My boyfriend is a vampire

After the phenomenon known as JK Rowling, it is again a woman, Stephenie Meyer, with her manically popular vampire chick lit, who was the biggest selling author of 2008. On Women's Day, DNA  celebrates the fact that it is teenage girls who are the new arbiters of what’s hot in literature.

It’s not exactly what we women went out marching to achieve. But I like to think our fiery sisters of the early 1900s had more on their mind than equal pay and voting rights. The fact remains that 2008’s biggest selling author was a vampire chic lit novelist. Which to me, says that women, no scratch that, teenage girls, are the new arbitrators of what’s hot in literature. And Stephenie Meyer’s four vampire novels: Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008) are plenty hot. Her first three novels occupied the New York Times bestseller list for a Federeresque 143 weeks. Her four books sold 22 million copies in 2008 alone. And the first of the movie adaptations, Twilight, opened to long queues in November last year, raking in $35.7 million on its first day. Clearly, Meyer has done more than just unleash a media sensation — she’s also carved out a new niche genre within horror fiction.

The book that started it all, Twilight begins innocuously enough, with Isabella or “Bella” Swanson moving to Forks, Washington, whose only talking point is that “it rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America.” But she quickly finds herself face-to-face with the delectable (disguised as a fellow-student) vampire Edward. And here’s where the fun begins, because Bella’s (erotic) lust for the immaculate Edward more than matches his blood lust.

This leads to all sorts of delicate tangos because Edward prefers not to snack on the object of his desire. As a vampire, he’s had a century to learn self-control. He may be able to stay away from Bella’s white pulsating neck, but can she keep her hands off his rippling pecs?

There’s more to this than just a clever new take on the vampire genre. The almost manic success of Meyer’s novels is a welcome farewell to the vampire novel’s original script. Let’s face it, Bram Stoker onwards the fun erotic subtext of the slyly unsheathed penetrative fangs was always loaded with the baggage of what feminine virtue and social norms demanded. There were either potently male vampires, a sort of dandy gentleman’s club really, who preyed on virginal young women and devoured their passive submissiveness. Or there were deadly lone female vampires, trained seductresses who were out for the blood of the hapless innocent male, thus reinforcing the tired stereotype that powerful, sexually virile women were up to no good.

Sure, there have been powerful ‘good’ female vampires like the comic book creation, Vampirella, in her trademark mid-riff exposing red skintight suit. But how seriously can you take a vampire that looks like a pretty hardcore porn star, even if she is out to save the earth?

What the vampire novel really needed, it would seem, was the refreshing normalcy that Meyer has brought to it with a teen romance perspective. This time, the vampire Edward is clearly a family man. He has close attachments to adopted siblings and parents but (and this is stressed throughout the four books) looks like a GAP model (spiky hair and all) without having to try. When in sunlight, he doesn’t go up in smoke like your regular creature of the night. Rather, his skin sparkles like it is composed of diamonds —and everyone knows what a girl’s best friend is. In fact, he is tailored to suit Bella’s requirements. He’s fantastically coordinated where she’s clumsy to the point of being a safety hazard to herself. He is loaded with more than just good looks. He puts her needs first, to the point of being self-denying and saintly even in that most primitive of male instincts — and we’re not talking about the blood lust here.

How will they sort it out, you wonder, the perfectly sculpted vampire and the flawed, and very human Bella. They are obviously wired to be the next Romeo and Juliet. But can their passion be consummated without dire consequences? How on earth will a human and the undead do it anyway? That’s pretty much the crux of the four novels. Of course, there’s much more to keep the heart racing than the profound teenage meditation over the First Time.

There’s all manner of bad vampires to threaten the existence of Edward Cullen and his strictly vegetarian family (they feed only on animal blood, he explains). And then there’s the strongly developed werewolf angle which keeps Bella in a seemingly irresolvable spin.

Post-Meyer, vampire fiction will never be the same. Stephen King may have scoffed, saying, “Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn.” I beg to differ. There’s a new King of horror on the block, and this time, it’s a Queen. Happy Women’s Day!

Karishma Attari is a freelance writer.