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Book Review: The Real Twilight: True Stories of Modern Day Vampires

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by rosemary in

Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s Bookshelf



The Real Twilight: True Stories of Modern Day Vampires

By Arlene Russo

John Blake Publishing Ltd., 2010

Paperback, 259 pp.



The movie screens may be full of Twilight glitter vampires, but if you want the lowdown on real vampires who live and work among us, pick up Arlene Russo’s The Real Twilight. Quirky lifestyles, unusual habits, and exotic appearances prove that truth really is stranger than fiction when it comes to the most famous paranormal entity of them all.



I was delighted to get a copy of The Real Twilight while working on the second edition of my Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves & Other Monsters. The Real Twilight is a revised and updated edition of an earlier work by Russo, Vampire Nation (2005), an excellent portrayal of the vampire underground. I was eager to see what new twists had developed on both side of the Atlantic.



Russo, one of the leading vampire experts in the United Kingdom, covers the vampire underground in both the U.K. and America, featuring vampire clubs, lifestylers, psychic vampires, and blood drinkers, as well a vampires in folklore, film and crime. What motivates someone to live as a vampire? Those interviewed by Russo are starkly honest. The vampire underground is indeed a an intriguing demi monde!



Russo also includes an abridged version of the final “20th Century Vampire Census” undertaken by the Vampire Empire, under the direction of my good friend Jeanne Keyes Youngson. The living vampire underground got its momentum from the fictional vampire (powered a great deal by the success of Anne Rice), but has since taken on a life of its own, distinctly not “undead,” as the census shows. Russo also examines the vampire case for Robin Hood, and the impact of AIDS in a subculture that identifies itself with the taking of blood.



I had the pleasure of meeting Russo in 2000 in Romania, fittingly enough, at a Dracula symposium sponsored by the Transylvania Society of Dracula. She is also the publisher and-editor-in-chief of Bite Me magazine, which has covered the vampire underground for quite a few years. I am featured in two issues, as well as in The Real Twilight.



Readers who are familiar with Vampires Today by Joseph Laycock will especially appreciate The Real Twilight. An insert of color photographs of vampires at their best enhances the text. The books is published in the U.K. and widely available online.