Twilight

I've always been a sucker for vampires (har har) and when I found out that "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer was about my favorite fictional monster, I had to read it. Yes, I also religiously watched "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Yes, I buy vampire teeth every Halloween and give them to my children and we all run around pretending to suck the life out of everything. The cat hates it. Where does this gruesome fascination with vampires come from? Good question, my inquiring reader. In a fit of introspection, I discovered the beginning of my love for the creatures of the night (cue the flashback music, please). When I was in elementary school, I discovered in the non-fiction section of the library a collection of books about the old monster movies from the 30s-50s: Dracula, The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, The Mummy, King Kong, Frankenstein, etc. I loved these books. They had little bios about the actors, like Bela Lugosi or Lon Cheney and then would describe the basic plot for the movies with photographs. These books fascinated me. I've always liked to be scared, in a spooky, creepy monster kind of way and these books provided that thrill. When these old movies would show up on TBS or something during the day in the summer, I hungrily soaked in the black and white scariness. The thing that frustrated me were the pathetic damsels who were always the victims of these tales. It's a sign of the generation and thinking of the time, but I was so annoyed by their complete lack of gumption. Run, blonde idiot! Can't you see how slow Frankenstein moves? But of all the villains, I loved Dracula best. He was dark and dashing, not freakish or grotesque like his monster fellows. You could see why the blondies stuck around. You could almost hear them thinking, "Hmm, one little bite might not hurt."

Stephenie Meyer's book is a love story, no less. Talk about unrequited love, especially when your true love also wants to suck your blood! It brought back memories of the dashing Dracula, or the brooding Angel, so when I read it, I was expecting something along those lines. It was a fun read, a definite page-turner, very exciting and had some great suspenseful moments. But a love story? Huh. The true love that is touted all over this book is all based on attraction. Buffy loved Angel because he was good! Dracula seduced his victims without any pretense of love! Edward and Bella in "Twilight" are in love because she thinks he's hot and he thinks she smells tasty. Really? That's it? There are two other books in this series, "New Moon" and "Eclipse" so I'm going to give Ms. Meyer a chance to redeem herself. I'm hoping there will be a new love interest, non-vampire related, or the "true love" will turn out to be that for real. Nobody spoil it for me!

While I wait for the other books to get to me from my holds list at the library, I think I'll go watch "Buffy the Musical" again. Nothing like some dancing vampires to perk a girl up.