I think I actually tried reading this a while back, but ran aground about 1/3 of the way through. This time went more smoothly, for some reason, but I'm left in a bit of a whirl as to what kind of experience that was. The book is structured chronologically, so the first 2/3 or so of the book covers vampires through Varney, Carmilla, and Dracula (really, really, quite a lot of Dracula), and does so pretty comprehensively. Things go a bit off the rails towards the end of the book, though, as Auerbach tries to draw links between US politics of the 70s and 80s and contemporaneous vampire fiction and films. She seems weirdly dismissive of The Gilda Stories and somewhat obsessed with Hammer films. This is exacerbated by a writing style that I can only really describe as 'stream of consciousness'. It feels like there's random thoughts just popping up and then we're on to the next one. Anyway, kind of glad I read it as it fed my current Gothic-ish binge, but I'm not sure I'd go back.