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Slake Your 'Twilight' Thirst With These Ghoulish Titles

Summit Entertainment

The 'Twilight' books and movie has its audience craving more vampire stories.

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By AMANDA SELLET

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 1, 2009

If you, or someone you love, are struggling with "Twilight" addiction, there is help.

By now you have undoubtedly attempted immersion therapy: reading the books over and over again; seeing the movie 12 times; going to www.stepheniemeyer.com for outtakes and extras, not to mention that partial copy of "Midnight Sun"; buying T-shirts, jewelry, calendars and posters; reading every interview and scrap of gossip; listening to the soundtrack day and night.

Perhaps you have even been reduced to reading fan fiction. (The horror!)

And yet there are still a lot of weeks to fill before your pre-ordered copy of the DVD will arrive (March 21 - but who's counting?), and the publication of "The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide" has been postponed until who knows when. Also, unless you are a teenage girl, you may be beginning to sense that it would be more socially acceptable to diversify your interests, and maybe clean your house.

Since it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is about Stephenie Meyer's four-book saga that makes it so difficult to put down, the following list offers alternative entertainments that embody a number of "Twilight"-esque qualities. Go ahead and try one. There is life after sparkly vampires.

Other vampire content

Books: "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley, in which the great young adult author writes one for grown-ups centered on a compelling vampire-human relationship and lots of baked goods

Movies: "Let the Right One In," a critically acclaimed Swedish take on the teen vampire/human romance (available on DVD March 10)

TV series: "Moonlight," now on DVD, from the people who brought you "Beauty and the Beast," only with a vampire instead of a beast

Other books with the name Stephenie Meyer on the cover:

"The Host," a grown-up (though still chaste and wholesome) novel with a compelling sci-fi premise

Other Mormon writers

Orson Scott Card, "Ender's Game," a science fiction classic

Other young adult books

With a heroine named Bella: "Bella at Midnight" by Diane Stanley, an engrossing and original fairy tale

By a Mormon author (who also happens to be friends with Stephenie Meyer): Shannon Hale's excellent Bayern trilogy, "The Goose Girl," "Enna Burning" and "River Secrets"

With vampires in high school: "Vampire Academy," first in the series by Richelle Mead; two sequels are already out

With better writing but less sparkly romance: "Chalice," the latest young adult offering by Robin McKinley

Which surpass the movie adaptation: The Inkheart series of fantasy novels by Cornelia Funke, aka "the German J.K. Rowling." If you can get through the first one, the second two (the final book was released last fall) are rich and satisfying.

Recommended by Stephenie Meyer: Check her Web site for periodic reading suggestions, including "The Girl Who Could Fly" by Victoria Forester and Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games"

Titles That Inspired Meyer

With an overly possessive boyfriend and a love triangle: "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

With a hero named Edward who loves a supposedly plain heroine: "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte

With a bloodless, talk-heavy finale: Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice"

With a tall, handsome, wealthy and passionate love interest so ideal you'll spend the rest of your life searching for his equal: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

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