Some Guy Who Writes's Reviews > Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today

I've mostly heard of the vampire subculture on the many, many basic cable procedural shows like Castle and, whilst I had no doubt believing people like this exist, I had no idea how vivid and vast the actual subculture they belong to was.
Ramsland'd book shows a wonderful and balanced overeview of these individuals and why they find solace in believing themselves to be the folkloric immortal creatures of the night. It neither portrays them as being mentally ill nor potentially dangerous for the common good, nor even as being fully deluded by popular works of fiction (althought their influence is certainly recognized).
Ramsland combines her firsthand research with geniune personal stories of both it's current and former members, all tied up with a slight dosage of a true crime frame, that being the infamous case of the dissappearence of reporter Susan Walsh, who had been conducting and investigation into the NYC vampire scene, an event that cast major shade at the city's vampire community, creating a stigma that still hasn't been erased to this day, which is what makes the book not only a vitally important staple of contemporary sociology and a very engaging read, but on some level, deeply humane, as it tries to paint the more austricized members of society as not something to be feared, but rather as something that should be further studied and understood.
If you're interested in true crime, obscure topics and/or sociology (especially if you're interested in studying subcultures specifically), I cannot reccomend this book enough.