Last week I finished two books, each a hallmark of the vampire or zombie craze. The vampire book was Breaking Dawn (book 4/4 in the Twilight series) by Stephanie Meyer. Zombies were represented by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (although Jane Austen gets first billing).
I've already discussed my thoughts on the Twilight series, and I don't want to give any spoilers. I'll limit myself to saying that Breaking Dawn shared many of the same strengths and weaknesses as the first three books in the series, except that Book 4 did no tip-toeing around adult issues. If anything, protagonist Bella grew up at lightning speed over the course of the final book in the series. I was shocked that Meyer didn't spread Bella's journey to adulthood over a few more best-selling books.
As for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the idea of the sister warriors was comical, but entirely unbelievable. Grahame-Smith made no attempt to offer readers a reason these young ladies had the raw material to be so suddenly transformed into effective zombie-killers. But with a healthy dose of suspended disbelief, their training scenes were amusing. The narrative was at its best when it was the most gruesome and gross. Any time the storyline veered away from rotting carcasses it reminded me entirely too much of the original. I think I might prefer having my brains eaten to spending an afternoon with Mary and Kitty.
Of the two books which did I prefer? It's hardly fair for me to choose based on the merit of the books. I'm all about vampires. Zombie stories are okay, but they just don't hold the same appeal for me as vampires.
Vampire stories are psychological. They touch on emotion, instinct, desire, hope, fear. They touch on what it means to be human, but more than that, speculate on what it would be like to be more than human, to have great power, strength, and longevity, to see what man might be capable of if he were more. Zombie stories also explore the human condition. Zombies show us what it is like to be dead, what it is like to be nothing more than a body, a shell, without any spark of consciousness. Zombies get into the nitty gritty of mortality: rot, decomposing, loss of body parts. Zombies often lose thumbs, shed limbs, eat their own tongues. They shamble on, asking us how much we can lose and still claim to be ourselves.
Vampires let us experience immortality, zombies rub our noses in the reality of our mortality. I guess between eternal life and putrid death, I find eternal life more fun.
Breaking Dawn ranks #59 in Books on Amazon.com. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ranks #540. Both books are available in Kindle format.
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