First published 2019
An elderly Jewish woman takes her own life, then changes her mind. She strikes a bargain to become a vampire and gain immortality, but with one crucial restriction: she can only drink blood when someone requests it. In another story, an amnesiac government operative struggles to determine whether his handlers are helping restore his lost memories or systematically erasing them. A tourist visiting Sardinia asks dangerous questions about death in his dreams and bears physical scars as consequence. These eighteen stories stretch the vampire concept beyond fanged creatures of the night. Some feature literal bloodsuckers while others explore metaphorical vampires who drain life force without ever piercing skin. The collection moves from traditional undead tales to psychological explorations of how people consume each other's energy, hope, and vitality in everyday life.
Genres: short-stories, horror, supernatural, vampires
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Sardinia
Period: 20th-century
381 pages · Kindle Edition · Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Content warnings: suicide