Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction Agnieszka Stasiewicz Bienkowska Full Chapter

Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction
Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bie■kowska
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/girls-in-contemporary-vampire-fiction-agnieszka-stasi
ewicz-bienkowska/
PALGRAVE GOTHIC
Girls in
Contemporary
Vampire Fiction
Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska
Palgrave Gothic
Series Editor
Clive Bloom, Middlesex University, London, UK
This series of Gothic books is the first to treat the genre in its many inter-
related, global and ‘extended’ cultural aspects to show how the taste for
the medieval and the sublime gave rise to a perverse taste for terror and
horror and how that taste became not only international (with a huge fan
base in places such as South Korea and Japan) but also the sensibility of
the modern age, changing our attitudes to such diverse areas as the nature
of the artist, the meaning of drug abuse and the concept of the self. The
series is accessible but scholarly, with referencing kept to a minimum and
theory contextualised where possible. All the books are readable by an
intelligent student or a knowledgeable general reader interested in the
subject.
Editorial Advisory Board

Dr. Ian Conrich, University of Vienna, Austria
Barry Forshaw, author/journalist, UK
Professor Gregg Kucich, University of Notre Dame, USA
Professor Gina Wisker, University of Brighton, UK
Dr. Catherine Wynne, University of Hull, UK
Dr. Alison Peirse, University of Yorkshire, UK
Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Professor William Hughes, University of Macau, China
Dr. Antonio Alcala Gonzalez, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
Dr. Marius Cris, an, West University of Timişoara, Romania
Dr. Manuel Aguirre, independent scholar, Spain
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14698
Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska
Girls in Contemporary
Vampire Fiction
Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska
Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora
Jagiellonian University
Kraków, Poland
ISSN 2634-6214 ISSN 2634-6222 (electronic)

Palgrave Gothic
ISBN 978-3-030-71743-8 ISBN 978-3-030-71744-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71744-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
Cover credit: Vizerskaya/Getty Images
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For Andrzej, Alicja and Maja
—who make it all worthwhile
Acknowledgements
I am extremely fortunate to be surrounded by many people and insti-

tutions that have offered their support and encouragement, contributing
in various ways to making this book a reality. My sincere thanks go to
the whole Palgrave team, particularly editors Clive Bloom, Allie Troy-
anos and Rachel Jacobe, for seeing the potential in this project, and
for providing me with invaluable editorial assistance. I also thank the
anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and helpful advice.
My home institution, the Institute of American Studies and Polish
Diaspora at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, generously granted me
a sabbatical leave to complete this project and provided funding for its
development, for which I am most grateful. I extend my warm appre-
ciation to my friends, colleagues and students from the Institute, who
continue to provide me with a vibrant and friendly academic community
that enables me to pursue my intellectual passions. Thank you for cheering
me on! My special thanks go to Professors Adam Walaszek, Radek
Rybkowski and Łukasz Kamieński for their continuing support, and to
Professor Garry Robson who proofread my manuscript with meticulous
care, asking the right questions and offering words of encouragement.
I gratefully acknowledge Griffith University, in particular the Grif-
fith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and the Griffith School of
Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences in Brisbane and Gold Coast,
for inviting me twice to Australia to present my research on vampires and
girlhood. My participation in the seminars and workshops Vampires and
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Popular Culture (2014) and Vampiric Transformations (2018) would not

have been possible without GU’s generous financial and organisational
support. The illuminating presentations and lively discussions held during
these academic events have resulted in inspiring joint academic projects
and continue to generate new ones. I feel indebted to the organisers and
the participants for welcoming me into this rewarding academic adven-
ture. I owe special thanks to the contributors to the volume Hospitality,
Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the Wrong One In
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and the special issue of Continuum: Journal
of Media & Cultural Studies, “Vampiric Transformations: The Popular
Politics of the (Post)Romantic Vampire” (forthcoming), and particularly
to Dr. Stephanie Green and Dr. David Baker from Griffith University,
outstanding scholars and great friends, who have co-edited these projects
with me. I am doubly indebted to Stephanie, who generously made time
to read sections of this manuscript at its early stages, sharing her exper-
tise and providing insightful suggestions along with the kindest words of
support. My heartfelt thanks to David Baker and Linda Middleton, for
having me in your home in Australia—I have many fond memories of
your warm hospitality and our time together. I also thank Professor Joli
Jensen, the author of Write No Matter What (The University of Chicago
Press, 2017). Although we have never met, her savvy advice on academic
writing has helped me through many a writing crisis.
Last, but certainly not least, I express my deepest gratitude to my
amazing family and friends for their love, encouragement and their
unshakeable faith in my ability to complete this project. I am forever
grateful to my wonderful parents, my brother Grzegorz, my family-in-
law, Basia, Anna, Iwona, Paula and Maciek who are always there for me—
quick to believe that things will turn out just fine. A very special thanks
to my grandmother Maria who wields a truly magical power to make me
carry on. My grandfather would have been proud to see this book come
into being.
Finally, my love and deepest appreciation go to Andrzej, my soul mate,
husband and best friend, and to Alicja and Maja, daughters extraordi-
naire. This book would never have happened without your loving support,
encouraging drawings, great sense of humour and infinite patience. Every
day with you is filled with love, joy, discoveries and adventures. You make
it all worthwhile.
Contents
1 Vampire Fiction, Girls and Shame: Introduction 1

References 16
2 Writing (on) Girls’ Bodies: Vampires and Embodied
Girlhood 23
2.1 The Markings of the Vampiric Body 26
2.2 Such Hot Fangs! Vampirism and Beauty 32
2.3 You Don’t See Fat Vamps: The Meanings of Body Size 39
2.4 No One Mourns the Ugly: Beauty, Style and Belonging 46
2.5 Velvet! Platinum! Pearls! Vampire Girls as Consumers 53
2.6 The Magic of Makeover: Style as Oppression
and Resistance 58
2.7 Conclusion 64
References 67
3 A Love So Strong that It Aches: (Re-)Writing Vampire
Romance 75
3.1 Mates, Consorts, Oath-Bound Warriors: House
of Night and Polyandry 80
3.2 The Truest of True Loves: Soul Mates and Enchanted
Bonds 86
3.3 Tying the Knot: Love, Marriage and Power 92
3.4 The Lovely Bliss of Her Bite: Vampires and Same-Sex
Romance 97
ix
x CONTENTS
3.5 Conclusion 111

References 114
4 Pangs of Pleasure, Pangs of Guilt: Girls, Sexuality
and Desire 123
4.1 It Tasted like Liquid Desire: Virginity, Blood
Consumption and Sexual Awakening 127
4.2 Didn’t the Earth Move or the Planets Align? The Tales
of the “First Time” 138
4.3 A Bloodlust-Filled, Hornie Freak: Slut Shaming
and “Excessive” Desire 147
4.4 Blood Whoring, Female Virtue and Defensive Othering 152
4.5 Conclusion 158
References 162
5 Save Your Butt from Getting Raped: Girls, Vampires,
Violence 169
5.1 No Anger and No Condemnation: Vampires
and Romanticised Abuse 173
5.2 A Questioning Touch of Teeth: Violence and Consent
in House of Night and Vampire Academy 182
5.3 A Monster Abused Me: Narrating Rape
and Rape-Revenge 190
5.4 Black. Angry. Merciless: Girls’ Violence
and (Self-)Defence 196
5.5 Conclusion 202
References 207
6 Biting into Books: Supernatural Schoolgirls
and Academic Performance 215
6.1 Heaps of Awesome Classes: The Unique Education
of the House of Night 219
6.2 Slamming the Math Book Shut: Supernatural Girls
and STEM Education 224
6.3 Miss (Im)Perfect Schoolgirl: Girls and Academic
(Dis)Engagement 230
6.4 Too Smart? Academic Excellence and Popular
Femininity 238
6.5 Conclusion 246
References 249
CONTENTS xi
7 Conclusion 257
References 266
Index 269
CHAPTER 1
Vampire Fiction, Girls and Shame:

Introduction
A lot has gone amiss with Zoey Redbird’s seventeenth birthday. Yet, when
she unwraps a gift from her grandmother, she is delighted to see a signed
copy of the first American edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Reverently
turning its leather-bound pages, the heroine confirms that “that spooky
old story” has long been her favourite novel (Chosen 30; Betrayed 170).
Intrigued, Zoey’s boyfriend Erik begins to read Dracula, but he soon
finds the plotline “a little old school, what with the vamps being monsters
and all” (Hunted 85), indicating that the contemporary vampire has little
in common with the Dracula archetype. This remark is not intended as a
commentary on the evolution of the vampire’s cultural image, although it
certainly could be read as such. Rather, it is of a personal nature, as both
Erik and Zoey, the protagonists of the House of Night series by P.C. and
Kristin Cast, are themselves young vampires.
In her study on teen vampire fiction, Mia Franck suggests that the
vampire phenomenon of today is no longer primarily about horror and
abjection. Instead, it is about “the reading girls” (2013, 211). The
figure of the vampire has long been recognised as holding a particular
fascination for young adult consumers. Scholars, librarians and readers
alike have pointed to the vampire genre’s ability to respond to young
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
A. Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction,
Palgrave Gothic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71744-5_1
2 A. STASIEWICZ-BIEŃKOWSKA
people’s anxieties and hopes about growing up.1 Searching for power,
autonomy, control and belonging, struggling with unfamiliar yearnings
and bodily transformations, breaking rules and rebelling against social
conventions, the vampire can be read, as Byron and Deans propose, as
“[t]he adolescent in a nutshell” (2014, 89; cf. Smith and Moruzi 2020,
612).
The growing popularity of young adult (YA) vampire fiction in the
late twentieth century marked the beginning of the rise of teen Gothic
as a distinct and rich cultural category, with the spectacular success of
Joss Whedon’s TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The WB, 1997–2001)
trailblazing the way for the teen vampire boom of the post-2000 era
(Byron and Deans 2014, 87; Ramos-García 2020).2 Popular vampire
novels for young readers were published throughout 1990s, granting
vampires a strong position on the young adult literary market; Annette
Curtis Klause’s The Silver Kiss (1990) or the first four instalments of
L. J. Smith’s prominent The Vampire Diaries series (1991–1992) are
notable examples of this trend. However, it is the new millennium that has
witnessed the unprecedented proliferation of the vampire figure in youth
popular culture; according to Michelle J. Smith and Kristine Moruzi, the
vampire has become the central supernatural character of Western young
1 See e.g. Dresser (1989), De Marco (1997, 26), Priester (2008, 68, 72), LeMaster
(2011, 104), Byron and Deans (2014, 89), Piatti-Farnell (2014, 6), and Wilhelm and
Smith (2014, 123–131). The term “genre” in this context, while useful, is more popular
than strictly academic, and should not be read as presenting diverse vampire fiction “as a
univocal form of writing” (Piatti-Farnell 2014, 11). Vampire stories often cross the bound-
aries between horror, romance, fantasy, detective fiction, comedy and more; a combination
that, as Piatti-Farnell proposes, contributes to their appeal (2014, 10–11; cf. George and
Hughes 2015, 5).
2 Many scholars have discussed young adult (YA) fiction as a genre that resists clear-cut
categorisations, appealing to various age cohorts and often crossing over to the adult
market (see e.g. Cart 2010; Cadden 2011; James 2009). As a socially constructed cate-
gory, the notion of “young adult” itself is open to various interpretations, ever-adapting
to the changing cultural, historical and political contexts. In this volume, YA fiction is
understood as cultural texts typically featuring protagonists in their late teens (16–19) and
marketed to high-school-age readers (while often appealing also to older consumers). For
the purpose of this study, I use the terms “young adult” (YA), “adolescent”, “youth”
and “teenage” interchangeably. I recognise that in other contexts the conflation of these
terms may be problematic or misleading (see e.g. Kokkola 2013, 10).
1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 3
adult Gothic fiction, effectively gaining the upper hand over all the other
Gothic monsters and ab-humans (2020, 611–612).3
The tremendous commercial success of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire
saga Twilight (2005–2008), dramatised for the big screen in a series of
five blockbuster movies (2008–2012), has brought the narratives of girls
and vampires into the cultural spotlight.4 The Twilight books have sold
nearly 160 million copies worldwide, with the latest addition to the saga,
Midnight Sun, reaching one million copies within the first week after
its release (Milliot 2020). Inspiring frenzy among adolescent and adult
fans and anti-fans alike, and riveting both media and scholarly attention,
the cultural and commercial phenomenon of Twilight has kindled a new
interest in teen Gothic and paranormal romance, resulting in a rapid rise
in the numbers of vampire fiction marketed to young readers, especially to
girls (Byron and Deans 2014, 88; Franck 2013, 211; Smith and Moruzi
2018, 9; Ames 2010).
Yet, despite their mass-market appeal—or possibly for that very reason
for, as Sady Doyle observes, such popularity “rarely coincides with literary
acclaim” (2009, 31)—vampire stories marketed to adolescent women are
often marginalised, derided and condemned, provoking a sense of disdain,
unease and suspicion among critics and educators. Alarmed by their super-
natural and sexual content, individuals and organisations have called for
the removal of vampire books from public and school libraries.5 Although
rarely backed by scholarly evidence, voices of concern have been raised
about the dangers of vampire fiction and its presumed, if unspecified,
3 According to Smith and Moruzi, vampires feature in at least half of the YA Gothic
novels listed on Goodreads and the sites of major booksellers (2020, 611–612).
4 Except for the four original novels, the series encompasses three companion volumes:
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (2011); Life and Death (2015)—the
reimagining of the original story grounded in the gender-swap of the central protagonists,
and the recently released Midnight Sun (2020)—the retelling of the first volume from
Edward’s point of view.
5 For instance, the entire House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast and the Vampire
Academy series by Richelle Mead, including volumes to be yet written at the time, were
banned in 2009 from a school in Texas “for sexual content and nudity” (Doyle 2010, 4,
6). The House of Night series and other YA vampire books were further challenged at the
Austin Memorial Library in Cleveland, Texas (2014), where a local minister asked for the
“occultic and demonic room be shut down, and these books be purged from the shelves,
and that public funds would no longer be used to purchase such material” (Doyle 2015,
4). See also Doyle (2011).
power to encourage unsuspecting adolescent girls to delve “deeper and

deeper into the black hole” of vampire obsession (Basu 2018, 964).6
In “Skamlig flickläsning” (“Shameful Girl-reading”), Franck observes
that girl vampire fiction is inextricably connected to shame (2013, 208–
210). An interfusion of urban fantasy, the Gothic, horror, paranormal
romance, chick lit and serialised school story, these narratives have been
both dismissed as a quintessence of “low-status literature” (Franck 2013,
208), and condemned as a “threat to the definition of horror genres”
(Bode 2010, 711). These objections are often at least partly rooted in
age- and gender-related bias; as Doyle observes in relation to Twilight, the
condescending evaluation of girl vampire fiction “is just as much about
the fans as it is about the books” (2009, 31; cf. Franck 2013, 208–210;
Bode 2010, 716). In their respective journalistic and scholarly analyses of
the critical reception of Meyer’s saga, Doyle (2009) and Lisa Bode (2010)
point to the popular understanding of teen girl culture texts as holding
little aesthetic or educative value—a trend that mirrors the persistent
perception of fiction written specifically for women as substandard and
inferior (Franck 2013, 210; D’Amico 2016, viii). In “Transitional Tastes”,
Bode documents the interlacing discourses of the denigration and senti-
mentalisation of teen girls and girl culture (2010), while Doyle identifies
“the very girliness that has made [Twilight ] such a success” as one of the
reasons behind the harsh criticism of the saga—a backlash that “should
matter to feminists, even if the series makes them shudder” (2009, 31–
32). In this light, it is hardly unanticipated that some adolescent women
report a sense of shame over their investment in vampire fiction, aware
that their reading preferences may be ridiculed or stigmatised (Franck
2013, 208; Wilhelm and Smith 2014, 138).
This widespread disapproval of “the vampire for girls” and the percep-
tion of its mass teen female fandom as displaying questionable cultural
tastes indicate, as Bode contends, the reviewers’ failure to imagine “the
adolescent girl mode of engagement [with the text] as rational, mindful or
critical” (2010, 713; cf. Doyle 2009, 31). It further ignores the cultural
power of popular vampire fiction which—with all its fantastic premises—
remains relatable to the experiences of the contemporary girl, engaging
with her hopes and concerns and participating in the larger discourses
on girlhood. Allie, an adolescent informant in Wilhelm and Smith’s study
6 Basu’s text on the alleged negative impact of vampire fiction on girl fans in India and
Western countries can serve as an example of such a trend.
on the allure of teen vampire books, concludes: “Most of what I read

in school I cannot relate to. … But I am so interested in entering into
Twilight because it is about me right now” (2014, 123). She further
comments on the critique of vampire fiction for girls:
“What makes good literature? Who gets to decide? Twilight has a female
fan base. Is that why it is not regarded highly by critics? It is meant to be
something for women to enjoy. And I enjoy it. Isn’t that good enough? I
just want to stand up and say that it is good enough! (Wilhelm and Smith
2014, 139)
This volume offers a critical analysis of the representations of girls and girl-
hood in the twenty-first-century vampire fiction marketed to adolescent
female readership. With the powerful allure of the vampire in contem-
porary popular and youth cultures and the figure of the girl continuing
to rivet both public and scholarly attention, these representations offer
intriguing possibilities to explore the complexities of growing up a girl
in the Western culture of today.7 In Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power
in Young Adult Horror Fiction, June Pulliam identifies YA horror as
“uniquely able to examine the challenges facing young women” and to
interrogate the gender positions and roles that girls are encouraged to
adopt (2014, 11). A mirror held up to the complex and often contradic-
tory cultural beliefs about women, vampire stories have been recognised
as particularly revealing of social and cultural gendered hierarchies, rules
and regulations (Anyiwo 2016, 173; Hobson 2016, 3; Wisker 2016).
Women in vampire texts have long been narrated as either helpless
prey and a “motivating force for the vampire hunters”, or sexualised
monstresses that abjure traditional gender roles and embody the trans-
gression of socially sanctioned notions of femininity (Hobson 2016, 3;
Anyiwo 2016, 173). Today, vampire fiction for teen female readership
is often seen as aligning with conservative and patriarchal discourses.
However, it can also offer radical imageries of young female power, a
celebration of girl agency and sexuality, depictions of girls as agents of
social and political change and as a force to undermine the cultural
7 Although the scope of this project does not allow for a systematic study of fans’
interactions with vampire fiction, on several occasions I do look at fans’ reviews and
discussion fora in order to shed light on the meanings produced by their engagement
with the text, particularly in relation to more controversial topics (all readers’ comments
are quoted as they originally appear online).
prohibitions inflicted on women; and even the texts that are deemed
conservative are not void of moments of resistance and emancipatory
possibilities. Engaging with the scholarship from a number of critical
frameworks and utilising a variety of perspectives originating in cultural
and literary studies, sociology, feminism, gender and queer studies, and
the interdisciplinary research on girlhood and on the vampire, this volume
considers the figure of the girl in YA vampire fiction as a terrain for nego-
tiating a myriad of competing ideologies of girlhood, and as reflecting the
changing expectations surrounding girls in the Western world.
∗ ∗ ∗
A horrifying revenant skulking through the folktales across the

centuries, continents and cultures, rising from the dead to brutalise, kill
and infect, the vampire has since spread onto the pages of countless books
and graphic novels, colonised big and small screen productions, haunted
theatre stages, lurked in commercials, infiltrated classrooms, entered the
toy industry and frequented fancy-dress parties. These bloodsucking crea-
tures have come to populate texts for adults, adolescents and children
alike, straying away from their folkloric forbearers and, as numerous
scholars have observed, endlessly morphing and reincarnating into fresh
forms and personas, in order to guarantee ever anew their relevance to the
dynamics of socio-cultural, political and economic realities.8 A creature
of unprecedented “polymorphic resilience” (LeMaster 2011, 103), an
inexhaustible reservoir of metaphors and allegories, a vehicle for cultural
angsts and desires and a lens through which to unravel social preoccupa-
tions and change, the vampire has been read, among other examples, as a
vector of non-normative sexual and gender expressions, horrors of conta-
gion and foreign invasion, dread of environmental apocalypse, digital
surveillance and science gone awry; but also as a celebration of differ-
ence and non-normative identity, freedom, emancipation and a radical
critique of socio-economic and political inequities. In short, as Piatti-
Farnell concludes, the vampire is “a highly interpretative metaphor for
human existence” (2014, 64).
As a cultural phenomenon of undying appeal, vampire fiction has long
been a vibrant, dynamic and profitable area of cultural production, an
8 See e.g. Auerbach (1995), Williamson (2005), Ní Fhlainn (2019), George and Hughes
(2015, 7, 15) and Butler (2016, 193).
object of fascination to millions of fans worldwide, and a terrain of

systematic academic critique. Grounded in a variety of disciplines and
fields, a vast body of scholarly literature has been developed around
the cultural texts featuring bloodsucking creatures—examining vampire
lore in historical perspective; looking at the vampire figure through the
discourses of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, postcolonialism, postmod-
ernism, transnationalism, posthumanism, globalisation or environmental
studies; focusing on thematic threads such as blood, memory, hospitality,
rape and power; analysing in depth a particular vampire production; or
studying the real-life communities of vampire fans or even self-identified
vampires.9
Until fairly recently, however, young adult fiction has been largely
excluded from “the vampire canon” (Dudek 2018, 17). Debra Dudek
points to the edited collection Open Graves, Open Minds: Representations
of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the Present Day
(2013) as one of the first to have explicitly recognised the lasting value of
YA vampire texts in the transformation of the genre and the development
of the figure of the sympathetic vampire (2018, 17). In the introduction
to the volume, Sam George and Bill Hughes point to “a stylistic compe-
tence and ingenuity and a certain daring” in some of the vampire stories,
emphasising that these qualities can be often found in the texts for young
readers (2015, 6).10 Several years earlier, Deborah Wilson Overstreet
published Not Your Mother’s Vampire: Vampires in Young Adult Fiction
(2006)—a study of over twenty YA vampire novels released mostly in
the 1990s, which considers the representations of both the bloodsucking
characters and the humans who are linked to them.11 Vampires in the
9 A systematic review of vampire scholarship lies beyond the scope of this volume;
however, some recent examples of the trends specified above include Dunn and Housel
(2010), Khair and Höglund (2013), Bacon and Bronk (2013), Stephanou (2014),
Browning (2015), Baker et al. (2017), and Ní Fhlainn (2019).
10 It is noteworthy that, in addition to the chapters on Meyer’s Twilight , L.J. Smith’s
The Vampire Diaries , and Whedon’s Buffy, Open Graves, Open Minds includes other YA
vampire texts, like Daniel Waters’s Generation Dead and Marcus Sedgwick’s My Swordhand
Is Singing.
11 For instance, Wilson Overstreet looks into the ways in which vampires in YA novels
relate to folkloric conventions and adult vampire texts, or studies the depictions of human
vampire hunters. However, as only two of the volume’s chapters are devoted to these
representations (with others encompassing introductory information on vampire fiction,
a detailed examination of a non-literary vampire text—Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a
cultural productions addressed primarily to children and pre-adolescents

are the focus of Simon Bacon and Katarzyna Bronk’s original edited
collection Growing Up with Vampires: Essays on the Undead in Chil-
dren’s Media (2018), with several chapters foregrounding the interplays
between vampirism and femininity.12 Vampires have been welcomed into
lesson plans, with such volumes as Buffy in the Classroom (Kreider and
Winchell 2014) or The Vampire Goes to College (Nevárez 2014), which
discuss vampire stories as vehicles for teaching feminism, film production,
Shakespeare and more; and invited onto the psychotherapist’s couch, with
scholars contemplating the usefulness of vampire fiction in the counselling
procedures for female teenagers.13
Girls and girlhood have been central to a rapidly increasing number
of studies of popular culture and YA narratives, with recent scholarship
including such diverse examples as books considering young female trans-
formations and rebellion in YA dystopian fiction (see e.g. Day et al. 2016;
Hentges 2018), the replications and revisions of the fairy-tale and mytho-
logical archetypes in teen series and fantasy texts (Bellas 2017; Blackford
2012, both works including Twilight ), and the presence of various femi-
nist currents in the narratives for teens and tweens (Seelinger Trites
2018). However, with the exception of such international cross-market
hits as Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, Kevin
Williamson and Julie Plec’s The Vampire Diaries (The CW 2009–2017;
based on the books by L. J. Smith), little research has to date addressed
the portrayals of young femininity in vampire texts marketed to adolescent
girls, in particular vampire literature.14 June Pulliam’s compelling analysis
summary of the chosen novels and annotated bibliography), many aspects of the analysed
fiction are necessarily dealt with in a cursory manner or left out of the study.
12 In the first chapter of the volume, Andrew M. Boylan traces the presence of the
vampire in Western European and North American children’s media throughout history
(2018). See also Palmer (2013), chapter 14, for an overview of the American literary,
cinematic and televised vampire narratives for children.
13 Considering Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Paul E. Priester elucidates the
ways in which the vampire figure can be read by a teenage girl as a metaphor and a
warning against drug abuse; or how the contemporary vampires’ agony over their moral
choices can reflect an adolescent’s decision to become a vegetarian (2008, 71). See also
Schlozman (2000), for the use of Buffy in adolescent therapy.
14 The sheer amount of scholarly works considering these three texts, particularly Buffy
and Twilight, renders a comprehensive survey both difficult and superfluous for the
purposes of this volume; some of these works are referred to in the relevant chapters.
of femininity and power in YA horror focuses on the figure of the super-

natural girl in ghost, werewolf and witch fiction, excluding vampire stories
as largely featuring human heroines (2014, 19). Lorna Piatti-Farnell’s
(2014) seminal study examines the figure of the vampire in contemporary
literature, and Gina Wisker includes vampire texts in her astute analysis
of contemporary Gothic fiction authored by women (2016). Neither,
however, investigate specifically the figure of the girl and, with the excep-
tion of the cross-market Twilight, both tap into the texts marketed to an
adult readership.
This volume explores the narratives of girlhood in vampire fiction
addressed to adolescent women, with the primary focus on four best-
selling twenty-first-century vampire series—House of Night (2007–2014)
and House of Night: Other World (2017–2020) by P. C. and Kristin
Cast, and Vampire Academy (2007–2010) and Bloodlines (2011–2015)
by Richelle Mead. The sheer abundance of the contemporary vampire
books for girls has made the selection a challenging endeavour, rendering
numerous exclusions inescapable. My focus on literary works is grounded
in Piatti-Farnell’s identification of literature as the “original venue for
vampiric representations” and the primary vehicle for the popularisation
of the bloodsucking character within Western culture (2014, 2). While
The scholarship on Buffy and Twilight encompasses a myriad of diverse approaches

and thematic focuses, including the representations of gender, race, religion, sexuality,
and power, the series’ interplays with various philosophical and mythological currents,
musical trends and historical narratives, or their critical reception and fan engage-
ment (see e.g. Iatropoulos and Woodall III 2017; South 2003; Housel and Wisnewski
2009; Reagin 2011; Preston Leonard 2011; Stuller 2013). A significant number of
academic books, journals and conferences are entirely devoted to Meyer’s or Whedon’s
universes (see e.g. Anatol 2011; Click et al. 2010; Wilson 2011; Morey 2016); Slayage:
The Journal of Whedon Studies (previously: Slayage: The Online International Journal
of Buffy Studies ), https://www.whedonstudies.tv/slayage-the-journal-of-whedon-studies.
html; Levine and Parks (2007); Wilcox (2005); see also Macnaughtan (2011), for a
detailed bibliography of both primary sources and scholarship related to Buffy and its
spin-off Angel. The Vampire Diaries have been analysed, among others, by Rikke Schubart
in Mastering Fear (2018, chap. 5) and in the edited collection Gender in the Vampire
Narrative (2016), which includes DuRocher’s study on vampiric masculinity and Nicol’s
analysis of the show’s depictions of girlhood; the focus of this unique book, however, is
on broader gender issues examined through the lens of vampirism, without any particular
emphasis placed on girls or girl fiction. See also Dudek (2018), a volume that focuses on
all three of these highly popular texts, and studies their representations of vampire–human
romantic relationships; and Łuksza (2015), which compares Twilight, The Vampire Diaries
and Charlaine Harris’s The Southern Vampire Mysteries in relation to their gender politics
and female empowerment.
vampire tales have long been radiating into the world of diverse trans-
media, enhancing the impact of vampiric books far beyond their pages,
literature remains a rich reservoir of universes and plots for other vampire
productions, leaving an indelible imprint on past and present imageries
of vampirism. In this sense, the vampire “truly is a literary monster”
(Piatti-Farnell 2014, 2).
As serialised stories increasingly dominate Gothic and vampire reading
markets for young adults (Smith and Moruzi 2020, 610) and have long
been a prominent feature in popular culture for girls, this volume focuses
on literary series rather than self-contained novels.15 LuElla D’Amico
points to the lasting—and often underestimated—value of serialised
fiction as a reservoir of instructions on social decorum for generations of
girl readers; one offering both socially sanctioned role models and space
for rebellion (2016, vii). Popularly perceived as facile and catering to an
unsophisticated readership—a perspective that disregards their diversity
and complex character—serialised stories have long played a significant
role in shaping girls’ experiences and understandings of girlhood (2016,
viii–ix; cf. Reimer et al. 2014, 1; Younger 2009, 105–106, 110). The
serialised form, as Jennifer Hayward observes, allows for the exploration
of “shifting identities in ways not possible in more traditional narra-
tive spaces”, opening the door to change and diversity (1997, 191; cf.
Younger 2009, 106). Ultimately, serialisation invites young readers to
immerse themselves in fictional universes for extended periods of time
and often inspires years-long commitment, creating an intimate connec-
tion between readers and the text, and a sense of community with other
fans.16
15 Following the definition of LuElla D’Amico (2016, x), I understand a book series as
presenting the adventures of the same character(s) for more than three volumes.
16 The existing scholarship on serialised fiction for girls focuses primarily on historical
novels; see e.g. Inness (1997), Hamilton-Honey (2013), Hamilton-Honey and Ingalls
Lewis (2020) and D’Amico (2016), although the latter also encompasses chapters consid-
ering contemporary texts (including Vampire Academy). See also Pattee (2011), for a
comprehensive analysis of Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High (1983–2003); Younger
(2009, ch. 5), for a study of bodily image and sexuality in diverse series for girls, from
Nancy Drew to Gossip Girl; Saxton 1998, which looks into the spaces of girlhood in
diverse literary works authored by women; or the collection of essays Seriality and Texts
for Young People: The Compulsion to Repeat, ed. Reimer et al. (2014), which examines
not only particular texts, but the functions of seriality and repetition in the stories for
young consumers (with a chapter by Debra Dudek focused on Buffy).
The key fictional works discussed in this volume have all reached large
readership circles, selling millions of copies worldwide, and have repeat-
edly ranked high on various best-selling and recommendation lists.17
Their unique take on vampire lore, original universes, complex plotlines
and intriguing characters continue to compel the attention of millions of
readers and inspire vibrant fan cultures. A large number of reviews, high
ratings, and a considerable body of fan fiction and discussions in diverse
social media testify, as emphasised by Gaïane Hanser in relation to House
of Night, that these books engage the readers “deeply enough that they
choose to interact, or at least to become manifestly active in their reading”
(2018, 12).
While the majority of vampire characters in YA stories are male, typi-
cally romancing mortal heroines (Byron and Deans 2014, 89; Pulliam
2014, 19), my interest in the synergies of vampirism and girlhood has
prompted me to focus on the stories featuring adolescent heroines who
are vampire or part-vampire themselves (or reveal another supernatural
streak), and/or who overthrow the popular paradigm of a vulnerable
human girl paired with a powerful vampire lover/protector. Removed
into the realms of the fantastic and bestowed with special powers, these
heroines come with the promise (though not always fulfilled) of exper-
imenting with alternative girl identities and expanding the possibilities
of girlhood into previously untrodden terrains. As such, they provide
a fresh territory for exploring the complex interplays between the girl
and the vampire. With an impressive array of powerful female protago-
nists populating the uncanny universes of vampire high schools, the key
texts discussed in this volume offer a potential for redrawing conventional
boundaries of girlhood, at times declaring openly a feminist agenda and
17 These lists include, among others, YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult
Readers 2008 and 2009 for the two first volumes of Vampire Academy; YALSA Teens’
Top Ten 2008 (Vampire Academy) and 2009 (House of Night: Untamed); Best Teen
Vampire Fiction on Goodreads (with Mead’s Vampire Academy as no. 1; Bloodlines as no.
6, and House of Night as no. 4 among over 360 other books and series); a long-lasting
presence on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, as well as Barnes &
Noble and Amazon’s best-selling teen vampire, fantasy and paranormal romance fiction.
According to P. C. Cast’s website, the House of Night series has over 20 million books
in print, with the rights sold in nearly forty countries (House of Night: Praise, https://
www.pccastauthor.com/house-of-night; House of Night Novellas, Macmillan Publishers,
https://us.macmillan.com/series/houseofnightnovellas/). Vampire Academy had sold 8
million copies in 35 countries as of 2013 (McClintock 2013). Its Facebook page is liked
by over one million fans.
the intention of “turning patriarchy and misogyny upside down” (Cast

2011, loc. 66; cf. Found loc. 5730). First and foremost, they are stories
for and about girls, addressing themes and raising questions that are
immediately relevant to the contemporary girl reader, and demonstrating
a deep investment in larger social, political and cultural conversations on
young femininity.
Authored by P. C. Cast and her young adult daughter Kristin Cast, the
House of Night and House of Night: Other World series are set in contem-
porary North America where vampires live openly in matriarchal societies,
largely separate but peacefully coexisting with humans.18 Throughout the
twelve original and four sequel novels, the series follow adolescent Zoey
Redbird and her circle of friends who—marked as vampire fledglings—
transfer from their human high schools into the Tulsa House of Night in
Oklahoma, a boarding school for future vampires.19 As the Chosen One
of the vampire goddess Nyx, Zoey is destined to fight against Darkness all
the while grappling with the everyday dilemmas of a high school life.20
Richelle Mead’s fictional universe of Vampire Academy and its sequel
Bloodlines is populated with two vampire species—the fanged and blood-
consuming but generally peaceful Moroi, and the violent Strigoi, who
thrive on Moroi blood and come into being through death and dark
magic. Garrisoned in safeguarded vampire boarding schools, Moroi
teenagers study along with their dhampir (half-human, half-vampire)
peers—young warriors and warrioresses who, once graduated, will be
18 According to P. C. Cast, neither of the series has actually been co-written; she
identifies herself as the author and her daughter as the “frontline editor”, tasked with
ensuring the authenticity of teenage expression and experience (see e.g. Found loc. 5772).
However, the novels’ covers and copyright pages, as well as the publishers’ websites and
other promotional materials, all acknowledge Kristin Cast as the co-author; I follow their
lead throughout this volume.
19 The series use the spelling “vampyre”. However, for the sake of consistency and to
avoid confusion, the common spelling “vampire” is employed throughout this volume,
except for in quotations.
20 The House of Night universe further encompasses four novellas developing some
of the series’ side plotlines, graphic novels (Dark Horse Books) and the multi-authored
companion volume Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore, and Religion in the P.
C. and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series (BenBella Books 2011), which illuminates the mytho-
logical, scientific, folkloric and Gothic inspirations behind the series. The fans’ experience
is further enhanced with The Fledgling Handbook 101 (2010)—a volume that is said to
be presented to every new student of the fictional House of Night. The series is to be
dramatised for the small screen by David Films and DCTV (see e.g. Forgotten 253).
tasked with shielding the Moroi from the vampiric undead. The Vampire
Academy series chronicles the adventures of dhampir Rose Hathaway and
her best friend, the Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir. The Bloodlines series,
in turn, centres on Sydney Sage—a magic-wielding human and a member
of the powerful society of the Alchemists whose sole purpose is to keep
vampires hidden from the human eye. The series encompass six novels
each; additional instalments include graphic novels, short stories (Mead
2010, 2012, 2016) and the companion volume Vampire Academy: The
Ultimate Guide (Rowen and Mead 2011).21
Alongside the vampire series that constitute the core of my study and
are discussed in detail, other popular vampire narratives are occasionally
introduced and explored with the aim of broadening the understanding
of the genre’s participation in the Western discourses of girlhood. This
includes, among others, Bella Forrest’s A Shade of Vampire (2012–
2020),22 Michelle Madow’s Dark World: The Vampire Wish (2017),
Bianca Scardoni’s The Marked (2015–2020) and L. J. Smith’s The
Vampire Diaries (1991–2014). Furthermore, Twilight, Buffy and the
televised version of The Vampire Diaries will be referred to throughout
the volume. However, as these three texts have been studied so compre-
hensively in other scholarly works, I include them primarily for the
purposes of contextualisation and comparison, except for a limited
number of selected threads, which are analysed in depth. While my
list is inevitably far from exhaustive of all the popular contemporary
vampire series for young women, I hope that this book will contribute
to the existing scholarship on girls, vampires and YA culture, shedding
light on the ways in which vampire fiction envisions and addresses the
contemporary complexities of girlhood.
This volume is organised into seven chapters, accommodating the
central thematic areas that inform the representations of girlhood and
21 The first volume of Vampire Academy was adapted as a film in 2014 (dir. Mark
Waters); while the production of the following instalments was eventually cancelled, a
fresh adaptation of the series for the big or small screen is being discussed (https://www.
facebook.com/OfficialVampireAcademyMovie/). Mead’s fictional universe can be further
experienced through a spin-off merchandise line of clothing and accessories (https://
shop.spreadshirt.com/vampireacademy/).
22 This series is currently running at 92 books; for the purpose of this analysis, I have
read the first twenty.
vampires in the series analysed.23 Following the introductory Chapter 1,

Chapter 2: “Writing (on) Girls’ Bodies”, maps the complex interactions
between girl and vampire corporealities. Examining tattooed vampiric
skin and its Gothic and feminist significations, the vampiric silhouette
and the thin-thinking culture, and the anguish of ageing and vampiric
“ugliness”, it illuminates the ways in which the vampire body negotiates
and invokes resistance to various social fears and expectations formulated
around young female bodies and identities. Through analysing questions
of style, consumerism and the subversive possibilities embedded in the
narratives of the female makeover, the chapter further delves into the
questions of female agency, exclusion and belonging, and the power to
perform nonconforming girl identities.
As narratives of romance lie at the heart of vampire fiction for girls,
Chapter 3, “A Love So Strong That It Aches”, focuses on represen-
tations of romantic relationships. Complicating popular readings of YA
vampire stories as valorising heteronormativity , the chapter opens with a
discussion of polyandry in the House of Night universe. The narratives of
polyandry suggest YA vampire’s dalliance with the traditional queerness of
the genre and speak about the enhancement of female romantic possibil-
ities. These radical ideas become entangled with the romantic discourses
of supernatural love bonds and eternal soul mates, analysed further in the
chapter. The last section returns to the notion of queerness, evoking the
traditional association between the vampire and homosexuality. Focusing
on the representations of gay and lesbian characters and relationships, it
explores the ways in which the series speak of same-sex love and desire,
compulsory heterosexuality, homophobia and queer identities.
Chapter 4, “Pangs of Pleasure, Pangs of Guilt: Girls, Sexuality and
Desire”, can be partly seen as a continuation of the themes explored
in the previous chapter, as the narratives of sex often interlace with the
stories of romantic love. I turn to the tropes of female virginity, sexual
awakening, blood consumption and the question of power transpiring
through sexual relations in order to explore vampire fiction’s multifaceted
and often conflicted messages on girl sexual agency and autonomy. The
larger discourses on social regulations of female sexual expressions and the
complex dynamics between the respectable and the sexual girl are further
articulated through the series’ juxtaposition of human, dhampir and
23 The titles of chapters 3, 4 and 5, as well as a number of subtitles, are in part taken
from the series analysed, and are referenced throughout the volume.
vampire sexual mores, and explored through the power plays embedded
in slut shaming.
Violence permeates the vampire genre, and experiences of abuse are
often inseparable from growing up a girl in vampiric worlds. There-
fore, the next chapter, “Save Your Butt From Getting Raped”, centres
on the narratives of girls as survivors and perpetrators of violent acts.
Interrogating the stories of intimate partner abuse, rape and rape-
revenge, and violent (self-)defence, the chapter explores the ways in which
vampire fiction responds to the popular beliefs of gendered and sexu-
alised violence. While many storylines testify to the persistence of rape
mythology and can be read as the vampiric retellings of Beauty and
the Beast, presenting violence as forgivable, others deliberately refuse
to reshape abuse into romance or to obscure the oppressive discourses
of power as tales of love. Discussing the meanings of consent, denying
the popular equation between consent and desire, and featuring complex
narratives of rape-revenge and healing, their storylines deglamorise abuse
on individual level and operate to expose the structural mechanisms that
normalise gendered violence.
Chapter 6, “Biting into Books”, ventures into the classrooms of
vampire schools, exploring school-structured learning and academic
performance in the construction of girlhood. Casting their supernatural
heroines as high school students, and placing them within the uncanny
educational systems of vampire societies, the Casts’ and Mead’s series
offer a powerful commentary on the interplays between gendered and
academic subjectivities, and address feminist concerns about the design
of contemporary classroom practices and programmes. Examining the
protagonists’ academic struggles and achievements, this chapter illumi-
nates the ways in which vampire fiction engages with Western discourses
on girls and formal education, and negotiates popular gendered expecta-
tions about academic excellence. Particular attention is paid to the young
heroines’ relations to the areas of competence traditionally coded as male
(STEM subjects) and to the position of academic investment in visions of
desirable girlhood. “Biting into Books” is followed by concluding remarks
in Chapter 7.
References
Ames, Melissa. 2010. Vamping up Sex: Audience, Age, & Portrayals of Sexuality
in Vampire Narratives. Journal of Dracula Studies 12, Article 5. https://res
earch.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol12/iss1/5.
Anatol, Giselle Lisa, ed. 2011. Bringing Light to Twilight: Perspectives on a Pop
Culture Phenomenon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Anyiwo, U. Melissa. 2016. The Female Vampire in Popular Culture Or What
to Read or Watch Next. In Gender in the Vampire Narrative, eds. Amanda
Hobson and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 173–192. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: Sense
Publishers.
Auerbach, Nina. 1995. Our Vampires, Ourselves. Chicago and London: The
University of Chicago Press.
Bacon, Simon, and Katarzyna Bronk, eds. 2013. Undead Memory: Vampires and
Human Memory in Popular Culture. Bern: Peter Lang.
———. 2018. Growing up with Vampires: Essays on the Undead in Children’s
Media. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Baker, David, Stephanie Green, and Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, eds. 2017.
Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the Wrong
One In. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Basu, Debangana. 2018. Popularity of Vampire Fiction Among Teenage Masses.
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences 3 (6)
(November–December): 959–965. doi: https://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/
10.22161/ijels.3.6.6.
Bellas, Athena. 2017. Fairy Tales on the Teen Screen: Rituals of Girlhood. Cham:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Best Teen Vampire Fiction. Goodreads. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://
www.goodreads.com/list/show/616.Best_Teen_Vampire_Fiction?page=1.
Blackford, Holly Virginia. 2012. The Myth of Persephone in Girls’ Fantasy
Literature. New York and London: Routledge.
Bode, Lisa. 2010. Transitional Tastes: Teen Girls and Genre in the Critical Recep-
tion of Twilight. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 24 (5)
(October): 707–719.
Boylan, Andrew M. 2018. Children of the Night. Mainstreaming Vampires
Through Children’s Media. In Growing up with Vampires: Essays on the
Undead in Children’s Media, eds. Simon Bacon and Katarzyna Bronk, 17–28.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland.
Browning, John Edgar. 2015. The Real Vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo:
A Research Note Towards Comparative Ethnography. Palgrave Communica-
tions, 24 March. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2015.6.
Butler, Andrew M. 2016. Strange Boys, Queer Boys: Gay Representations in
Young Adult Fantastic Fiction. In Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary
Popular Fantasy: Beyond Boy Wizards and Kick-ass Chicks, ed. Jude Roberts
and Esther MacCallum-Stewart, 53–67. London and New York: Routledge.
Byron, Glennis, and Sharon Deans. 2014. Teen Gothic. In The Cambridge
Companion to the Modern Gothic, ed. Jerrold E. Hogle, 87–106. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cadden, Mike. 2011. Genre as Nexus: The Novel for Children and Young
Adults. In Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Litera-
ture, ed. Shelby Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia A. Enciso, and Christine Jenkins,
302–313. New York and London: Routledge.
Cast, P.C. 2011. Introduction. In Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore,
and Religion in the P.C. and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series, eds. P.C. Cast with
Leah Wilson, loc. 59–110. Dallas, TX: Smart Pop BenbellaBooks.
Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2007. Betrayed. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Kindle edition.
———. 2008. Chosen. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. Kindle edition.
———. 2009. Hunted. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. Kindle edition.
———. 2019. Forgotten. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing. Kindle edition.
———. 2020. Found. London: Head of Zeus. Kindle edition.
Click, Melissa A., Aubrey Stevens, and Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, eds. 2010.
Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media and the Vampire Franchise. New
York: Peter Lang.
D’Amico, LuElla. 2016. Introduction. In Girls’ Series Fiction and American
Popular Culture, ed. LuElla D’Amico, vii–xviii. Lanham: Lexington Book.
Day, Sara K., Miranda A. Green-Barteet, and Amy L. Montz, eds. 2016.
Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction. London and New York:
Routledge.
De Marco, Joseph. 1997. Vampire Literature: Something Young Adults can really
Sink Their Teeth Into. Emergency Librarian 24 (5) (May/June): 26–28.
Doyle, Robert P. 2010. Think for Yourself and Let Other Do the Same. Books
Challenged or Banned in 2009–2010. Banned Books Week: Celebrate Your
Freedom to Read. www.ala.org/bbooks.
———. 2015. Books Challenged or Banned 2010–2011. https://www.ala.org/
advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/banned/bannedbooksweek/
ideasandresources/free_downloads/2011banned.pdf 2011.
———. 2015. Books Challenged or Banned 2014–2015. https://www.ala.org/
advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/2015BannedList.pdf 2015.
Doyle, Sady. 2009. Girls Just Wanna Have Fangs: The Unwarranted Backlash
Against Fans of the World’s Most Popular Vampire-Romance Series. The
American Prospect 20 (9) (November): 30–32.
Dresser, Norine. 1989. American Vampires: Fans Victims, Practitioners. New
York: Vintage.
Dudek, Debra. 2018. The Beloved Does Not Bite: Moral Vampires and the Humans
Who Love Them. New York and London: Routledge.
Dunn, George A., and Rebecca Housel, eds. 2010. True Blood and Philosophy:
We Wanna Think Bad Things with You. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
DuRocher, Kristina. Men That Suck: Gender Anxieties and the Evolution of
Vampire Men. In Gender in the Vampire Narrative, eds. Amanda Hobson,
and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 45–59. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: SensePublishers.
Franck, Mia. 2013. Skamlig flickläsning. Flickvampyrer på internatskola i House of
Night-serien. In Flicktion. Perspektiv på flickan i fiktionen, eds. Eva Söderberg,
Mia Österlund, and Bodil Formark, 208–221. Malmö: Universus Academic
Press.
George, Sam, and Bill Hughes. 2015. Introduction. In Open Graves, Open Minds:
Representations of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the
Present Day, ed. Sam George and Bill Hughes, 1–23. Manchester: Manchester
University Press.
Hamilton-Honey, Emily, and Susan Ingalls Lewis. 2020. Girls to the Rescue:
Young Heroines in American Series Fiction of World War I . Jefferson, NC:
McFarland.
Hamilton-Honey, Emily. 2013. Turning the Pages of American Girlhood: The
Evolution of Girls’ Series Fiction, 1865–1930. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Hanser, Gaïane. 2018. Mary Sues, Sluts and Rapists: The Problematic Depiction
of Sexuality in P. C. and Kristin Cast’s Young Adult Series The House of Night.
Publije: e-Revue de critique littéraire: Teenage Cultures: From Consumption
to Production, eds. Heather Braun, Elisabeth Lamothe, Delphine Letort, 1:
1–14. https://revues.univ-lemans.fr/index.php/publije/article/view/41/52.
Hayward, Jennifer. 1997. Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial
Fictions from Dickens to Soap Opera. Lexington: The University Press of
Kentucky.
Hentges, Sarah. 2018. Girls on Fire: Transformative Heroines in Young Adult
Dystopian Literature. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Hobson, Amanda. 2016. Introduction. In Gender in the Vampire Narrative, eds.
Amanda Hobson, and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 1–8. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei:
Sense Publishers.
Housel, Rebecca, and J. Jeremy Wisnewski, eds. 2009. Twilight and Philosophy:
Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality. Hoboken: Wiley.
Iatropoulos, Mary Ellen, I.I.I. Woodall, and A. Lowery, eds. 2017. Joss Whedon
and Race: Critical Essays. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Inness, Sherrie A., ed. 1997. Nancy Drew and Company: Culture, Gender, and
Girls’ Series. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular
Press.
Khair, Tabish, and Johan Höglund, eds. 2013. Transnational and Postcolonial
Vampires: Dark Blood. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kokkola, Lydia. 2013. Fictions of Adolescent Carnality: Sexy Sinners and

Delinquent Deviants. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Kreider, Jodie A., and Meghan K. Winchell, eds. 2014. Buffy in the Classroom:
Essays on Teaching with the Vampire Slayer. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
LeMaster, Benny. 2011. Queer Imag(in)ing: Liminality as Resistance in
Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In. Communication and Critical/Cultural
Studies 8 (2) (June): 103–123. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.
2011.566277.
Levine, Elana, and Lisa Parks, eds. 2007. Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer. 2007 . Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Łuksza, Agata. 2015. Sleeping with a Vampire. Feminist Media Studies 15 (3):
429–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.945607.
Macnaughtan, Don. 2011. The Buffyverse Catalog: A Complete Guide to Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and Angel in Print, Film, Television, Comics, Games and Other
Media, 1992–2010. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company.
McClintock, Pamela. 2013. Berlin 2013: The Weinstein Co. Strikes Deal for U.S.
Rights to Vampire Pic “Blood Sisters”. The Hollywood Reporter, October 2.
Accessed September 20, 2020. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/
berlin-twc-acquires-blood-sisters-420078.
Mead, Richelle. 2010. Sunshine. In Kisses from Hell, eds. Kristin Cast, Alyson
Noël, Kelly Armstrong, Richelle Mead, and Francesca Lia Block. HarperTeen.
Mead, Richelle. 2012. Homecoming. In Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and
Prediction, ed. Carrie Ryan, loc. 4453–4979. New York: Delacorte Press.
Kindle edition.
Mead, Richelle. 2016. Vampire Academy. The 10th Anniversary Edition. Razor-
Bill.
Milliot, Jim. 2020. “Midnight Sun” Tops 1 Million Copies Sold in First Week.
Publishers Weekly, August 13. Accessed September 13, 2020. https://www.
publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/
84086-midnight-sun-tops-1-million-copies-sold-in-first-week.html.
Morey, Anne, ed. 2016. Genre, Reception and Adaptation in the “Twilight” Series.
London and New York: Routledge.
Nevárez, Lisa A. 2014. The Vampire Goes to College: Essays on Teaching with the
Undead. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland.
Ní Fhlainn, Sorcha. 2019. Postmodern Vampires: Film, Fiction, and Popular
Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nicol, Rhonda. 2016. “You Were Such a Good Girl When You Were
Human”: Gender and Subversion in The Vampire Diaries. In Gender in the
Vampire Narrative, eds. Amanda Hobson, and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 145–160.
Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: SensePublishers.
Palmer, Louis H. 2013. Vampires in the New World. Santa Barbara, California,
Denver, Colorado, Oxford, England: Praeger.
Pattee, Amy S. 2011. Reading the Adolescent Romance: Sweet Valley High and
the Popular Young Adult Romance Novel. New York and London: Routledge.
Piatti-Farnell, Lorna. 2014. The Vampire in Contemporary Popular Literature.
New York and London: Routledge.
Preston Leonard, Kendra, ed. 2011. Buffy, Ballads, and Bad Guys Who Sing:
Music in the Worlds of Joss Whedon. 2011. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth, UK:
The Scarecrow Press.
Priester, Paul E. 2008. The Metaphorical Use of Vampire Films in Counseling.
Journal of Creativity in Mental Health 3 (1): 68–77. https://doi.org/10.
1080/15401380802023621.
Pulliam, June. 2014. Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror
Fiction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Ramos-García, María T. 2020. Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy. In The
Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction, eds. Jayashree
Kamblé, Eric Murphy Selinger, and Hsu-Ming Teo. London and New York:
Routledge.
Reagin, Nancy R., ed. 2011. Twilight and History. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Reimer, Mavis, Nyala Ali, Deanna England, and Melanie Dennis Unrau, eds.
2014. Seriality and Texts for Young People: The Compulsion to Repeat. London:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Rowen, Michelle, and Richelle Mead. 2011. Vampire Academy: The Ultimate
Guide. RazorBill.
Saxton, Ruth O., ed. 1998. The Girl: Constructions of the Girl in Contemporary
Fiction by Women. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schlozman, S.C. 2000. Vampires and Those Who Slay Them: Using the
Television Program Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Adolescent Therapy and
Psychodynamic Education. Academic Psychiatry 24: 49–54.
Schubart, Rikke. 2018. Mastering Fear: Women, Emotions and Contemporary
Horror. New York, London, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury.
Seelinger Trites, Roberta. 2018. Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s
and Adolescent Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Smith, Michelle J., and Kristine Moruzi. 2018. Vampires and Witches Go to
School: Contemporary Young Adult Fiction, Gender, and the Gothic. Chil-
dren’s Literature in Education 49: 6–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-
018-9343-0.
Smith, Michelle J., and Kristine Moruzi. 2020. Gender and Sexuality in Young
Adult Fiction. In The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic, ed. Clive
Bloom, 609–622. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
South, James B., ed. 2003. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and
Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago: Open Court.
Stephanou, Aspasia. 2014. Reading Vampire Gothic Through Blood: Bloodlines.

Palgrave Macmillan
Stuller, Jennifer K., ed. 2013. Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2013.
Intellect.
Wilcox Rhonda. 2005. Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Bloomsbury Academic.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., and Michael W. Smith. 2014. Reading Unbound: Why Kids
Need to Read What They Want—And Why We Should Let Them. New York:
Scholastic.
Williamson, Milly. 2005. The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom
from Bram Stoker to Buffy. London and New York: Wallflower Press.
Wilson Overstreet, Deborah. 2006. Not Your Mother’s Vampire: Vampires in
Young Adult Fiction. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: The
Scarecrow Press, Inc., Kindle edition.
Wilson, Natalie. 2011. Seduced by Twilight: The Allure and Contradictory
Messages of the Popular Saga. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Wisker, Gina. 2016. Contemporary Women’s Gothic Fiction: Carnival. Hauntings
and Vampire Kisses: Palgrave Macmillan.
YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. 2008. Accessed
September 21, 2020. https://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklists/
quickpicks/annotations/08qp.
YALSA Teens’ Top Ten. 2008. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://booklists.
yalsa.net/directory/results?booklist=31&year=2008.
YALSA Teens’ Top Ten. 2009. https://booklists.yalsa.net/directory/results?boo
klist=31&year=2009.
Younger, Beth. 2009. Learning Curves: Body Image and Female Sexuality in
Young Adult Literature. Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press.
CHAPTER 2
Writing (on) Girls’ Bodies: Vampires

and Embodied Girlhood
In Phantasmagoria, Marina Warner demarcates the late eighteenth

century as the beginning of Western society’s shift away from a focus
on the spiritual to the external—an evolution that has relocated indi-
vidual’s “uniqueness … to the surface” and increasingly rendered the
body a central agent in the definition of the self (2006, 35). Contempo-
rary consumer culture, as Agnieszka Gromkowska-Melosik and Zbyszko
Melosik observe, is immersed in questions of the body, with human
identity “‘scoured away’ from the mind and the soul”, and with indi-
viduals primarily perceived through their bodily appearance (2008, xxi).
As Melosik concludes, in the Western societies of today “[t]he iden-
tity of the body becomes the body of identity” (1996, 72; quoted after
Gromkowska-Melosik and Melosik 2008, xxi).
This conflation of identity and appearance is particularly strong for
women. Their relation to their bodies—the ways they are seen, presented,
used and worked on—is regularly narrated as central to their sense of self,
and women continue to be valued for their appearance much more often
than men.1 Scholarly works highlight the social positioning of women’s
1 See e.g. Engeln (2018), DeMello (2014, 176, 183), Nyman (2017), Moran (2016),
and Tazzyman (2017). Similar trends have been identified in literature. As Wright notes
in relation to American fiction, physical attractiveness is less important for male characters;
“what makes a male succeed or fail is what he does ” rather than what he looks like (2013,
x).
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 23

Switzerland AG 2021
A. Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction,
Palgrave Gothic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71744-5_2
bodies in the Western popular imagination as objects of scrutiny and

trenchant critique, routinely constructed as wanting, problematic and in
need of change; “an incurable illness” that can be alleviated—though
never fully healed—through means of consumerism (Harjunen 2017, 95;
DeMello 2014, 188; Tazzyman 2017).2 This sense of shame related to
the body and the resulting imperative for body modification have been
identified as “a cultural inheritance of women” (Bouson 2009, 1–2) and
a fundamental aspect of female socialisation (Murray 2008, 5).
The notion of the body—and the ways it relates to the questions of self,
agency, empowerment and a sense of belonging—have long held a partic-
ular fascination for both youth cultures and vampire fiction. Multiple
scholars recognise body image, style and fashion as important signifiers
of young people’s identity, framing the teenage self as “virtually indis-
tinguishable from the bodily dimension of being” (Piatti-Farnell 2014,
17; cf. Pomerantz 2008; Tazzyman 2017; Fisher et al. 2008, 173). This
phenomenon is particularly widespread within girl cultures. Girls are often
expected, and expect themselves, to pursue culturally defined standards
of beauty, and physical appearance is repeatedly presented as an avenue
towards the achievement of successful femininity (Tazzyman 2017; Bellas
2017; Pomerantz and Raby 2017, 68). As articulated by Maria Nilson,
bodily image has come to be essential in the process of “becoming a girl
in a right way” (att flicka sig på rätt sätt ) (2013, 202).3 Similarly, Beth
Younger observes that looks remain “an important, culturally determined
measurement of femininity”, and that unrealistic standards of physical
appearance continue to exert a negative impact on girls’ (self-)perception
and opportunities (2009, 20). Other girlhood scholars, however, fore-
ground the value of girls’ “culture of prettiness” and point out that
girls’ investment in fashion and appearance does not need to adversely
affect their ideas of self. Style can become a site of resistance against
cultural restraints placed on girlhood, and body modification can be read
as a valid practice of self-expression, pleasure and female bonding—one
2 These pressures are also increasingly faced by men, albeit to a lesser degree (Tazzyman
2017, 95, 112; cf. Engeln 2018, 36–37; Gromkowska-Melosik and Melosik 2008, xxi,
xxii).
3 In her study on girls and body modification, Tazzyman (2017) observes that a girl’s
awakened interest in beautifying practices is commonly construed as a harbinger of her
transition from the identity of a child into that of a young woman—an interpretation
shared both by girls themselves and the significant adults in their lives.
2 WRITING (ON) GIRLS’ BODIES … 25
that embraces the notion of female empowerment (see e.g. Bellas 2017;
Pomerantz 2008).
As troubling terrains of conflicting social and cultural regulations,
fears and desires, the young female body and the vampire body bear an
uncanny connection. Vampiric transitions have been repeatedly read as a
metaphor for adolescent transformations, as both are seen as suspended in
a liminal state, and defined through profound physical, psychological and
emotional changes (see e.g. Howell 2017; Piatti-Farnell 2014, 17). As a
creature of unparalleled beauty, everlasting youth and acute fashion aware-
ness, the vampire figure further satiates and fuels the popular culture’s
desire for the perfect (and perfectible) body, and feeds into its obses-
sion with youthful appearance. Speaking to young people’s concerns and
aspirations formulated around physical image, the powerful appeal of the
vampiric body has been identified as one of the prime reasons for the
unwavering popularity of YA vampire fiction (Dresser 1989, quoted after
De Marco 1997, 26–27; Wilhelm and Smith 2014, 124).
This chapter brings into the spotlight the complex social expectations,
anxieties and desires surrounding the young female body, articulated
through the supernatural heroine of the serialised vampire fiction for
adolescent girls. Taking as its primary focus P. C. Cast and Kristin
Cast’s The House of Night (2007–2014) and The House of Night:
Other World series (2017–2020), and Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy
(2007–2010) and Bloodlines (2011–2015)—it interrogates the interplays
between vampire stories and contemporary discourses on girls’ bodies,
identities, forms of agency, belonging and exclusion. Contemplating the
body as one of the central themes of the genre and a prime construction
site of girlhood within Western culture, the chapter studies the rela-
tions between young heroines and the hegemonic narratives on socially
acceptable and desirable body image. The introductory section considers
the constitution of the vampire body, focusing on the significations of
the tattooed skin. The following sections examine the relations between
the cultural narrations of vampirism and feminine beauty, placing the
emphasis on the discourses of ageing and bodily size, as well as represen-
tations of “ugliness”. The interplays between vampirism, girlhood, style,
young female consumerismand girl agency and belonging are the focus of
the next part of the chapter. The final section analyses the vampire genre’s
take on the trope of the feminine makeover and its potential as a site of
resistance and the performance of subversive girl identities.4
2.1 The Markings of the Vampiric Body

In The Vampire in Contemporary Popular Literature, Lorna Piatti-Farnell
recognises the vampire body as “a representational projection of the
human body”, one that is transformative and susceptible to the social and
political mores of its times (2014, 55–56; cf. Auerbach 1995). Undead,
living or in a state in-between; unchangeable or shape-shifting; experi-
encing minor discomfort or flaring up in the sun; with sharp, pointy fangs
or with a human-like dentition; born from a female of the species, bred
through scientific means or created by another vampire’s bite; reversible
or permanently vampiric—the vampire body can vary considerably both
among different narratives and within the same fictitious worlds.5 Even
the consumption of blood—while possibly remaining one of the last
shared characteristics for contemporary vampires—can be substituted with
psychic draining, and is highly diverse in its rituals, intentions, sources and
emotions linked to the act of feeding.
The fictional universes of P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, and of Richelle
Mead, feature several varying types of vampire bodies that differ in their
origin, physiology, abilities and physical constitution. Vampire fledglings
in House of Night come into being through a biological reaction that
triggers a recessive vampire gene in certain human teenagers. Within
several years, the majority of these young people will mature into fully
developed vampires. Some, however, will suffer a violent death as their
bodies reject the vampiric Change. In Vampire Academy and Bloodlines,
4 Needless to say, it is an impossible task to consider all the important aspects of girl
bodily existence within the scope of one chapter. Most conspicuous by its absence is
possibly the discussion of girl bodies as sexual, as well as queer bodies; both are examined
in the following chapters of this volume. Another aspect that I develop elsewhere are
vulnerable, diseased and disordered bodies in YA vampire fiction (Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska,
forthcoming).
5 For instance, the YA literary series The Vampire Diaries , authored by L. J. Smith,
Aubrey Clark and unknown ghostwriter (1991–2014), introduce several types of vampire
bodies: “ordinary”—created through consuming vampire blood and dying; Original—
humans transformed into vampires through magic; and those who came into being
through scientific means. For a comprehensive analysis of different vampire bodies in
literary fiction marketed to adults, see Piatti-Farnell (2014, chap. 2).
the living vampires, the Moroi, and their half-vampire, half-human body-
guards dhampirs are born and die in a way similar to humans.6 None of
these vampire bodies burst into flames when exposed to the sun although
some are weakened by direct sunlight.7 Both the Moroi and vampires of
House of Night are sustained by blood; “good” vampires, however, drink
only from willing donors, and victimising humans is a strict taboo in both
communities.
Although fangs are often considered an essential attribute of the
vampire body (see e.g. Piatti-Farnell 2014, 69), the defanged vampire
is not uncommon in popular stories marketed to girls. In Stephenie
Meyer’s Twilight (2005–2008) and the Casts’ House of Night, vampires
have extraordinarily strong yet human-looking dentition. Neither vora-
cious monsters nor self-denying heroes, “good” vampire characters in
the latter series consume blood in a civilised manner mixed with wine
in elegant wine glasses. In Vampire Academy and Bloodlines, vampires
prefer to drink from the vein, and have non-retractable fangs. However,
as they are trained from childhood to conceal them while speaking or
smiling, they can pass for human with little difficulty. Similarly, the bodies
of Mead’s dhampirs and the Casts’ vampires are nearly indistinguish-
able from human. However, in House of Night both fledglings and full
vampires are visually set apart by their conspicuous facial tattoos.8
The importance of permanent body alterations, like tattoos or scarifi-
cation, as a mode of self-expression and negotiating identity have been
recognised in scholarly works. A biological canvas of the modified skin
6 While vampirism is usually associated with dying and “turning”, the biologically condi-
tioned vampire body is not an uncommon phenomenon; see e.g. Poppy Z. Brite (currently
identifying as male, Billy Collins; Wisker 2016, 158), Lost Souls (1992), where vampires
can be created through sexual intercourse; Peter Watts, Blindsight (2006), where they
are the result of the processes of evolution, extinct and then brought back to life by
human science; or the 2019 Netflix TV series V-Wars, where vampirism is presented as a
disease/genetic mutation.
7 Both universes additionally feature vampire bodies that resemble the traditional folk-
loric vampire template. Mead’s evil Strigoi and Casts’ red vampire fledglings are, at least
initially, positioned as villains—vicious undead creatures, animated through dark magic,
burning in the sun, bleeding their victims dry and extremely hard to kill.
8 Although in Betrayed vampires are described as “different than humans (not bad
different—just different)” (25), the series reveals little about these visual differences except
for the bloodsuckers’ extraordinary beauty and their unusual tattoos. All fledglings are
required to cover the crescent on their foreheads with make-up when outside of the
school walls, a practice that easily allows them to pass for humans.
can perform a myriad of functions beyond its aesthetic qualities. Drawing

on the scholarship of Elizabeth Grosz, Piatti-Farnell describes skin as “a
communicative surface on which messages and meaning can be inscribed”
(2014, 83). Carrying stories of life experience, remembering special
moments, reflecting worldviews, and indicating social status, belonging
and exclusion, the modified skin changes self-perception and affects
the way the individual is seen by others (Conrich and Sedgwick 2017,
192–195; Piatti-Farnell 2014, 81–85; Nyman 2017; Oliver 2011).
The visually intriguing trope of the altered body surface—covered
with signs, scars or inscriptions—often emerges in the stories of fantasy
and horror. In Gothic Dissections in Film and Literature, Ian Conrich
and Laura Sedgwick discuss horror representations of the tattooed skin
as a “Gothic commodity”, produced, flayed, stolen or sold as a grue-
some work of art (2017, 192–195). The tattoo has also been employed
as a metaphorical Other, with the inscribed body construed as infected,
polluted or even possessed (Conrich and Sedgwick 2017, 193–195). In
fantasy fiction, skin modifications often serve as a visual designation of an
extraordinary character, or a signal of belonging to a particular group—
with the self-inflicted scarification of the demon slayers in Cassandra
Clare’s The Mortal Instruments (2007–2014) or the famous lightening-
shaped scar on the forehead of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter as only two
among many examples of the trend. The inscribed skin holds a fascination
also for the vampire genre; extensive tattoos adorn the bodies of vampire
hunters in the televised version of The Vampire Diaries (The CW 2009–
2017) and the vampires of Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed (2007–2019)
are covered with tattoo-like patterns called “dermaglyphs”.9
Referring to feminist scholarship on tattoos, Nina Nyman acknowl-
edges the tattooed female skin as a point of intersection of women’s
rights to self-expression and control over their bodies (2017, 75). While
relatively widespread in contemporary culture, tattoos are simultaneously
surrounded by social taboos. These strictures are gendered, as tattooing,
particularly in exposed locations, is often viewed as subverting the notions
of conventional femininity (Nyman 2017, 81). Within this context, the
centrality of the tattooed skin in narrating the vampire and the girl body
in House of Night, Vampire Academy and Bloodlines is telling.
9 The meanings of dermaglyphs in the Midnight Breed series have been meticulously
analysed by Piatti-Farnell (2014, 81–85).
The tattoos in these series display diverse origins, aesthetic qualities

and significations. Nearly all, however, serve as a sign of belonging to a
particular community or species. The facial tattoos of the House of Night
vampires are a compelling signifier of their vampiric status. As vampire
and human bodies are nearly identical, it is the tattoos that visually distin-
guish one from the other, and place vampires outside the boundaries of
human society. In Mead’s fictional universe, vampires as a species do not
attach any special importance to tattooing. However, the tattooed skin
is central to the narratives of all the other main groups—both human
and supernatural, with large sections of the storyline formulated around
its meanings and powers. Vampire hunters are marked with sun-shaped
patterns on their backs, and a golden lily inscribed on the cheek signifies
belonging to the clandestine society of the Alchemists. Dhampirs ink in
lightning-shaped marks called molnija on their necks, and even regular
high school students purchase illegal enchanted tattoos to enhance their
mood or physical performance.10
In many cases, tattooing functions as a rite of passage. A vivid example
of this can be found in the House of Night trope of the sapphire cres-
cent that appears on the forehead of teenagers upon being Marked,
that is changed into vampire fledglings. A striking illustration of their
budding Otherness, this tattoo signals their entry into the transitional
state between humanity and vampirism; one that clearly represents human
adolescence, with its anxieties, hopes and uncontrollable bodily trans-
formations.11 The moment of the fledgling’s metamorphosis into a full
vampire, the Change, is marked by the magical expansion of their modest
crescent into elaborate patterns covering a large part of the face—a
powerful finale of the transition from adolescence into adulthood. In
Mead’s Vampire Academy, similar meanings are communicated through
a special symbol called the Promise Mark, ceremoniously tattooed on
dhampirs’ necks upon their graduation. The Promise Mark represents the
completion of the journey from adolescent novice to mature guardian,
and signals full membership of dhampir adult society. In both series, the
10 It is interesting to note that a number of fans of both House of Night and Vampire
Academy have (been) reported to have tattooed their skin as a tribute to their favourite
series (Oliver 2011, 43; Mead 2016, v; see also e.g. Martin 2020 and Be 2020).
11 As the leading heroine describes it, “I would spend the next four years going through
bizarre and unnameable physical changes, as well as a total and permanent life shake-up”
(Marked 8)—an account that can be easily applied to the time of human puberty.
tattooed skin can also carry information on the character’s status in the
community. As the House of Night markings are ordinarily confined to a
vampire’s face, the lavishly oed body of the leading heroine Zoey Redbird
designates her immediately as the Chosen One (cf. Oliver 2011, 38). In
Vampire Academy, the number of molnija symbols speaks of the dham-
pir’s value as a fighter as every mark equals one Strigoi-kill. In this way, as
Jana Oliver observes in regard to warrior tattooing, “the warrior skin can
act as a walking résumé for anyone able to decipher the symbols” (2011,
36). The celebrity status of the central dhampir heroine Rose Hathaway
is additionally confirmed through a unique star-shaped tattoo that indi-
cates her valour in battle and the uncountable number of kills she has
performed.
For both Zoey and Rose, their tattoos are a source of prestige as
they testify to their victories and achievements. However, while Rose
actively chooses to inscribe her “résumé” on her skin, Zoey has no say
in the matter. Triggered by hormonal reactions (the initial crescent) and
completed by Nyx, the vampire Goddess of Night (the ultimate expanded
version), the tattoos in House of Night are beyond the vampires’ control.
Their pattern, location, time of appearance and their very existence are
determined by inner biological forces and an external divine being.12
Throughout her discussion of the empowering aspects of the practice
of female tattooing, Nyman emphasises the essentiality of a conscious
choice. Drawing on her interviews with tattooed women, she infers that
“[t]attoos could be used as a feminist strategy to take charge of one’s
own body through actively taking the decision to change it” (2017, 92).
This “active agency of tattooing” (Nyman 2017, 75–76) is absent from
the Casts’ series. In contrast, in Mead’s novels tattooing typically requires
some sort of consent and is usually performed by choice of the bearer,
even if this choice may ultimately be regretted. As she takes pride in her
society’s work, Sydney Sage, the leading heroine of Bloodlines, agrees to
have her cheek tattooed with a golden lily that marks her as an Alchemist.
It is not until later that she discovers that the enchanted golden ink is used
to subdue and control rebellious or doubting members, eerily echoing
the Gothic narrative of the tattoo’s possession of the inscribed body.
12 A similar narration of the vampiric tattoos can be found in Adrian’s Midnight Breed
series, where an individual’s markings stem from their genetic makeup (Piatti-Farnell 2014,
81–85). For a detailed analysis of the interplay between the biological and the divine in
the origins of the House of Night ’s vampire tattoos, see Oliver (2011).
The golden lily’s power can, however, be neutralised through another

enchanted inscription tattooed over the first. An accomplished witch
and a superb chemist, Sydney spends most of the series’ fourth volume
searching for the deactivating formula, and finally succeeds. Thus, while
in House of Night the tattoos appear, reappear, change or are taken away
regardless of their bearer’s volition (though, as Oliver remarks, “always
for compelling reasons”; 2011, 35), in Mead’s series, both tattooing
and tattoo removal can serve as instruments of empowerment and the
enacting of agency over one’s own body and life choices.
The tattoos in both series differ considerably also in their aesthetic
dimension. The marks in House of Night are highly individualised, with
each design visually expressing their bearer’s personality, passions and
skills, and often serving to enhance their appearance.13 In contrast,
dhampir marks are spartan in their design. Rather than beautifying or
facilitating self-articulation, molnija symbols testify to the bearer’s combat
skills, visually enhancing the commanding power of the dhampir body.
Moreover, in House of Night some designs are gendered—with women’s
marks carrying characteristics connoted as “feminine” (intricate lace-like
patterns, elegant flowers or motifs related to the Goddess) and the male
ones signifying masculine power (fire-breathing dragons, griffin’s claws,
arrows and lightning bolts).14 The dhampir molnija tattoos, however,
never rely on gender differentiation, and both female and male warriors
wear identical marks that differ only in number.15
Regardless of their aesthetic qualities, origins or meanings, both in the
Casts’ and Mead’s series, most tattoos need to be earned, whether by
completing training, killing an evil being, defeating inner dark instincts
or arriving at a life-changing decision. Whether chosen or inscribed by
the forces beyond one’s control, more often than not they are worn with
pride. Embracing their difference, vampires of House of Night consider
13 For instance, the face of the vampire horse mistress Lenobia is adorned with two
rearing horses (Hunted 279); vampire Erik Night’s drama mask tattoo indicates his talent
in acting (Chosen 235); and the forehead and cheeks of the poetess Kramisha are orna-
mented with ever-changing words related to creativity (Loved 23; cf. also 93). The tattoos
are described in detail and the narrating Zoey often marvels at their attractiveness.
14 The warrior vampire queen, Sgiach, is an exception as her face is tattooed with
swords and blades (Burned 188; Found loc. 423).
15 Similarly, among the Alchemists, tattoos are identical for all the members, regardless
of their gender.
covering their tattoos a dishonour and view them as a sign of “being

grown” (Untamed 90). Similarly, dhampirs take pride in their molnija
marks. For instance, it is customary that female guardians cut their hair
short in order to expose their tattooed necks, readily giving their warrior
reputation priority over their looks.
2.2 Such Hot Fangs! Vampirism and Beauty

Within present-day mainstream popular culture, the vampire as an abject
figure of aesthetic horror has been largely substituted by a figure of
glamour and enthralling beauty.16 While not entirely absent from the
narratives of the past, this idealised conceptualisation of the vampire
body has taken root in the popular imagination since the worldwide
success of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles (Piatti-Farnell 2014, 74–76,
78, 85), and become cemented by Twilight ’s sparkling imagery. Having
shed their folkloric persona of a rotting walking corpse or a terrifying
spectre, vampires evolved into the apex of the Western physical ideal—the
embodied “dream of strength, of perfection, of virtually eternal youth”
that banishes any lingering sense of terror or abhorrence (Piatti-Farnell
2014, 51, 96; Franck 2013, 214, 217). The erotically alluring vampires
of Twilight, True Blood (HBO 2008–2014) and The Vampire Diaries
can serve as radiant examples of this imagery. Today, the trope of the
perfect vampiric body has become ingrained in the popular mind, to the
point where “unattractive vampire” is regarded as a humorous oxymoron,
pushed out of the genre of horror into the realms of comedy:
An Unattractive vampire? You may cry “Inconceivable” to that idea, my

dear post-twilight audience. How can a vampire be unattractive in this
16 That said, it must be noted that numerous examples of physically repulsive, terrifying
or simply ordinary-looking vampires continue to be present in popular culture texts. For
instance, in the short-lived series V-Wars (Netflix 2019), vampires turn into figures of
horror with disfigured faces and enormous jagged fangs when about to attack. See also
Ní Fhlainn’s analysis of the vampire body in John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One
In (2004) (2019, 223–224, 227). Ní Fhlainn juxtaposes Lindqvist’s vampiric corporeality
with that of Rice and Meyer’s creations, emphasising its divergence from the popular
contemporary models. Lindqvist’s text, as Ní Fhlainn asserts, “deliberately lingers on
the physical perversity of vampirism”, discernible in Eli’s abject, permeable body and
Virginia’s horrific transformation (223–224). Furthermore, the vampire continues to exist
as a symbol for disease and contamination, their representations intertwined with the
traditional zombie formula (Ní Fhlainn 2019, 220).
century? With their perfect cheekbones and irresistible sex-appeal, their

swaying hips, half-open shirts, and such hot fangs!
This ironic comment comes from Sr3yas (2018), a fan of Jim McDoniel’s
debut comic novel An Unattractive Vampire (Inkshares 2016).17
Adhering to the genre’s conventions, the protagonists of the vampire
series marketed to girls are almost universally characterised by phys-
ical attractiveness.18 In Twilight, the process of vampiric transformation
famously changes even ordinary-looking humans into otherworldly beau-
ties—“akin to demigods” and “without a trace of corporeal abjection”
(Ní Fhlainn 2019, 231). In Michelle Madow’s Dark World: The Vampire
Wish series (2017), only the prettiest women are turned into vampires—
with their permission or against their will. In Mead’s universe vampirism
does not come with a guarantee of eternal beauty and unattractive
vampires are not unheard of.19 Nonetheless, all the central heroines (and
heroes) are exceptionally good-looking, resembling exotic flowers (BL
loc. 718) or angels rather than vampires (VA 3–4).20 In House of Night,
physical perfection is an essential characteristic of all vampire women
and the novels are replete with detailed descriptions of their bodies.21
The vampress’ spectacle of feminine excess is signified by immaculate
skin, luminous eyes of unique shades (“deep, mossy green” or “like a
17 Another reader admits that the novel’s title alone made them laugh (Dana 2016).
McDoniel’s vampiric protagonist is ancient Yulric Bile, who returns to the world after
several centuries only to discover that he is “too ugly” to be considered a vampire at all.
18 As such, they are inscribed into the wider trends of American fiction; see e.g. Wright
(2013, x).
19 Some are described as vulture-looking (VA 17); others struggle with “terrible acne”
(RC 7).
20 They are also predominantly White—a construction that could be read as a consid-
erable limitation to the series’ vision of female empowerment. However, racial diversity
finds its reflection in the narration of Moroi, Strigoi, dhampirs and humans as racial
categories—with taboos and socially imposed limitations indicating racial (and classed)
tensions.
21 Noteworthy, the series’ ideal of feminine beauty encompasses women of various ethnic
and racial backgrounds, with the Cherokee heritage of the central heroine Zoey (and
later, her brother Kevin) repeatedly brought to the forefront. In “There’s No Place Like
Home”, Christi Cook examines Zoey’s hybrid identity as a human/vampire and Anglo-
American/Cherokee, construing her escape from the human world with leaving her Anglo-
American self behind and tracing her ever-growing identification with Cherokee culture
(2015, 49–52).
stormy sky”; Marked 51; Betrayed 44), and long, lush waves of silky hair
(Marked 51, 149; Betrayed 8; Hunted 279; Untamed 77, 78).22 Above
all, their supernatural condition provides vampresses with magical insur-
ance against the ultimate “threats” of the Western bodily ideal: ageing,
disability and “fatness”.
In her analysis of the unattractive woman figure in American fiction,
Charlotte Wright points to words such as “fat”, “old”, “ill, scarred, or
deformed” as “conjur[ing] up the image of [female] ugliness” (2013,
18–19). Tracing the development of the youth-centred culture in the
twentieth-century economy and market, Rob Latham observes that youth
has become “an ideal to be realized through the practices of mass
consumption” (2002, 15). Angela Tenga and Elizabeth Zimmerman
further reflect on Western body culture as haunted by the “obsessive fear
of aging”. Rather than being seen as a natural stage of life, growing old
has become construed as a source of distress and mounting anxiety; as
undesirable and inevitably linked to the loss of erotic appeal (2013, 79).
These negative associations are noticeably gendered, with women dispro-
portionately affected by the cultural stigmatisation of the physical signs of
ageing (Kapurch 2016; Engeln 2018, 50–51). These apprehensions over
growing old are fuelled by the market, aggressively advertising goods,
procedures and fantasies of the restored youth (DeMello 2014; Engeln
2018), and produced by popular culture that continuously feeds women
with the imagery of youthfulness as a gendered prerequisite for high social
standing and feminine happiness.
As a cultural narration, vampirism has long tapped into human angst
surrounding the question of ageing. The twentieth-century vampire
stories, in particular the novels of Anne Rice, were prominent in their
focus on the never-ending youthfulness of the vampire body (Piatti-
Farnell 2014, 57)—an imagery that continues to flourish in the genre.
Immortal by nature or returned from human death, vampires have
become the embodiment of human fantasies of eternal life, “a symbol of
departure from that which is final, decaying, and impermanent” (Piatti-
Farnell, 2014, 60–61, 94), and an archetype reflecting the Western
22 Although this falls outside the scope of this chapter, it is worth noting that in House
of Night the representations of desirable heterosexual male bodies also closely adhere to
the popular stereotypes of the ideal masculine physicality, with the majority of heroes
being tall, strong, muscular and powerful-looking warriors.
economics of the “fetishization of youth” (Latham 2002, 5). A momen-

tary escape from the psychological and social horrors of the senile body,
the youthful vampire satiates—if only for as long as we consume the
story—the cultural desire to remain ever-young.
Within the contemporary YA vampire genre, the themes of ageing
and the fantasy of eternal youth are epitomised by Twilight (see e.g.
Driscoll 2016, 105, 109–110). Throughout the story, the terror of ageing
experienced by the leading heroine Bella is repeatedly brought to the
fore—until, as Catherine Coker remarks, “the future is reduced to a fear
of growing old” (2010, 73). Bella’s anxiety manifests most clearly in
the memorable dream sequence that opens the saga’s second volume,
New Moon. There, the terrified heroine finds herself in the body of
her own grandmother—“ancient, creased, and withered” (NM 5)—while
still remaining in a relationship with the eternally adolescent vampire
Edward.23 Similar, if less aching anxieties are expressed by Elena of The
Vampire Diaries novels (1991–2014), worried that she will grow old
while her vampire boyfriend Stefan “would go on, unaging and beau-
tiful, always eighteen” (DR 26). Neither heroine lacks confidence in her
lover’s devotion; yet they still worry about the growing age disparity in
their relationships.
A complicated love between an ever-youthful male vampire and a
human girl unable to escape the passage of time occupies a key place
of the romance storyline in a number of vampire tales. This narra-
tive tension is often resolved by the vampire turning his lover into an
undead or sustaining her with his rejuvenating blood—assuming the posi-
tion, as Tenga and Zimmerman frame it, of the “consummate plastic
surgeons whose work guarantees eternal youth” (2013, 79).24 Many
23 It is interesting to note that in her description of her grandmother’s body, Bella

focuses almost entirely on various signs of bodily changes connected to age—e.g. white
hair, “wasted cheek”, or withered skin “bent into a thousand tiny creases” (New Moon
3–6). This scene has been examined by, among others, Kapurch (2016, 140), Kokkola
(2011, 177), and Crossen (2015).
24 This is, for instance, the case in Twilight and Bella Forrest’s A Shade of Vampire
series (2012–present), where the heroine is turned into a vampire. In Adrian’s Midnight
Breed, women do not age or die as long as they drink from their vampire mates (see
Piatti-Farnell 2014, 67). The “plastic surgeon’s” role can also be fulfilled by magical
substances, like the water from the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Life, drunk by Elena
in Destiny Rising (390). Vampirisation can also be narrated as parental decision, as it is
in the case of Ben, a vampire couple’s son, in A Shade of Vampire (CoP).
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and History
of the Indians of
America.
CHAPTER IV.
Discovery of the Pacific Ocean.—Plans of Columbus.—Avarice of
the Spaniards.—Balboa.—Weighing the gold.—The young
Indian’s speech.—Indian mode of fighting.—Balboa ascends
the mountain.—First view of the Pacific.
Columbus had first seen land in the New World on the 12th of
October, 1492. Six years after he surveyed the coast of the
American continent by Paria and Cumana. Territory was the grand
object with the noble mind of Columbus; he wished to colonize this
great country by the settling of Europeans, and thus introduce
Christianity and civilization among the Red Men. But the adventurers
that followed him sought gold as their only object, and employed the
sword as the only means of converting the natives.
The Spaniards who first landed on the continent, saw before them
a magnificent country, vast forests, mighty rivers, long ranges of
mountains—a dominion wide enough for the widest ambition of
conquest, or the richest enjoyment of life; but no treasure. Still their
avarice was kept in a perpetual fever by the Indian stories of gold in
profusion farther to the west, and their fancy was excited by tales of
a sea beyond, which they said stretched to the extremities of the
globe.
The first European who set his eye on the Pacific Ocean, was
Vasco Thenez De Balboa. His family was of the order of Spanish
gentry. He was a man of great enterprise, personal strength, and of a
daring courage. He had been disappointed in his expectations of
obtaining wealth at Hayti, where he had settled, and an expedition
sailing to Darien, he accompanied it. A colony was already
established on the eastern side of the isthmus of Darien; but the
savages in the vicinity had been found so warlike, that the settlers
did not venture to explore the interior.
Indian rumors of the golden country continued to inflame the
Spaniards. They heard of one king Dabaibe, who was said to be
living in a city filled with treasure, and who worshipped an idol of
solid gold. Balboa put himself at the head of his countrymen, and
marched to conquer the rich city. But they had first to conquer the
surrounding caciques, who would not permit the Spaniards to pass
through their territories. At length, Balboa formed an alliance with
Comogre, a mountain chieftain, who had three thousand warriors.
The son of Comogre brought a present to the Spanish troops of
sixty slaves and four thousand pieces of gold. In distributing the gold,
some difficulty occurred, as is usually the case where people are all
selfish; the quarrel grew furious, and swords were drawn. The young
Indian looked on, first with astonishment, then with scorn. Advancing
to the scales in which they were weighing the gold, he threw them on
the ground, exclaiming—“Is it for this trifle that you Spaniards
quarrel? If you care for gold, go seek it where it grows. I can show
you a land where you may gather it by handfuls.”
This speech brought all the Spaniards around him, and he
proceeded to detail his knowledge. “A cacique, very rich in gold,”
said he, “lives to the south, six suns off.” He pointed in that direction.
“There,” said he, “you will find the sea. But there you will find ships
as large as your own, with sails and oars. The men of these lands
are so rich, that their common eating and drinking vessels are of
gold.” This was to the Spaniards their first knowledge of Peru.
Balboa determined to search for this rich country. He collected a
hundred and ninety Spanish soldiers, a thousand friendly Indians,
and some bloodhounds, and began his march into the wilderness.
The Indian tribes were instantly roused. The Spaniards had scarcely
reached the foot of the Sierra, when they found the warriors, headed
by their caciques, drawn up in a little army.
The Indians, like the ancient Greeks, first defied the enemy, by
loud reproaches and expressions of scorn. They then commenced
the engagement. Torecha, their king, stood forth in the front of his
people, clothed in a regal mantle, and gave the word of attack. The
Indians rushed on with shouts; but the Spanish crossbows and
muskets were terrible weapons to their naked courage. The Indians
were met by a shower of arrows and balls, which threw them into
confusion. They were terrified, also, at the noise of the guns. They
thought the Spaniards fought with thunder and lightning. Still, the
Indians did not fly till their heroic king and six hundred of their
warriors were left dead on the spot. Over their bleeding bodies,
Balboa marched to the plunder of their city.
Balboa, with his army, now commenced the ascent of the
mountains. It took them twenty days. After toiling through forests,
and climbing mountains that seemed inaccessible, his Indian guide
pointed out to him, among the misty summits of the hills that lay
before him, the one from which the Pacific was visible. Balboa
determined to have the glory of looking upon it first. He commanded
his troops to halt at the foot of the hill. He ascended alone, with his
sword drawn, and having reached the summit, cast his eyes around.
The Pacific Ocean was spread out before him!
Balboa had invaded the Indian country in search of gold, and
murdered the natives to obtain it; but at that time such conduct was
not considered very wicked. The Indians were looked upon with
horror, because they were savages, and Balboa believed himself a
good Christian because he was a Catholic. He fell on his knees, and,
weeping, offered his thanksgiving to Heaven, for the bounty that had
suffered him to see this glorious sight. He doubtless thought God
was well pleased with him.
His troops had watched his ascent of the mountain, with the
eagerness of men who felt their fates bound up in his success. When
they saw his gestures of delight and wonder, followed by his falling
on his knees and prayer, they became incapable of all restraint. They
rushed up the hill like wild deer. But when they saw the matchless
prospect around them, they, too, shared the spirit of their leader;
they fell on their knees and offered up their thanksgiving to God. Yet
at the same time they doubtless contemplated plundering and
destroying the Indians. They had not learned to do to others as they
would have others do to them.
Lion Hunting.
Most people are more disposed to run away from lions than to
run after them, unless indeed they are safely locked up in cages. But
only think of going to hunt lions in the wilderness! Yet such things are
done in Africa, where lions are frequently met with.
In the southern part of that country is a tribe of negroes called the
Bechuana. The men of this tribe are accustomed to carry a long staff
with a bunch of ostrich feathers tied at one end, which is used to
shade themselves from the sun. It is in fact a kind of parasol, but
whether it is designed to save their complexion, I cannot say. It
seems, at any rate, that the ladies do not use it. But beside serving
as a parasol, this feathered staff has another and important use. As I
have said, these people sometimes go in pursuit of the lion, and
when a party of hunters meet one, they go near to him, and as he
springs on one of them, the hunter quickly plants the handle of the
staff in the ground and retreats. The fierce lion leaps upon the staff
and rends the ostrich feathers in pieces. While he is thus engaged,
the other hunters come suddenly upon him from behind, and
despatch him with their daggers.
“Isn’t your hat sleepy?” inquired a little urchin of a man with a

shocking bad one on. “No; why?” inquired the gentleman. “Why,
because it looks as if it was a long time since it had a nap.”
Merry’s Life and Adventures.
CHAPTER IX.
Completion of my education.—Manly sports.—An accident.—The
bed of pain.—Recovery from sickness.—A new companion.
In the last chapter I have given an account of a day in spring. I

might now proceed to relate the adventures and amusements of a
day in summer, then of autumn, and lastly of winter; and each of
these, it would appear, had its appropriate occupations and
diversions. But I am afraid that I shall weary my readers with long
stories. I shall therefore proceed with matters more immediately
affecting my fortunes, and tending to get to the end of a long journey.
I must go forward to the period when I was about sixteen years of
age, and when I had finally taken leave of the school. I had passed
through the branches taught there at the time; but these were few, as
I have already stated, and I was far from having thoroughly mastered
even them. I had, in fact, adopted a habit of skimming and slipping
along, really learning as little as possible. Not only was I indulged by
my uncle and his household, but there was a similar system of
tolerance extended toward my faults and follies, even by the
schoolmaster. It is true that sometimes he treated me harshly
enough; but it was generally in some fit of spleen. If he was gloomy
and tyrannical to the school, he was usually lenient to me. He even
excused my indolence, and winked at my neglect of study and duty.
It would seem that such general favor, should cultivate in the
heart of a youth only kind and generous feelings; but it was not so
with me. The more I was indulged, the more passionate and
headstrong I grew; and perhaps, in this, I was not unlike other young
people. It seems that there are wild passions in our very nature,
which are like weeds, ever tending to overgrow the whole soil. These
passions need to be eradicated by constant care and correction, just
as weeds must be pulled up by the roots and thrown away. Of what
use is it to plant a garden, if you do not hoe it and rake it, thus
keeping the weeds down, and allowing the proper plants to flourish?
And of what advantage is it to go to school, to be educated, if the
thorns and briers of vice and passion are not destroyed, and the
fruits and flowers of truth and virtue cultivated and cherished?
Being no more a school-boy, I now thought myself a man. Bill
Keeler had left my uncle, and was apprenticed to a shoemaker; but
in the evening I often contrived to meet him, and one or two other
companions. Our amusements were not such as would tell well in a
book. Too often we went to the bar-room of my uncle’s inn, and
listened to the vulgar jokes and coarse fun that were always stirring
there, and sometimes we treated each other with liquor. I cannot now
but wonder that such things should have given me any pleasure; but
habit and example have a mighty influence over us. Seeing that
others drank, we drank too, though at first the taste of all spirits was
odious to me. I got used to it by degrees, and at last began to like
the excitement they produced. And strange to say, the bar-room,
which originally disgusted me, became rather a favorite place of
resort. I was shocked at the oaths and indecency for a time; the
huge puddles of tobacco spittle over the floor, and the reeking flavors
of tobacco smoke and brandy, disgusted me; the ragged, red-nosed
loungers of the place, the noise, the riot, the brutality, which
frequently broke out, and which was called by the soakers, having a
“good time,” were actually revolting; but my aversion passed away
by degrees. Under the strong infection of the place, I partially
adopted its habits; I learned to smoke and chew tobacco, though
several fits of nervous sickness warned me of the violence I was
doing to my nature. I even ventured to swear occasionally; and, if the
truth must be told, I followed out, in various ways, the bad lessons
that I learnt.
It is painful to me to confess these things, but I do it for the
purpose of warning those for whose benefit I write, against similar
errors. Wherever young people go frequently, there they are learning
something; and as a bar-room is a place to which young men are
often tempted, I wish to advise them that it is a school, in which
profanity, coarseness, intemperance, and vice, are effectually taught.
It is a seminary where almost every thief, robber, counterfeiter, and
murderer, takes his first and last lesson. A man who loves a bar-
room where liquors are sold, has reason to tremble; a young man
who loves bar-room company, has already entered within the very
gate that leads down to ruin. That I have escaped such ruin myself,
is attributable to the kindness of Providence, rather than to any
resistance of evil which originated in my own breast. If Heaven had
deserted me, I had been lost forever.
It was one night after we had been drinking at the tavern, that my
companions and myself issued forth, bent on what was called a
spree. Our first exploit was to call up the doctor of the village, and
ask him to hasten to Miss Sally St. John, who has been noticed
before in these memoirs, insinuating that she was desperately ill.
Our next adventure was to catch the parson’s horse in the pasture,
and tie him to the whipping-post, which stood on the green before
the meeting-house. We then proceeded to a watermelon patch, and,
prowling about among the vines, selected the largest and finest, and
ripping them open, strewed the contents over the ground. We then
went to a garden belonging to a rich old farmer, who was celebrated
for producing very fine pears. The window of the proprietor looked
out into the garden, and as he had the reputation of exercising a
vigilant watch over his fruit, we felt the necessity of caution. But we
were too much elated by our liquor and success in sport, to be very
circumspect. We got over the tall picket fence, and two or three of us
ascended one of the trees. We had begun already to pluck the fruit,
when the window of the old farmer slid silently upward, and a
grizzled head was thrust out. It was soon withdrawn, but in a few
moments the barrel of a long gun was pushed forth, and a second
after it discharged its contents, with a sound which, at that silent
hour, seemed like the voice of thunder.
I was on the tree, with my back to the marksman, and presented a
fair target to his aim. At the very instant of the discharge, I felt a
tingling in my flesh; immediately after a dizziness came over my
sight, and I fell to the ground. I was completely stunned, but my
companions seized me and hurried me away. Clambering over stone
walls, and pushing through a nursery of young trees, they secured
their retreat. At a safe distance the party paused, and after a little
space I recovered my senses. I found myself in great pain, however,
and after a little examination it appeared that my left arm was
broken. As carefully as possible I was now taken toward my home. It
was about midnight when we reached it, and my uncle, being
informed that I was hurt, attempted to come to me. But he had been
in bed but a short time, and according to his wont, about this period,
he had taken a “night-cap,” as he called it, and was utterly incapable
of walking across the floor. Some of the people, however, were got
up, and one went for the physician. The answer returned was, that
some madcaps had been there and played off a hoax upon the
doctor, and this application was no doubt intended as another, and
he would not come. I therefore lay till morning in great distress, and
when at last the doctor came, he found that not only my arm was
broken, but that my back was wounded, as if I had been shot with
bullets of salt! Several small pieces of salt were actually found
imbedded in my skin!
I was hardly in a state to give explanations; in fact, my reason
already began to waver. Strange visions soon flitted before my eyes:
an old grizzled pate seemed bobbing out of a window, and making
faces at me; then the head seemed a watermelon with green eyes;
and then it turned into a bell-muzzled fowling-piece, and while I was
trying to look down its throat, it exploded and scattered my brains to
the four winds! Here my vision ended, and with it all remembrance. I
fell into a settled fever, and did not recover my senses for two weeks.
When my consciousness returned, I found myself attended by a man
of the village, named Raymond, a brother of the minister, and whom
I had long known. He was sitting by my bedside, with a book in his
hand; but as I opened my eyes, I noticed that, while he seemed to be
reading, his eyes were fixed on me with an anxious interest. In a
moment after he spoke. “Are you better, Robert?” said he, in a tone
of tenderness. I attempted to reply, but my tongue refused to move.
Raymond saw my difficulty, and coming to the bedside, told me to
remain quiet. “You have been ill,” said he, “very ill, but you are better.
Your life depends upon your being kept perfectly quiet.”
Thus admonished, I closed my eyes, and soon fell asleep. The
next day I was much better, and entered into some conversation with
Raymond, who I then found had been my regular attendant. The
physician soon after came, and pronounced me out of danger. “You
are better, my young friend,” said he; “I think you are safe; but this
getting salted down like a herring, and tumbling off of pear trees at
midnight, is an awkward business, and cannot be often repeated
with impunity.” This latter remark being uttered with a significant
smile, recalled to my mind the occasion of my sickness, and a
sudden blush of shame covered my face. Raymond noticed my
confusion, and by some remark immediately diverted my attention to
another topic.
In a few days I was able to sit up in my bed, and was nearly free
from pain. My arm, however, was still useless, and I was in fact very
feeble. I could talk with Raymond, however, and as his conversation
was always engaging, the time did not pass heavily. Raymond was a
man of extensive reading, and great knowledge of the world, but,
owing to excessive sensitiveness, he had settled into a state of
almost complete imbecility. He thought and spoke like a philosopher,
yet in the active business of life, in which he had been once
engaged, he had entirely failed. He was indeed regarded in the
village as little better than insane or silly. He had no regular
employment, and spent his time almost wholly in reading—his
brother, the minister, having a good library. As he was very kind-
hearted, however, and possessed a good deal of medical
knowledge, he was often employed in attending upon sick persons,
and for his services he would never receive any other compensation
than his own gratification, in the consciousness of doing good, might
afford.
It was a mercy to me that I fell into the hands of poor Raymond,
for my mind and heart were softened by my sickness, and by the
humiliation I felt at having been detected in a disgraceful act, and so
signally punished. His counsel, therefore, which was full of wisdom,
and which he imparted in a way, at once to instruct and amuse, sunk
into my mind like the seed sown in spring time, and upon a prepared
soil; and I have reason to believe that I may attribute not only the
recovery of my body from disease, but the correction of some of the
vices of my mind, to his conversations at my sick bedside. I believe I
cannot do my readers a better service than to transcribe some of
these conversations, as nearly as my memory will restore them, and
this I shall do in a subsequent chapter.
Toucan
Is the name of the bird whose picture is here given. I beg my

reader not to laugh at his enormous bill, for it is such as nature has
given him, and he is no more to blame for it than a person with a
long nose, is to blame for having such a one. Bonaparte said that a
man with a long nose almost invariably possessed good sense; and
this holds true in respect to the toucan; for I assure you he is a very
clever fellow in his way. I will tell you all about him and his family.
The toucans are natives of South America, and are very abundant
in the forests of Brazil. They only dwell in the warm parts of the
country, and they select those portions which are the richest in their
productions. It is among spicy groves, and where fruits and flowers
are to be found at all seasons of the year, that the toucan family
have chosen to make their home. Surely this seems a mark of their
sagacity.
The toucan is about eighteen inches in length, and its general
color is black, though it is marked with crimson and yellow, and is a
very stylish bird. The bill is almost as long as the body, but it is less
bony than the bills of other birds; it is, in fact, a great part of it but a
thin paper-like substance. Those portions which need to be strong
are not solid bone, but consist of two thin laminæ, sustained by
bones within, and crossing each other like the timbers which support
the sides and roof of a house.
I have intimated that the toucans are pretty sensible birds, and I
shall now attempt to prove it. As their legs are very short and far
apart, they cannot walk very well on the ground, so they spend a
great portion of their time upon the wing, or upon the trees. They
have strong, sharp claws, well fitted for climbing; so they are very
much addicted to hopping about among the branches of trees, and
they may be often seen, like woodpeckers, running up and down the
trunks. It is for this climbing propensity that they have got the name
of Zygodactilic birds,—a long word, which no doubt signifies a great
deal.
Another proof of the good sense of the toucan is furnished by his
always sitting and flying with his head to the wind when it blows hard
—for the reason, that, if he presented the broadside of his proboscis
to the gale, it would bother him to keep himself from being
completely blown away. Beside this proof of his sagacity, I may add,
that the toucan holds the monkeys, who are very abundant and
troublesome in his country, in great detestation; and well he may, for
the monkey is fond of birds’ eggs, and is a great robber of birds’
nests. Now the toucan likes eggs himself, and the plundering
monkey often deprives the toucan of his breakfast, by getting at the
nest first. It is not wonderful that squabbles often ensue between
these rival thieves—for two of a trade can never agree, you know. Of
course, the robbers care as little for the poor bird that is robbed, as
lawyers for their clients—but they think a great deal of themselves,
and when interest is touched, they resent it manfully. There is
something in a monkey and a toucan over a bird’s nest that seems
like two lawyers over a case. Their mutual object is to eat up the
eggs, but it makes a mighty difference which gets them. If the
monkey gets the case, toucan gives him a tweak with his enormous
bill, which gripes like a pair of tongs. If toucan gets the case, monkey
slaps him across his beak with the palm of his hand, and often with
such force as to make toucan scream outright. It must be admitted
that if toucan has a large bill to bite with, he also presents an ample
mark for the revenge of monkey. Whether these squabbles show the
good sense of toucan, I will not decide, but he can plead the
example of one of the learned professions, that of the law, which
ranks among the first in society, and exerts more influence over
mankind than all others put together.
Another evidence of toucan’s good sense is this,—that he eats
everything he likes, if it suits his constitution. There is a delicious
little fruit in his native clime, called toucan-berry, which is good for his
health, so he feasts upon it when he can get it. He also eats eggs, as
I have said; and, in short, he diversifies, and amplifies his pleasures,
like civilized men, by fruit, flesh, fowl, or vegetable, if it agrees with
him.
I do not know that I need to say more at present, than that toucan
does not choose to take the trouble of making nests of stems and
twigs, like some other birds, but selects his dwelling in the holes of
trees, so that he may have a roof to shelter him from the storm—a
preference which again marks his civilization.
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG.
The Newfoundland Dog.
Of all animals, the dog is most attached to man. His affection is

not general, but particular. He does not love all mankind, as a matter
of course, for in his natural state he is a wild and savage creature. In
Asia, dogs are often outcasts, prowling around cities, and feeding
upon offal and dead carcasses. They seem to be, if uncivilized,
cousins to the wolf, and near relatives to the hyena. It is in Asia,
where the dog is a persecuted, and therefore a skulking kind of
animal, that he is the emblem of meanness and cowardice. There,
where the people worship power and seem to think little of justice,
the lion, a sly, prowling, thieving creature, is the common emblem of
courage and greatness.
But here, where the dog is cherished and taken to a home, he
seems to have a new character and a redeemed nature. He fixes his
heart upon some one, and is ready to run, jump, bark, bite, dig, work
or play, to give pleasure to him. He seems to live for his master—his
master is his deity. He will obey and defend him while living—he will
lie down and die by his master’s grave. It is related of Bonaparte,
that one night, after a fight, he was walking by the moonlight over the
field of battle, when suddenly a dog sprung out from the cloak
beneath which his dead master lay, and then ran howling back to the
body, seeming at the same time to ask help for his poor friend, and
to seek revenge. Bonaparte was much affected by the scene, and
said that few events of his life excited a deeper feeling in his breast
than this.
There are at least thirty different kinds of dogs,—some large,
some small, some fierce, some gentle, some slender and graceful,
some sturdily made and very powerful. There is the lap-dog, with a
soft, lustrous eye and silken skin, fit to be the pet of a fine lady—and
there is the fierce bull-dog, that will seize a bull by the nose and pin
him to the ground. There is the greyhound, that is so swift as to
outstrip the deer, and the patient foxhound, that follows reynard with
a keen scent, till at last his fleetness and his tricks can avail him
nothing, and he surrenders to his fate.
But amid all this variety, the Newfoundland dog is the best fellow.
He is, in the first place, the most intelligent, and in the next, he is the
most devoted, attached, and faithful. When the people came from
Europe to America, they found this fine breed of dogs with the
Indians of Newfoundland and the vicinity. They are large, shaggy,
webfooted, and almost as fond of the water as the land. They
possess great strength, and have a countenance that seems to
beam with reason and affection. I give you the portrait of one of
these creatures, to prove what I say. There are many pleasant tales
of this creature, well authenticated, of which I shall now tell you a
few.
One day, as a girl was amusing herself with an infant, at Aston’s
Quay, near Carlisle bridge, Dublin, and was sportively toying with the
child, it made a sudden spring from her arms, and in an instant fell
into the Liffey. The screaming nurse and anxious spectators saw the
water close over the child, and conceived that he had sunk to rise no
more. A Newfoundland dog, which had been accidentally passing
with his master, sprang forward to the wall, and gazed wistfully at the
ripple in the water, made by the child’s descent. At the same instant
the child reappeared on the surface of the current, and the dog
sprang forward to the edge of the water.
Whilst the animal was descending, the child again sunk, and the
faithful creature was seen anxiously swimming round and round the
spot where it had disappeared. Once more the child rose to the
surface; the dog seized him, and with a firm but gentle pressure bore
him to land without injury. Meanwhile a gentleman arrived, who, on
inquiry into the circumstances of the transaction, exhibited strong
marks of sensibility and feeling towards the child, and of admiration
for the dog that had rescued him from death.
The person who had removed the babe from the dog turned to
show the infant to this gentleman, when it presented to his view the
well-known features of his own son! A mixed sensation of terror, joy,

Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction Agnieszka Stasiewicz Bienkowska Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction Agnieszka Stasiewicz Bienkowska Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction

Editorial Advisory Board

More information about this series at

ISSN 2634-6214 ISSN 2634-6222 (electronic)

Cover credit: Vizerskaya/Getty Images

I am extremely fortunate to be surrounded by many people and insti-

Popular Culture (2014) and Vampiric Transformations (2018) would not

1 Vampire Fiction, Girls and Shame: Introduction 1

3.5 Conclusion 111

Vampire Fiction, Girls and Shame:

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

power to encourage unsuspecting adolescent girls to delve “deeper and

on the allure of teen vampire books, concludes: “Most of what I read

A horrifying revenant skulking through the folktales across the

object of fascination to millions of fans worldwide, and a terrain of

cultural productions addressed primarily to children and pre-adolescents

of femininity and power in YA horror focuses on the figure of the super-

The scholarship on Buffy and Twilight encompasses a myriad of diverse approaches

the intention of “turning patriarchy and misogyny upside down” (Cast

vampires in the series analysed.23 Following the introductory Chapter 1,

Kokkola, Lydia. 2013. Fictions of Adolescent Carnality: Sexy Sinners and

Stephanou, Aspasia. 2014. Reading Vampire Gothic Through Blood: Bloodlines.

Writing (on) Girls’ Bodies: Vampires

In Phantasmagoria, Marina Warner demarcates the late eighteenth

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 23

bodies in the Western popular imagination as objects of scrutiny and

2.1 The Markings of the Vampiric Body

can perform a myriad of functions beyond its aesthetic qualities. Drawing

The tattoos in these series display diverse origins, aesthetic qualities

The golden lily’s power can, however, be neutralised through another

covering their tattoos a dishonour and view them as a sign of “being

2.2 Such Hot Fangs! Vampirism and Beauty

An Unattractive vampire? You may cry “Inconceivable” to that idea, my

century? With their perfect cheekbones and irresistible sex-appeal, their

economics of the “fetishization of youth” (Latham 2002, 5). A momen-

23 It is interesting to note that in her description of her grandmother’s body, Bella

“Isn’t your hat sleepy?” inquired a little urchin of a man with a

In the last chapter I have given an account of a day in spring. I

Is the name of the bird whose picture is here given. I beg my

Of all animals, the dog is most attached to man. His affection is

You might also like