It wasn't "My Friend, the Vampire" or "M is for Monster"...

May 22, 2006 12:43 PM

A young adult vampire book, published late 70's, early 80's? Involves a kid who meets the vampire in the basement of a library, falls asleep and wakes up having no memory of it. Main vampire's name is Radu, but I believe there were several other vampires around, also with "traditional" names (a "Carmilla" perhaps?).

That's about all I got to go on, and since Radu is the name of both Vlad the Impaler's brother AND the guy who helped Ray McNally write "In Search of Dracula", I am batting a zero. Other really iffy threads circling around my brain are:

• I believe the cover had the kid peeking over the top of his book at the bottom and the cape of the vampire swirling up to the title. The cape and overall color was maroon.
• It wasn't for kids, it was definitely "young adult". I recall the main character got in trouble for breaking & entering and was a borderline delinquent.
• In fact, the entire tone of the book was much more disturbing than most other kid vampire books. Little actual fighting, or blood drinking. Most of it shrouded in fog. It just felt very "dangerous" and real

It's possible, based on what I remember of the library layout, and where i found it (both dubious) that the author's last name began with an S-Y? No guarantees though.

posted by Brainy to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

Best answer: "Prisoner of Vampires" by Nancy Garden? The cover is halfway down this page.
posted by lemuria at 3:15 PM on May 22, 2006

Response by poster: Wow. How did you find that?
posted by Brainy at 3:31 PM on May 22, 2006

I actually googled for "William Sleator vampires" since so many forgotten YA horror/scifi novels are by him, and you thought it might be an S-Y name. Then, one of the pages I pulled up I searched for the word "vampires" and saw that cover!
posted by lemuria at 3:38 PM on May 22, 2006

Response by poster: Well, I just bought it on amazon for 11 cents...so thank you!

Never read any of William Sleator's books, so I never would have tried that.
posted by Brainy at 9:35 AM on May 23, 2006