This summer I have stumbled across three book series es where the hero is a young woman who falls for a super-natural boy (vampire or wizard).
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is of course the pinnacle girl with a vampire for a boyfriend, we will not talk about her here but she deserved a mention since all of these books call back to the outline of, girl meets super-natural boy with a heart of gold, but could go bad at any moment.
The first of these books that I read was Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Book displays for this series dominate bookstore windows. I am sure you have seen the glossy black covers with a picture of a red ribbon, or apple as in the case of Twilight the first of the series.
Meyers has been called by many critics, the next J.K. Rowling. ("ha" I scoff) Meyers is not the next Rowling, she isn't even good despite what her book sales tell you.
Twilight tells us the story of a girl, Bella, in high-school who moves to a remote town in Washington state (yay), that is cloudy most of the year (convenient for vampires) to live with her father. New school, new town, new boys. Bella fits in better than she did in her other school and boys seem to notice her now even though she finds herself plain. So friends and admirers come easily to her. We hear mention of these friends and admirers throughout the book but she doesn't seem to care about them or do anything to keep them. The only thing we do hear about is Edward. A tragically beautiful boy who keeps to himself and to his brothers and sisters who like him are all pale, beautiful, distant and vampires.
These are vampires, not with souls like Angel but they do avoid eating humans. Periodically they all go hunting in the woods for game to keep themselves fed.
Much of the book is Bella thinking about Edward and when she is with Edward wondering what he is thinking. Why is he distant? Does he love me? Do I love him? And when they spend more time together, with so little talking I am not sure how they got to know each other, much less fall in love, it is a lot of "I love you so much" and "I am afraid of losing you" type sentiments.
Edward's conflict is that he loves her but the passion between them peaks his hunger for her blood. Oh teen (or hundred year old vampire) angst.
This makes any kind of nooky hard so their encounters involve a lot of non-touching. A kiss could make him bite her. Which is all she wants anyway so she can become a vampire and be with him forever.
It feels like I read 498 pages of her waiting to see Edward. When they are together it is a lot of sitting not talking and not touching. She get so depressed at the end of the book (not because this has been an extremely boring story) but because she is a year older and Edward will always be the same age. (Not counting the hundred or so years he has been around, not aging)
I read a lot of popcorn books but they usually have a good story. This book makes me mad for the time I wasted reading it.
The trailer for the movie looks awful. They show where she almost gets hit by a car and Edward saves her with his superhuman strength. The other scene is where she is kidnapped by a bad vampire and is being held in a dance studio. The only two parts of the book with any action. A trailer of sitting and sighing isn't a very hard sell.
Entertainment Weekly did a review of the last book in the series and laughed it out of the water.
SPOILER!!! She finally marries Edward and gets pregnant (everyone knows vampires can't reproduce, Edward even tells us that in the first book). Apparently she has a Rosemary's baby esk moment when she gives birth. I don't remember what else they said but I was glad I hadn't spent anymore time on the series.
