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The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
In the shadowy underbelly of 1970s New York, a cynical vampire navigates nightclubs, turf wars, and the messy politics of immortality. Wry, gritty, and unexpectedly tender, The Lesser Dead sinks its teeth into what it means to find a family in the dark.
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In The Lesser Dead, did you enjoy ...
... a confessional, possibly untrustworthy immortal narrating his own monstrosity?
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
If Joey Peacock’s slick, streetwise voice pulled you in, you’ll love the way Louis sits for a tape-recorded confession in Interview with the Vampire, reshaping events to suit his conscience. Like Joey reflecting on Margaret’s rules and the redheaded kids’ menace, Louis reframes his life with Lestat and Claudia to make sense of predation and guilt—only you’ll keep questioning whether what he tells the eager interviewer is the whole truth.
... a sardonic, foul-mouthed monster using gallows humor to survive?
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
Miss Joey’s razor-edged one-liners and you miss him already? Jake in The Last Werewolf is equally profane and self-aware, skewering his own appetites with jet-black wit. As Joey wisecracks his way through disco-era hunts and bloody subway business, Jake drinks, ponders, and butchers with the same gleefully bleak humor—turning horror into an intimate, barbed confession.
... feral child predators and the bleak, visceral cost of predation?
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Creeped out (and fascinated) by those redheaded vampire children haunting Joey’s tunnels? Let the Right One In gives you Eli, a child who isn’t what she seems, and a trail of raw, merciless hunger. Like the subway lairs, the snowy Swedish courtyards hide unsparing violence, and the bond at the story’s heart is as chilling—and tender—as anything Joey witnesses in 1978 New York.
... predatory clans stalking New York’s nights and its tunnels?
The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
If the under-the-city world of Joey, Margaret, and their nest felt vividly real, The Strain expands that into a brutal, biological plague—complete with nest hierarchies, ancient masters, and grim tunnel hunts beneath NYC. You’ll recognize the same sense that the city’s true history is written in the dark, where the powerful feed and the careless disappear.
... a morally gray, streetwise narrator who fights worse monsters than himself?
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
If you vibed with Joey’s predator’s pragmatism—working angles, bending rules, and doing ugly things for his own—Sandman Slim gives you James Stark, a hell-scarred hitman who wisecracks through occult L.A. and does what needs doing. Like Joey navigating Margaret’s decrees and the kids’ threat, Stark cuts deals with devils and worse, always one step from becoming the monster he hunts.
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