There are vampires in the Bible?
-FrL-
This. I started reading the Vampire Chronicles in 7th grade, and was FAR more shocked by the smut in The Thornbirds, which I read at about the same time.
I checked out that site, and I could have sworn she wrote a book about Pandora. Does anyone else remember seeing this?
You are not mistaken, and I thought maybe I’d missed it or something. On poking around on annerice.com for a bit, I found that both Pandora and another one (Vittorio) are not listed under the Chronicles, but under New Tales of the Vampires.
There’s sex in the last book. And incestuous desires in the second, but not acted upon.
I’d argue that ‘Interview With a Vampire’ is probably the best vampire novel to start a kid of 13 with. At least Louis recognizes what a horrible monster a vampire is. To me the sugar coated vampire novels are more damaging to the psyche than one that lays it all out that they are demons.
I’d stop at Vampire Lestat. Queen of the Damned was garbage.
Why? Because it gives impressionable teens false ideas about vampires instead of the true facts?
Incestuous desires? Isn’t the second book the one with the werewolves?
I wouldn’t consider the Blood books too graphic, but I don’t think they’d be very interesting to a kid.
I’ve actually just started reading this series with my friend’s 11 year old. The deal is I have to keep one book ahead of her, to screen for no-no’s.
I’m not familiar enough with Anne Rice to know how sexual her vampire books are but, since other posters have expressed surprise that you find them too sexual for a 13 year old, I’ll assume that even mild sexual scenes are beyond appropriate in your evaluation.
I’ve just started the second of Charlaine Harris’ vampire books, and deemed the first one o.k. for the 11 year old. Sounds like you might disagree on the appropriateness, though. There are a few sex scenes in the first book. However, the descriptiveness focuses more on the main character’s emotional experience during the sexual encounters rather than vividly describing sex acts. Also, the sex is between two characters who love each other- not down and dirty stuff. There is description of erotic biting- it is a vampire book after all.
So, if your standards disqualify any sex at all this series might not be o.k. I’ll just mention that the 11 year old is loving the story and the characters. She’s anxious for me to finish the second book since she finished the first one so quickly after I gave it to her.
This is the same child who, when she was 9, I took to see The Threepenny Opera on Broadway- the production that starred Alan Cumming. It was a somewhat sexual production of the play.
Thirding Salem’s Lot. Good, fun read. I Am Legend has what are called vampires, but it feels more like what we’d consider a zombie book. It’s still great if you like horror, regardless. I remember really enjoying Richard Matheson at that age. Hell, he’s still the man.
I thought so too, but I didn’t want to say younger in case I had misremembered
I’ll second this. And also the Kim Newman ANNO DRACULA books & stories.
To the recommendation of Poppy Z. Brite’s LOST SOULS… :eek::eek::eek:
Gay vampires I can stand, Incestuous vampires I can stand, GAY INCESTUOUS VAMPIRES, THOUGH…:eek:
Exactly.
Another vote for Stoker’s Dracula.
After reading that, He might enjoy Saberhagen’s Dracula series. I started with The Dracula Tapes.
and Immortal Blood by the same author, assuming that a. it’s still in print and b. is published under the same name in the US as the UK.
I don’t know if you’d call it teeny bopper bait or not, but there is an emerging series for pre-teen/teen readers called The Chronicles Of Vladmir Tod by Heather Brewer starting with Eighth Grade Bites, then onto Ninth Grade Slays. Tenth Grade Bleeds is due out this year.
They’ve got humor and action over the Twilight books, with much less of that romantic angsty crap. (Plus the author totally rocks. Her husband works with my husband, so we “know” each other by proxy.) The first book has a bit of “written for pre-teens” feel to it, but by the second book, it feels much more like Heather got over it and is just writing, rather than trying to write for an audience.
I also really like Nancy A Collins and her Sonja Blue books, but they may be a bit advanced for a 13 year old. You might wanna read those yourself and make the call on whether or not to let him read them.
Because cannibalism is a greater sin than sex?
Vampirism is so outlandish an idea that it hardly seems similar in any way to real-life cannibalism. On the other hand, respect for life is a good value to teach, so I guess I can see how a parent might not want their child reading a book that portrayed a murderous vampire as sympathetic. Really would depend on the book and the child, though.
It really depends on how much sex and violence you think is okay for a kid that age. Myself, I was reading Auel at that age, though I was nearly 3/4 of the way through Valley of the Horses before my parents remembered just how much getting it on there was in those books. Fairly graphic, but in a romance novel sort of way–lots of mentions of "throbbing member"s and "female opening"s. By contrast, my English teacher felt the need to call and tell my parents that I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird because of the whole rape trial thing.
If no sex at all is okay, you’re kind of stuck on vampire books. Even Dracula has the three succubi trying to get it on with Harker.
If some sex is okay, I think you could do a lot worse than the Charlaine Harris books. They’re not great literature by any stretch of the imagination, and Sookie’s a total Mary Sue, but they’re pretty entertaining. Far more so than, say, the couple of Anne Rice books I plodded through. Booooorrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg. Didn’t care overmuch for Salem’s Lot, either–I looked up and realized that major characters were dying like flies, and I just didn’t give a shit.
Likable characters too. But that’s what made it so good – the vampires taking over the whole damn town. 