Vampires are my thing. They have always been my thing and they will always be my thing. There is something about the vampire as a figure that has always carried queerness in its bones, the outsider, the one who loves differently, the one who exists outside the rules of the world they move through. These six books understand that on a bone deep level. This list spans centuries of queer vampire fiction and I am so excited to share every single one of them.
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Written in 1872. Eighteen seventy two. Decades before the world had any framework for what it was reading, Le Fanu put a sapphic vampire on the page and let her be magnetic and terrifying and desperately in love. Carmilla is the GOAT for a reason. She has influenced every vampire story that came after her, including a certain someone we will get to in a moment, and she still stands the test of time completely. If you have never read it, it is short, it is free in the public domain, and it will make you furious that it took the world this long to catch up to what it was always saying.
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
I was in seventh grade when I read this book. I loved it immediately and have read it more times than I can count since then. Anne Rice put queerness on the page in a way that an entire generation of readers felt before they had the words for it, and no matter how much some people want to overlook that it is absolutely there and it always has been. Louis and Lestat changed something in me when I was twelve years old and I did not fully understand what until much later. This book deserves every shoutout it gets and then some.
How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager by D.N. Bryn
This one was put into my hands on my very first trip into my local independent bookstore Thistle and Nightshade and I will forever owe them a thank you for that. It is the first in an amazing series with queer rep, trans rep, and neurodivergent rep woven throughout and it is funny and fun and a little sexy at times in the absolute best way. D.N. Bryn does something really special here, building a world where all of that rep exists naturally and joyfully without making any of it a tragedy. It is just life. Wonderful, vampire filled, chaotic life.
House of Crimson Hearts by Ruby Roe
This one is not for everyone and I say that with complete affection. It is hot. I mean genuinely, scorchingly HOT. It is also toxic and sapphic and exactly what I needed when I picked it up. Sometimes you want a slow burn enemies to lovers with beautiful prose and sometimes you want a sapphic vampire romance that makes your face go red. This is firmly the second thing and I have zero regrets about loving it.
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
Go read Carmilla first. Or do not, the choice is yours. But give yourself some breathing room between them because this dark academia retelling of Carmilla is its own fully realized thing and it deserves your full attention. Two students at a prestigious women’s college, a dangerous vampire professor, and a story that drips with atmosphere and obsession and the specific kind of hunger that only dark academia can deliver. I devoured this one completely and it has stayed with me ever since.
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
I read the ARC of this one and I had a love hate relationship with it while I was reading it. I want to be honest about that because I think it matters. This is not your traditional vampire story. If you are looking for blood sucking and fangs and all the classic trappings, this is not your book. But if you are open to a vampire who feeds on the emotions of others, told through a lens that is strange and dreamy and genuinely unlike anything else I have read, stay with it. When I finished and let myself sit with it and reframe what I had read, I really did enjoy it. Some books need a little time to settle and this is one of them.
Six books, centuries of queer vampire fiction, and honestly I could have kept going. Drop a comment and tell me your favorite queer vampire read, and come argue with me about vampires in the Discord any time.
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Year of Queer Lit 
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