The Vampire Tapestry, Suzy McKee Charnas (1980)

The Vampire Tapestry is an interesting and unconventional vampire story. It unfolds over three acts, and only in the last do we actually hear from the vampire himself.

In the first third of the book, things are told through an old woman’s eyes. Katje de Groot is the widow of a staff member at the same college that Dr. Edward Leyland works at. For the most part, the vampire (Leyland) at this part of the novel is nothing more than a tick and the main reason why why obviously don’t see things from his point of view is because there wouldn’t be a whole lot to talk about. Leyland is basically a cold reptile, so self-assured that nothing can touch him that Katje gets entirely inside his guard. She’s not just any old woman – she and her husband are from “the dark continent,” and she knows how to handle a gun. Her shooting of Leyland actually springboards us into the second act, and shows us how Leyland survives from one generation to the next.

Unlike most conventional vampires, who are typically created with a bite and some blood, Leyland claims that he was biologically grown alongside humans and is therefore their natural predator. The way that he even ingests blood is unique – rather than biting his victim with two razor-sharp teeth, there is a needle that grows out from under his tongue and creates a gentle hole in the neck for him to suckle from. When not being used, it neatly tucks back under his tongue where it remains unnoticed and, quite frankly, makes far more sense in terms of evolution rather than two large, overbearing and pretty much useless fangs that would probably end up losing more blood than anything.

The second act of the book is broken up between two people – the first is a young boy, the brother of the man who takes Leyland hostage, and the other is a psychologist that Leyland tries to use to reestablish himself as a credible professor. The more interesting of the two is the psychologist, simply because we get a nice, good look into Leyland’s head in terms of how he views his food. The thing about The Vampire Tapestry is that rather than starting out with a sympathetic vampire who is conflicted about who he bits, we see how the monster operates without a conscience. Slowly, though, he grows one as he interacts more and more with his “food,” eventually forcing himself into the role of the romantic blood sucker that we’re all so familiar with.

Overall the deconstruction of the villain into something of an anti-hero is the fun part about this book, even though it can take a little while to get there. In the end, The Vampire Tapestry is really a must read on any horrorophile’s list.