Vampire Taxonomy: Identifying and Interacting with the Modern-Day Bloodsucker [Mass Market Paperback]

Meredith Woerner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2009

Now that millions have read and seen Twilight, where do they turn for vampire advice? This wry, witty, fully illustrated, and bloody essential guide.

Vampires are all around-books, movies, TV, comics- infiltrating our culture like never before. But what happens if one should run into a real vamp on the street? Vampire Taxonomy is the best defense against a fatal encounter in the dark. For the reader's protection, Meredith Woerner reveals the truth about:

?Sunlight sensitivity-Do vamps venture out in the day or stick solely to the evening hours?

?Physiology-When ready to feed, do they change appearance or simply lure with the seductive flash of a fang?

?Dress-Are they decked out in leather with aspirations of becoming the first vampire rock stars or do they cling to Gothic robes and ruffled collars?

?Diet-Are they waging a never-ending struggle against the temptation of human blood or do they view the world as their personal blood buffet?

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Meredith Woerner started her search for vampires while pulling night shifts as a "copy kid" at the New York Post. Combining her supernatural know-how with a pulp pop awareness, she now writes daily about all the things that go bump in the night at Gawker's sci-fi blog, io9.com.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; Original edition (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399535799
• ISBN-13: 978-0399535796
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,445,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars funny read, November 15, 2011

By 

K. Ting - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vampire Taxonomy: Identifying and Interacting with the Modern-Day Bloodsucker (Mass Market Paperback)

Nice fun read for vampire fans. I've always enjoyed Meredith Woerner's articles on Io9.com. So if you are fimilar with her and enjoy a vampires this encyclopedia of all things hominus nocturna is for you!

3.0 out of 5 stars Pop Culture, Humor, or Dating Advice?, December 28, 2010

By 

TammyJo Eckhart "TammyJo Eckhart" (Bloomington, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vampire Taxonomy: Identifying and Interacting with the Modern-Day Bloodsucker (Paperback)

Is this a book about popular cultural portrayals of vampires? Is this one of those half funny books that tells you how to survive some sort of supernatural or scientific nightmares? Is is a book of dating advice? This book by Meredith Woerner acts like all three and thus it sadly fails to fully give us what we expect from such books.

For a documentation or discussion of popular culture we require much better citations including a list of the books, TV shows, and movies she mentions. In fact, one of the things readers want from a pop culture book are such lists so they can go out and try to find those stories or images they found intriguing. This book is full of such tidbits but the lack of necessary lists and better citations was disappointing.

For a humorous book we want laughs. These need not be rolling on the floor moments, and indeed any horror subject which vampires should fit into, requires dark humor. The sort that makes us shake our heads and shudder while we chuckle softly. The sort that makes us a touch concerned about our own sanity as we take pleasure in such a creepy subject. The humor here wasn't that and it certainly was not rolling on the floor laughs either. It boarded on the uncomfortable humor we feel when people are stupid enough to believe that vampire wants to do anything other than drink from them.

As a how-to survival guide the advice is repeatedly leave or call in the experts. That's just tiresome after the third time. With some drawings of various types of vampires and descriptions of their abilities there is some promise here but it needed follow-through to be a survival guide.

Finally as dating advice goes this just was attempting to be too many different types of books at once to really be believable when the romantic suggestions came out. "Twillight" fans do really want to know how to find their own vamp and some ladies and gents are drawn to Dracula still. They deserve more advice than the repeated watch for these signs because it's all doomed.

For such a small book (190 pages) this attempted to do too many things at once. A dating the undead guide, a survival guide, poking fun at vampire ideas, or even a discussion of popular culture could have been well-done in such space but not all of those things.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have, June 9, 2010

By 

Joseph Tripician "joetrip" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vampire Taxonomy: Identifying and Interacting with the Modern-Day Bloodsucker (Mass Market Paperback)

Hilarious, informative and provocative -- all at the same time. A must-have for vampires, vampire-watchers and wannabee vampires.