Vampire Fodder.
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Good Reading or Repetitive Trash
Upon a recent jaunt into the neighboring town where I was hoping to purchase a selection of new reading material it was put forward that there was none. I stood in the store Waterstones and looked upon row upon row of undead, forbidden love books that have been churned out with little thought.
This is a phenomenon that has become increasingly annoying. Since the publication of the Twilight Saga – and that became a cult for all teen girls to follow – there have been many a series of forbidden vampire love, forbidden zombie love, forbidden angel love and more recently werewolves. Aspiring ‘authors’ have realised that there is a market in teen girls that will consume anything with love, the undead and lots of teen angst and conflict so have put pen to paper and churned out generic page turners.
Personally, if presented on pain of death to read one of these books I shall, but I’m unwilling to part with money on something I’ve basically already read before. Standing looking at the demise of any decent reading material is quite depressing. Although that said, a gem will appear amongst the stakes and fangs, batting them away with ease and stylish writing. It has become near impossible to find a readable book that is compelling without the aid of sparkling beings or otherwise.
A particular series of books I have a problem with are the House of Night novels. A vampire finishing school is an interesting enough idea i’ll admit but the in which the protagonist is written makes me dislike her. Naturally she’s very powerful and special and so are her friends. She’s chased by boys etc and is the leader of the equivalent to the school’s cheerleading squad. All a bit too convenient if you ask me. Then the informality of the language and modern day references show that these books won’t last very long as few will have heard of them in say 10-15 years time. They’re designed purely to sell and give a ravenous market more.
That is just one example though. We can have a boyfriend die and come back as some form of Angel and still be with the girlfriend but help her move on sort of thing. The list is endless but all the same.
So, tell me, what do you think of the generic vampire fodder being used in books now? Do you like them or do you find it boring and repetitive?
Popularity: 15% [?]
Comments (7)
Panda
December 30th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I totally agree with you. I think many authors are using vampires, were wolves and all things supernatural in their books, but isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?
Cater to their readers so that they make money from the people buying their books?
I disagree with you over the House of Night novels. If you have read the more current ones, things are starting to fall apart for the heroine of the story.
Also, they probably will come back ‘into fashion’ so to speak.
The Night World books, for example, have been republished due to ‘Twilight’.
As long as authors keep bringing out books that capture their audience (and if it catches on like ‘Twilight’ did), the older books will keep coming out.
However, in saying this, I totally agree with you. It’s becoming tiring reading over and over the same plot of the stories – You’ve read one, you’ve read them all.
In constrast to this, different authors have different writing techniques and also change parts – not all plots are the same.
I think that’s what makes it bearable and somewhat enjoyable.
Angel
December 30th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
But it feels to me that they’re just writing for the sake of writing. I mean kudos to them for sticking it out and actually managing to write a book AND get it published but really what they’ve written will most likely be mindless and require very little thinking.
Phang
December 30th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
‘Money, dear boy’ is the answer to everything. Meyer has started something, like how most fantasy bewks copy off Tolkein in some way or another. Hopefully the undead romance thing won’t become so mundane and unbiquitous, though. Or maybe it’ll get out of hand, and we shall look to the American authors, and we shall look to the Japanese deviants, and we shall see nothing that differentiates the two. I wouldn’t mind that, it’d be fun.
Anyway; something I like about the House of Night books, though I admit I’ve only read the first, is that…well, maybe it’s just me putting in stuff that isn’t really there but I got the sense they were ‘reacting’ to Twilight, in a way; taking the mick.
I mean – Twilight is written by a Mormon and often noted as being ‘secret Christian propaganda’ (people do so love that erm). In House of Night, the thinly-veiled Christian cult (ooh, wonder what that could be based off) is a bunch of arrogant morons (lol) who stand against the gratuitous paganism of the vamps. Twilight’s clumsy, ‘ohgodyousowonderfulmesocrap’ Mary Sue? Meet HoN’s ‘holycrapimsuddenlytheBESTthatscoolmon’ Mary Sue. There are some other examples too, ranging from setting to plot.
Chinaren
December 31st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I disliked Vampire stories before Twilight became popular, and I dislike them even more now.
Not so much because some of the stories are bad, but Vampire stories are all the same, there’s no originality.
Also Vampires are ‘easy’ to write ‘cos they’re ‘cool’. Ie: ‘handsome/hot’ powerful and immortal. No challenge there, which is maybe why they’re all boring.
Haywire.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I think vampire stories were alright until Twilight hit us. Now I’m getting sick of hearing about the same love story. If you want a good vampire book to get your teeth into [...haha. pun
] read Charlaine Harris. They are really the best vampire books I’ve come across.
Plus, you mentioned that werewolves are becoming more popular. They’re not really. It’s hard to find a book solely about werewolves. ‘Hunting Season’ is one of these few.
…Go Sookie Stackhouse!…
Haywire.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Oh, I forgot to mention…Oops.
I think that anything supernatural allures teens into reading it; vampires, immortals, fallen, werewolves, zombies, shapeshifters, were-animals. They’ll all grab our attention.
Angel
January 5th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Must be because we all secretly want to be immortal in some way.
Charline harris? Hmm I shall have a browse and see if i can see something.
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