Just commented on the original post at Chasing Ray (brilliant stuff) and wanted to remark here as well. You are correct that “Let the Right One In” was a much more realistic look at teens and vampires, and I loved it too. Vampire romance today serves a different function in my opinion, and it is not anything we should be alarmed about.

As I posted on Chasing Ray:

I just released a vampire dating book directed both at adults and teens. My publisher asked that it serve both as humor and as a self-help book, and I was pleased because I really didn’t want to write something just for laughs. The vampire romance phenomenon is actually serious business.

It was fascinating to me when my book was recently featured on the Web site of the most popular teen magazine in the UK. Almost 200 teens commented, and their obsession with Edward and vampire romance is rabid. The reasons behind this are as varied as the individual girls. Sometimes it is simply a new kind of Knight in Shining Armor fantasy. Sometimes it’s about sex. Sometimes these are “good girls” working out their new, darker inclinations.

At any rate, I agree that in most cases we can trust that today’s teens know when they are fantasizing vs. when they are taking real life actions. I was not afraid to write my book as if all of it was real. In fact, I’m a believer in encouraging the imagination whenever one can. It plays such a huge role in mental health, at any age.

–Diana Laurence, author of “How to Catch and Keep a Vampire” (www.howtocatchandkeepavampire.com)