I
know, I know, I know. “There’s no such thing as a good vampire book! Twilight ruined all of them! Whaaa!” I
am here to tell you that you are wrong. There is such a thing as a good vampire
book, and Twilight isn’t nearly as bad as you think. Here are some examples,
and I’ll talk about what we can learn about them.
Twilight isn’t as bad as
you think. I mean, think about it. It has everything the average girl would
want: eternity with a cute guy, a strong-ish female lead, weddings and babies,
a love triangle, and seriously badass vampires and werewolves. The plot is
great and it hooks readers. Pick up Twilight
again to read it and ask yourself why it is so successful. It’s: alluring
to female readers, has a good mix of romance and adventure, and is easy to
read. There are lots of reasons. Meyer isn’t a fantastic writer and she doesn’t
need to be. The story did it for her. You don’t have to agree with the message
in the story, which is basically preaching Mormon beliefs. I don’t. I just like
to analyze it.
I
am also in love with the TV show, The
Vampire Diaries. It rocks, seriously. I haven’t read the books yet, but I’ve
ordered them from the library and can’t wait to start reading as I am going through
serious VD withdrawl because I watched the whole series on Netflix and season 5
doesn’t come out until October. L
The plot is even better than Twilight, the characters are interesting and
complex, and there’s several love triangles going on. Plus, there are more
magical creatures: vampires, werewolves, witches, doppelgangers, and hybrids,
and they actually stick to the legends (vampires burn instead of sparkle!).
Dracula is not so much a
vampire story as it is a piece of gothic literature. I personally don’t think
Count Dracula is a vampire. My paper on the book had this title: Dracula: The Fault in His Fangs? I got a
B+, just in case the grade is important for you to know. Really, the narrators
(Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Van Helsing, Quincy) saw their own faults and
projected them onto Dracula because he was a stranger and could be easily
blamed. Agoraphobia and his “vampiristic (is this even a word?) traits” is what
made Dracula a vampire in symbolic terms. If you want an MG version of this
book, check out Bunnicula. It tells
the story of Chester the cat and Harold the Dog and their fear of the vampire
bunny, Bunnicula. Is Bunnicula really a vampire though? Who knows?
During
the vampire book craze, I was reading mostly dystopia among other things so I
haven’t read a lot of vampire stories. I have a reading list though: The
Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, Vampire Academy by Rachelle (sp?) Mead, Salem’s
Lot by Stephen King, and Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. Wish me luck! Do
you know any well-done vampire books?
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