Vampire romance.
09 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
As I have often said, I don’t care for vampire books. When I was in college, vampires were all the rage, and I enjoyed the many novels and stories and movies and tv shows featuring their little doings. The story I remember best is the one about the man driving away from the rest stop, but that’s not his wife in the back seat.
I have been so bored by all the new vampire love stories coming out on the book shelves. I just can’t drum up enough interest in the basic concept to get past the shoddy workmanship of the books. I don’t want a novel written in the kind of pompous language usually reserved for legal documents (though that kind of language is funny in its own way), but I can’t take trite language at all. If an author overuses her favorite words, I tune out. Vampire books seem to be especially troubled by this defect. I tried those darn Twilight books on several different occasions, and I just couldn’t read them. I don’t care about any of the characters, and I don’t like the author’s style. I realize this is because I’m not a kid anymore, but still. It gets on my nerves.
But I have read two vampire books in the past week that I enjoyed. I was as surprised as anyone, but it’s true. First, I read Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Sure, it had its own moments of tiresomeness, mostly about the dumb main character who I didn’t feel for or care about, nor about her unlikely relationship with the vampire. But every one else was richly imagined and fascinating to discover. The landlady, the stepdad, the boyfriend, the coworkers. All great folks. The world it was set in was superbly imagined. It’s a post-destruction modern America, where magic is real, and the people you meet are not only possibly vampires and werewolves, but also demons and sprites and mixtures of humans with others, and so on. That was enjoyable. I would like to read more.
Also, I read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. These are southern vampires, starting to live peacefully among human beings. You might recognize it as the series True Blood on HBO. I was sceptical, as long series about vampires like this are often terribly hard to take. I will freely admit that I was wrong, and look forward to reading all the others, too. In fact, I got home from work on Saturday night, and read the whole thing in one sitting. I like the heroine, whose southern speech patterns are entertaining to me. I like that her brother is a selfish womanizer, what one expects from the vampires, but he’s human. I like the Louisiana setting, in the towns outside New Orleans. I like the vampire Bill, a Civil War veteran returning to his family’s homesite after more than 200 years. And it’s not trite.
If you like vampire stories, I’m so pleased for you. You are holding the comet’s tail, and have your pick of reading. In fact, you should try writing one for yourself, as I think you could be published! I feel about vampires the same way I feel about ABBA–I only like them because my friend likes them (not the same friend, either). But these two books are a treat! Try them if you’re feeling a little tired of vampires also.
