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'Twilight' fans bitten by the vampire bug

Stephenie Meyer’s series has infected readers with undying thirst for dark, romantic creations

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

At twilight, they will start to ­gather and ­commune until their thirst is satisfied at midnight.

We're not talking about the bats that have been winging around Lexington, or some monstrous coven.

Friday night will see the latest nocturnal gathering of young readers, anxious for another installment of a favorite book series. This sort of thing was supposed to end last summer, when J.K. Rowling released the last Harry Potter tome.

But flying under the radar, even then, was Stephenie Meyer, a Phoenix homemaker and mother of three whose Twilight Saga books were sending pulses racing, particularly those of teenage girls.

”Everyone talks about Twilight,“ says Macy Early, 13, an eighth-grader at ­Lexington's School for ­Creative and Performing Arts. ”It's like a book club at our lunch table.“

Before school let out, the chatter was turning to Breaking Dawn, the fourth and likely final book in the series, which will be released at midnight Friday.

Jessie Clark Middle School eighth-grader Ashly Holloway says, ”I think something big is going to happen in Breaking Dawn. Something drastically big.“

What has hooked readers on this story, which started in 2005 with Twilight?

”A lot of people like the idea of vampires and romance,“ explains Winburn Middle School eighth-grader Kathryn White.

The Twilight Saga is the story of Bella, a ­teenage girl who has fallen into a ­tortured romance with Edward, a ”vegan“ vampire. His family takes vacations to feed on large animals so they don't chomp on friends and loved ones. Also on the scene is Jacob, a ­werewolf and rival for Bella's ­affections.

Among the burning questions fans want the new book to answer is whom Bella will choose.

If all this makes you feel tragically unhip, don't fret.

Even some connoisseurs of popular culture and ­literature will give you a blank stare if you mention Meyer's name or Twilight.

”I wanted to do an Eclipse midnight release party after we did the Harry Potter party last year,“ Rebecca Wren, ­children's department manager at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, says, referring to the third book in the series. ”But when I mentioned it to our management, they didn't think anyone would come to that.“

As of Monday morning, Joseph-Beth had passed out more than 850 tickets for Friday's Breaking Dawn party.

The possible finale plus the anticipation of the first Twilight movie in December have stoked interest in the books.

In Lexington, Barnes & Noble Booksellers and National College also are hosting release parties, both with wedding themes in anticipation that Bella will tie the knot with someone.

Edward or Jacob?

Twilight fans break into two camps: Team Edward and Team Jacob.

”I'm definitely Team Edward,“ says ­Lexington Christian Academy ­freshman Anna Downs, 14. ”He's more perfect, Prince Charming.“

Bryan Station Middle School eighth-grader Katie Harris likes the way ”Edward always stands up for Bella,“ pointing out that in the second book, New Moon, he was willing to leave her to save her life.

Everyone acknowledges that Team Edward is a larger group. But Jacob has fans.

”I love Jacob because he's a big teddy bear and he protects Bella,“ White says.

Jan Ross, librarian at Dixie Elementary Magnet School and a blogger at the Herald-Leader's site BluegrassMoms.com, thinks your pick for Bella's beau has something to do with age.

”Most of us have married Jacobs,“ Ross says. ”They describe Edward's skin as cold and hard like granite. As a woman, I don't know if I'd want to snuggle up to that for the rest of my life.“

Basically, if Bella goes with Jacob, she would have a shot at a normal life. If she goes with Edward, there would be complications, becoming a vampire among them.

”Bella doesn't want to grow old while Edward stays 18,“ Wren says.

The age ­demographics of the teams are not perfect. Chrissy Kees, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mom in ­Nicholasville, says she's ­surprised to find herself rooting for Edward. She might have been more surprised to find herself absorbed by this series.

Sold on vampires

Like numerous Twilight fans, Kees says her initial reaction to the series was ”I don't like vampire books.“

When Kees started ­reading, she was ­completely absorbed and plowed through all three novels.

”We didn't have clean ­underwear and ate ­McDonald's for three days,“ Kees says.

Readers such as Bobbi Rightmyer, 46, came to the series with a love of fanged lit. She began reading ­vampire books when she picked up Stephen King's Salem's Lot at age 11.

”It really took the ­vampire legend in a ­different direction,“ says Rightmyer, secretary at Harrodsburg's United Presbyterian Church. ”They can go out in the ­daytime, lead normal lives, and there's the idea of ­vegetarian vampires.“

Twilight is paving the way to other vampire lit for younger readers, like 13-year-old Holloway, who says she's moved on to things like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.

Next comes the movie

Fans might have to go looking for something new after this book, as Meyer has strongly hinted that it will close the series.

”I'm really mad about that because she can carry this series a lot longer than four novels,“ Jonathan Gigliotti, 19, of Versailles says.

Like numerous Twilight fans, Gigliotti picked up the series after being set adrift by the close of the Harry Potter series. But unlike Rowling. Meyer is already exploring a post-series career. In May she released her first novel geared toward adults, The Host. It is a New York Times best seller.

Twilight fans also have Midnight Sun, a retelling of the first novel from Edward's perspective, to look forward to, and the e_SDHpmovies. Twilight the film, due in ­December, stars Robert Pattison ­(Cedric Digory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as Edward.

Movie images and ­trailers already have ­polarized fans. Gigliotti says Kristen Stewart's Bella seems ”bold, not like the outsider she is in the book.“

Macy Early, the SCAPA creative writing student, gives an almost complete review of advance footage from the movie, praising the cinematography and action and calling it, ”thoroughly absorbing.“

And she says the same for the books, which, like Harry Potter, get a lot of credit for getting a video-oriented generation reading again.

Early says, ”It's amazing that she has the power to write so well that people who wouldn't think of ­reading a book pick up books of 400 and 500 pages and read them.“