All Vamped Out?Yesterday my friend and fellow Kensington writer HelenKay Dimon blogged about the paranormal trend in romance writing and wondered if readers had reached a saturation point.
This morning I was trolling the Waldenbooks at the mall and saw more paranormal books on the front shelves than I could shake a stick at. I also bought a vampire book, Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT because Bam recommended it a while back.
This got me thinking about a narrower question than the one HelenKay raised: are we sick of vampires yet?
Apparently I’m not. I just finished reading J.R. Ward’s LOVER REVEALED, and, like I said, just picked up another vamp book today.
What about you? Are you sick of the bloodthirsty creatures yet? Have you read all the variations on the theme that you can stand? Or, like me, do you still need your fill of dark heroes with secrets and nasty little habits?
10 comments:
Oh, dear...you're going to get Kristina started again on TWILIGHT.
I like some vamp books, but not across the board. That 'nasty little habit,' as you refer to biting someone's neck and drinking their blood, is indeed very nasty to me. Usually. I really liked Colleen's vampire slayer, though.
Here's me wearing my writer's hat: I hope interest in paranormals isn't on the wane, because my first one, Demon's Kiss will hit shelves in October. But mine is about demons and sorcerers, not vampires.
Here's me wearing my reader's hat: keep 'em coming, 'cause I'm loving J. R. Ward's books, and Colleen's, and Kelley Armstrong, and Kim Harrison, and... yeah, well...just keep 'em coming.
So we're agreed, then, right? We want our vamps (for now). I'm so glad...
Ann
HA! Caroline knows me *too* well....TWILIGHT is probably one of my all-time favorite books, so I second your friend's recommendation! Yeah, I like to babble on endlessly about it. :o)
I, for one, am not sick of vamps--and I hope the trend sticks around a bit longer, since my agent is currently shopping around a YA proposal of mine with a vamp hero!
I haven't hit the saturation point yet, but I do wish there was a bit more variety out there on the shelves. Many of the new paranormals are the really good - some of the best paranormals so far - but my fear is that great books (and authors) will get passed by because folks see paranormal everywhere they look.
And...if JR Ward even thinks about writing something other than her Brotherhood books, I'm going to her house, tying her to a chair and forcing her fingers on her computer keys. I'll do it.
For the most part, I don't do vamps. That whole undead-sucking-blood-thing is not at all attractive to me. That being said :D I do like Nora Roberts' Cian. He is kind of an unvampire vampire.
HelenKay, if that awful day ever comes, we'll make it a joint road trip. You hold J.R. Ward's fingers to the keyboard, and I'll guard the door...
Jackietoo, I think many of the vamps these days are what I'm going to call "vampire lite," meaning that the bloodsucking aspect isn't that gross and/or is sexualized so it's not such a turnoff. And of course some vamps are human protectors, so they're cool, right?
Ann
I think that's what's so great about TWILILGHT--it's really more of a 'human' story than a vampire story--there's not really any bloodsucking going on at all. Probably why it's so appealing. That, and the incredible sexual tension (particularly amazing considering there's nothing sexual in the book at all--it's totally PG-rated).
I'm getting a little tired of it, and have gone back to historicals (though most are backlisted). I think I am over it because I jumped head-first into the genre and then rolled around in it. I read way too many of them, good and bad. Now I'm tired, but not willing to see the genre die.
Ann,
After reading these comments, I did a little looking around.
In the J.R. Ward books, the vamps can't turn humans so the bloodsucking is kind of like a human blood transfusion. They are not "undead" just looooong-lived but they can die(I didn't find anything that said how)and are protectors of the weak instead of preying on them.
Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
Thanks!
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