Episode 47: Vampires
Summary: Welcome to (ripped out) Hearts and (wooden) Daggers, where today we discuss our fanged frenemies - vampires! Whether you enjoy Edward Cullen at the height of sparky, pop-culture vibes or Bram Stoker’s original work, it’s hard to top vampires when you think of the best monsters of spooky season. Holly and Devin both appreciate the way vampires are simultaneously sexy and alluring and also genuinely terrifying, and the books they bring today perfectly encapsulate that versatility.
Topics Discussed:
The Heart (3:01): Devin discussed My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine, a novel following Cassie Greenberg as she works to survive and thrive as an artist in Chicago. With a crazy limited budget and a “too good to be true” craigslist ad looking for a roommate, she meets Frederick J. Fitzwilliam - a vampire looking to blend into modernity. Devin’s key takeaways were:
Frederick as a vampire walks the line between a unique twist to fit into 2023 while holding to a lot of traditional vampiric traits - he cannot enter a building without being invited but he can go out into the sun.
This spooky story has many of Devin’s favorite romance tropes that any romance reader will enjoy sinking their teeth into (get it? *winks awkwardly*): arranged marriage, roommates/forced proximity, forbidden love, and “looks like they could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll” to name a few.
While the focal point remains Cassie and Frederick throughout, the cast of supporting characters and the multimedia narrative approach (featuring text threads, emails, diary entries etc.) add colorful dimensions that really make this romance come to life.
The Dagger (24:35): Holly discussed Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, a historical horror romance novel set in 1840s Medico. We follow 13 year-old Nena as she and her vaquero friend Nestor decide to find buried silver in a place where little lights gleam up from the ground - legend says it was left by a Spanish explorer and could hold the key to Nena’s freedom from arranged marriage. Nothing goes according to plan, though, and the disastrous night they go to search leaves too much unresolved. Holly’s key takeaways were:
The vampires in this book are represented as actual monstrous creatures: gray skin, no eyes, mouths full of sharp teeth. Cañas also leaves the reader to contemplate on the vampiric nature of the colonialist Anglos who haunt the communities and suck them dry of everything the locals have built and grown.
There is a surprising amount of romance in this book! A great middle ground for Hearts & Daggers listeners alike. Nena’s fight to choose her own life and get out from under her volatile father’s thumb is accentuated by a high-stakes romance that builds tensions throughout.
The gothic, Mexican west atmosphere of the novel fits perfectly for the plot and the monsters you’ll encounter; Cañas infuses a lot of descriptions of the chaparral (scrublands that exist between ranchos and towns) with the storytelling and lore sharing by Nena’s abuela and the rancho’s curandera (healer).
Hot On the Shelf (43:56):
What’s Making Our Hearts Race (49:35):
Devin: The season of Autumn
Holly: A Haunting in Venice
If you like what you hear, please tell your friends and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify so that we can find our perfect audience.
