Blood and Other Cravings

Blood and Other Cravings

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3.47 of 5 stars 3.47  ·  rating details  ·  66 ratings  ·  22 reviews

When we think of vampires, instantly the image arises: fangs sunk deep into the throat of the victim. But bloodsucking is merely one form of vampirism. For this brilliantly original anthology, Ellen Datlow has commissioned stories from many of the most powerfully dark voices in contemporary horror, who conjure tales of vampirism that will chill readers to the marrow.

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Hardcover, 320 pages
Published September 13th 2011 by Tor Books
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Lisa
I was very excited to receive this collection of stories. This is the third Ellen Datlow collection I’ve read, the second that I’ve reviewed, and I think she does a great job of choosing really interesting stories that all play to a theme. Blood and Other Cravingsisn’t your typical book about vampires. These aren’t necessarily creatures that suck your blood and hate garlic, but they are creatures who steal something essential from you. They draw something — energy, will, love, vitality — from yo...more
Jody
Blood and Other Cravings edited by Ellen Datlow is an extraordinary tour de force of dark fantasy featuring fifteen original stories and two reprints based on the vampire trope. But don’t expect to see Count Dracula in this gathering of darkness, nor any of the usual suspects or stereotypes found in most vampire tales. Ms. Datlow’s vampires, human or inhuman, are those whom we might encounter in our day to day activities (or, as the case might prove, night to night) because they feed on what dri...more
Nafiza
Short stories and anthologies of short stories are much maligned because most of the times, readers do not believe that a short story can wholly encompass and totally tell the tale it seeks to. And maybe some stories don't but in the case of the tales in Blood and Other Cravings, each story, no matter what its length, stands on its own and does not just tell the tale it seeks to but tells it in such a way that it will linger in your consciousness long after you have turned the page.

Ellen Datlow,...more
Stacey
You know me, I'm a sucker (har har har) for vampire books. And even moreso for short story collections; I've discovered so many great authors after reading their short fiction. This should be a home run for me.

Alas, that is not the case. The point of Blood and Other Cravings is to show vampires that take something different than blood, or more than only blood. Says the description on Amazon, the leeching of emotion, the draining of the soul, and other dark deeds of predation and exploitation, in...more
Darkfallen
Blood & Other Cravings is book of short stories that are sure to induce spine tingling chills...and quite possible a nightmare are two. *winks* With many many great stories about all different takes on vampirism, and I have to say that I found some of them extremely fascinating!

For instance in Needles, by Elizabeth Bear, there are two different types of vampires that work together. However the female? Yes I want to read more about her! Rather than drinking the blood of humans she somehow suc...more
Melissa
Tired of the HEA? Sick of things that just easily work out for the characters? Will one more story where everything is just fixed in the end wanting to make you scream? Well, if you are feeling this way and you are looking for a dark read that sometimes makes you think, "wait... what?" well, look no further. Here is your book!

Am I kidding? Heh. No. As some of you know... I enjoy my HEA. I crave it. However, not one of these stories has an HEA. Not really even and HEA of sorts. In fact the best y...more
Althea Ann
I was pretty excited to get this book, because I am a fan of Ellen Datlow, and I generally love her anthologies. With any anthology, I don't expect to love all the stories, but with a good editor, I expect to find at least a few exceptional pieces. I like several of the authors included here a lot, too. However, I felt that nearly all of the stories here were good-but-not-great. That also means that there wasn't anything here that I thought was a waste of time, or annoying. It's a solid book.
Th...more
Miriam
Aside from two or three good stories, this collection was quite boring. A pity, because often the writing was fine and the ideas original (insofar as the vampire-sucking-things-other-than-blood ever is... That "twist" has been around for decades and I don't understand why authors seem to keep thinking they're doing something "novel"), but most of them were just not good reads. Most were low on dialog, action, character development and everything else that makes fiction fun. It really felt like m...more
Gef
When I was a kid, I would faint at the sight of blood, or at least get woozy. Odd that I would grow to become a fan of horror fiction, yes, but the written word is far easier on my frailties than gashing my leg open on broken glass (that was not a fun day). This anthology of short fiction isn't a prurient bloodbath though, and it would silly to expect such from Ellen Datlow. This collection focuses rather on the other word in the title: cravings.

Blood and Other Cravings isn't strictly a vampire...more
Lisa
Sep 25, 2011 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2011
(3.5 stars)

(originally reviewed on starmetal oak book blog)

I don't I ever reviewed an anthology before and so I struggled with how I would review this one. I decided not to review each story individually since I think this book works better as a whole and so I'll review it as such.

I really enjoyed most of these stories. Of course there were a few that I didn't care for but I found new authors that I never heard of before. What this anthology offers is a great array of tales of vapirism that don'...more
Marie-Therese
A rather disappointing collection with only a single superb new story (Lisa Tuttle's understated but stunning and genuinely creepy "Shelf Life") and a handful of good to very good ones ("Needles" by Elizabeth Bear, "The Mulberry Boys" by Margo Lanagan, "Toujours" by Kathe Koja, "Keeping Corky" by Melanie Tem and "Sweet Sorrow" by Barbara Roden). Two reprints (Reggie Oliver's "Baskerville's Midgets" and Carol Emshwiller's "Mrs. Jones") are both fine tales but surely very familiar to fans of the a...more
M Griffin
There are all kinds of reasons I might read a short fiction anthology. Maybe it's the only place to find new work by some of my favorite writers. Some anthologies serve to introduce readers to unfamiliar writers, either total unknowns, or familiar names I've somehow not yet gotten around to reading. Many readers are motivated by an anthology's theme -- "Oh, I love zombies, and here's another zombie anthology so of course I'll buy it" -- but I usually don't. I didn't buy this because it had to do...more
Shellie (Layers of Thought)
Sep 17, 2012 Shellie (Layers of Thought) rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: literary horror readers
Recommended to Shellie (Layers of Thought) by: Tor Books (Jen & Cassie)
Original review posted on Layers of Thought.

Not for just vampire lovers, this is another compelling and diverse collection of horror from some of the best in the genre, edited by Ellen Datlow. What’s great about these stories, is they are not all based upon traditional “fangy” blood suckers since the cravings and feedings in this book are not only about blood.

About: Published in the Fall of 2011, this is my second horror collection edited by Ellen Datlow. Although all the stories in this collect...more
Chris Bauer
"Blood and Other Cravings" is yet another excellent anthology edited by Ellen Datlow. The theme of the collection is loosely "vampires" but aside from just a couple of conventional bloodsucker stories, there is a remarkable gamut of different takes on the theme.

Some of my personal favorites included;

"Needles" by Elizabeth Bear
"Miri" by Steve Rasnic Tem
"First Breath" by Nicole J. LeBoeuf (go VP alums!)

While there were a few I simply did not care for, one can always expect excellence when Ms. Datl...more
David Marshall
This plays the game of putting together a themed anthology particularly well. Although it's supposed to be essentially about vampires, it beautifully rings the changes and displays a surprisingly wide variation of different entities that might feed upon others. Kudos to Ellen Datlow.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2012/0...
Suzanne Johnson
This anthology of vampire stories is a great introduction to a wide base of authors, but be forewarned: these are not sexy, sigh-inducing vamps of paranormal romance. These are more often the "oh crap" vampires of horror, and some of them feed on things other than blood. I'll have a more extensive review coming up at http://suzanne-johnson.blogspot.com. d
Dana
As usual with anthologies, I liked some stories in this better than others, but it was an interesting take on the different ways one can look at vampirism of many sorts. NOT traditional vampire stories, in case anyone was thinking they would be.
Kate
Mostly it was so-so with many pessimistic and downright ambiguous endings (not my favorites). Some did have interesting twists though. Also a few did strike me as intriguing concepts that could be further developed in novel form. Warning: Here come some spoilers. Leboeuf's "First Breath" would be interesting to see how the ghost-like being develops to her new identity as "Jen". It would be fun to see how she develops in this new tangible form. And how she can maybe still converse with the soul o...more
Aubrey
Mar 31, 2012 Aubrey marked it as to-read
Always sounded interesting when pitched at Tor before it was published
Tatiana
"Mulberry Boys" by Margo Lanagan
Jay Caselberg
A decent read. The standout stories for me were the Bowes, Bear and Lanagan. A couple not so strong, but the Bowes and Lanagan stories certainly make up for them.
Chrissy
Unfortunately, this collection of vampire tales was just too metaphysical for me. It was too heavy on “Other Cravings” and not the “Blood” (which I prefer) and I was left a wee bored. Maybe it was because nearly all the stories felt as if they were bigger than their word counts allowed them to present themselves? *shrugs* Either way, it’s getting a 2/5 from me.
Katya
May 10, 2013 Katya marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Jessica Faus
May 05, 2013 Jessica Faus marked it as to-read
frazzledsoul
Apr 21, 2013 frazzledsoul is currently reading it
Kat
Apr 15, 2013 Kat marked it as dont-own-but-want
Lisa
Apr 04, 2013 Lisa marked it as to-read
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Blood and Other Cravings (Paperback)
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Ellen Datlow has been an award-winning editor of short science fiction, fantasy, and horror for over twentyfive years.

She is editor of the Best Horror of the Year and has edited or co-edited a large number of award-winning original anthologies. Her most recent are Supernatural Noir, Naked City, Blood and Other Cravings, The Beastly Bride, Teeth, Trolls Eye View, and After (the last three with Ter...more
More about Ellen Datlow...
Snow White, Blood Red The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (Riverside Series; The Dresden Files, #10.9) Lovecraft Unbound Black Heart, Ivory Bones

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