Anyone else tired of romantic vampires in young adult fiction?

[gmw]

Originally Posted by NVash

Anne Rice
The Vampire Chronicles has bored me to tears on more than one occasion. Maybe its because I really dont like Lestat.

I definitely liked the first few of these. Dark, traditional vampires. These were definitely entertaining and I go back to the first few every now and then.

Originally Posted by NVash

Terry Pratchett
I remember he created a vampire in his book 'The Truth'. Im not sure if that was Igor or not but that was a very clever vampire. Any scene he was in he stole and oh how I wished he was in that book more often.

No the Igors are your Frankenstein-like monsters - except on the discworld they are wonderful servants and surgeons. Pratchett has a number of Vampires/Vampyres: See Carpe Jugulum - you'll love'em!

Originally Posted by NVash

Joss Whedon
I am a huge Buffy fan. That is all.

I liked the movie, never tried the TV show.

Originally Posted by NVash

Stephenie Meyer
Im so sick of Twilight.

That's all right. No one's perfect

The frenzy does all get a bit much - but it goes both ways. There are so many out there shouting out to the actors to "bite me", that others feel compelled to espouse how poor the writing is (etc etc) ... whereas for any normal situation people would be quite happy to ignore whatever it was didn't suit their tastes.

[bminata]

"Vampires who use sex to feed"
Ehehehehe.. I think I met a lot of these..

[EowynCarter]

Oh !

I didn't even knew about midnight sun.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Avarwen

Vampire Mormons now that's unique.

A Jehovah's Witness vampire would be in a moral quandary...

[kacir]

Originally Posted by NVash

Laurell K Hamilton
Ah, Anita Blake.

Aaaah.
Anita Blake Vampire Humper.
If you think that last books in series are terrible, try reading her Merry Gentry series. Pages and pages describing nothing else than gorgeous men with even more gorgeous, unbelievably long and rich hair. Oh ... and faerie. Sadly, if you skip the passages describing numerous male lovers, the books are quite good. But, at the end you get tired of skipping erotic descriptions.


You missed the Dresden files.
http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/
One of the best series where vampires play significant role.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A Jehovah's Witness vampire would be in a moral quandary...

Now that could be an interesting story! A JW gets forcibly turned by some passing vampire (perhaps one with a sick sense of humor) and has to drink blood or die, and doesn't want to die (after all, isn't refusing to eat a form of suicide?) ... oh, I would so read that!

[Falbe Publishing]

There's romantic vampires in young adult novels? Wow! I had no idea. What an amazing idea. I wonder if anyone will buy such things...

[NVash]

Originally Posted by kacir

Aaaah.
Anita Blake Vampire Humper.
If you think that last books in series are terrible, try reading her Merry Gentry series. Pages and pages describing nothing else than gorgeous men with even more gorgeous, unbelievably long and rich hair. Oh ... and faerie. Sadly, if you skip the passages describing numerous male lovers, the books are quite good. But, at the end you get tired of skipping erotic descriptions.

I have them but I refuse to touch them. I think I kept saying Id finish Anita Blake first but after reading around 50 pages of Bullet I think Im done with Hamilton for quite some time.

Originally Posted by kacir

You missed the Dresden files.
http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/
One of the best series where vampires play significant role.

How could I have forgotten? Im a huge Dresden fan. I just finished reading book four. I started that and Anita Blake at around the same time, switching series back and forth as I completed each book. That is one I stay faithful to and intend to read through. Problem is I find that theres so many characters in there Im beginning to lose track of who is who. I remember the Red Court and I think there was a White one. Murph, Dresden himself, I cant remember the werewolves and I barely remember what happened with Micheal. Im sure this is going to be quite a problem later on since more characters are coming in, but hopefully theyll do things to become more memorable.

[C.I.Bond]

Originally Posted by gmw

To say "a one hundred year old falls in love with a teenager" may be a strictly correct statement but it misses so much of the premise behind the story as to be essentially irrelevant. (Whether the premise behind the story works for you the reader is quite another matter ... and I suppose if the premise didn't work then perhaps you do fall back on the age thing.)

I think that the average reader misses the fact that she does the same thing with the werewolves. Remember when a teenage boy “Impresses” on a toddler, a girl naturally (no homosexual werewolves or Boy Scouts). He of course, is planning on waiting for her to grow up before they get married. There is a mystical aspect to Romantic Love which recalls the Greek idea that god splits perfect souls in half and when they meet their predestined mate they are complete again. It ties back to the sanctified nature of marriage and procreation in the Mormon religion.

Ultimately the book is fairly harmless fluff and once you explain that Edwards controlling behavior might seem romantic but it isn’t a good idea in the real world you have done your job as a parent. We aren’t talking about Porn or B&D it is just a hormonal romance that speaks to hormonal teenagers. The same way cheesy romances that take place in the Scottish Highlands speak to older girls.

Older people pull more from Twilight, the same way we pull more from Jane Austen than we did as teenagers so we worry. I do think the “Family Friendly” stamp that the books got should be re-examined but if religious conservatives gave it then that does make some sense.

[C.I.Bond]

Originally Posted by NVash

Wheres the crazy vampires with the blood lust they can barely control? Where are the ones that strike fear in peoples hearts? I read once that in Anita Blake some vampire could kill people from miles away with a thought. Where are those? On vacation? Tanning, excuse me, sparkling in the Barbados sun? Maybe theyll get back to good vampire stories again someday.

Killing machines are monsters, then can’t stay in one place very long and they can’t interact in a social structure. There isn’t much you can do with them other than have them as monsters that your main character has to kill. Vampires as main characters are writer candy because they are in constant conflict. They were human and yet they feed on humans, their needs tie them to the community and yet they threaten that community. How different groups of vampires handle this conflict also creates political conflict. Vampires just come with their own, ready-made baggage, story-bullion cubes, just throw them in the stew and add complexity and interest.

Kim Harrison does an interesting thing with her vamps. Living Vamps are infected with the virus, still have a soul, crave blood but don’t need it, are stronger and faster. Once they die and the soul goes they become more powerful and complete sociopaths but if they control themselves they don’t get staked. They still have their old connections and well… conflict follows.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Falbe Publishing

There's romantic vampires in young adult novels? Wow! I had no idea. What an amazing idea. I wonder if anyone will buy such things...

Down, girl! Sorry, that ship has sailed. Why don't you try... romantic mummies? No one's done that!

(I have dibs on romantic robots. Coming soon: Love At First Scan.)

[Penforhire]

Sorry Steve, Ms. Rice already went there with "Ramses the Damned," lol. No, seriously, libidinous mummies...

[C.I.Bond]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

(I have dibs on romantic robots. Coming soon: Love At First Scan.)

The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee, also YA but without the religious overtones.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by C.I.Bond

The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee, also YA but without the religious overtones.

Helen O'Loy by Lester Del Rey, 1938.

[Exer]

Originally Posted by sabredog

So I am not complaining about the Vampire addiction currently raging as it enabled my daughter to discover books and reading.

Exactly. Anything that actually gets young people into a book store is a good thing. Sometimes it takes a story like this to engage the imagination of a young reader. As a matter of fact I bet the author of Twilight is personally responsible for creating a whole generation of readers who hadn't ever -- before Twilight -- picked up a book for simple enjoyment. It is sort of like a so-called "gateway drug". Get a young mind started on Twilight, and soon they might be moving on up to more "hardcore" (better written, adult fare) selections.

It was exactly the same for my little brother and the Harry Potter series. He wasn't much of a reader before that, but once he saw that "all" his friends were reading it, he just had to check it out for himself. Now, years later, he is almost as big a book worm as me.

As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, this has affected my girlfriend as well. She used to read nothing but romance books. Then she read the Twilight series and realized that, even though it had a supernatural theme, she enjoyed it anyway. Now she has branched off into sci-fi and fantasy, and we've started reading some of the same books together (even reading to each other sometimes).

Odd how I never thought about it like this before.