Ms. White believes that paranormal romance is the ultimate metaphor for teen romance. Everyone who has ever yearned for someone with rosy cheeked bloom of young love understands how the object of your desire can often seem alien and a from a completely different world than you. Most teen love is that of idolization, you don't deserve the affection of your desired "other", let alone possess the ability to get them to even notice you.Paranormal romance takes the inherent struggles of young love and blows them up into crazy/dramatic proportions. Whether it's the broody guy you sit behind in Calculus who seems "oh so mysterious," or a vampire who has to restrain himself from sucking your blood, you know the struggles of the young heart.
I can understand that, most everyone can understand that (unless you somehow were lucky enough to skip those painfully awkward teenage years and skipped straight to Cassanova status.) And who doesn't like to read a good book or two that they can relate to?
Paranormal romance just happens to be particularly relate-able to our
lovelorn younger selves.
Sources
http://kierstenwrites.blogspot.com/2010/07/you-cant-kill-undead-or-paranormal.html
Adolescence often equals feeling like an outcast or a freak, all the while hoping that someone can overlook how weird we are and be attracted to us (or at least talk to us). Your comments seem to imply that this book is aimed at girls, but I think librarians can and should push titles like it towards their male patrons. Basically, it's the same type of story found in most adventure comics, and some of the most successful comics of the '60s were inspired by soap operas and romance novels, so boys could find it enjoyable. Jim
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to come off as addressing only girls in my post, I tried to be pretty general in my language, though from my example of a young brooding male crush I supposed you could get that. I will be more careful from now on, thanks for the feedback!
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