Trends in books, especially in genres, seem to be more obvious in the YA sections of bookshops and libraries. (Maybe because many of them start there.) Twilight books finally gave space to 'if you like Twilight you'll like this' books and now there is a 'Dark Fantasy' area amongst the YA in Waterstones. It contains a lot of vampire books, but also a lot of books that don't have vampires in at all.

I've been trying to keep a weather eye open for when the YA trend for vampires changes. Zombies have been creeping in, from survival guides to the haunting Forest of Hands and Teeth. It amuses me that the immaculate dead might have to give way to something less than perfection that we might be more able to empathise with. Namely the smelly with bits falling off kind of dead. I also spotted that L J Smith's The Secret Circle books, about witches, have started showing up where previously you could only find stories by her that contained vampires. (Arguably, we already went through the witches and wizards phase with Harry Potter though.)

Some authors seem to just be ignoring vampires. Despite vampires cropping up in her Women of the Otherworld (adult) series, they don't appear in Kelley Armstrong's YA trilogy (which starts with The Summoning) even though it's set in the same 'verse. Holly Black and Melissa Marr have fairies, Sarah Rees Brennan has demons.

I can understand authors trying not to mention vampires at all, in a bid to be something a bit different or because vampires just aren't part of the scene, but I found it curious that two YA books I read this week mention vampires in order to dismiss them or get them out of the way.

( I don’t know how vampires work. I'm not sure they're even real. )