Love in Vein: Twenty Original Tales of Vampiric Erotica [Paperback]

Poppy Z. Brite (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

A collection of nineteen fantasy tales combines vampire lore with erotic seduction, in a dark celebration in which the main characters are overcome by their needs for fulfillment. By the author of Lost Souls.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Like scotch or very dry martinis, these 20 servings of "vampiric erotica" may be for many a resistible acquired taste. Those who do wind up enjoying this controversial new literature that goes "deeper than horror, beyond fear, to explore our darkest, most intimate hungers" may, however, find this anthology intoxicating. In it, the beast is beautiful, a situation probed by Charles de Lint, Gene Wolfe, and less-known others. Celebrating "unspeakable intimacies," the stories explore the subversive appeal of vampirism in all its manifestations as readers meet a color-blind veterinarian mysteriously--and, without regular refills, only temporarily--restored to a world of color by a strange elixir from a prostitute's third nipple; a vampire whose dying, mortal wife has nourished him for years by allowing him to hurt her, then draw her sensations of fear and pain from her for his own sustenance; and a pair of lesbians who literally copulate the father of one to death. Not as mainstream as Ann Rice, this anthology might be most comfortable in extensive and specialized horror collections. Whitney Scott

About the Author

Poppy Z. Brite is the author of seven novels, three collections of short stories, and much miscellanea. Known for her horror fiction, at present she is working on a series of novels and short stories set in the New Orleans restaurant world. Her novel Liquor was recently published to general critical acclaim, and her followup novel, Prime, will be released in 2005. She lives in New Orleans with her husband Chris, a chef.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 405 pages
• Publisher: HarperPrism (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061053120
• ISBN-13: 978-0061053122
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author of eight novels, three short story collections, two nonfiction books, and some miscellanea. My earlier books -- LOST SOULS, DRAWING BLOOD, WORMWOOD, EXQUISITE CORPSE, THE LAZARUS HEART, ARE YOU LOATHSOME TONIGHT? (a.k.a. SELF-MADE MAN) -- tend toward the twisted, horrific, and frequently erotic. I still have a definite interest in this sort of thing, but my writing doesn't reflect it as much these days. My recent books -- THE VALUE OF X, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, LIQUOR, PRIME, and the forthcoming SOUL KITCHEN -- all have to do (in varying degrees) with a couple of young New Orleans chefs named Rickey and G-man, their families, and their restaurant, Liquor. I've been married to a chef for 16 years now and he's still bringing me new stories. We lost our home in Hurricane Katrina, but we are back in New Orleans and doing our best to help rebuild the city. I'll note new books, anthology appearances and such here, but to read my day-to-day blog, please visit http://docbrite.livejournal.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-So, April 27, 2002

By 

Mariah Richards "Mariah" (Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love in Vein (Mass Market Paperback)

This isn't a great book. Some stories are really good, some are really bad. I decided to just go through and summarize since nobody
else did.

1) Do Not Hasten To Bid Me Adieu, by Norman Partridge:
This story continues the love story between Quincey and Lucy from Dracula. Lucy is dead though, you say? Well, that's okay. She
lives on blood and Quincey is full of it...

2) Geraldine, by Ian McDowell:
This is a pretty good story about a lesbian vampire and the bi-sexual woman that falls in love with her, Chris. Chris was molested
by her father and still has issues about and because of it. Geraldine has the power to take all of those painful memories away.

3) In The Green House, by Kate Koja and Barry Malzberg:
Like I said, there are some bad stories in here too. This is one of them. I skimmed through it and couldn't make sense of it, so I
didn't try to read the entire thing.

4) Cafe Endless: Spring Rain, by Nancy Holder:
This story is pretty good. It's about a sado-masochistic Japanese vampire. Not the best story in here though.

5) Empty Vessels, by David Silva:
This one's about a vampire who feeds on human emotions. He attacks a prostitute and drains her. Years later her son tracks him
down.

6) The Final Fete Of Abba Adi, by Jessica Amanda Salmonson:
I never could get past the descriptions of the triplets, but I did read one of the pages in the middle and would like to say that I don't
see how a dismembered corpse relates to vampires.

7) Cherry, by Christa Faust:
This is my second favorite story in this collection. Alex is a bi-sexual teenager who ran away from home and dresses as a girl to
work as a prostitute. He dreams about a vampire falling in love with him. One night as he is turning tricks a Mercedes with a
"vampire" pulls up and tells him to get in. Alex learns a lot that night....

8) White Chapel, by Douglas Clegg:
This one is weird. Not badly written, but weird. It was like the author was trying to pack too many things into such a tiny space.
He should have stuck to novels.

9) Delicious Antique Whore, by William Pugmire:
This story is the shortest in the collection. It is only about a page and one quarter page long. However it is very good. Found the
perfect mixture of terror of erotica. If only some other authors would take notes....

10) Triptych Di Amore, by Thomas Monteleone:
This is another one that was so bad and boring and long that I couldn't read it.

11) Queen Of The Night, by Gene Wolfe
This one might appeal to some people. I personally thought it was stupid. Something about a little boy living with ghosts or vampires
in a cemetery.

12) The Marriage, by Steve and Melanie Tem:
A vampire feeds off of his mortal wife's emotions. Now he has to find a new source becasue she is dying. I really don't like this
one.

13) In This Soul Of A Woman, by Charles de Lint:
This story was very good. It's about and exotice dancer who has no money and is about to lose her daughter becasue her
ex-husband's father saw her in the strip club where she worked. One night on the street she meets a vampire who wants to die and
leave her with all of the wealth the vampire accumulated. So the woman goes home with her, and they wait for dawn together.

14) The Alchemy Of The Throat, by Brian Hodge:
This is a mediocre story about a homosexual castratti singer. Hodge should have left the castrattis to Anne Rice. She knows what
to do with them.

15) Love Me Forever, by Mike Baker:
This vampire feeds on love. She always has violet eyes, but other than that she is able to change her shape. She preys on a trio of
friends, Chet, Mark and Peter. One kills himself, one wastes away and the other kills her.

16) ---And The Horses Hiss At Midnight, by A.R. Morlan:
The narrator and the tattooed girl from a carnival decide to go off and have sex after the carnival winds down for the night. The
narrator got more than he bargained for on the ride.

17) Elixir, by Elizabeth Engstrom:
A prostitute with a third nipple holds the secret to curing a veterinarian's color blindness.

18) The Gift Of Neptune, by Danielle Willis
This a very short story about a freakshow that has a vampire and a mermaid in it. They are both abused by the freak show owner
and eventually escape.

19) From Hunger, by Wayne Allen Sallee:
This was my favorite story. It's about two vampires, "one who knew too much about the world, and one who knew too little." The
one who knows too much is a sado-masochistic ex-cop and the one who knew too little is a "hatcheck girl who occasionally lets
men follow her home." This story is sad at the end and I thought is was a little bit romantic too.

20) A Slow Red Whisper of Sand, by Robert Devereaux:
This is a terrible story. It had too many characters and the two story lines never fit together. Plus Esme, the only character I
came to feel for, was killed by a vampire who played sex games with women names after rabbits. The women were named
Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, by the way.

Over all it is worth the seven bucks if you can find it at your local bookstore.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Erotic, but sorta disturbing, July 13, 2004

By 

Adrianna "BlackEyedGirl" (Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love in Vein (Mass Market Paperback)

Okay Now I have to say, I bought this book under the premise that this would be al sorts of sordid sexy erotic vampire stories. Instead I got a really nice anthology of all things vampires. Some sexy, others not so much. It covers your range of vampires from emotional feeding vamps, to blood suckers, to fetus eaters, to face eaters. See I don't technically count all of the characters within to be traditional vampires, but they do live off of the lives of others so I guess it works. Some of the stories are excellent, others are an authors attempt at cramming too much information into too few pages. I expected more of stories chosen by Poppy. Overall I was disappointed in this book. The stories are okay, but nothing really stuck with me except Nancy Holder's vision of Japan it's worth the price of the book. I'm getting around to the second edition and I'm hoping it's a bit more satisfying.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars love in vein: not read in vain, October 15, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Love in Vein (Mass Market Paperback)

Poppy Z. Brite, one of the best new authors of dark fiction, has taken the time to gather some wonderful tales of vampiry together and bind them into a satisfying book. This baby has not collected dust on my shelf--nor will it on yours. Believe me, you'll want all of your friends to read it. Perhaps the best tale of the lot is Brian Hodge's "alchemy of the throat", a beautifully crafted story of a castrati's venture into a paridoxical world of terror and unmitigated joy. He is bought by an old man with a shady history and becomes his lover only to discover that (what else?) the guy's a vampire. Don't let this alarm you though--most of these stories aren't at all cheesy. There were only about two that i found truly tedious and pointless; the rest are gems. The cool part of the book is not the actual bloodsucking, but the variety of ways in which authors have chosen to express the concept of a vampire. It's not always Dracula or Lestat. Sometimes, it's someone or something who takes one's power away, one's life force. And that is something that we can all identify with. Read Brite's own works for further enjoyment--you won't be sorry.