Kerry Allen

I love paranormals. My 10-year hiatus from reading romance would be a permanent rejection of romance if paranormals had not lured me back to the genre with—finally!!!—something fresh. Therefore, it baffles/infuriates me when I blog hop and see people treating paranormals like the family bastard who made out like a bandit at the reading of Uncle Fester’s will, with contempt and resentment at the same time.

It is not a trend. It is not going away. If it’s not for you, don’t read it—simple as that. There are numerous books I don’t read, but I don’t endlessly bitch about their existence.

But that’s a subject for another post. (Seriously, I have a venomous rant about it over on Blogger, and next time my ire is roused, I’m reviving it here.)

This post is for those of you who haven’t tried paranormals for whatever reason. I’ve heard some of the reasons, and I’ve overcome resistance with the following responses:

“I’m scared of things that go bump in the night. If I met a vampire in real life, I’d throw garlic at it and run away.”

That’s how a lot of the love interests in paranormal romances react initially to their non-human attraction, so you might actually be able to relate there. Very rarely does the intended say, “So you’re not human. I can live with that,” right from the start. Getting over the “eek” factor is frequently a process that has to be dealt with during the course of the story.

“Vampire stories are all the same.”

That couldn’t be less true. They aren’t all Bram Stoker vamps or Anne Rice vamps or whatever you’re basing your vampire stereotype on. Every writer puts their own spin on the mythology and the mystique. Besides, not everything paranormal is a vampire, and everything with fangs isn’t necessarily a vampire, either, in the traditional sense.

I’m trying to think of a book where the plot was about vampirism (or whatever condition) and drawing a blank. It’s more a complication than the main conflict. Main conflict: Woman in peril. Complication: “You’re on your own until the sun goes down, babe.” That kind of thing. (And if she can’t take care of herself that long, she probably deserves to die anyway, just like in any other kind of story.)

I think the heroines in paranormals tend to be a little stronger. It takes more moxy to make it work with a supernatural stud than with a Windows systems analyst.

“The living for eternity thing doesn’t appeal to me.”

Sometimes it’s not for eternity. Sometimes there’s redemption in love that lifts the curse of immortality (which, face it, is not the joy ride some people would have you believe). Sometimes nobody’s immortal to begin with. Even if it really is happily ever after, the book ends eventually, so it’s not like you have to live with these people forever if you don’t want to.

And when it really is forever, you know the love is real if she’s willing to put up with his annoying habits literally for eternity. I couldn’t do it for a month. (”So help me, if you leave toothpaste spit in the sink one more time, I’m going to stake you in your sleep!”)

Besides, you know men mature less quickly than women. After a couple hundred years, there’s some hope they might grow up enough to not be complete idiots…

The appeal of paranormals to me is a new level of conflict. I still read other types of romance, and they can be well written and sexy and engaging, but very rarely will I say, “Huh, I’ve never heard that plot twist before.” I want something different from what’s been out there for the past 30 years. I’m ready to be taken to a new world, or at least a side of this one that ordinary mortals never get to see.

So if there’s some particular thing about paranormals that turns you off, talk to anyone who reads them on a regular basis. They’ll very quickly offer you a book that doesn’t include that particular thing. There’s plenty of variety.

Don’t be scared.

Much.