Hello Lovelies! Please excuse our dust while we do a bit of construction on the blog. We will still be posting exciting reviews, brilliant guest posts, and exciting giveaways but we are in the process of transforming the blog and adding new content and features for you to enjoy.

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Paranormal Explosion

Wow wow wow. I swear someone has set off a paranormal sex bomb in the Australian literary market! Either that or Aussie book buyers have swapped their tweed suits for leather pants and thigh-high boots. Never in my life have I seen so many vampire-shape shifter-faerie-psychic-kick-ass novels in my local bookstores and it has made me a very happy girl. Thanks to a fetish that began with Twilight, it seems the undead are breathing a little life back into our local bookstores.

A couple of years ago, the Paranormal section was a tiny bottom-shelf that contained a few of the more popular Anne Rice novels; today it is large and unashamed, encroaching further and further into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. Today, I see middle aged male executives walking down the street with a dog-eared copies of Breaking Dawn. There's been a vampire revival and our local QBD and Angus & Robertson bookstores are desperate to cash-in on the trend. I feel so liberated I could skip down the street yelling 'Yippee!'. I can finally go to a bookstore and buy books I want to read! I don't have to order online.

I just have to wonder what took bookstores so long. How many years has the supernatural thing been going on in the US? Probably since the Buffy days and yet it has been steadily ignored in favour of more Literary works here. Aussies like intelligent fiction but thank God we've finally decided to have a little fun. I'm glad we're recognising novels for their entertainment value because reading shouldn't be just a 'smart' person's hobby.

So now, we have J.R. Ward, Laurell K. Hamilton, Christine Feehan, Charlaine Harris, Kerri Arthur, Sherilyn Kenyon and Mary Janice Davidson to choose from. So you may have to forgive me if I submerge myself in this genre for a little while. I have been so deprived and I have some catching up to do!

I think maybe next is the Anita Blake vampire hunter novels. Can anyone recommend them?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: the Anita Blake books... I thoroughly enjoyed the first six or seven, which were fun, sexy and nicely written preternatural mysteries-with-romance. These days, they're pretty much just porn. The books get bigger, but Actual Plot doesn't make much of an appearance. I would totally recommend the first few. That said, if you're like me, you'll keep reading each new book in the hope that Hamilton re-hires her editor and gets her mojo back.

Marg said...

I havent read Anita Blake because I don't want to love the first few books in a series and then be disappointed after tat!

Vampires do seem to be quite popular right now.

Did you know that Keri Arthur is an Aussie Author?

Miss K said...

Hmm after reading your comments Sophie, I think I might try the first few Anita Blake's for fun. If my interest wanes then so be it! There are plenty of other paranormal series to read instead.

Marg - I did know Keri Arthur is Aussie. Got to support our locals! I just started reading The Gene of Isis and it is fantastic. Have you read any of her work?

Marg said...

No not yet, but I have the first one in the Riley Jensen series out from the library to read at the moment.