TITLE:
VAMPIRE STORIES FROM THE
AMERICAN SOUTH
SERIES:
--
AUTHOR:
LAWRENCE SCHIMEL & MARTIN
H. GREENBERG
GENRE:
HORROR
EDITION
READ: HARDBACK
AMAZON
PRICE: USED FROM $2.87
Few
parts of America are as historied as the South, so it’s no surprise
that many southern horror stories feature the long-lived vampire.
Vampire
Stories from the American South
is a feast of fear for lovers of vampire fiction, offering a dozen
tales in which insatiable vampires prowl plantations and scour the
bayous in search of mortal blood.
Spanning settings that range
from Virginia to Louisiana, and from Florida to Texas, these stories
feature creatures of the living dead that are haunting incarnations
of local color and folklore unique to the southern states. Some of
those raised here include:
*a blood-drinking monster of the
Mardi-Gras in Susan Shwartz’s “The Carpetbagger”
*femme
fatale who stalks the Civil War battlefields in Manly Wade Wellman’s
“The Cursed Damozel”
*an Elvis Presley immortalized by
more than his music in Tracy A. Knight’s
“Blessed By His Dying
Tongue”
The South rises again in these eerie tales of the
supernatural, and the shape it takes is sure to bring a chill on the
most sultry southern summer night!
MY
RATING: 3 STARS
This
anthology includes 12 vampire stories set in the south. Being a
southerner myself, I thought this would be a neat little read.
Honestly, I only enjoyed about half (maybe less) of the stories.
The
short stories included in this anthology are:
*The
Carpetbagger (Louisiana) by Susan Shwartz
*Claim-Jumpin'
Woman, You Got a Stake in My Heart (Georgia) by Esther Friesner
*The
Silver Coffin (Virgina)
by Robert Barbour Johnson
*Like
a Pilgrim to a Shrine (Florida) by Brian Hodge
*The
Cursed Damozel (Tennessee) by Manly Wade Wellman
*The
Scent of Magnolias (Alabama) by Lawrence Schimel & Billie Sue
Mosiman
*The
Flame (North Carolina) by Fred Chappell
*God-Less
Men (Texas) by James Kisner
*Blood
Kin (Louisiana) by Delia Sherman
*Carrion
Comfort (South Carolina) by Dan Simmons
*Blessed
by His Dying Tongue (Tennessee) by Tracy A. Knight
*She
Only Goes Out at Night (West Virginia) by William Tenn
By
far, the most famous story included is Carrion Comfort by Dan
Simmons. I purposely opted NOT to read this particular story. The
reason being I actually have the novel sitting on my shelf and I
haven't read it yet.
The
stories I found enjoyable were:
The
Silver Coffin
The
Scent of Magnolias
The
Flame
God-Less
Men
She
Only Goes Out at Night
Of
Course, being an anthology is going to be a hit and miss with the
stories. I have yet to find an anthology in which I enjoyed all the
stories. If you chose to read this book, I would suggest checking it
out from your library or finding a cheap used copy from Amazon or
Thriftbooks.
*Book
Hollow*
