fairy queens, was my favorite. But there's just as many mediocre stories, and three that I couldn't even bring myself to finish. Brite's introduces the vampire as taboo breaker, as "the mutant ... considered beautiful even as it is feared," but here dark sexuality often means child abuse, rape, and sex work, peppered with unappealing brute pornography--more grimdark than taboo breaking, distinctly tiresome and never erotic. The vampires fair better, but only barely: they're varied, but most stories are slave to their concepts, summaries of the vampiric figure with not much in the way of independent plot or characters. Give this a miss. I adore the intent, but the execution is a disappointment.

[Rosanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐

I do think this book should come with some trigger warnings.

Though I enjoyed the creativity of the writers and some of the stories, it didn't balance out the more boring and simply disturbing tales.

Unfortunately I was looking forward to finishing this for the wrong reason.

[Pat Cummings]

The overall tenor of the erotic tales in Poppy Z. Brite's collection is strongly reminiscent of Harlan Ellison's ground-breaking Dangerous Visions anthologies: edgy, uncomfortable to read, but full of images that are hard to forget.

Brite has collected twenty stories that skirt the perimeter of good taste—and despite the market among adolescents for vampirica, this is not a book for the teenager. Themes range from ghoulish feasting to lesbian revenge, and include references to Wiccan and pagan corn-god blood sacrifices.

One tale pursues the sad end of Lucy Westenra's blighted love, lighting the shadowy corners of Bram Stoker's story. Another explores the death of Mozart and Van Gogh as the result of haunting by lamia. We have stories of Japanese vampires, of shape-shifters who live on spirit more than blood, of the lost and the arrogant and the brutal and the alien.

Vampire faces are lovely or haunting or weirdly strange, but always attractive. Of all twenty stories, not one speaks of a repellent blood-drinker. The vampire draws us all, victims seeking to provide sustenance. We may regret that attraction and seek also to destroy that which enslaves us, as does Peter in Mike Baker's Love Me Forever. We may embrace it without reserve, even unto death, as does Satoshi in Nancy Holder's Cafe Endless: Spring Rain or the cowboy Quincey Morris in Norman Partridge's Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu. We may even adopt part or all of the vampire's nature, like Marshall in David B. Silva's Empty Vessels and Alex in Christa Faust's Cherry.

However you relate to vampire stories, though, you will find something in this book that goes beyond simply disturbing, that becomes irrationally upsetting. For me it was Geraldine by Ian McDowell. Perhaps it was the extension of early-term abortion to the spiritual and memory side of the equation; as if the loss of a barely-commenced pregnancy equates to the rejection of both the father and the act of conception.

Perhaps for you, there will be a different story here that crosses the line. Something in the vampire still attracts, despite the smell of the grave that clings to the cape. And something, despite that attraction, repels each of us eventually. You'll find both in this anthology.

It's not for the squeamish.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't buy it, definitely not worth the money. Out of 20 stories, maybe 3 were ok. The rest were pretty bad. This collection was more horror than erotica and only half the stories were about traditional vampires. Far less than should have been in a collection of "vampire erotica".


Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...

1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.

2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.

3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.

4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.

5 stars... I loved this book! It had earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.

[Angie ~aka Reading Machine~ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought by reading the back cover would give me an idea about what to expect in the book. I also read the introduction by the editor for another idea about what to expect from the book. I gave the book a try and was left wanting to find a better book. I was greatly disappointed in the book being that it's anthology. I only like the first story out of the whole book and the rest of the stories to me just fell flat or were trying to hard. I love a good vampire book but this cannot be called a good one. I had high hope and was greatly disappointed. I honestly not recommend this book to anyone at all.

[☆Angel☆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me just say that there were some OK stories in this book. Not good, definitely not great, but OK. With that being said , the overall rating I gave this book is still one star because the bad outweighed the good. And I just could not get the second story out of my head the whole time I was reading this. It was a horrible story. I was going to go into a big paragraph as to why I hated it but I think I'll skip that. I love vampire stories and horror stories but obviously these types of stories just weren't my cup of tea.

[Kate Atonic · Rating 1 out of 5]

None of these stories really held my attention and I found myself skimming through big passages before setting this in the resale pile.

[Niffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago and found it to not be at all creepy or erotic at all. It's one of the few books I really, truly regret having wasted my time reading.

[Erin Bookishness · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is miss named. It is not Tales of Vampire Erotica is just a collection of vampire horror stories with sexual content. Most of the stories have aged like milk. Lots of men writing women boobing boobily, one distractingly racist story about a Japanese man written by a white woman, and so much fat shaming. Just. So. Much.

Very disappointing.

[Shaitarn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor two stars.

I read the sequel to this a few months ago, so it wasn't really surprising that I'd find the first volume on the shelves a short time afterwards. It's probably also not surprising that I didn't like this one very much either.

It had a couple of 'big' authors like Charles de Lint and Gene Wolfe, but I'm afraid I didn't particularly like their stories in this volume. There were a few I did like: 'Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu', 'Triptych di Amore', 'The Alchemy of the Throat' and 'Love Me Forever' were all decent enough, but I'm afraid that four out of twenty aren't good enough odds for me to rate this book any higher than two stars.

It wasn't either vampiric or erotic enough for me, so I'll be reuniting it with its sequel in my pile of books to be got rid of. There are plenty of other vampire themed anthologies that I recommend above this one.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reread.

If you're looking for a balance between the erotic and the horrific, well, it's overbalanced toward the horrific, and most of the stories seem to miss some crucial element of appeal--the beginnings waste pages clearing their throats; the paragraphs meander aimlessly; the endings go off the rails or stop before the resolution, let alone the kiss-off.

The book came out in 1994, though: twenty years have passed, and the Sexy Vampire craze isn't running full steam. I have the benefit of hindsight now, and can say that there were a couple of good stories, but a lot of them I skimmed or even skipped to the end.

Ones I particularly liked:

"The Final Fete of Abba Adi," by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
"Queen of the Night," by Gene Wolfe
"The Marriage," by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem
"The Alchemy of the Throat," by Brian Hodge

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at the library book sale and grabbed it because it had "Poppy Z. Brite" splashed across it and I've been wanted to read her stuff.

But then it said, "Vampire Erotica" and I put it back. I thought about it a bit and said to myself, "Well, it's only $1. What do I have to lose?" I bought this one and "Love in Vein II."

I was pleasantly surprised. Though most of the stories have sex in them, most of them are not erotica in the classic sense. By that I mean, sex isn't the point of the stories. They pretty much all have plots that work independently of the sex.

Not all of these are great stories. Not all of them are good stories. But almost all of them are entertaining, and the really bad ones also tend to be really short.

[Lipsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what it is but I just can't get along with short stories. I have trouble writing them, and I have trouble reading them. I always want more, I always want it go somewhere it doesn't have time to go, and most of the time I finish them thinking...'what was the point?'

That said, I did enjoy some of these 'tales of vampire erotica', but many I started and then skipped. I was surprised to see a story from Nancy Holder in here, who I recognised as one of the writers on Buffy (same person, right?)... a far cry from that, that's for sure.

Overall I understand why Brite put these very different stories together but I wanted it to be more 'Brite-ish' and less 'The Hunger' if that makes any sense at all.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

not really sure if there's a better word combo for a book title than 'vampire' and 'erotica'... a sexy read if'n you're into that whole 'dying in the arms/legs/lips of the undead'... this book made me think of who i would like to see as a vampire in a remake of 'Nosferatu'... i went through a HUGINORMOUS vampire phase in the 90's and couldn't pass this one up! a pretty sketchy genre nowadays, all romance-y and lovey-dovey, not enough 'come hither so i can ravage you while i am draining you of your vital fluids' with a suitable amount of fog, black clothes, and emo music...

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love vampires and all but this book was a little much for me. there were a few good stories but there were also a few really gory ones. Also, this was supposed to be an erotica book... the stories did not have the desired effect. Also, I don't think I'm really a short story fan. I'd finish one and think to myself "huh?" knowing I missed something really important... oh well! It was a cheap buy from half price books!

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read the 2nd one- Twice Bitten (I think). I bought it guiltily and read it that way too because it is so indulgent and kind of silly. But it was actually really quite satisfying. Not a bunch of sexy vampyre love making and oooh blood this and that, but kind of hot in a gory way. And not just blood vampires, Liliths too, and a Jesus that came down off the cross... really, quite good.

[Oliver Baer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this anthology of vampiric erotica. I liked the range of storytelling involved showing that there is not one position or style involved. I also appreciated the fact that Poppy Z Brite attempted to balance out the book by including stories by women as well as men. All in all a good anthology with some surprises like an erotic story by Charles de Lint.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally try to avoid reading reviews in depth before I dive into a book so I can be surprised and form my own opinion, but I should have skimmed a few more for this one, because it turned out to be much more horror than I have a taste for. I had to stop reading this just before bed, as some of the stories were graphic and intense enough to disturb my sleep.

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that as an author, Poppy Z. Brite is a hack, but as an editor, she's just fine. I enjoyed the weirdness of these stories, and the gory, horror aspects. I don't find this stuff the least bit erotic or arousing. A lot of the stories in here don't really have anything to do with vampires, but that's probably a good thing. The best of these stories are the ones that go far afield.

[Helen Damnation · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look carefully. The cover promises "Vampiric Erotica". Unfortunately if you misread it and instead think you are getting Vampire Erotica, you will be disappointed. There is little of the vampire found in this book, and little erotica also.
The tales vary in quality, but none are good enough to make it feel like a worthwhile read.

[Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is an ok book. i got it as a hand me down from a co-worker a few years ago, but this book was selling well for quite a while. it is an anthology of various vampire stories. hmmm... guess i'm not much into short stories.