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Book Reviews
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Hubby’s not undead? Nobody’s perfect
An essay by Fiction Editor Julie McGuire
I’m madly in love with my husband. But he’s got one slight flaw—he’s not undead. Now I don’t normally discuss my disappointment that my husband isn’t a vampire with strangers. But we’re among friends, Dear Readers, and we’re approaching Halloween, that glorious time of year when it is perfectly acceptable to believe in ghosts, wizards, and zombies—to embrace our darker side. Is fascination with vampires any more strange than donning a goblin costume, or sporting an alien mask and approaching perfect strangers demanding “trick or treat?”
I wish I could claim that my obsession with vampire literature started with its origins—the vampire poems of the eighteenth century, for example, or with Polidori’s Lord Byron-inspired Vampyre. Even having an Eastern European grandfather who passed on legends of vampire sightings would seem a more respectable way to have developed this irrational infatuation. But my affection for vampires began when I read Ann Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, after which I joined the throngs of women swooning over Lestat.
For years I kept my obsession a secret. But love of all things vampire is really in right now. In the July 16, 2009, issue of Newsweek, Joan Raymond explores the psychological reasons for the fascination with the bloodsucking creatures. Raymond cites Donovan Gwinner, assistant professor of English at Aurora University, who teaches Got Blood? Vampires in Literature, Film and Popular Culture. “We talked a lot about how things suck,” jokes Gwinner. “But in times of economic contraction, fear of job loss, and war, the vampire myth really speaks to people. What’s so bad about being powerful, almost immortal, always in control, and incredibly desirable?”
I don’t pretend to understand all the reasons why humans—particularly of the female variety—love these fanged creatures so much. For me, though, it’s about escape. Just as I occasionally like to wander away from more literary novels with a good mystery, romance, or a fluffy chick lit novel, tales of vampires provide a thrilling, sexy escape. Like so many of you out there, I worry about how the economy will impact my job, whether I’m doing enough to ensure my teenage boys have the skills they’ll need to navigate a complex adult world, and how to juggle these worries and still have a strong relationship with my perfectly mortal husband. Like you, sometimes I need to escape.
My top-five recommendations for escaping to the darker side are:
1. The entire Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer: I was in a bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, when I overheard a patron extol the virtues of this “amazing young adult novel.” As a mom of two young adults, and curious why the YA genre was becoming so popular, I read Twilight, followed in quick succession by New Moon, and Eclipse. I had an excruciatingly long wait for the fourth book in the series, Breaking Dawn. Along with my best friend, I was one of the oldest in line at my local Barnes and Noble waiting for its midnight release. For those of you in the know, I am squarely in the Edward camp.
2. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: I am a trendsetter when it comes to my love of Charlaine Harris’s wonderfully quirky heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, a cocktail waitress in a small town in Louisiana who has special abilities and falls in love with Bill, the town’s vampire. HBO’s wildly popular True Blood series is based on Harris’s novels. But I loved Sookie and Bill long before it was in to do so.
3. How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful by Diana Laurence: Forget all the self-help books that purport to teach you how to channel your anger, connect with your inner child, or combat your inner demons. Diana Laurence’s tongue-in-cheek self-help book will help you catch the perfect vampire boyfriend, and spot vampire pick-up lines. She also answers FAQs about the irresistible, sexy, dangerous, and tantalizing vampire.
4. By Blood We Live: Vampire Stories edited by John Joseph Adams: With contributions from heavy hitters like Anne Rice, Stephen King, and Kelley Armstrong, this is a great collection of short stories starring the vampire. I absolutely loved Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples,” a decidedly non-Disney version of Snow White.
5. Dracula by Bram Stoker: I only recently read this classic novel, widely considered to be the most influential vampire novel. The adage “better late than never” certainly applies here. I may have discovered Dracula, Mina, Lucy, and Van Helsing in my late thirties, but I am now a true fan. Dracula is a vampire’s vampire. With the gothic setting, and sinister story, Stoker’s novel is a masterpiece.
Happy Halloween!
Julie McGuire, fiction editor of The Internet Review of Books, is a paralegal. Her personal essays and poems have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and several small periodicals. She and her family live in Virginia.
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