Reviews with content warning for Murder - Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Natalie C. Parker, Zoraida Córdova

17 reviews

fictionaladventures's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

"Seven Nights for Dying" by Tessa Gratton: ⭐️ (read February 15, 2022)
About a girl debating whether to become a vampire. I didn’t like this at all! Why was it so sexual?? And it made me uncomfy that vampires were more demonic in this one.

"The Boys From Blood River" by Rebecca Roanhorse: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (read February 15, 2022)
About a boy who’s bullied for being Native and gay who has the opportunity to become a vampire. This was really good! I was interested the whole way through.

"Senior Year Sucks" by Julie Murphy: ⭐️⭐️.5 (read February 16, 2022)
About a fat cheerleader vampire slayer! This was good but kinda cheesy too.

"The Boy andthe Bell" by Heidi Heilig: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (read February 16, 2022)
About a trans boy who meets a vampire during his attempt to dig up a body for medical research. This was awesome! Heidi’s writing is amazing!

"A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire" by Samira Ahmed: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (read February 16, 2022)
Exactly what the title says it is, lol. This was really funny! It went on a little long though.

"In Kind" by Kayla Whaley: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (read February 16, 2022)
About a girl who lives in a wheelchair whose father tries to “mercy kill” her. This one was great! I was definitely hooked.

"Vampires Never Say Die" by Zoraida Córdova & Natalie C. Parker: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (read February 16, 2022)
About two girls, one a vampire and one a human, who are friends online. I thought it was sweet that this one was about friendship, but otherwise found it fairly unmemorable.

"Bestiary" by Laura Ruby: ⭐️⭐️ (read February 16, 2022)
About a vampire who works at a zoo. This was just kind of boring to me?

"Mirrors, Windows & Selfies" by Mark Oshiro: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (read February 16, 2022)
A blog from a boy who was born a vampire and lives in the middle of nowhere with his parents. This was great! The blog format served the story well and it was very fast-paced.

"The House of Black Sapphires" by Dhonielle Clayton: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (read February 17, 2022)
About a Black family of vampires. The mythology of this one was super cool! Definitely not your typical vampire story. I definitely enjoyed it.

"First Kill" by V.E. Schwab: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (read February 17, 2022)
To summarize this one would be to spoil it, so I won’t! But of course the Schwab story would be my favorite! This was so good! I loved it!

Content Warnings

stormywolf's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

My library has been a bit hit-or-miss with the Vampire Book Club's selections, but I was able to find this one for December. Admittedly, I wasn't in the best mental space to read books surrounding death and immortality, having lost my grandmother earlier this year and having that wound reopened with our cat's death (cancer) just after reading the first story. But after a bit of time (and some Christmas movies & music) I was excited to dive back in and experience some new takes on one of my favorite paranormal creatures.

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, a fine anthology filled with some of the best vampires I've encountered. There was a huge variety, not only of genders, sexualities, and skins, but of vampiric powers, weaknesses, settings, and societies. If I had to pick my favorites, I'd probably stick with the peppier school-based-fare of Senior Year Sucks and First Kill, but I also found a lot to love in the more sombre stories of Seven Nights for Dying and The Boy and the Bell, not to mention the vivid world-building packed into The House of Black Sapphires. Needless to say, I definitely have a few authors to add to my watchlist. So if you have a hankering for some unique YA takes on old blood-sucking favorites, or if you're seeking a quick nibble to break up longer reads (or to break back into reading at all!), then I'd definitely recommend this anthology.

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bastieboi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

Content Warnings

lennie_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Since this is a collection of short stories I will add a small summary of each one along with my rating. The average of all of the ratings is where the 3.25 came from.

Seven Nights For Dying by Tessa Gratton: About a teenage girl who is turned into a vampire over the course of 7 nights. She can stop at any time before the 7th night, so it goes through her thought process into becoming an immortal creature. 4 stars
The Boys From Blood River by Rebecca Roanhorse: About a gay teenage boy who is severely bullied by the jocks of his small town. He sees his savior in the legend of the Blood River Boys who are summoned if you dare to play their song. 4 Stars
Senior Year Sucks by Julie Murphy - About a vampire slayer who is captain of the cheerleading squad. On a bus home from an away game they pick up fellow students whose bus got a flat. She immediately senses a vampire in their midsts who turns out to be a high school student just like her. 2 stars. Weird insta-love implications, and just not really interesting.
The Boy & the Bell by Heidi Heilig: A trans student of medicine digs up the recently dead to be able to study anatomy at University. One evening he hears the bell chime of a recently buried teen, indicating that the boy had been buried alive. 4 stars
A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire by Samira Ahmed: An app that apparently pops up onto your phone if you are turned into a vampire. It reads like old people trying to be cool. I could not finish it, DNF
In Kind by Kayla Whaley: A father attempts to kill his 17 year old disabled daughter with a morphine overdose. Instead a vampire turns her to save her life. 3 Stars.
Vampires Never Say Die by Zoraida Cordova & Natalie C. Parker: Brittany & Theolinda are best friends on Instagram, but have never met face to face. Theo puts together a surprise birthday party for Brittany to finally meet, but when she realizes that all of the people showing up are vampires there may be more than just her friendship in danger. 3 Stars
Bestiary by Laura Ruby: Recently turned Jude works at the zoo where she can talk to animals. She freely goes into the enclosures with no worries. A water crisis threatens the well-being of the animals, as Jude deals with a thirst of her own. 4 ½ stars.
Mirrors, Windows & Selfies by Mark Oshiro: Cisco is a young vampire who lives in isolation with his parents. All his life his parents have told him it’s for his protection as vampires are not supposed to have children. When Cisco starts a blog about his life he soon discovers that he might not actually be alone. 4 Stars
The House of Black Sapphires by Dhonielle Clayton: A vampire family of 8 returns to their roots in New Orleans. Here there lies an underground city with 5 wards that house immortals. This is the first time the 6 sisters have seen this place, and they don’t understand why their mother ever left. Just exactly what secrets is she hiding? 4 ½ stars. The setting of this one is fantastic, and I would LOVE to see it made into an actual novel.
First Kill by V.E. Schwab: A teenage vampire and slayer end up having a crush on each other. When they are dared to spend 60 seconds in a closet together at a party will they come out alive or in love? 3 stars

Content Warnings

katiemack's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color

I’m one of those weirdos who has continued to enjoy reading about vampires even after the Twilight craze died down, so I was looking forward to reading this. As with any short story collection, the quality of the stories varies, but I thought it would be a little more consistent in length and pacing.

Standout stories for me are “A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire” by Samira Ahmed, “In Kind” by Kayla Whaley, and “First Kill” by V. E. Schwab.

Content Warnings

lori_larsson's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Read this for the Read Harder Challenge 2021. I am not a big fan of short stories, because I like to get to know the characters and sit with them. So the 3 stars is a lot of personally not liking the medium.

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