Five Female-led Vampire Stories
If Netflix’s First Kill or AMC’s Interview with the Vampire had you craving more female-led* vampire stories, these five stories should keep you sated. For now, at least.
Starting with the first female vampire of literature, as is her due.
Carmilla is narrated by Laura, a young woman who is befriended by the mysterious Carmilla. For a gothic novella written in 1872, J. Sheridan Le Fanu skillfully suggests a romantic relationship between the two women without raising the suspicions of contemporaries.
If you hunger for historic vampire fiction following a blood drinker across untold centuries, nd the future, you want The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez. Published in 1991, this debut novel (how is this a debut?) follows a runaway slave who runs towards freedom and a life unlike any she knew possible.
Did I mention she is also a lesbian?
For a more recent sapphic story, reach for Rachel Klein’s 2002 The Moth Diaries. Set in an exclusive, all-girls boarding school. The sixteen-year-old narrator uses her diary to confess her feelings for her roommate Lucy, and her distrust of Lucy’s new friend, Ernessa. Is Ernessa a vampire? Or has the narrator become lost in her own inner turmoil and jealousy? No spoilers here. Read it and decide for yourself.
Vampires don’t have to bite to suck the life out of you. At least that’s what Mary Eleanor Wilkins-Freeman's 1903 short story Luella Miller suggests. Unable to do anything for herself, Luella relies upon others for everything. All those who willingly enter her inner circle work themselves to an early grave.
Will our narrator survive?
Michael Morbius wasn’t the first person wishing to avoid death and stumbling across an alternative route to vampirism. In Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1869 gothic novella Good Lady Ducayne, the eponymous Lady pays well for a young, healthy companion. Unfortunately, these young women never last long. Will the naive Bella fare any differently? (Another Bella meets another vampire…but this one doesn’t sparkle.)
Five Female-Led Vampire Stories
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
Luella Miller by Mary Eleanor Wilkins-Freeman
Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
What do you think of this list? Have you already read any of these recommended stories? Do you have any vampire story recommendations that feature a femme fatale or female lead?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
If you’d like to chat directly, find me over on Bluesky.
*I use “female-led” instead of “women-led” because some of the characters begin their stories as young girls and/or teenagers.