Mulliga's Tribute to '80s Horror Paperbacks (Part 3) - The Vampire Tapestry

Halloween is finally here, and this year Shangrila Towers is paying tribute to the gory, grotesque, and sometimes goofy world of 1980s horror fiction. For the last night of spooky season, let's dive into a book endorsed by the likes of Stephen King and Peter S. Beagle: The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas.

Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire launched a craze of vampire fiction that has arguably lasted to this day, and The Vampire Tapestry represents a thoughtful take on the vampire myth. It's a set of connected novellas (hence the title) about Dr. Edward Weyland, a centuries-old vampire trying to survive in 20th century America. Ironically, Weyland is an anthropologist, and he studies humans with the eye of an outsider (or, less charitably, a predator). Pure blind luck sometimes casts him as the hunter, sometimes the hunted, with the bloodlust always at his heels.

There isn't much action or gore to speak of, but the book is pretty well-written, and has some interesting thoughts about the standard tropes - the search for emotional connection, the burden of immortality, etc. Charnas's background in history and her Peace Corps work inform some of the book's comments on the human (and inhuman) condition, and her native New Mexico provides the backdrop for a vivid sequence in the Santa Fe opera house. If you're cruising for '80s horror books, you could do a lot worse than The Vampire Tapestry.