Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

Hello, my name is Erin, and I am currently working on putting together a book list for my local library. Unfortunately, I've been given the daunting task of compiling a list of clean/mild vampire novels that adults would enjoy reading. Obviously, this request stems from the popularity of the Twilight series; however, I have not read any vampire novels aside from books written by Anne Rice. I was hoping that some of the vampire experts out there might be able to point me in the right direction in terms of content.

I've read quite a few. Both my daughter & I like them. What's the definition of 'clean', though? Just vampires or primarily vampires? There are a lot of paranormal/urban fantasies out there. For instance, the Kitty Norville series is primarily about werewolves.

Fred Saberhagen's books about Dracula are some of my favorite. If you like Bram Stoker's Dracula, this series continues his story in the modern (1970's when they were mostly written) world. There is also a book done from Dracula's POV about what really happened in London. It is a wonderful counterpoint to Stoker's novel. Vlad (Dracula) is a tough, but fair guy. He's had a lot of bad press.

P.N. Elrod has a series where the vampire is a good guy. A murdered reporter, he's new at it & solves crimes with a regular human in Chicago in the 1930's. This is just a well written mystery, a detective novel & one of them is a vampire.

Laurell K. Hamilton's vampires in the Anita Blake series are pretty much bad, although she's dating one. They've been legalized & Anita is a tri-state vampire executioner, as well as raising zombies for a living. A very neat world. Werewolves & other human/animals, politics & well done, although after 5 books or so, she gets into too much sex. The first few are sex free.

Kim Harrison has a good vampire who is roommates with Rachel Morgan, a witch & our heroine. There are good & bad vamps here, too.

Most of the others that I read have bad vamps, but Jennifer Rardin's Jaz Parks is the heroine & a vampire. I'm not that fond of the series, but my daughter loves it.

MaryJanice Davidson's Queen Betsy is another with a heroine vampire. She'll do anything for shoes. It was slightly amusing for one book, I couldn't stomach two, though.

Charlaine Harris wrote the Sookie Stackhouse series. Lots of vamps in that & not too much heavy petting or gore.

Richelle Mead has the Vampire Academy series - a 17 year old dhampir who is going to school to be a body guard to a vamp. It's pretty good.

There are others, but I'm supposed to be working...
;-)

Thank you so much for your feedback! All suggestions will help. Our library has simply had a lot of requests for books like Twilight that do not contain explicit sex, so this is my definition of clean. I've been compiling some non vampire novels that contain a similar love story, but I know that most patrons are looking for vampire books. I would love some fantasy suggestions as well though.

Try asking at GetFanged.com.

Also you can try a new YA book called Origins, by Sean Hayden. There's at least one other vampire novel I know of called Origins out there.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll certainly do that.

Patricia Briggs writes both fantasy & urban fantasy books that are clean. Her urban fantasy is mostly about werewolves.

Carrie Vaughn's werewolves are the Kitty Norville series.

As for general fantasy, there's so much of it out there, it's hard to know where to start. You should probably ask in one of the fantasy groups. I will say that L.E. Modesitt Jr. writes a lot of clean fantasy. His Recluse series is very popular.

Has anyone recommended Dracula and the Bubblebath for a clean vampire novel? :)

Moehee01, I'm sure that by now, you're finished with your list; but I thought I'd add a comment for anyone else who's browsing this list looking for clean (in the sense of free of explicit sex) vampire fiction. I can confirm that Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File, in the series Jim mentioned above, fits that definition (I haven't read any of the other books or series he listed).

Some other titles that meet your qualification include: Krisi Keley's On the Soul of a Vampire, and both volumes of the sequel, Pro Luce Habere; Sue Dent's Never Ceese (which also involves werewolves); Ellen C. Maze's The Judging; and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. All of these are clean reads that can appeal to adults, though they differ a great deal from each other.

Where older vampire fiction is concerned, you can be confident that anything written before around 1950 isn't going to have explicit sex, and usually handles violence with restraint as well. The more recent (1965) Progeny of the Adder doesn't have explicit sex; but as a sort of cross between vampire novel and police procedural, it has a more gritty feel than the ones I listed above, and the vampire preys primarily on prostitutes. (The author doesn't milk that aspect for salacious content, though.)