As a marketing student, I wanted to figure out for myself how this book became the explosive hit it is (at the time of this post anyway, we all know how fickle pop culture is). Before and since reading the book, I've been hearing over and over again about the qualities that the book-buzzing world contributes to the storm. I found them myself: the bookish, "odd-girl-out" protagonist, the relatable high-school setting, and the re-working of the vampire myth for the modern generation--except I thought this fourteen-year-old did it better. Most of the articles I've read (maybe I'm just reading the wrong ones) seem to treat Stephenie Meyer as a pioneer in YA vampire fiction. Since it hasn't been that long since I was a die-hard-YA-vampire-novel-lover, I disagree. This list backs me up, and I'm sure it's one of many that are probably even more comprehensive--it was just on the first page of Google results.
Granted, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and the dozens of other YA authors never generated this kind of frenzy, but has everyone forgotten Anne Rice? She practically invented the modern, sexy, rocker vampire and was probably one of the most read in the genre not that long ago. Of course now Louis, Lestat and all the other favorites are lost to Catholicism, and you can argue that the Rice's audience was older, but all I have to say is "Buffy" and you'll probably get my next point. You can then counter that point with the point that novelization of the "Buffy" universe came around after it was on the air, but I will point out that the opposite happened with Charlaine Harris, and Twilight's similarities to TrueBlood have already been noted (unfortunately for Twilight).
Vampires aren't new. Vampires in high school aren't new. Different interpretations of vampires will continue to pop up and whenever they hit their niche on the head they'll become ridiculously popular. And Meyer, by taking out the sex that goes so well with the genre, jumped the gap from teenage girls to their moms. While moms and daughters alike have probably enjoyed authors like Laurell K. Hamilton, Poppy Z. Brite, and the countless other "supernatural" romance novels, they probably found it too awkward to discuss. And while that innocence was a major appeal to some reviewers, others see it as a threat to feminism.
Personally, if I'd picked this up in middle school, I would have been right there with all the other fangirls. I didn't get all those author names from research but from memory. Even now, picking up Twilight after all the workshops and creative writing classes I've taken, I read it in one day. All circa 500 pages.
According to this galleycat survey, my fascination is just generational. It's always humbling to find out you're one of the masses, but at least it validates my career choice.
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