The Vampires of Twilight

I've been a fan of vampires since I was a pre-teen. It's been over 10 years since I picked up my first Anne Rice book, and I was hooked from the first words of Interview with the Vampire. It was sexy, scary, and touching. I had fallen in love with the world of vampires that Rice had created and became some what of a purist to her literary rules.

Vampires couldn't be exposed to the sun or they would die. Vampires couldn't have "relations" with humans or other vampires because they don't have any bodily fluids. To make a vampire you would first drain the victim almost until the point of death and then fill them with your own vampire blood. Vampires don't sparkle.

And then one day my friend V handed me a book by Stephenie Meyer called Twilight. I'll be honest: I didn't like the book at first. I thought it was slow and painfully young adult, but I kept reading. In fact, I read the whole book in a weekend and was at my friend's house begging for the next. How did I get so hooked? These weren't my vampires and they did not play by the same rules as Rice's.

They walked in the day. They dated. New vampires were made with venom that is passed from the assailant to their victim. These vampires sparkled in the sun. This was a whole new world, and I'll be honest, I didn't like it at first. But I was overcome by a wave of emotion, filled with an intense love for the love between Edward and Bella.

Theirs was a love story for the ages. It was as intense as any first love, filled with the insecurities of teenage girlhood, and Edward provided a strong and classically prince-like mirror to Bella's independence as a modern woman. The teenager in me swooned for them. While Rice provides many opportunities for romance in her novels, the love that takes place in The Vampire Chronicles is cold and without emotion. They wander the globe, mostly alone, for centuries on end seeking nothing but the emptiness of eternity and human blood. Meyers has created vampires who posses both the humanity and free will that Rice's don't.

The Twilight series and The Vampire Chronicles share the same genre but are written for two different audiences. Meyers writes for teenagers and her sentences are short and to the point, and the intelligence of her characters are limited by their high school education. Rice writes for adult audiences who have knowledge of religion, philosophy, and mythology. She uses many deep Biblical references, with entire books expounding on minute passages, and writes with a romanticism reserved for centuries past. Both books offer readers something unique and vampire buffs are sure to enjoy both.