Why Is Every Vampire Book A "Twilight Rip-off"?

[Angelica]

wow this conversation has changed drastically from the last time I checked it lol we were talking about the bible lol

[Paranormal_Madness]

Sara wrote: "Many books or should i say VAMPIRE books are compared to twillight. I think every vampre books are similer in there own ways the only things that has changed is that they sparkle in the sun.....but..."

Yes, there aren't many different storylines possible about vampires, so many of them are going to be similar in their own ways, and I haven't read Fallen, but I've heard it tries very hard to be Twilight without the vampires. But sometimes I read a vampire book that has absolutely nothing in common with Twilight, and people will automatically compare it with Twilight, just because of the presence of vampires. It's almost as if people think Stephenie Meyer is the only vampire author on the planet.

[Joel]

Samantha wrote: "She said that her vampires have fangs, get headaches in the sunlight if they don’t feed, they feed on humans, they aren’t invincible, they don’t sparkle, and they are killed by being staked through the heart. That is absolutely nothing like Twilight’s vampires, yet people have still compared her series to Twilight in many different reviews."

That seems to presume the most important part of the Twilight books is the mechanics of the vampires - it isn't.

The most important part of the Twilight books is that they are romance novels, aimed at teen girls, where the romance is between two outsiders, forbidden and dangerous, and the viewpoint is *firmly* that of a teen girl. I doubt even most twilight fans spend much time thinking about the fact that Edward's eyes are lubricated with venom rather then saline tears. However, they do spend time thinking about the perfect, doomed, romance of the couple and how selfless Edward is for avoiding Bella so he doesn't end up eating her.

Consequently, any book that has a similar dangerous romance, with similarly outsider-ie characters, narrated from the teen female perspective is going to remind readers of the things they thought about while reading Twilight. Thus they'll say the book is "like" twilight.

I expect your friend's series does have some (just some, not all) of these characteristics. Now if your friend is Larry Correia and it's Monster Hunter International that's getting compared to Twilight... Well, I'd be stumped.

[Angelica]

Samantha wrote: "Sara wrote: "Many books or should i say VAMPIRE books are compared to twillight. I think every vampre books are similer in there own ways the only things that has changed is that they sparkle in th..."

the vampire book Blue Bloods by Melissa De la cruz is more like gossip girl then twilight but people compare it to twilight B/c it has vamps in it

[Bill]

Gerd wrote: "Stoker, that sly fox, used Wells's time machine, which the man had just build to test certain elements of a novel idea of his, to travel into the future, gather what popular literature about vampires was around, and then travelled back claiming other authors (future) hard work as his own."

WARNING: Do not read things like this after a lecture on electromagnetism. They might start to make sense. :-0

[Paranormal_Madness]

Joel wrote: "Samantha wrote: "She said that her vampires have fangs, get headaches in the sunlight if they don’t feed, they feed on humans, they aren’t invincible, they don’t sparkle, and they are killed by bei..."

She’s not a friend—a friend of mine actually suggested I check out this author’s zombie book because she liked it and the main character shares my name, so she thought I would enjoy that. But her vampires are completely different from the ones in Twilight, yet people still compare the series to Twilight.

And the first book in the series is not really a romance, it simply has a bit of romance in it. The main character—a female werewolf—is in love with her human best friend, but the romance grows naturally through the story, and it doesn’t dominate it plot wise. The story is more about revenge and survival and obsession. So the only “similarities” I can think of is the fact that the book is written in first person (what Young Adult book isn’t these days?), narrated by a female (who is 20, and again, most books are written this way), and the story has paranormal creatures in it. So I guess I can see how some people could think it was similar, but some people have said that she ripped of Stephenie Meyers’ work, and I don’t think that is fair to the author. So I made this thread to see how other people felt about this.

[Chanin]

i would think the reason they get compared is because as of right now its one of the more popular books in the teen generation what with the movies and the four books they have out.

[Chanin]

i like almost all of those except evernight but even then i bet if you looked up those books on amazon.com or on goodreads there would be at least one person being all " this is sort of like twilight blah blah.."

[Jem]

because peeps r boring and cant think of anything new :)

[Therealbadkitty]

It isn't even just vampire books that people refer to as "twilight rip-offs", any book that includes a love triangle or supernatural element is forever being compared to this series. The weirdest one i read about is when a reviewer described Beautiful Creatures as "Twilight meets The Hunger Games" and i feel that series has nothing comparable to twilight and even less to compare to than The Hunger Games

[Paranormal_Madness]

Therealbadkitty wrote: "It isn't even just vampire books that people refer to as "twilight rip-offs", any book that includes a love triangle or supernatural element is forever being compared to this series. The weirdest o..."

That's crazy. I've read all three of those series, and yeah, it is definitely nothing like Hunger Games. I just don't get it. I've seen books about mermaids compared to Twilight, as well as books about zombies. One of her books got a review where someone said it turned zombies into Twilight. I was like, what? Are you serious? How do completely human people surviving a zombie apocalypse equal Twilight? It just gets outrageous sometimes. People will try way to hard to compare something to Twilight, or to Harry Potter or the Hunger Games.

[Therealbadkitty]

Samantha wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "It isn't even just vampire books that people refer to as "twilight rip-offs", any book that includes a love triangle or supernatural element is forever being compared to thi..."

Twilight just happened to spring to popularity at the right time and since most teenagers i know don't enjoy reading and that series was the first they ever really got into and now whenever they hear of another series involving a love triangle or supernatural element it's "copying twilight". My cousin refuses to read the Hunger Games because she hates Twilight and "media loved" series involving love triangles and thinks THG will just be another series like that (which is a shame). And everyday when i bring in a new book to read my best friend asks if the supernatural person is "a vampire".

[Therealbadkitty]

Samantha wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "It isn't even just vampire books that people refer to as "twilight rip-offs", any book that includes a love triangle or supernatural element is forever being compared to thi..."

Oh and what where the mermaid and zombie books? You have me curious to read them now

[Paranormal_Madness]

Therealbadkitty wrote: "Samantha wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "It isn't even just vampire books that people refer to as "twilight rip-offs", any book that includes a love triangle or supernatural element is forever bein..."

I don't have a specific mermaid book in mind, but I've seen them around goodreads. They're usually compared to Twilight, so I stay away from them. I don't like reading about mermaids much.

But the zombie book is called Zombie Island by Samantha Hoffman. It was pretty good, I thought. The author named the main character after herself, and a friend of mine suggested I check it out because Sam is my name as well. I'm glad I listened, because after I was done with it, I went and read all of her other books too.

[Therealbadkitty]

Samantha wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "Samantha wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "It isn't even just vampire books that people refer to as "twilight rip-offs", any book that includes a love triangle or supernatural..."

I will definitely check it out than :)

[Miniwriter12]

So so true. Although I can only say...

Haha, you copycats! Think of your OWN ideas! Stop trying to steal the Queen of Supernatural's! (aka Ms. Meyer)
It's annoying how everyone copies her. Her books are amzing, unlike the people who TRY to copy. Ugh. Just.. Ugh. Be creatve! You have a brain, don't you! USE. IT.

[Therealbadkitty]

Miniwriter12 wrote: "So so true. Although I can only say...

Haha, you copycats! Think of your OWN ideas! Stop trying to steal the Queen of Supernatural's! (aka Ms. Meyer)
It's annoying how everyone copies her. Her boo..."

You do realize that vampire's have existed long before Meyer right?

[Miniwriter12]

@Therealbadkitty: 'Course. :) But you know, it's like every vampire book sounds like Edward. -.- Don't you think so?

[Therealbadkitty]

Miniwriter12 wrote: "@Therealbadkitty: 'Course. :) But you know, it's like every vampire book sounds like Edward. -.- Don't you think so?"

I agree that there are some love interests that remind me of him but i've found many vampire love interests that aren't (Dimitri,Adrian,Alexander,Jack etc), I actually think supernatural love interests that aren't even vampires remind me of him more haha.

[Paranormal_Madness]

Miniwriter12 wrote: "So so true. Although I can only say...

Haha, you copycats! Think of your OWN ideas! Stop trying to steal the Queen of Supernatural's! (aka Ms. Meyer)
It's annoying how everyone copies her. Her boo..."

You do know that Meyer wasn't completely original either, right? She didn't come up with the idea of vegetarian vampires. Vampire Diaries did it long before her. Meyer also wasn't the first person to give her vampires special gifts. Anne Rice did that first. The only part of her vampire lore that was truly original was sparkling, and it makes no sense. Natural predators would blend in, not stand out.

[Miniwriter12]

Therealbadkitty wrote: "Miniwriter12 wrote: "@Therealbadkitty: 'Course. :) But you know, it's like every vampire book sounds like Edward. -.- Don't you think so?"

I agree that there are some love interests that remind me..."

True dat. At first, I thought Edward was gay,, He's supposed to be all beautiful (aren't they like that?), and he was so repulsive towards Bella. Me= Team Jacob all the way!! I have LOTS of reasons why I think Edward is gay, but then.. He married Bella, so...

[Paranormal_Madness]

Miniwriter12 wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "Miniwriter12 wrote: "@Therealbadkitty: 'Course. :) But you know, it's like every vampire book sounds like Edward. -.- Don't you think so?"

I agree that there are some love ..."

I didn't think Edward was gay, I just thought Meyer tried to hard to make him the perfect gentlemen, so he comes across as slightly feminine or "gay" because most men nowadays aren't like that. I know quite a few people who think Edward is gay, simply because they've never met a man who is so cordial and old-fashioned.

[Sidrah]

Its because Twilight was the most famous vampire novel of our generation and that fame led to people loving it or hating and kinda shunned all the other vampire novel. It is sooooo annoying!

[[deleted user]]

I have never considered a vampire a "Twilight rip-off" simply due to its inclusion of vampires.

However, the vast majority (99%) of the paranormal romance genre is indeed a pathetic attempt to coast the wake of Meyer's waning fame. Most have poor plot structure, weak/whiny/pitiful heroines, a supposedly "mysterious" and "seductive" pair of boys who are as eager to rip off their shirts as a child is to finish off a container of sweets, highly predictable pairings, highly predictable so-called "plot-twists", cliché symbolism/themes, and excessively obvious endings.

[[deleted user]]

Peace wrote: "i wonder if anyone did read the whole thing of the midnight sun, that is from SM.."
Well, "the whole thing" means she'd have to FINISH it first, don't you think? :D

[Paranormal_Madness]

Catherine die Epische Ninja für das Kaiserin wrote: "I have never considered a vampire a "Twilight rip-off" simply due to its inclusion of vampires.

However, the vast majority (99%) of the paranormal romance genre is indeed a pathetic attempt to coa..."

I don't know if I'd say the vast majority. Are there tons of books that are attempting to coast the wake as you said? Yes, absolutely. But I also think people are just over simplifying things a bit. They see Twilight even where there are no Twilight comparisons to be made. I'd say it's more like 65% of paranormal romance that is Twilight inspired. There are still good paranormal romance books that are being unfairly compared. But that's just my opinion.

[Selina]

For one, Twilight is most definitely not original. Take Jacob - his last name is Black, he can ride a motorcycle and turn into a dog. That's a complete Harry Potter ripoff.

[Paranormal_Madness]

Selina wrote: "For one, Twilight is most definitely not original. Take Jacob - his last name is Black, he can ride a motorcycle and turn into a dog. That's a complete Harry Potter ripoff."

Exactly. Most people think Twilight is the most original vampire story ever written, and it simply isn't true. But every time a book contains something similar to Twilight, it's deemed as a Twilight ripoff.

[Teresa]

Not ALL Vampire Books are compared to Twilight. I didn't read the Book, but I did see the Movie:Interview With A Vampire. The Vampires didn't Sparkle on that Movie. They killed and acted like someone would think a Vampire should act.
I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The reason Buffy didn't kill Spike and Angel, because she seemed to have liked them.
Besides, if I remembered right, didn't Spike and Angel BOTH become a Love Interest to Buffy on some occasion during the show?????? Then there's "Angel" a "Spin-Off" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It also was a REALLY GOOD TV Series.
Why is it that it seems like EVERYONE thinks that every Book or Movie, even, is a "Rip-Off" of Twilight? I don't see that at all.
There are a LOT of Vampire Books or Movies that the Vampires are "Sparkly".
Moonlight with Alex O'Loughlin is a REALLY GREAT TV Series.

[Paranormal_Madness]

Teresa wrote: "Not ALL Vampire Books are compared to Twilight. I didn't read the Book, but I did see the Movie:Interview With A Vampire. The Vampires didn't Sparkle on that Movie. They killed and acted like someo..."

Interview With The Vampire, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Angel all came before Twilight, though. We mean the ones that have come after. Of course Interview can't be compared to Twilight, since it came out years earlier. But pretty much any vampire book written after Twilight is almost always compared to Twilight.

[Teresa]

Are you talking Books or TV Series like Vampire Diaries? They didn't have "Sparkly" Vampires on the Show.

[Paranormal_Madness]

Teresa wrote: "Are you talking Books or TV Series like Vampire Diaries? They didn't have "Sparkly" Vampires on the Show."

Well this discussion was originally about books being unfairly compared to Twilight. The book I read that inspired this discussion featured vampires that had fangs, weren't invincible, had no super powers, died by being staked through the heart, and could burn in sunlight if they didn't feed properly. Yet, some people still found a way to compare it to Twilight, even calling it a "rip-off" of Stephenie Meyers' work.

[Teresa]

I LOVE those kind of Books or Movies where I can actually see the Fangs. I think the way Stephanie Meyers wrote the Vampire without Fangs, just "extra sharp teeth", that's just a little TOO DUMB.
Stake through the heart is Normal. Vampires being burned from the Sun seems MORE REALISTIC than a "Sparkly" Vampire.
And don't forget the Silver Bullet, Garlic, and whatever else a Vampire is Bothered by.

[Siobhan]

Teresa wrote: "I LOVE those kind of Books or Movies where I can actually see the Fangs. I think the way Stephanie Meyers wrote the Vampire without Fangs, just "extra sharp teeth", that's just a little TOO DUMB.
..."

That was one of the aspects I liked best about her vampires, if only because bone can't grow easily, so it made logical sense to me.

[Mandi]

I can't even read any books about vampires anymore because they never live up to twilight. Twilight is the best book series around and no other vampire or wolf (which i hate even more) books can live up to its standards.!!!!!

[Marie -The Reading Otter]

I don't know why anything is compared to Twilight. Once you take a few college level English classes, you will see how terribly flawed the writing is in those books. I'm quite certain that if I had read these when I was in middle school or high school I more than likely would have liked them.

[Deliriate]

Mandi wrote: "I can't even read any books about vampires anymore because they never live up to twilight. Twilight is the best book series around and no other vampire or wolf (which i hate even more) books can li..."

El oh el, you must be trolling.

[Paranormal_Madness]

Marie wrote: "I don't know why anything is compared to Twilight. Once you take a few college level English classes, you will see how terribly flawed the writing is in those books. I'm quite certain that if I had..."

I thought Stephenie Meyer had a good way with using words to paint a picture of something in my mind, but her grammar just bothered me so much. She had a lot of run-on sentences and a bunch of funky writing, kind of like with the House of Night books.

[Missyb]

Ellie wrote: "Exactly! People need to see that Stephenie Meyer didn't come up with anything new (besides maybe the sparkling, but nobody has taken that idea from her that I know of)and that everything that vampi..."

I've never read about a vampire sparkling, other then in Twilight. I've read books where the vampires bitch (threaten others with bodily harm if asked) about being asked if they sparkle, but that's it.
Most vampires I've read about share so many traits. Some sort of sun issue (can't tolerate at all, can tolerate some in the early morning or late day, tolerate if covered up, etc), drink blood (either from a bag, animal, or human), die from a stake through the heart or decapitation (some only if the head is kept away) or fire, aversion to silver, all have the same powers or each one has different or the powers grow with age, stay awake during the day (but some can be out in the sun and some cannot) or fall dead asleep during the day (some when the sun comes up and others shortly thereafter), some evil and some not, some change shape, have mind powers (control people or wipe memories).

[Missyb]

Paul wrote: "Gerd wrote: "Paul wrote: "Except the truth is, all of them, especially Twilight started by ripping off, then twisting up What Joss Whedon had started..."

Not that Whedon was that original himself ..."

Angel & Spike

[Teresa]

And here's a list of the difference between a Twilight Vampire and a Real Vampire!

Twilight Vs Real Vampires

Twilight Vampires- Sparkle in the sun
Real Vampires- Burn and explode in the sun

Twilight Vampires- Fall for a Mary Sue like Bella and watch her sleep at night.
Real Vampires- Seek out females to drink their blood and make them into vampires (Dracula did it to Lucy and he tried to do it to Mina!)

Twilight Vampires-Eat normal food and claim to be vegetarian because they drink animal blood
Real Vampires-Drink all kinds of human blood because they need to stay alive! If they don’t drink blood they die!

Twilight Vampires- Do not bleed but turn to marble
Real Vampires- Turn to dust when they’re killed.

Twilight Vampires-Live amongst normal people and go to school or work.
Real Vampires-Sleep in coffins during the day and hide from normal people.

Twilight Vampires-Don’t show their fangs at all!
Real Vampires-Flash their fangs especially when they’re about to feed!

Twilight Vampires-Are shown to not be sexy and not want sex unless they get married.
Real Vampires-Are very sexy and use seduction to lure their victims (think of the scene in Dracula with Harker and the three brides!).

Twilight Vampires- seem to be ok around holy objects, garlic, etc.
Real Vampires- Hate holy objects, garlic, etc, it weakens them!

Twilight Vampires- Have amber eyes which are mentioned all the time!
Real Vampires- (Dracula) red eyes (Vampire Chronicles) Cat-like eyes or red eyes.

Twilight Vampires- Are pussies and don’t seem to want to hurt humans
Real Vampires-Are bloodthirsty and dangerous creatures who crave human blood!

Twilight Vampires- Being a vampire is no different to being human, you can still live a normal life, you just live forever and sparkle!
Real Vampires- It’s a lonely life! You become a blood sucking monster and you spend eternity alone!

Twilight Vampires- in Eclipse they don’t use weapons against the werewolves in the battle but just run against each other and hope for the best!
Real Vampires- in the Underworld Trilogy the vampires and the werewolves use weapons from swords to upgraded guns! But also use their claws and teeth! Dracula also uses his real abilities when he fights or tries to escape!

And Finally.....

In Twilight, the closest thing to real vampires is the gang who are the bad guys, Victoria, James and Laurent. Edward and the other Vampires are bloody pussies!

Anyway I hope you can see why there's a huge difference! I know who I would go for! Dracula of course! Real Vampires would win hands down

[Tisha]

Only idiots who have never read any other book other than Twilight would then compare every book about vampires to Twilight, and frankly I would tell anyone who read my vampire story and compared it to Twilight to kiss my entire tail.

[peyton]

Meyer's vampires = gay llamas
Anne Rice, l.J. Smith and other epic author's vampire's = AWESOME with a side of penguins ^.^

[Therealbadkitty]

Teresa wrote: "And here's a list of the difference between a Twilight Vampire and a Real Vampire!

Twilight Vs Real Vampires

Twilight Vampires- Sparkle in the sun
Real Vampires- Burn and explode in the sun

Twil..."
There's no such thing as "real vampires" anyone can use creative license however they please on mythological creatures.

[Deliriate]

Therealbadkitty wrote: "Teresa wrote: "And here's a list of the difference between a Twilight Vampire and a Real Vampire!

Twilight Vs Real Vampires

Twilight Vampires- Sparkle in the sun
Real Vampires- Burn and explode i..."

Oh, please. Not this arguement again. There are good and bad sides to interpretation. The faeries you find in Twilight just butchers hundreds of years of traditional vampire lore. It doesn't matter if it's real or not and I'm not saying that Meyer had to follow a specific guideline, but this is just an insult to vampires.

[Therealbadkitty]

Deliriate wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "Teresa wrote: "And here's a list of the difference between a Twilight Vampire and a Real Vampire!

Twilight Vs Real Vampires

Twilight Vampires- Sparkle in the sun
Real Vamp..."

It's all subjective. Obviously Twilight focuses more on the romance aspect than the vampire aspect but i still feel like people are being kind of ridiculous by saying that the use of vampires is "wrong". It isn't just Twilight, but every vampire book that doesn't follow every single aspect of traditional folklore (which depending on where you draw your source from is always different). This isn't the only vampire book were vampire's don't combust into flames upon direct sunlight

[Deliriate]

Therealbadkitty wrote: "Deliriate wrote: "Therealbadkitty wrote: "Teresa wrote: "And here's a list of the difference between a Twilight Vampire and a Real Vampire!

Twilight Vs Real Vampires

Twilight Vampires- Sparkle in..."

You do realize that there are groups that worship vampires. I am well aware that there are other vampires that don't follow that same lore.

The only difference between Twilight's faeries and the other vampires is that they are aptly named. What you see in Twilight are NOT vampires. If you really look into it, they are more like faeries. The only vampires that we really get to know is the Cullen family, which do not display any vampiric behavior what so ever (other than stalking, but Edward is overcontrolling like that). We were introduced to other vampires but meh. We don't really see them do anything vampireish either. Not to mention other interpretations of vampires are much, much better than the ones in Twilight.. And no, this part is not subjective. If it is then that means I could paint a rat red and yellow and call it a Pikachu.

Adding to that, Meyer's faeries piss on the vampire lore. That's like saying it's okay for me to piss on the Bible. Since the Bible is a bunch of fictional stories, no?

[Noree]

Umm, actually...according to a lot of different cultural beliefs of vampires, they could go out in the sun. They were usually weakened by it, or had certain stipulation.Even Dracula could go out in the day, he just had no powers.

It was actually the film Nosferatu in 1922 that first showed the vampire being destroyed by exposure to sunlight. Things have evolved from films a fiction from there. Sadly, we may see the vampires sparkling in the sun more in the future.

[Gerd]

peyton wrote: "Meyer's vampires = gay llamas"

Nah, they are too brooding to be gay, must be sad llamas. ;)

[[deleted user]]

Teresa wrote: "And here's a list of the difference between a Twilight Vampire and a Real Vampire!

Twilight Vs Real Vampires

Twilight Vampires- Sparkle in the sun
Real Vampires- Burn and explode in the sun

Twil..."
This is genius!

Letitia wrote: "Only idiots who have never read any other book other than Twilight would then compare every book about vampires to Twilight, and frankly I would tell anyone who read my vampire story and compared i..."
LOL. :)