What do you think?
Rate this book
American Vampires: Their True Bloody History From New York to California
Vampires are much more complex creatures than Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Twilight, True Blood, or scores of other movies and television shows would have you believe. Even in America.
American vampire lore has its roots in the beliefs and fears of the diverse peoples and nationalities that make up our country, and reflects the rich tapestry of their varied perspectives. The vampires that lurk in the American darkness come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can produce some surprising results. Vampires in North Carolina are vastly different from those in South Carolina, and even more different from those in New York State. Moreover, not all of them are human in form, and they can't necessarily be warded off by the sight of a crucifix or a bulb of garlic.
Dr. Bob Curran visits the Louisiana bayous, the back streets of New York City, the hills of Tennessee, the Sierras of California, the deserts of Arizona, and many more locations in a bid to track down the vampire creatures that lurk there. Join him if you dare! This is not Hollywood's version of the vampire--these entities are real!
American vampire lore has its roots in the beliefs and fears of the diverse peoples and nationalities that make up our country, and reflects the rich tapestry of their varied perspectives. The vampires that lurk in the American darkness come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can produce some surprising results. Vampires in North Carolina are vastly different from those in South Carolina, and even more different from those in New York State. Moreover, not all of them are human in form, and they can't necessarily be warded off by the sight of a crucifix or a bulb of garlic.
Dr. Bob Curran visits the Louisiana bayous, the back streets of New York City, the hills of Tennessee, the Sierras of California, the deserts of Arizona, and many more locations in a bid to track down the vampire creatures that lurk there. Join him if you dare! This is not Hollywood's version of the vampire--these entities are real!
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
11 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
About the author
Bob Curran
55 books53 followersBOB CURRAN is an educational psychologist in Coleraine University. His interests are broad-ranging but are focused especially on history and story. He has written several books, including The Field Guide to Irish Fairies, The Wolfhound Guide to the Shamrock, Creatures of Celtic Myth, The Truth about the Leprechaun.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 6, 2015
This book is absolutely terrible. Please do not waste time, money, effort, or energy on this. I bought this book thinking I was getting a history on American Vampires. Instead I got a muddled stupid mess with barely any mention of American lore or Vampire lore. The author makes widespread assumptions, uses examples from foreign countries to argue his cases about America, and considered practically every type of mythological being a vampire. He claims possessed chairs, wells, and blankets are vampires and doesn't even cover the entire United States. Rather the author selects about ten states and barely talks about a history of vampirism there. Most of the stories he includes were boring, pointless, or irrelevant. How did this get published?
So, so, so disappointed. The only reason I didn't give this book one star was because the chapters with the history of Dogtown and the story about vampires during the Consumption scare were actually interesting but in retrospect that was about 5% of the book making it a complete waste of time.
So, so, so disappointed. The only reason I didn't give this book one star was because the chapters with the history of Dogtown and the story about vampires during the Consumption scare were actually interesting but in retrospect that was about 5% of the book making it a complete waste of time.
August 14, 2018
American Vampires: Their True Bloody History from New York to California by Dr. Bob Curran is an interesting look at the darker side of American folklore, but ultimately falls short as a guide to American vampire lore. Published in 2013 by New Page Books, American Vampires is 254 pages and includes stories from Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Wyoming. It is beautifully illustrated by Ian Daniels.
American Vampires takes a multicultural view of American folklore, drawing from American Indian, British, Irish, and African sources to explain the origins of many of our tales. Readers will be treated to a rich tapestry of myths, all of which merge together to form the foundation of our own unique American folklore. This reminds us that certain themes about mortality—and what lurks in the darkness, are universally human. It is a fresh perspective that Dr. Curran, as a native of Ireland, brings to this book.
However, American Vampires suffers from a major thematic problem. Although Dr. Curran argues that vampires are more diverse and complex than often portrayed in popular culture, he stretches the definition of “vampire” to the breaking point and beyond. He describes any supernatural or folk-entity that drains energy or tastes blood as a vampire, and entire chapters go by with only passing reference to a “vampiric” creature.
Vampires, however, have a specific definition. Dictionary.com defines a vampire as “a preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night” or “(in Eastern European folklore) a corpse, animated by an undeparted soul or demon, that periodically leaves the grave and disturbs the living, until it is exhumed and impaled or burned.” Displaying certain behaviors associated with vampires does not make a creature a vampire any more than eating a salad makes someone a vegetarian. Many of the creatures in Dr. Curran’s book are witches or spirits that happen to have some vampiric traits.
This lack of core content related to the main theme of the book leads the author to wander aimlessly through numerous detours. For instance, in the first chapter we are treated to a history of chair making in frontier Tennessee and an exposition about enchanted quilts. In Chapter 2, the author spends a quarter of the chapter talking about the Irish potato famine and the folklore of Ireland. All of these subjects are interesting, but they are only peripherally related to the main subject of the book.
American Vampires also lacks adequate references. The author provides a short bibliography at the end, but it is unclear where he found the material for any particular chapter. References are important because they allow the reader to investigate sources for themselves and determine the accuracy of a work. Without citations, there is no way of knowing precisely where the author obtained his information, or how accurate it is. Every good work of folklore cites its sources—even Alvin Schwartz included detailed references in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
Despite these limitations, I would recommend American Vampires to anyone interested in the darker side of American folklore. Stories of witchcraft, enchanted items, medical experimentation gone wrong, and even dwarves are all fleshed out in macabre detail. Readers will come away from this book with a better understanding of American culture and the rich traditions that contribute to it.
American Vampires takes a multicultural view of American folklore, drawing from American Indian, British, Irish, and African sources to explain the origins of many of our tales. Readers will be treated to a rich tapestry of myths, all of which merge together to form the foundation of our own unique American folklore. This reminds us that certain themes about mortality—and what lurks in the darkness, are universally human. It is a fresh perspective that Dr. Curran, as a native of Ireland, brings to this book.
However, American Vampires suffers from a major thematic problem. Although Dr. Curran argues that vampires are more diverse and complex than often portrayed in popular culture, he stretches the definition of “vampire” to the breaking point and beyond. He describes any supernatural or folk-entity that drains energy or tastes blood as a vampire, and entire chapters go by with only passing reference to a “vampiric” creature.
Vampires, however, have a specific definition. Dictionary.com defines a vampire as “a preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night” or “(in Eastern European folklore) a corpse, animated by an undeparted soul or demon, that periodically leaves the grave and disturbs the living, until it is exhumed and impaled or burned.” Displaying certain behaviors associated with vampires does not make a creature a vampire any more than eating a salad makes someone a vegetarian. Many of the creatures in Dr. Curran’s book are witches or spirits that happen to have some vampiric traits.
This lack of core content related to the main theme of the book leads the author to wander aimlessly through numerous detours. For instance, in the first chapter we are treated to a history of chair making in frontier Tennessee and an exposition about enchanted quilts. In Chapter 2, the author spends a quarter of the chapter talking about the Irish potato famine and the folklore of Ireland. All of these subjects are interesting, but they are only peripherally related to the main subject of the book.
American Vampires also lacks adequate references. The author provides a short bibliography at the end, but it is unclear where he found the material for any particular chapter. References are important because they allow the reader to investigate sources for themselves and determine the accuracy of a work. Without citations, there is no way of knowing precisely where the author obtained his information, or how accurate it is. Every good work of folklore cites its sources—even Alvin Schwartz included detailed references in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
Despite these limitations, I would recommend American Vampires to anyone interested in the darker side of American folklore. Stories of witchcraft, enchanted items, medical experimentation gone wrong, and even dwarves are all fleshed out in macabre detail. Readers will come away from this book with a better understanding of American culture and the rich traditions that contribute to it.
August 9, 2019
I really enjoyed taking a trip through America's vampiric history and learning all kinds of new stories of folklore and legends based on vampires. Dr. Curran did a wonderful job of providing history with legend and I even googled more stuff oncertain stories just to see pictures and learn more. Really fascinating stories that make me want to go on a road trip and visit the places mentioned within.
Can't wait to read some more of Dr. Curran's books, because I love how weaves history, facts, and legends together to tell a story. Marvelous.
Can't wait to read some more of Dr. Curran's books, because I love how weaves history, facts, and legends together to tell a story. Marvelous.
February 4, 2013
I haven't finished reading this yet but the stories and the myths and the superstitions that Dr. Curran describes are mesmerizing. As I read them, they seem more like distant memories than like something I'm reading for the first time. Stories of hants, boo-hags, vampires, vampiric mists and forms, famine wells, and spirits fill the book, collected from legend and lore, history, culture and superstition. Creepy and riveting at the same time, this book makes me wonder what makes Dr. Curran tick, what made him collect all these stories and follow them across the north and south and gather them all together for us?
January 1, 2017
Pretty interesting!
I found some very interesting stories, but found a lot of the book to meander a bit too much. Curran would start talking about a creature unique to American folklore and then spend five pages talking about a similar creature originating in Europe + give examples of said creature. I would have liked a larger focus on the creatures in...y'know...America.
Unlike other reviewers, I thought the inclusion of energy-draining creatures and objects (including quilts) was fine since they do have vampiric qualities.
I found some very interesting stories, but found a lot of the book to meander a bit too much. Curran would start talking about a creature unique to American folklore and then spend five pages talking about a similar creature originating in Europe + give examples of said creature. I would have liked a larger focus on the creatures in...y'know...America.
Unlike other reviewers, I thought the inclusion of energy-draining creatures and objects (including quilts) was fine since they do have vampiric qualities.
April 3, 2013
This is supposed to be nonfiction--a collection of vampire lore from around the US. I'm pretty sure they have the Internet in Northern Ireland but Dr. Curran apparently did not bother to use it. Nor did he possess a US atlas. His North Carolina geography is just plain wrong and completely ruined the book for me. Perhaps it is confusing for a foreigner. FYI: Albemarle, NC is in Stanly County but Albemarle Sound most certainly is not.
October 7, 2021
This book was absolutely so uninspiring it had taken me months to finally give up on completing it. I have tried and struggled to even stay focused. I am the type of person, that no matter how poorly written a book is, I will finish it. I was unable to do that.
I'm not saying that the information was poor, but there was no way that I could read it the way it was presented.
I'm not saying that the information was poor, but there was no way that I could read it the way it was presented.
January 4, 2016
⭐️⭐️1/2.
It's okay. He seems to be trying to draw connections between vampire stories here in the US and those from "The Old Country" and from the indigenous people already here. If you are looking for a more scholarly discussion this book is not for you. if you are looking for a creepy retelling of little know stories this book is not for you. Who is this book for? Not really sure!
It's okay. He seems to be trying to draw connections between vampire stories here in the US and those from "The Old Country" and from the indigenous people already here. If you are looking for a more scholarly discussion this book is not for you. if you are looking for a creepy retelling of little know stories this book is not for you. Who is this book for? Not really sure!
April 13, 2013
I couldn't even finish this book, I barely got past the introduction. It pains me to not be able to finish any book, considering this is the first time I have done so. Poorly written and does not catch my attention.
February 28, 2014
Found this book disappointing
I was bored from the beginning with the writing style I expected more and I am glad I borrowed instead of bought it.
I was bored from the beginning with the writing style I expected more and I am glad I borrowed instead of bought it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews