Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review. This was interesting because of vampires. Short and fun read

Anything with the word 'folklore' piques my interest, this book being no different. I requested it immediately as I saw it on Netgalley. However, it took a bit longer to finish than intended. Thanks to NetGalley and Schiffer publishing for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

The book is a very well written documentary-Esque book delving into the lore of vampires, both in pop-culture and stories of the yore. If you are a vampire buff, you might already be familiar with many of the stories told. However, don’t be deterred; the unique style of the author is reason enough to read this one.

From the hypnotic stare of vampires to their ever-lasting youth; the book covers all. Be warned, carry a cross or a few cloves of garlic before diving deep into this one.

P.S: Being a fan of Bram Stoker's Dracula, I loved the author's reference to it quite a few times in the book.

Well researched collection of the history of the mythos of vampires. Each chapter is dedicated to a well-known (or not so well-known) feature of these infamous supernatural creatures. The author also throws in some of the witch and werewolf history to draw comparisons to the vampires. The scientist in me appreciated the attention to factual details, references to material from other chapters, and bibliography/references list. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn more about vampires and their origins beyond the Dracula mythos.

"Vampires of Lore" gave some interesting information on real cases of how people in the Middle Ages dealt with Vampirism, but apart from this, it didn't really add any new information or insights on the depiction of vampires in today's pop culture. The structure of the book also didn't make a lot of sense and some of the chapters were rather repetitive.

Entertaining, filled with useful insight for writers and vampire lovers alike. The author explores all the commonly expected traits when thinking about vampires and compares them to folk beliefs from several countries, mostly from Europe, although also mentioning others now and then. From fangs to blood-drinking, immortality, and the superhuman abilities, this book explains the origin of them all, tracing an interesting history of such a fascinating creature. Needless to say that I love it and devoured in a sitting.

Full review on page 10: https://bavs.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/BAVSNewsletter_20.1_Jul2020-2.pdf

Will vampires ever not be interesting? Personally, I'm not sure they will ever really fall out of popular interest. This is an interesting book, packed with various bits of vampiric lore and history. A must for fans of that sub-genre of horror, or anyone with an interest in folklore and mythology as a whole.

Fascinating research about vampires and the myths that surround them. Read this and bingewatch vampire diaries. It will give you another look on vampires

This book was fascinating and such a good insight into how vampires came to be! I loved the writing style and thought it was a great book for researchers into the paranormal

There is a lot of really great, well-researched information packed into this short book. I think I highlighted something on almost every page.
Vampire myths are fascinating and this author clearly has a great love for them and a sense of humor, too.
I appreciate how they weaved in stuff about witches and werewolves and other creepy creatures.
My only complaint is that it wasn’t long enough and I felt like more information could have been added.
But otherwise, excellent!

Vampires of Lore is a nice, quick read about the many vampire legends throughout history. It'll make a nice addition to any vampire fan's bookshelf.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

A. P. Sylvia’s Vampires of Lore is a well-researched and well-organized introduction to vampires and their associated folklore. This fascinating read explores how historical folklore from around the world affects modern interpretations of vampires. I really enjoyed this brief but informative and well-written read. I love the gorgeous and spooky layout but I wish there had been more pictures.

I am a huge vampire fan so I already knew a lot of the information in this book. However, there are great little-known facts and stories here. I really enjoyed reading about the folklore and accounts from all over the world. I especially like that Sylvia explores the relationships between history, folklore, and our modern incarnations of the vampire. His writing is simple and approachable with just the right touch of humour. He easily communicates historical and factual information without overwhelming the reader.

This book is divided into short and easy-to-read chapters exploring the various traits of vampires. These informative chapters cover topics like fangs, becoming a vampire, as well as the animals that vampires could transform into. Did you know that traditional vampire folklore does not feature fangs? Did you also know that many accounts reported that vampires ignored the neck in favour of biting other body parts? I also learned that you could become a vampire if you were a woman who practiced dark magic or if your mother did not eat salt during pregnancy or if a cat jumped over your corpse!

Although the book focuses heavily on Europe, I also learned about vampire-like creatures in places like India and Malaysia. I loved learning about so many different cultures! The book also includes information on other supernatural creatures like werewolves and witches which shows the overlap between folklores.

I love the book’s fun layout with the spooky old-fashioned text and imagery. The aged stained pages are an excellent touch. But, I am disappointed in the lack of pictures. There are only a handful of black-and-white images scattered throughout the book and I was hoping to see much more of them.

Vampires of Lore is a well-written and interesting book. This quick read is a great introduction for those who want to learn more about vampires or those who love folklore and history.




🧛🧛🧛🧛 vampires out of 5!

An excellent explorative compendium of the origins of vampire lore and the many variants seen throughout history.

While the general topics of discussion will be familiar to anyone with even a bit of knowledge on the history of vampirism, the devil is both literally and figuratively in the details here, as Sylvia treats us to a fascinating array of source material relating to each vampiric tendency and tradition.

And while Sylvia’s research is thorough and well organized, the book really stands out from its peers because of its tone: Friendly and approachable without any dumbing down or pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Sylvia also manages to convey a wink-nudge sense of humor about the subject without ever coming off as disrespectful to those whose folklore and mythology he draws on for source material.

After the latest adaptation of Dracula by the BBC some may be interested in finding out where the history of the vampire all began.

If you want to know whether the myths around garlic, mirrors, staking, and blood drinking come from history, folklore, or fiction - then look no further!

The format of the book works well. Each chapter deals effectively with an aspect of vampire lore, using the historical record and folklore to make links between history and modern day perceptions, with heavy references to Bram Stoker's Dracula. It gives a good detail of information but without feeling bogged down in too much detail. Each sections has end notes to point readers in the direction of the source material, should they wish to peruse it further. I greatly appreciated the references throughout!

My only criticism is that there are a few grammatical errors such as the wrong word being used at times.


Overall this book was an quick, enjoyable read with a wealth of facts that gives excellent detail on the history of vampire lore.

This was everything I was hoping it would be. I'm not a rabid vampire superfan, but I definitely have a preference for them over werewolves or zombies (for example), and I have my fair share of knowledge for the lore.

This is a fairly short book, but it packs a punch. It presents a lot of information without reading like a textbook, it manages to stay humorous throughout ("I wanted to dig deep on this topic [six feet at least]"- and that's just the Preface!), and it incorporates a lot of pop culture, referencing series and franchises like Buffy that even noob-vampire fans are bound to be familiar with. It also includes some wonderful woodcut-like illustrations that I adored.

It gets a 4 and not a perfect 5/5 because are mostly for books that I want to read again and again. I may revisit this one in the future, but I think that most of its merit was this once.

As a huge fan of vampires, I already knew quite a bit about the subject matter before embarking on this read. At times, the text felt a bit heavy and cumbersome, even though not detail heavy, which was a shame.

Overall, I thought it was a decent read, though.

3.5

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well, what can I say? I was really excited when I received the copy of this book. Vampires are my favorite supernatural creatures, along with demons, and I'm fascinated by everything related to folklore, in fact I read various books about it and the figure of the vampire in history.
I found this book good, from this point of view, since it presents information that's not easily available, but I found it also a bit... superficial? In short, to have so few pages it has a high cost and the content is not as precise as one would expect. Yes, we are given information that we do not find everywhere in the essays on vampiric folklore - with additional elements concerning witches and werewolves -, however we stop at the surface, without going into specifics, as I would have expected given the premises.

Secondly, I found it difficult to proceed, although the pages were few; I had the impression that the text was heavy and slow, even though it did not enter into large speculations or had a difficult vocabulary. I can't explain it, it may have been my personal problem.

Overall I enjoyed reading it, it wasn't bad, but not as good as I expected.

A Text Book of how people have perceived Vampires to be throughout Folklore & History , this is a very interesting read but also very complex due to all the reference to other Books & Authors on the subject of Vampires! In fact when you see the way people decided factors that led to someone possibly being a Vampire , just like Witches, Warlocks and many other so called unnatural Beings in the World & how they could be detected & destroyed it's small wonder that any human race exists at all !

Vampires of Lore was a short and fun book about vampires and the tropes surrounding them. The book may not be overly detailed as it's just under 130 pages, but it's still educational and well researched. If nothing else, it's a great introduction and a great starting point in further vampire reading.

Vampires are my favourite mythical/ folkloric beings and I am always curious to read any work remotely related to them.

Vampires of Lore is an interesting book which talks about all the tropes and cliches related to vampires by comparing old folklore origins with modern popular perceptions of this 'fanged' beast. The author cites various vampiric folklore accounts from different eastern European countries, China, India & Greece, and I was surprised to find out that one creature could have so many different avatars. Also, what's more interesting is that many of our popular notions about vampires do no completely match with the actual folklore accounts...it seems we have our early gothic writers to thank for that!

At 128 pages, it may not be a detailed book but it is fun, quick to read and does enough to pique ones interest to research further.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Schiffer Publishing Ltd. and the author A.P. Sylvia for giving me an e-Arc of the book.

While I'm certain that the material in the short essays/chapters of this book is interesting, I found the book laborious to read due to the black text on medium gray paper designed to look like "aged parchment" as it was edged in black. I often lost my place in the material or otherwise couldn't follow the material because of this formatting choice. Also, the material is all easily discovered in other books or through various internet sources; therefore, isn't really new or interesting but just a rehash of information found in much easier to read books.