the girls' guide to vampires by barb karg

Because we girls never know what the next bad boy to come out of the shadow is going to be.

But don’t let the chicklit-ish title and looks fool you. This book gives a wickedly sharp overview of vampires as they are related in folklore from cultures all over the world, in literature, movies, and television. It’s like receiving a crash course on a subject evolved over the years from diseased Upirs of rural Slovakia to suave drawing-room vampires to sparkling Robert Pattinson.

Who’s your favorite vampire? If Johnny Depp and Tim Burton do get around to filming Dark Shadows, maybe Barnabas Collins will replace Eduard Cullen in vampire groupies’ talk boards.

So, who’s your favorite vampire? Please take a few minutes to browse through this book so your answer isn’t immediately from the cast of Twilight. Take Dracula, which is as fascinating beyond the binding as in the journals of Mina and Jonathan Harker. An avid fan in Germany created the Nosferatu, but the copyright infringement so appalled Bram Stoker’s wife that she fought to have the film destroyed. A few copies survived, fortunately, as the film is said to be a masterpiece in the use of special effects for that truly frightening movie experience.

Or could it be that Max Shreck so perfectly played the creepy Count Orlock because he was, in fact, a vampire, a premise that William Dafoe also portrayed to perfection in the Shadow of the Vampire?

The cult film The Hunger starred Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon. Great cast, even if Bowie isn’t the Goblin King this time.

If vampires really existed, I’d probably take up stakes and garlic ala Buffy the Slayer, and promptly drop them if the vampire that comes out of the shadow looks like Angel, or Bill, or Eric, or Gerard Butler. On the other hand, Buffy gets injured a lot (including her friends and family) and hardly has time to read…. Hmm, I think I’m better off scaring myself with books and hunting the cult film, The Hunger (starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon), and gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows (with Jonathan Frid as ruthless vampire Barnabas Collins).

Max Shreck in Nosferatu is certainly not a suave, drawing room vampire. But he likes pretty women all the same.

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