 "Publishers Weekly" positively reviewed "The Turning", calling it "a squirm-inducing treat", but stating that while "American Vampire" had an "unusual premise, there's not much to distinguish this from other dark paranormal romances".In 2015 Armintrout led an Internet campaign to have Fionna Free Man's book "Thomas Jefferson's Mistress" pulled from book shelves and booklists.Fionna Free Man is the pseudonym of a writer of erotica, and the book was a recasting of the story of Thomas Jefferson and his mistress Sally Hemings into vampire fiction.