Twelve-year-old Eddie, short, pudgy, hard-of-sight, his nose buried in a book, has no idea how he wound up in the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage as an infant or why he can’t be adopted. He gets the shock of his life one evening when the bat in the orphanage basement transforms into a vampire and introduces himself as Count Bloodless. The starving Count is also an orphan, rejected by his vampire family because he is vegetarian. An unexpected friendship blossoms as Eddie helps the Count find the food he desperately needs to survive, and the vampire helps Eddie unlock the secret of his past. Written in the rollicking spirit of Roald Dahl and set in World War II-era Boston, Eddie and the Vegetarian Vampire features a protagonist who will discover that family and belonging are sometimes found in the most unexpected of places.

This Pivot traces the rise of the so-called “vegetarian” vampire in popular culture and contemporary vampire fiction, while also exploring how the shift in the diet of (some) vampires, from human to animal or synthetic blood, responds to a growing ecological awareness that is rapidly reshaping our understanding of relations with others species. The book introduces the trope of the vegetarian vampire, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion: the Anthropocene, food studies, and the modern practice, politics and ideologies of vegetarianism. Drawing on references to recent historical contexts and developments in the genre more broadly, the book investigates the vegetarian vampire’s relationship to other more violent and monstrous forms of the vampire in popular twenty-first century horror cinema and television. Texts discussed include Interview with the Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. Reading the Vegetarian Vampire examines a new aspect of contemporary interest in considering vampire fiction.

This book provides an engaging historical survey of the vampire in American popular culture over 100 years, ranging from Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula to HBO's television series True Blood. Vampires in the New World surveys vampire films and literature from both national and historical perspectives since the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula, providing an overview of the changing figure of the vampire in America. It focuses on such essential popular culture topics as pulp fiction, classic horror films, film noir, science fiction, horror fiction, blaxploitation, and the recent Twilight and True Blood series in order to demonstrate how cultural, scientific, and ideological trends are reflected and refracted through the figure of the vampire. The book will fascinate anyone with an interest in vampires as they are found in literature, film, television, and popular culture, as well as readers who appreciate horror and supernatural fiction, crime fiction, science fiction, and the gothic. It will also appeal to those who are interested in the interplay between society and film, television, and popular culture, and to readers who want to understand why the figure of the vampire has remained compelling to us across different eras and generations.

This inescapably controversial study envisions, defines, and theorizes an area that Laura Wright calls vegan studies. We have an abundance of texts on vegans and veganism including works of advocacy, literary and popular fiction, film and television, and cookbooks, yet until now, there has been no study that examines the social and cultural discourses shaping our perceptions of veganism as an identity category and social practice. Ranging widely across contemporary American society and culture, Wright unpacks the loaded category of vegan identity. She examines the mainstream discourse surrounding and connecting animal rights to (or omitting animal rights from) veganism. Her specific focus is on the construction and depiction of the vegan body--both male and female--as a contested site manifest in contemporary works of literature, popular cultural representations, advertising, and new media. At the same time, Wright looks at critical animal studies, human-animal studies, posthumanism, and ecofeminism as theoretical frameworks that inform vegan studies (even as they differ from it). The vegan body, says Wright, threatens the status quo in terms of what we eat, wear, and purchase--and also in how vegans choose not to participate in many aspects of the mechanisms undergirding mainstream culture. These threats are acutely felt in light of post-9/11 anxieties over American strength and virility. A discourse has emerged that seeks, among other things, to bully veganism out of existence as it is poised to alter the dominant cultural mindset or, conversely, to constitute the vegan body as an idealized paragon of health, beauty, and strength. What better serves veganism is exemplified by Wright's study: openness, debate, inquiry, and analysis.

A new early chapter book series starring a lovable vampire who’s just trying to fit in. Frankie D and his family have just moved from Transylvania, looking for a fresh start. Where Frankie is from, the school day began at midnight and ended at dawn. Now Frankie and his family must adjust their sleep schedule, train to be out in the sun, and strictly adhere to a zero-blood diet. Not only that, Frankie is the new kid at school and has to keep his vampire identity secret from other humans. A tall order for a deathly pale, fanged fourth-grader with a three-legged wolf as a pet! Will Frankie “beet” the odds and make friends in his new, plant-based life?

Reading the minds of the undead is hard enough for Shelly Anderson, a librarian in the magical land of Zephyr, but she has lots of friends who help her out. Especially, her best friend, the very sexy vegetarian vampire, Eddie Van Helsing. But when the vampire decides to help an old friend nab a mob boss, known as the Chairman, he unwillingly gets Shelly involved. Can they avoid the mobster's henchmen without getting the police too involved? As if this isn't enough for Shelly, she finds herself falling in love with Eddie, but the vampire can block her mind reading attempts, and what are Eddie's true feelings toward Shelly?