EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT: Vampires are not all young, sparkly, teenaged, hollywood-looking starlets who like to prey on high school girls. Who would have known?

But all joking aside, it is nice to go back and take a look at where the world was before the Vampire Frenzy of 2009 hit the world. “The Blood Drawing Ghost” takes a much different outlook on our traditional and contemporary view of the mysterious vampires.

As per usual there is a heroin to lead the readers to the vampire, but in this case it was a girl named Kate. What I did admire about Kate was that after her encounter with the old and un-dead Michael, she became more empowered as a woman. Suddenly she wasn’t willing to travel three miles to fetch a petty walking stick for her beloved John.  During this time women were not forward with men, yet she gave her father-in-law an ultimatum to let her marry her son or leave him dead. This new type of empowerment, though not illuminated further in the story, is one that touches many vampire stories. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Lucy, a woman who was bitten goes from being a poised, but quite flirtatious lady, to all of a sudden become a seductress. As much as going into Twilight annoys me, I will say that the heroin, Bella, became a more bold person after her time spent with her vampire boyfriend. Could it be possible that literature wants to paint a picture that being a woman vampire all of a sudden gives women the idea that they can strive to superiority? I’d like to think so.

Another interesting point in “The Blood Drawing Ghost” was that our vampire, Michael, wasn’t portrayed in a way to be evil towards Kate. Aside from the drinking of blood, he appeared to be like any old man. He needed Kate’s assistance with travelling, he spoke of his old life before his death, and he even told Kate how she may secure herself for the future. Our modern idea of vampires has been geared towards a Nosferatu in a cape who can change into a bat at any given moment. “The Blood Drawing Ghost” was not at all like this. This further adds to the question of what a vampire really is. Is it being un-dead that gives the definition? Is it the thirst for blood? Pale skin? There is not set DNA or characteristics of a vampire due to the fact that there are hundreds of interpretations of vampires.