Characters
Steve Finn
Steve was raised in Missing Mile, North Carolina. He works in a record shop in his home town called the Whirling Disc. He is described as tall and wiry, with a hawkish nose, and long black hair he rarely washes. Steve is proud and stubborn, drinks to excess, and is prone to violent outbursts. He is haunted throughout the novel by the memory of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Ann, which he terminated abruptly by raping her on discovery of her infidelity.
Ghost
Ghost is Steve's best friend and though their relationship throughout the novel often has homoerotic undertones, they do not become lovers until the follow-up story, "Stay Awake". Ghost is described as appearing much like to his namesake, very translucent skin, white blond, wispy hair and huge blue eyes. Kind and compassionate, Ghost often has unexplainable visions, and sometimes they are even a foreshadowing of things to come.
Ann Bransby-Smith
Ann, Steve's ex-girlfriend, plays an ambiguous role throughout much of the novel, but she becomes helplessly intertwined in the plot once Zillah, Twig, Molochai and Nothing roll into Missing Mile, North Carolina. She has long, red-gold hair and spends most of her time early in the novel fretting about her increasing dislike for her new boyfriend, and her longing for Steve. She is one of the most tragic victims of the story. She is a painter, a tough yet vulnerable character whose strained relations with her father and bitter love for Steve lead her in to a series of defiant acts that ultimately undo her.
Lost Souls?
Steve and Ghost's band. Ghost is the vocalist, and Steve plays guitar. Lost Souls? has toured across the United States, and they frequently perform at the local club in Missing Mile, North Carolina, a place called The Sacred Yew.
Other appearances
- "Angels" (printed in Wormwood)
- "The Seed of Lost Souls" (short story of which Lost Souls is an expansion) [2]
- "The South Central Rain Story"
- "Stay Awake"
- "America" (printed in "Are You Loathsome Tonight?)
- "How to Get Ahead in New York" ('Wormwood )
- "Con Party at Hotel California" (original first chapter for the unfinished novel that would be the sequel to Lost Souls)
Vampires
The vampires of this novel are quite dissimilar to those of traditional lore. Rather than being transformed humans, they are a separate species who are born vampires. While most feed on blood, some find alternative sustenance (e.g., love and beauty). There are also distinct differences between older and younger vampires. Older vampires have naturally sharp teeth, are sensitive to sunlight, and cannot eat or drink. Younger vampires have normal human teeth that must be filed, are insensitive to sunlight, and can both eat and drink (as demonstrated by Zillah's group's liking for chartreuse). Brite's vampires also seem to lack many supernatural powers beyond quick healing, heightened sense, and abnormal strength. They can be killed if the heart or brain is destroyed. Female vampires can also be killed by childbirth because vampiric infants kill their mothers in the womb.
A teenage vampire taken in by humans as a baby. Born in New Orleans, he was taken (by Christian) to a small town in Maryland after he was born and left on the doorstep of an unsuspecting couple. The story is centered around him and his journey to find his real family. Nothing's name means that he is a blank slate, and can write anything down on it he wants to, making himself whatever he wants, as noted in the novel. This is a main part of the larger Existential/Nihilist themes running through the novel.
Zillah
Zillah is Nothing's father as well as his lover. His distinguishing features include his crazy green eyes and the purple, green, and gold-dyed streaks in his hair - the colors of Mardi Gras. He is described as being incredibly beautiful - androgynous, slender, and shorter than Molochai and Twig, with pierced nipples and sharp, black-lacquered nails. He is portrayed throughout the novel as cruel, insensitive, and violent (sexually and otherwise), but he displays fondness for Nothing.
Twig and Molochai
Zillah's gluttonous companions and twin brothers, both very much alike. They are rarely found apart from one another. Twig is the taller of the two, he has sharp features and wicked demeanor. Twig also drives the trio's van around the country. Molochai is slightly shorter, with roundish, babyish features. He favors sweets and cakes to the other's more adult tastes. There is no explanation of how the two found each other yet there is an account of their first encounter with Zillah whereupon they misjudge his true nature and attack him. They are easily overpowered by the older and more experienced vampire and thereafter act under his supervision.
Christian
Bartender in New Orleans who looks after Nothing's mother, Jessy, through the duration of her pregnancy, and the one responsible for taking him away from the city after his birth. Christian finds himself almost on the side of the humans, and sometimes the lone voice of wisdom in the vampires' "family." He is the oldest vampire in the novel, being 383 years old. He is also the most isolated character in the novel, perhaps because of his age. Christian has real fangs rather than sharpened teeth and is the only vampire in the novel that cannot consume human food and drink, he must survive solely on blood. He is also the only one intolerant to sunlight, though he can move about in the day if he keeps his skin and eyes completely covered.
Arkady Raventon
Arkady is the sinister and skeletal proprietor of a magic shop in New Orleans. He is in mourning for his brother Ashley, himself a victim of two less conventional vampires and purports to have the knowledge and ability to cheat the vampires out of their natural intentions.
Jessy
A fifteen-year-old girl devoted to the vampiric myth, Jessy stumbles in to the vampires' world not exactly in the manner that she originally would have hoped. She finds employ and board at Christian's Bar due to Christian's sense of responsibility over her predicament.
The Queen of the Damned (1988) is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the third in her The Vampire Chronicles series. It follows Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. This novel is a continuation of the story that ends in a cliffhanger in The Vampire Lestat and explores the rich history and mythology of the origin of the vampires, which dates back to Ancient Egypt.
Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), which was inspired by the life and legend of Lord Byron. Later influential works include the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847); Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a lesbian vampire, Carmilla (1872), and the masterpiece of the genre: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Some authors created a more "sympathetic vampire", with Varney being the first, and Anne Rice's 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire as a more recent example.
Billy Martin born on May 25, 1967, known professionally as Poppy Z. Brite, is an American author. He initially achieved notoriety in the gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s by publishing a string of successful novels and short story collections. His later work moved into the genre of dark comedy, with many stories set in the New Orleans restaurant world. Martin's novels are typically standalone books but may feature recurring characters from previous novels and short stories. Much of his work features openly bisexual and gay characters.
Memnoch the Devil (1995) is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the fifth in her Vampire Chronicles series, following The Tale of the Body Thief. Many of the themes of this novel and in large part the title are re-borrowed from the 19th-century gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Irish author Charles Maturin. In this story, Lestat is approached by the Devil and offered a job at his side.
The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels and a media franchise created by American writer Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century. Rice said in a 2008 interview that her vampires were a "metaphor for lost souls". The homoerotic overtones of The Vampire Chronicles are also well-documented. As of November 2008, The Vampire Chronicles had sold 80 million copies worldwide.
Count Orlok is the main antagonist and title character portrayed by German actor Max Schreck (1879–1936) in the silent film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922). He was based on Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula.
Vittorio the Vampire (1999) is the second novel in Anne Rice's New Tales of the Vampires series. It is the only vampire novel by Rice besides Pandora in which the lead character of her series The Vampire Chronicles, Lestat de Lioncourt, does not appear; although Vittorio references him briefly.
The Saga of Darren Shan is a young adult 12-part book series written by Darren Shan about the struggle of a boy who has become involved in the world of vampires. As of October 2008, the book has been published in 33 countries around the world, in 30 different languages. A film based on the first three books in the series was released in theatres on October 23, 2009. Blackstone Audio has also released CD recordings of all 12 books in the series, read by Ralph Lister.
Vampires are frequently represented in popular culture, including appearances in ballet, films, literature, music, opera, theatre, paintings, and video games.
In the fictional world of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series Angel, a vampire is a unique variety of demon that can only exist on the earthly plane by inhabiting and animating a human corpse. In Fray, a Buffy comic book spin-off set about a century in the future, vampires are also called lurks.
In the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels, author Laurell K. Hamilton has developed a detailed mythology. Her series is an alternate history that assumes that the supernatural is real, and that vampires, lycanthropes, and other supernatural beings live alongside humans in a society that otherwise resembles 21st century North America.
Sunshine is a fantasy novel featuring vampires written by Robin McKinley and published by Berkley Publishing Group in 2003. Sunshine won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 2004.
Night World is a series of ten young adult fantasy novels by American author L. J. Smith. The series presents a story in which vampires, witches, werewolves, and shapeshifters live among humans without their knowledge. These supernatural races make up a secret society known as the Night World, which enforces two fundamental laws to prevent discovery: 1) Never allow humans to gain knowledge of the Night World's existence and, 2) Never fall in love with a human.
Henry Fitzroy is a character in the Blood novels: and the Smoke novels: by Tanya Huff.
The Hollows series is a series of 15 urban fantasy novels, eight short stories, two graphic novels, and one compendium resource by Kim Harrison, published by HarperCollins Publishers, in an alternate history universe and set primarily in the city of Cincinnati and its suburbs. The alternate history is built upon two premises: the recent open existence of magical and supernatural species, primarily witches, vampires, and werewolves, with the human population; and the historical investment of Cold War military spending in genetic engineering as opposed to the Space Race, which resulted in the accidental release of a genetically modified tomato in the 1960s that killed a significant portion of the human population. The series is set approximately 40 years after this plague, referred to as ”The Turn“ within the series.
Vampirina is an Irish-American comedy horror computer-animated children's television series created by Chris Nee. Based on the Vampirina Ballerina series of books written by Anne Marie Pace and published by Disney-Hyperion, the series was announced in March 2016 and premiered on Disney Channel and Disney Junior on October 1, 2017. It features much of the staff that has worked on another program created by Nee, Doc McStuffins. In January 2018, a second season was announced by Disney, which premiered on December 7, 2018. A third season was announced on September 7, 2018, which premiered on October 5, 2020. This series is aimed for ages 2 to 8.
