What to Read Instead of the New Stephanie Meyer Book

To those who received a spam message from my email account yesterday, apologies. I blame it on my possessed computer at school...

Negativity is a big draw. I know from personal experience: the largest number of hits to this blog in a single day occurred when I posted a nasty note. Go figure.

I don't like negative, despite the marketing potential. Really. It's been my goal to keep things smiley, but WHAM, there it was all over Amazon.com: The Short, Second Life of Bree Tanner: (wait for it...) An Eclipse Novella.

Right. Hold me back before I buy fifteen copies. At the risk of alienating all the preteen girls who are obviously my potential fan base, I present:

Five Books to Read Rather Than The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

1-3: Three Vampire Tales (New Riverside Editions)

You can snag three great classics of vampire literature in one volume. If you claim to be a vampire aficionado and haven't read Dracula, I wag my finger at you. In fact, I've handed many of my students (who have devoured the Twilight books) a copy of Dracula and they couldn't finish it. Bah.

Pick up Three Vampire Tales, and you also have Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu and The Vampyre by John Polidori at your fingertips. Say you like the romance in Twilight? Who is sexier than the female titular character in Carmilla?

4. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Yeah, I didn't like the movie either, but this book puts the whole "vampire" thing in crazy perspective. Do you like bonafide twists in your endings? Brace yourself for the final denouement in Legend. Nothing is creepier than Neville's neighbor, the now-a-vampire Ben Cortman, shouting "Come Out, Neville!" all night long.

5. Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon

Did I mention romance? I mean, Some of Your Blood is a romance at heart, right? Not to mention one of the few books I actually put down at the end and felt a legitimate chill in my gut. Sturgeon takes the reader on a crazy ride in this one. Find a copy (if you can...I think it's out of print again).

And those of you who vote "at least they're reading" when they read Twilight, well, fine. And my track & field team is practicing on six-inch high hurdles.

Some of Your Blood

I finished reading Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon yesterday.

Wow.

The book is written in fragments, semi-epistolary. I struggled through the first third because it was a narrative written by a semi-literate man. (the grammar was atrocious)

I'm glad I did. Since I've started writing, I've scared myself with what my mind was able to conceive, but only on rare occasions. Horror fiction doesn't scare me as it did when I was a child--it doesn't make me look around and put the book down and hope everything is going to be okay.

I felt that way again in a couple of places while reading Some of Your Blood. Without setting off too many spoilers, let me just say the end of the book struck me like no other since I Am Legend; it was just that good.

Some of Your Blood isn't for the casual horror fan. I understand why it isn't more widely read. I'm not even sure some would consider it horror in the popular sense of the term. But if you like to think--if you like a book that makes you go back and reread some passages because of their sheer power, go for it. Be patient. This one avoids cheep scares for deeper, longer lasting discomfort. I promise that you'll think about it after you're done reading.