The truth of the matter is, and know this, what you see on the shelves is a solid year, upwards of two, behind what editors and publishers are buying now. Go ahead and try to sell a paranormal romance now. I dare you. Unless it's something so exceptionally different and fantasmagorically insanely written, it's not going to get bought. The market's saturated with this kind of book so, and this is grounded in absolutely nothing but my own logic, the only authors that are going to bank on this kind of upheaval are those with series already out. The House of Night series, The Vampire Diaries, Vampire Kisses. I know I'm missing some. Wait a year or two, when what's being bought now cycles out and see how the market changes.
Now, you probably think I'm just, yet again, ranking on Twilight. Well, kind of. I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of it getting credit it doesn't deserve. I'm getting sick of the unwarranted comparisons to JK Rowling that's being made of Stephenie Meyer. The two aren't even in the same universe. I'm sick of the Twihards giving Meyer credit for inventing the vampire, the love triangle, the I Heart Humanity vampire, books, the ya genre, vampire stories in general and how everything, in some fashion or another, is a rip off of Twilight.
I'm. Sick. Of. It.
Yeah, thanks for getting more kids to read. Nevermind JK Rowling actually single-handedly revolutionized the young adult genre with Harry Potter (which has been statistically proven) and for which had she not done it, something like Twilight probably would have never seen the light of day. But for all Twilight's worth, perhaps those readers should just stick to fanfiction. A fair amount of it is better quality (which is saying something) and it has all of the same melodrama as the published stuff but for free online.
And the irony is here I am bitching about it, drawing more attention to it and wasting my time. An even bigger iro
ny, I've deemed Spine-Breaking Spawn next up on my to-be-read list. Why? Because I don't want it looking at me from my TBR pile anymore and I have other, more worthwhile vampire stories to read, like Mari Mancusi's Blood Coven series and Beth Fantaskey's Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, plus The Vampires Promise series by Caroline B. Cooney, Vampire Beach (although I don't know how good this one is) and Parliament of Blood. Not to mention a couple of vampire compilation books, Vampire Stories from New England and Vampire Stories from the classicists like Bram Stoker, DH Lawrence and Anne Rice (although the last can be questioned). Spine-Breaking Spawn is the NyQuil I have to swallow and the rest is the tub of icing I use to wash the green death taste out of my mouth. Prepare yourself for the review on that one, what with Edward giving a whole new meaning to the term "eating out" and all.You know, it wouldn't be so bad if the mania around Twilight weren't so psychotic. The actors in the Harry Potter movies don't get death threats from diehard fans that they'll be killed if they screw up the characters. Fans of Draco Malfoy don't scratch at their necks when they see the kid that plays him because their reality synapses has failed. I've said it before. These books are decent fluff. If you want to shut your brain down and take a couple hours and pile through them, you'll be entertained. I was. But this is just ridiculous.
So yeah. Just let me sit here and bitch and moan every once in a while as I pray to whatever sadistic god that may be listening to ease the pain a little sooner. Until then I have things like this and this.
7 comments:
I hear you! I liked Twilight as a series well enough, but just as good (or better) then Harry Potter? Come on! I am getting so sick of everyone talking about Twilight! There are other amazing books out there that deserve more attention. (*Cough* The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan) I just wish everyone would realize that Twilight is not a pioneer in vampire/human love genre. Excuse me! LJ Smith, anyone? End of rant.
The trouble with bestselling series is that of course they're going to get different reactions from different readers. For as many people who claim Twilight is bad, there are as many who say the same about Harry Potter. And you can't really argue about differences in opinion and taste. *shrug*
But an interesting post by you, as always.
Well to be honest Anne Rice started the whole "my boyfriend is a vampire" kind of thing. At least she opened the door to it. Then Buffy had Angel and so on and so forth. If anything Twilight is the natural evolution of it: Teen Angst meets Cuddly Morally Afflicted Vamp. If Meyer didn't pull it off, someone else would have.
I decided to write myself a cure. Here is a quote from one of my blog post about the vamps in my current WIP:
"On a recent post (and many more after that) on the NaNo forums the subject of “cuddly” vampires (a la Twilight) came up. The poster said that he didn’t like the recent fad of turning vampires from monstrous blood suckers to tortured goth heroes. I responded that the vampires in my NaNo project were anything but “cuddly”. If anything they are conniving, manipulative, psychopaths driven by a demonic urge to rape, murder and destroy. As far from the romantic (in the modern sense of the word, one which would cause the likes of Lord Byron, Tennyson or Blake to spit if they heard what passes for romantic these days) vision of the tortured yet irresistibly attractive vampire heroically fighting the urge to drink virgin blood while dating the only virgin left in town as you can get."
Oh and I just saw on my local Borders boxes of Twilight candy hearts (Forbidden Fruits). I'm not kidding. Van Helsing would have wiped the floor with the lot of them in seconds.
I'm a huge Twilight fan, and will continue to be. I just kind of ignore the fandom now, or try to. Parts of it annoy me.
I think J.K. Rowling AND Stephenie Meyer have both helped YA fiction, and both should get credit for it. Rowling did it first, yes, but Meyer has still made thousands of people, who may not have done otherwise, pick up a book.
I always look forward to these posts! :)
LOL, IB! Yeah, definitely much more worthwhile stuff out there. I have seen a lot of fans that start off in Twilight and then branch out into other vampire books which is a good thing but the psycho fans kind of ruin it for the rest of the crop.
Thanks, Steph! I agree. But it proves for a fun debate!
Raf, are you talking about the bleeding heart vampire? Bram Stoker's Dracula was pretty bleeding heart for Mina if I remember correctly. But his roots for her transcend his vampirism so that might be a loophole. But yeah, Louis was definitely one of the pop culture firsts in category. Thanks, Lou. And yeah, they had those on some TV show. I think it was Extra or some of those rag shows. Seriously, is the cash cow spitting out dust yet?
PG, I definitely know people in your type of boat with The Lost Boys fandom. They're huge fans of the film but they don't want any part i the fandom itself, at least as of late. And I do agree about Meyer and Rowling. I still stand by the notion that without Rowling, Meyer wouldn't exist, but yes, it's another wave that spurned reading and in this day and age, beggars definitely can't be choosers. I'm glad you like my crazy ranting!
Woooow.
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