
So last night, during Tub Time, the Son finally got something off his chest about the books I like to read:
“Honestly, Mommy? Some of those paranormal books have really simple, kind of silly plots.”
Yes, he’s 10. And he’s not wrong. So why do I love them and read them anyway? Clearly, there’s more going on than the blurb on the back (and that’s where is info stems from, I’m not letting him read any of these books. Not yet, at least). There are a lot of things I love in paranormal books:
The bending of rules in the Real World.
The rewriting of New Rules in the New World.
Fun tweaking our standard ideas of werewolves, vampires, etc.
Romance between two different species, and what that means to both of them. Sometimes this is more played out in books than in others; I like it when it’s not just accepted that one or the other of them (usually the human, if there is one in the equation) will change over to the other side. Compromise is a hard concept to get across in a novel without having your characters appear wishy-washy, and some authors do it really well.
High moral stakes–a lot of paranormal characters are Saving The World.
Lots of creative sex–and while they’re Saving the World, they’re doing it a lot.
And, finally, these new creatures are my Superheroes–I’m not reading graphic novels or comic books, but these characters are larger-than-life, endowed with superhuman powers and therefore are capable of Saving The World. That’s good to know.