Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Jailbait vampires

Hmmm, I have just read Doree Shafrir's Observer piece about the craze for teen vampire fiction with the most demented readerly and writerly longing, I really am going to write a vampire novel one of these days! I want to read all of these:
Despite some recent attempts at getting away from vampires and anointing the next hot paranormal genre (Publishers Weekly recently declared that 2008 was the “year of the zombie”), publishers are continuing to fuel the vampire craze. Authors who have long written for adult audiences are making the jump, including Nancy A. Collins, whose Vamps (another Gossip Girl-with-vampires conceit) comes out in July. Zombies, werewolves, faeries and ghosts are all showing signs of popularity, but as Ms. Howard said, “I think vampires are always the leading edge in the interest in paranormal fiction.” One YA imprint gave its editors what essentially amounted to a mandate to acquire fresh vampire stories; the list of new vampire books coming out in the next few months, in addition to the ones just acquired, is a long one. Vunce Upon a Time, about a vegetarian vampire, comes out this fall; Evernight, a book about a vampire boarding school, will be published in May; and a new book in Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses series comes out in June. Recently sold YA vampire books include Vamped, about a fashionista vampire; a new book in Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series; two more books in Heather Brewer’s Chronicles of Vladimir series; Svetlana Grimm and the Circle of Red, about a middle-schooler with the power to destroy vampires; another book in Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series; Kimberly Pauley’s Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe); and Mario Acevedo’s Jailbait Vampire, a book in a series about a vampire private detective.
Mmmmm, vampires...

2 comments:

  1. How modest of you not to note that she quotes you. And you're right, of course, about the anxiety about modernity. I think that's central to the appeal of Twilight, too--Bella doesn't have to be "modern" if she's with Edward. Of course in Stoker's version we should embrace modernity, which will save us from the evils of the past, while in Meyer's version modernity is the problem not the solution. (Can you tell I'm trying to work on a column about Twilight?)

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  2. Do send me the link if you do the column! Would be very curious to hear more of what you think about those Meyer books...

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