WHY TEENS LOVE TO SINK THEIR TEETH INTO VAMPIRE BOOKS, MOVIES
Source: sify.com
An English lecturer has examined why teenage vampire books and movies have gripped youngsters’ imaginations nowadays and taken the crowd by storm.
Jolene Zigarovich, Cornell visiting lecturer in English, says, “The reasons for the teen vampire craze are multifold. There is a Shakespearean, tragic element, in the sense that not only is young love forbidden in teen vampire films, but also that love and death are conjoined. Sacrificing oneself for love seems to be a perpetual, human theme.
“The addition of the supernatural and the promise of immortal love that the vampire symbolizes, complicates this very human trope. Love goes beyond teen angst and tragedy in these films; it is literally soul wrenching and otherworldly.
“I believe that the common thread is the Gothic literary tropes of the Byronic, anti-hero, sexual threats, and the disruption of gender stereotypes. In these scenarios, there is typically an attractive social other pained by his immortal plight and doomed to prey on innocent, female victims who find him a tragic, irresistible figure…”
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REVIEW AND GIVEWAY: SHIVER BY MAGGIE STIEFVATER
Source: bookaddictpatti.com
From the author’s website:
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.
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I picked up this book when Ms. Stiefvater came to New Orleans for a book signing. I hadn’t read Shiver yet, but planned to, “eventually”. Why, oh why, did I wait so long to read this book?!?
When Grace was a small child, she was dragged off her backyard swing by wolves and almost killed. One wolf stopped the pack from killing her, and since then Grace has felt a special bond with “her wolf”. She looks forward to seeing her wolf every winter, when the pack comes to the woods behind her house.
Sam has watched Grace ever since he kept the rest of his pack from killing her 6 years ago. He watches her from afar, thinking about her, wishing their lives weren’t worlds apart.
After a wolf attack on a fellow student, the town decides to kill the wolves. As she arrives home after trying to stop the hunters, she spies a wolf on her porch – he’d been shot. Then, suddenly, not a wolf, a boy – Sam.
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Why do you think people love Vamps, werewolves and the like?
