Poll: The Twilight Train – Over It or More Please?
One thing about the craze of the Harry Potter Years is I didn’t see over-the-top endorsements for other series, such as If you liked Harry Potter, you MUST read Amberfinch’s Magical Circus – Potter fans will rejoice! I’m sure there were some instances (it is after all in the nature of marketing to take advantage of whatever is topping an industry’s charts, however unoriginal it may be…), although I remain blissfully unaware of them. I was able to enjoy the Potter series for what it was and never did it intersect the potential awesomeness of any other children or young adult title. There were no constant shots at the Glory that was Potter when it came to another book.
I’m a big fan of letting a book stand on its own. So when I finished My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent yesterday, I went online to Amazon to see other reader opinions, after which I planned to research some blog reviews. Then I saw the book trailer on its Amazon page. I clicked. I was about to click away when I saw that damning phrase, at :34 in – “Twilight fans will love it”.
Before I go any further, I can definitely see why some books are recommended based on logic like above. Some really do seem to imitate the marketing/fan loved phenomenon that is Twilight. Hell – I liked Twilight and most of it’s series sisters, and I watch the movie. It was fun. The end. After reading Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Fallen by Lauren Kate, which very much felt like Twilight with angels instead of vampires, sure – the comparison can be made.
Like anything, though, too much of a good thing is overkill and plain bad. Twilight cannot nor should it even attempt to represent the overall fun, imagination and talent that is inherent in the young adult umbrella genre today. My Soul to Take is absolutely nothing like Twilight. The phrase I mentioned above from its book trailer had this preceding the Twilight endorsement: “Plenty of paranormal thrills, mystery and romance.” And both books do, hell, lots of so-called young adult titles do – but this in no way means they are enough alike to slap the Twilight starburst of awesomeness on it. My Soul to Take is a great book and by God, it stands very well on its own. It doesn’t need Twilight to speak for it.
As Wendy pointed out to me on Twitter, books like Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols are phenomenal, yet they get little to no attention in comparison to Twilight (I know, I know, let’s point to the sales figures shall we…). While we’re at it, yes, this is all subjective, but honestly, how much more of this book and that book is for fans of brooding Edward and klutzy Bella do we need? My personal quota has been filled. My sparkles runneth over.
Of course, some authors might want a book like that to speak for theirs if it gets their work some attention. Totally and 100% understandable. But what about the sector that isn’t into Twilight? What if such a rec is off putting? I’m about at the point where it is.
What about you? Are you over the Twilight Train, or do you agree with and love all the places its sparkling bower of YA power is placed? Does it’s name on a new book automatically make you want to read said new book, or at least check it out (or Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice)? Feel free to vote in the poll on the upper right.
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I think it’s called “Damned by faint praise.” :wink:
I remember picking up Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh when it first came out and right there on the cover was a blurb that said something to the effect of “Fans of my books will love this series.” – Christine Feehan.
OK, now I loved Feehan back in the day (mid-90s, before PNR exploded), but I haven’t loved her for a long, long time. And the blurb was almost enough to make me put the book back. Seriously. That was SO not a selling point for me. Although I get that there are a ton of readers who adore Feehan, and everything she writes.
But when it comes to YA, I think that Twilight really is a phenomenon. And I’m all for anything that gets kids reading. It’s just that…well, the Twilight series just isn’t that good. There are so many *other* YA books that are WAY better (Melissa Marr, anyone?). But I get when the teens love it so. And I can see why YA authors and publishers would do everything they could to leverage the teen-soaked frenzy that the series inspired.
Kati, you make good points, and I thought too about the “getting kids to read” arena. I too felt strongly towards this when Twilight first became the rage…but I feel more strongly now about there being better books out there. After a while, all this Twilight as an endorsement power tool has become too much. Surely it cannot speak SO much for all the books I’ve seen it on. It starts to feel like misleading the consumer after a while.
Also I swear I read an article once that showed that readers of Twilight don’t necessarily go on to become big readers. Or was that point made about Harry Potter, of which it was also said that it would get kids to read more….gah, will do some googling.
I get you on the Feehan thing with Singh’s books! I believe she and Feehan are friends, which is great, but yeah, hear ya. I mentioned in a review for one of Singh’s books that the Feehan cover quote needed to go.
Dude, THESE are the sorts of posts we need to see more of!! You do this stuff so well… :)
I love hearing what other readers make of these things.
Cheers,
Kaz
I has a blush :)
Actually, I kind of brace myself to be lambasted by someone when I do these posts lol. Girding of ye ‘ole loins and all.
I like, love uniqueness in a book, or at least the thought of reading a book that will be unique or can stand on its own when I pick it up. I hate the recycled phenomena. So, no this type of thing doesn’t do it for me — it turns me off. If I want Pride & Prejudice, I read the original, I don’t pick up a ‘knock off.’
When it comes to Twilight… well, I never got on that train to begin with, so that line would make me turn away from the book immediately, but that’s just me.
My Soul To Take is so very different from Twilight in every way! But again, because it says, if you like Twilight, every Meyer fan will buy it.
It seems the YA world has bowed down to Meyer and everyone wants to write like her or read her.
Makes you wonder what the next big thing will be?
Them assuming every Meyer fan will buy it is a gamble though.
good grief, yes, good question. What WILL the next huge, all-encompassing spider web of a product be?
I’m one of those who jumped from the Twilight Train after the first stop, and I think using Twilight as a reference is a risk, precisely because the book’s been so polarizing. It seems to be either “like it or hate it” – so when you advertise “something’s like Twilight” you also run the risk of scaring people away from it.
We are in agreement!
Considering the fact that I read Twilight and New Moon waaaaaay back in 2006, I’m very much over the Twilight train. I mean, I loved it when I read it back then and I can still talk praises why I loved it and why it’s perfectly fine for teens to go crazy for it now. Let’s face it. It incorporates a ton of elements that teens (and adults) wants to read about. But the thing is…. there’s a plethora of other amazing YA novels that accomplish the same thing.
In general, I don’t mind when a book is recommended or compared to another novel to capture readers. But I do believe in this case, the constant comparison to Twilight is downright annoying. (Says the reader who loved Twilight to pieces once upon a time.) How does one book become the end all and be all standard of all paranormal YA literature? Frankly, I think it’s all just a marketing ploy to simply get teens who are all wrapped up in the Twilight hype to buy the book just because it has “perfect for Twilight fans” plastered on the cover. That’s it.
High five, because this is so what’s on my mind. You said it well. ;) Whatchu doin’ in my mind?
IT is definitely a marketing ploy, and that’s one reason it’s really starting to irritate me. I can see it on books like I mentioned – Hush Hush and the like, but to rec a book like Vincent’s, link it with Twilight? That is pure crazy talk. It’s misleading to a consumer. Me no tend to likey.
So. Over. Twilight. I’m a big fan of comparing books with similar books (although I don’t trust Amazon related reads anymore b/c they keep pimpin Lara Adair). If I’m new to a genre like YA, it makes sense to use a popular well known author/series ( if you liked insert well known book here you will probably like…). But to compare most, if not all YA vamp books to Twilight is just overkill IMO. I would like to see more of “if you like this author’s writing style then you will like this book”, not necessarily by popular series/book. etc.
YES! The twilight train is basically in overkill mode ATM. Agree with your opinions here.
I’ve only just discovered Twilight, but even so I’m so not on the Twilight train. I like a book to, as you said, stand on it’s own two feet (figuratively speaking :) Comparing one book with another…I don’t want the same thing, I want something new and exciting and different. If I wanted exactly the same thing, I’d re-read Twilight (which no, I’m not planning on doing :)
And I so agree with you Kati on Melissa Marr – amazing series!
You know, I DO want a good urban fantasy – but just because my fave urban fantasy author loves another urban fantasy author’ debut doesn’t mean I’ll like it. So sometimes I technically want the same thing – but it does also need to be different. If that makes any sense at all lol.
It’s simply lazy advertising and marketing. Leveraging a built-in audience is so much easier and cheaper than conceiving an engaging and original promotion. I liked Twilight and the later books pre-phenomenon stage. Once it became a pop culture touch stone I found myself flinching at every mention and comparison. Thankfully most readers can think for themselves and hopefully they look at those statements and say – give me a break.
Yep, you’ve pretty much said what I was sort of but not really saying – laziness. I do think most readers can think for themselves and am glad for it – it’s just that this starts to grate on my nerves more than anything. Of course, the grating shall pass. For now – full-on grate!
I hate Twilight. OK, I correct myself–*before* everybody started recommending it to me like the Bible of all romances, I had thought it was all right. Cliche but still readable. Now…one of these days I am going to write a review and trash it XD. Which will probably land me in an argument with Twilight fans.
There are so many funny reviews of Twilight. Again – I liked it, but I mean, I rarely take what I read completely seriously, not so much that I can’t laugh at it once in a while. Twilight is definitely one such read. Some of it practically begs for some snark. And yeah, you’ll definitely get some snarkiness back, but don’t mind ‘em.
I never even boarded the Twilight train. Bought a ticket – I have book 1 and 2 at home, that I bought because of good buzz, mild curiosity and low price combined to a gift card – but I’m still sitting at the station watching that train go by with my nose in other books and perfectly happy that way :). The series seems a bit puerile and cliche to me so I’m not especially eager to read it; therefore a “perfect for Twilight fans” would probably turn me off more than anything.
Thing is, the idea of recommending a book based on what else you’ve liked is basically a sound one. I mean, when we ask a friend for recommendations, we usually tell them what else we’ve liked. I got great recs from friends like that, from lists provided by the library, and even from Amazon’s recs system that works in a similar way. I can understand publishers trying to attract readers to new authors by using the lure of another series they’ve liked. The problem is that they’re doing it too much and often indiscriminately, on books that sometimes have little to do with the original reference or is so much like it as to be a cheap copy. I’ve tried buying books that had a blurb from an author I loved saying that this new series was perfect for their fans or that they themselves enjoyed it and 80% of the time I was disappointed. I bought Lara Adrien because JR endorsed it and I found it a boring copy; bought Jessica Anderson for the same reason and found her choppy and hard to follow. Bought Elizabeth Hoyt on Julia Quinn’s rec on her site and thought it was one of the worst romance I’d ever read. So now I ignore authors or publisher’s blurbs on books, although I do check my Amazon recs faithfully. :)
*Thing is, the idea of recommending a book based on what else you’ve liked is basically a sound one. *
Absolutely. The Twilight recs are over-the-top bad though. Seeing it mentioned in relation to Vincent’s YA title sent me over the edge a little. IMO, Vincent’s book is much better. Shorter, but it has a plot, interesting series of events and characters that manage to grow in that short amount of time. Twilight is…well, it’s Twilight and that’s a lot of awkward, breathy, sparkly OMGness.
If you DO get to them one day, hope you enjoy them. ;)
I hate “for fans of…” recs in general, and Twilight is no different. I really liked Twilight, but that doesn’t mean I want to see it re-written in a gazillion ways.
Several weeks ago, I was on a message board where a reader who loved Karen Marie Monings Highlander series was wondering if she would also love the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, since it too features a sexy highlander. I responded that they were MacApples and MacOranges. The two series have nothing in common, and a liking for MacApples does not ensure a liking for MacOranges. It’s the same with Twilight and every other YA-vampire series out there. “For fans of…” endorsements rarely pull me in and, depending on who or what is being used for comparison purposes, may actually send me running in the opposite direction. (I won’t buy ANYTHING endorsed by Laurell K. Hamilton or compared to her or her books. They might as well write, “This books has no redeeming qualities whatsoever” on the front cover.)
I really liked all of the Twilight books with the exception of New Moon(will still see the movie with my friends). However, there are so many other amazing books out there that are just as good if not better than the Twilight series. I don’t see why wonderful books need to have the Twilight stamp of approval for people to pick it up. I usually don’t pick up a book if it is under the “for fans of” sign unless I’ve been told by people(friends and blog friends) I trust about those books. Some of my most favorite series were ones I stumbled upon by accident. Yes I was looking at the YA section because of Twilight, but it was just after the first book came out and I found several series that I love way more than the Twilight series*(dodges flying objects).
I didn’t like Twilight so such comparisons don’t help at all, since I still do like a good vampire story