One of the best things that can be said of Nick Groom’s colossally smart The Vampire: A New History is that it gets the hellion out from under its humid cloud of melodramatic pining. ... at times, leads the book into ludicrousness as it struggles to make its way back to vampires ... It is a great relief to meet Groom’s vampire, still icy from the void and unburdened by the aesthetic of Gothic nightingale-lite.
[A] 200-page treatise is more cultural history than comprehensive chronicle ... Mr. Groom appears to have marinated himself in the vast literature of his subject, and The Vampire is an impressively learned work ... At times, readers of may feel themselves paddling hopelessly in a sea of trivia ... All parties owe Mr. Groom thanks for helping to explain the meaning of vampires—which is only fair, since vampires have worked so hard, for so long, to explain the meaning of us.
