Forests Of The Vampire

It's the cultural information that never seems to make it into history books: strange stories, mystic rites, angry gods, vision quests, magic symbols. This series captures, culture by culture, the intersection of imagination, history, wisdom, dream, and reality.

I was born to the name of Rachel Weatere in the year 1684, more than three hundred years ago. The one who changed me named me Risika, and Risika I became, though I never asked what it meant. I continue to call myself Risika, even though I was transformed into what I am against my will. By day, Risika sleeps in a shaded room in Concord, Massachusetts. By night, she hunts the streets of New York City. She is used to being alone. But now someone is following Risika. Someone has left her a black rose, the same sort of rose that sealed her fate three hundred years ago. Three hundred years ago Risika had a family -- a brother and a sister who loved her. Three hundred years ago she was human. Now she is a vampire, a powerful one. And her past has come back to torment her. This atmospheric, haunting tale marks the stunning debut of a promising fourteen-year-old novelist. From the Hardcover edition.

Mankind has given a recognizable face to the awesome and impalpable forces of nature in the image of the Green Man and the nature spirits that this book explores. The ways in which different societies and different craftsmen have depicted these spirits display the wide creative range of the human imagination, but the persistence of the theme suggests that in all their many facets these spirits represent a deep, primordial sense that humans have shared since civilization began. For the very origin and message of these images have remained the same, even if somewhat altered over time. Traditional customs from around the world, from the rites that celebrate spring and egg on the forces of fertility to folk health remedies and the use of talismans to ward off illness and other evils, show some surprising similarities and hint at the shared origins of human culture. Even though the original significance of many customs has been lost or diluted, they still hold an appeal and many towns even today are re-introducing seasonal fairs to recreate the link between man and nature. Varner presents examples, ancient and new, from Europe and Asia, East Coast and West, and identifies in particular the different guises of the Green Man who has figured in architecture since before the advent of Christianity and still makes his appearance today, peering out from behind his leaves on California banks and New York brownstone houses.

Not Your Mother's Vampire analyzes twenty current young adult vampire novels and also addresses Buffy the Vampire Slayer-all vampire representations aimed at younger audiences. The book's structure includes an overview of vampire scholarship, an analysis of vampire characters (featuring an exploration of vampire conventions and vampires and sexuality), an analysis of human characters (featuring an exploration of those humans who fight vampires and those who date vampires), and an analysis of the vampire characters from the Buffyverse.

Upset by his best friends murder, Jeezy summons a dark force in the forest near the small town of Tapperville. Unable to control the force he summoned, a new breed of vampire is created. Each night the vampires leave a dead oak tree in place of their victims.

The Nevermoor series meets Hotel Transylvania in this “delightful and spooky” (Booklist) debut middle grade adventure set in a world of talking spiders, living forests, and haunted castles about a vampire girl who wants to fit in but first must defeat an evil ghost. After one hundred years of being a vampire, it’s time for Eleonora to have her Birthnight. Since Leo’s last rite of passage, her Grimwalk, ended with her losing her right leg and a good deal of her confidence, she’s hoping to redeem herself in the eyes of her mother, the fearsome Lady Sieglinde. All Leo has to do is hunt down and kill her first prey, and she already has the perfect plan. After all, who will miss an orphan from the bleak St. Frieda’s Home for Unfortunate Children? But an accidental fire causes more death and destruction than Leo bargained for. Instead of killing one carefully selected victim, she’s created several ghosts from the orphanage residents. And one sinister specter, the Orphanmaster, is poised to terrorize the living residents in a nearby town. To stop him and try to undo some of the mess she’s made, Leo must team up with the orphan ghost Minna. Will Leo have the chance to prove herself as a vampire before her Birthnight is over, or will she discover that there are no winners in the battle of undead versus undead?

The first book in a spooky new series for only the bravest of readers--perfect for fans of The Spiderwick Chronicles. Now in paperback! Siblings Anna and Max love scary stories, but when they find an enchanted knife on a dark and stormy night in Transylvania, truth becomes stranger than fiction. Suddenly, they find themselves dragged into a world of monsters and magic...a world where it soon becomes all too clear that vampires are not just a fairy tale. The first book in a spooky new series for only the bravest of readers--perfect for fans of The Spiderwick Chronicles. Now in paperback! And when Max mysteriously vanishes, it's up to Anna to find him. But can the siblings find a way to survive their own scary story? This deliciously creepy book is a modern Brothers Grimm tale, full of adventure and fun frights that will have readers jumping in their seats and ripping through the pages to find out what happens next.