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Stealth Vampires
Read a really good short story last night over dinner, one which joins what I now have to consider a genre: the "Stealth Vampire" story. The defining characteristics of these stories are:
1) The word "vampire" is never used.
2) The story is structured in such a way that the average reader won't realize that there are vampires in it until 25-50% of the way through the story.
On the one hand, I'm curious how many of these exist. On the other hand, it's always more fun to read such stories without knowing, a priori, that they are in this genre, as merely knowing that much is a large "spoiler". As a compromise position, I'm going to list the ones I've found so far beneath a cut. If you don't mind spoilers, and are able to add to my list, I'd appreciate that.
_Agyar_, Steven Brust
"Snow, Glass, Apples", Neil Gaiman
"Ever After", Susan Palwick
1) The word "vampire" is never used.
2) The story is structured in such a way that the average reader won't realize that there are vampires in it until 25-50% of the way through the story.
On the one hand, I'm curious how many of these exist. On the other hand, it's always more fun to read such stories without knowing, a priori, that they are in this genre, as merely knowing that much is a large "spoiler". As a compromise position, I'm going to list the ones I've found so far beneath a cut. If you don't mind spoilers, and are able to add to my list, I'd appreciate that.
_Agyar_, Steven Brust
"Snow, Glass, Apples", Neil Gaiman
"Ever After", Susan Palwick
no subject
I handle this situation (where naming a book would spoil it) by giving the ISBN. That way, someone who thinks they know what you're talking about can safely check without the risk of spoiling themselves if they're wrong.
Doesn't work for short stories though.
And of course, I knew before looking what the first name on your list would be.