Rating: 
Summary: must have
Review: i was ultamitly impressed.i injoyed the book the entire time i was reading it, and i couldn't put it down. what i loved about it so much is the description of the people in this book. katherine ramsland also goes into detail about her feelings towards this project of hers and that sets the mood for the reader. this book also contains referrences to books and movies and such that she resurched. this book is a must have for anyone into vampires.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book, but not about what it claims
Review: I'd seen ads for this book for a while, playing up the fact that it was a 'True Crime' book. If you want to read it for that reason, skip it. Ramsland starts of looking for a missing reporter, but then goes in a completely different direction. At times over a hundred pages go by without a single mention of the missing woman. Ramsland doesn't turn up any new information. When a person disappears in New York you don't end up in San Francisco, Paris, New Orleans, etc unless there was something pointing you there.Now, what the book actually is is a interesting look into parts of the Vampire subculture. She talks to quite a number of interesting people, though the section on "Wraith" was much too long. One complaint about the book: you would think that in her home Ramsland has an altar to Anne Rice. Rice's name gets dropped every few pages. Yes, we know you are close to Rice. You've written her biography, multiple books about her books. You don't have to keep bringing her up, no matter how much she has comtributed to the culture. What is the point in going to a conference, mentioning the famous people attending, then specifically mentioning that Rice woldn't be attending? So what? A decent book, and it lets you see some insight in a subculture many would never realize it is there, let along get to see.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm terribly sorry for this pun, but this book lacks bite
Review: I'm not sure what bothers me more about this book--the deeply flawed ethnographic research or the profoundly offensive fetishizing of the subjects by the author. Despite the fact that the author apparently cannot tell the difference between s/m and b/d, and despite the fact that the subjects of this research are exploited for narrative purposes, there may be a modicum of value in this study--if only as a model of how not to write a book. Ramsland should stick to penning hagiographies of contemporary horror authors and leave the sociology to true professionals.
Rating: 
Summary: The author's surprising stance on rumors
Review: I'm surprised that Ramsland fell for the hysterical hype about Damien Wayne Echols. She didn't do her homework with the first paragraph of her "criminals" chapter and has done a great disservice to the many scapegoated members of this "subculture" and others by simply quoting rumors. Damien is not a "vampire," a "satanist" OR a murderer. He was not a member of a "dog eating" cult. Let's move beyond Geraldo once in a while and check those facts.. It IS important. - b u r k
Rating:
Summary: Thrilled, Chilled, & Disappointed...
Review: If you are about to buy this book stop! The book will thrill you, chill you, & disappoint you. Taking you into the vampire underground & blood fetish territories this book will get your heart pumping. However the book will leave you with an extremely bad feeling at the end. That feeling is disappointment. I personally looked past the harangues, but the ending shocked me. How the author didn't pickup on the meaning of vampires 'till the very end is disturbing. Yet on the good side this book will keep you listening until the end. It will entrance you & leave you with a cacoethes to keep listening. You'll want to know what's going to happen next & what other curios the author will encounter. But then again for the price I'd take a look at another book...
Rating:
Summary: You mean vampires are real?
Review: It was a toss up, a book about that serial killer in Alaska who turned hookers loose in the wilderness and hunted them like animals or Piercing the Darkness... I chose the latter hoping that I would get some kind of insight into the pathology behind people who partake in the blood drinking fetish given Ramsland's psychology background. Instead I got something so blatantly fabricated that I felt like a moron reading it. What I thought was some kind of look into the lives of people who play themselves up as vampires by night turns out to be Ramsland's own version of Interview With the Vampire, right down to her coversation with a character she names Wraith, who is an obvious hybrid of Lestat and Louis all rolled into one. The tale begins with a bit of a back drop, a fellow reporter who is researching the vampire/blood drinking/fetish scene suddenly disappears without a trace, presumed dead. Characters with whom interviews are held insist that she is alive and well, but they won't go into it. Thus, the book turns into a bit of a murder mystery, the missing reporter theme disappears practically after it is first mentioned and only pops up from time to time in passing mention and never really gets resolved. As the book progresses, Ramsland moves from researching the roleplayer/blood drinker scene and instead would like you to believe that vampires of myth exist in this underground cult-like society through inroducing characters who are such Anne Rice cliches you can't help but laugh. Some of the interviews could possibly be real, a large bulk of the book is interviewing people who claim not to be 500 years old, but partake in the blood drinking. They also take place in real locations, Club Firestone in Orlando for instance. Her account of meeting people in Firestone was pretty authentic, but as long as I went to that club, they never had any kind of gothic night... So credibility was running thin by the 200th page. As a true crime book, this really misses the mark. Even as a work of fiction, had Ramsland chosen to sell it that way, it would still fall short of being anything interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Where will Katherine take us in her next, I cant wait to see
Review: Katherine is a wonderful story teller. She has a keen view of the people she is looking at as she seeks to learn more of others, herself, and the world. She is a seeker of experiences and mystery I'm sure where ever she takes us it will be a journey worth buying. I liked reading my copy on the bus. Keept plenty of room by my seat!! Goddess Rosemary
Rating:
Summary: Best real account of vampire culture yet
Review: Katherine Ramsland has managed to write the most complete account of vampire culture to date, the different off-shoots of it and what is says about human-nature in today's society. Her work is insightful, truthful, sometimes scarey, sometimes sad but always fair and puts to rest many false notions about an underground society that has for the most part, been misunderstood. Bravo for a brave new look at an ancient obsession. ~Blu
Rating:
Summary: Not what I thought it would be
Review: Maybe I picked up this book for some morbid curiousity about weirdos, or maybe I just wanted to be entertained with a "normal" person's trip across to the other side. Either way, Piercing the Darkness definitely didn't satisfy. I kept finding myself speed reading through pages and pages of internet chats, shopping trips, and vampire conventions, just to get to the juicy parts. By the way, they only happened when she interviewed the "vampires" only to get back a bundle of lies laced with outer space philosophy. I'm sorry. Did I say philosophy? I'm sorry to degrade the great school by connecting that stuff to the nature of reality. I'm sure you've talked to people and they feed you stories that registers high on the bs meter. I was expecting a "real" account...an undercover look at the weirdo scene. That didn't happen. I don't recommend this book to anyone, especially if you really are into this scene. Talk to a few gothic-looking philosophy student dropouts, and you'll find better entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: A Discussion of Vampiric Lifestyle
Review: Ms. Ramsland narrates her encounters and interviews within the "Vampire Underground". I accepted her narrative at face value: a true discussion of her experiences. Ms. Ramsland, a New York journalist, begins her vampirism research on the Internet. She uses her Internet knowledge to visit vampire clubs and affluent events in New York where she meets and interviews vampiric individuals. Ms. Ramsland uses her New York knowledge and contacts to locate additional vampire clubs, affluent events, and individuals in Los Angeles and Paris. Her narrative describes her interviews, experiences, and observations at each location, and contrasts how the vampiric lifestyle differs at each location. Ms. Ramsland recounts her interviews and her reactions. There are very few interviews with mental health professionals and academics. Most interviews are with vampiric individuals. Some interviews are unfocused and ponderous, while others are concise and illuminating. Ms. Ramsland does mention Anne Rice's books. Many individuals first choose the vampiric lifestyle after reading Ms. Rice's books, and many vampiric individuals identify with characters in Ms. Rice's books. Ms. Ramsland dwells little on how HIV/AIDS affects the vampiric lifestyle. One interviewee does discuss "closed covens" whose members have been screened for AIDS. However, one interviewee states that few vampiric individuals worry about disease, most interviewees discuss seeking strangers when conducting their vampiric activities, and fatalism is discussed repeatedly throughout the book. More discussion of HIV/AIDS in the vampiric community is warranted. Ms. Ramsland's narratives cover a wide topic range. These topics include dental appliances, fashion, fetish, role-playing, BDSM (including blood sports), necrophilia, and murder. This book's wide ranging discussion can confuse the reader and lessen a topic's impact on the reader. Only after reflection does the reader recognize the vampiric lifestyle's seriousness and its impact upon society.
| 
