PALGRAVE GOTHIC

Girls in Contemporary

Vampire FictionAgnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska

Palgrave Gothic

Series EditorClive Bloom, Middlesex University, London, UK

This series of Gothic books is the first to treat the genre in its many inter-related, global and ‘extended’ cultural aspects to show how the taste forthe medieval and the sublime gave rise to a perverse taste for terror andhorror and how that taste became not only international (with a huge fanbase in places such as South Korea and Japan) but also the sensibility ofthe modern age, changing our attitudes to such diverse areas as the natureof the artist, the meaning of drug abuse and the concept of the self. Theseries is accessible but scholarly, with referencing kept to a minimum andtheory contextualised where possible. All the books are readable by anintelligent student or a knowledgeable general reader interested in thesubject.

Editorial Advisory BoardDr. Ian Conrich, University of Vienna, AustriaBarry Forshaw, author/journalist, UKProfessor Gregg Kucich, University of Notre Dame, USAProfessor Gina Wisker, University of Brighton, UKDr. Catherine Wynne, University of Hull, UKDr. Alison Peirse, University of Yorkshire, UKDr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Manchester Metropolitan University, UKProfessor William Hughes, University of Macau, ChinaDr. Antonio Alcala Gonzalez, Tecnologico de Monterrey, MexicoDr. Marius Cris,an, West University of Timisoara, RomaniaDr. Manuel Aguirre, independent scholar, Spain

More information about this series athttp://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14698

Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bienkowska

Girls in ContemporaryVampire Fiction

Agnieszka Stasiewicz-BienkowskaInstitute of American Studies and Polish DiasporaJagiellonian UniversityKraków, Poland

ISSN 2634-6214 ISSN 2634-6222 (electronic)Palgrave GothicISBN 978-3-030-71743-8 ISBN 978-3-030-71744-5 (eBook)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71744-5

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to SpringerNature Switzerland AG 2021This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by thePublisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction onmicrofilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage andretrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodologynow known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that suchnames are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free forgeneral use.The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neitherthe publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, withrespect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have beenmade. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published mapsand institutional affiliations.

Cover credit: Vizerskaya/Getty Images

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer NatureSwitzerland AGThe registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

For Andrzej, Alicja and Maja—who make it all worthwhile

Acknowledgements

I am extremely fortunate to be surrounded by many people and insti-tutions that have offered their support and encouragement, contributingin various ways to making this book a reality. My sincere thanks go tothe whole Palgrave team, particularly editors Clive Bloom, Allie Troy-anos and Rachel Jacobe, for seeing the potential in this project, andfor providing me with invaluable editorial assistance. I also thank theanonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and helpful advice.

My home institution, the Institute of American Studies and PolishDiaspora at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, generously granted mea sabbatical leave to complete this project and provided funding for itsdevelopment, for which I am most grateful. I extend my warm appre-ciation to my friends, colleagues and students from the Institute, whocontinue to provide me with a vibrant and friendly academic communitythat enables me to pursue my intellectual passions. Thank you for cheeringme on! My special thanks go to Professors Adam Walaszek, RadekRybkowski and Łukasz Kamienski for their continuing support, and toProfessor Garry Robson who proofread my manuscript with meticulouscare, asking the right questions and offering words of encouragement.

I gratefully acknowledge Griffith University, in particular the Grif-fith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and the Griffith School ofHumanities, Languages and Social Sciences in Brisbane and Gold Coast,for inviting me twice to Australia to present my research on vampires andgirlhood. My participation in the seminars and workshops Vampires and

vii

viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Popular Culture (2014) and Vampiric Transformations (2018) would nothave been possible without GU’s generous financial and organisationalsupport. The illuminating presentations and lively discussions held duringthese academic events have resulted in inspiring joint academic projectsand continue to generate new ones. I feel indebted to the organisers andthe participants for welcoming me into this rewarding academic adven-ture. I owe special thanks to the contributors to the volume Hospitality,Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the Wrong One In(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and the special issue of Continuum: Journalof Media & Cultural Studies, “Vampiric Transformations: The PopularPolitics of the (Post)Romantic Vampire” (forthcoming), and particularlyto Dr. Stephanie Green and Dr. David Baker from Griffith University,outstanding scholars and great friends, who have co-edited these projectswith me. I am doubly indebted to Stephanie, who generously made timeto read sections of this manuscript at its early stages, sharing her exper-tise and providing insightful suggestions along with the kindest words ofsupport. My heartfelt thanks to David Baker and Linda Middleton, forhaving me in your home in Australia—I have many fond memories ofyour warm hospitality and our time together. I also thank Professor JoliJensen, the author of Write No Matter What (The University of ChicagoPress, 2017). Although we have never met, her savvy advice on academicwriting has helped me through many a writing crisis.

Last, but certainly not least, I express my deepest gratitude to myamazing family and friends for their love, encouragement and theirunshakeable faith in my ability to complete this project. I am forevergrateful to my wonderful parents, my brother Grzegorz, my family-in-law, Basia, Anna, Iwona, Paula and Maciek who are always there for me—quick to believe that things will turn out just fine. A very special thanksto my grandmother Maria who wields a truly magical power to make mecarry on. My grandfather would have been proud to see this book comeinto being.

Finally, my love and deepest appreciation go to Andrzej, my soul mate,husband and best friend, and to Alicja and Maja, daughters extraordi-naire. This book would never have happened without your loving support,encouraging drawings, great sense of humour and infinite patience. Everyday with you is filled with love, joy, discoveries and adventures. You makeit all worthwhile.

Contents

1 Vampire Fiction, Girls and Shame: Introduction 1References 16

2 Writing (on) Girls’ Bodies: Vampires and EmbodiedGirlhood 232.1 The Markings of the Vampiric Body 262.2 Such Hot Fangs! Vampirism and Beauty 322.3 You Don’t See Fat Vamps: The Meanings of Body Size 392.4 No One Mourns the Ugly: Beauty, Style and Belonging 462.5 Velvet! Platinum! Pearls! Vampire Girls as Consumers 532.6 The Magic of Makeover: Style as Oppression

and Resistance 582.7 Conclusion 64References 67

3 A Love So Strong that It Aches: (Re-)Writing VampireRomance 753.1 Mates, Consorts, Oath-Bound Warriors: House

of Night and Polyandry 803.2 The Truest of True Loves: Soul Mates and Enchanted

Bonds 863.3 Tying the Knot: Love, Marriage and Power 923.4 The Lovely Bliss of Her Bite: Vampires and Same-Sex

Romance 97

ix

x CONTENTS

3.5 Conclusion 111References 114

4 Pangs of Pleasure, Pangs of Guilt: Girls, Sexualityand Desire 1234.1 It Tasted like Liquid Desire: Virginity, Blood

Consumption and Sexual Awakening 1274.2 Didn’t the Earth Move or the Planets Align? The Tales

of the “First Time” 1384.3 A Bloodlust-Filled, Hornie Freak: Slut Shaming

and “Excessive” Desire 1474.4 Blood Whoring, Female Virtue and Defensive Othering 1524.5 Conclusion 158References 162

5 Save Your Butt from Getting Raped: Girls, Vampires,Violence 1695.1 No Anger and No Condemnation: Vampires

and Romanticised Abuse 1735.2 A Questioning Touch of Teeth: Violence and Consent

in House of Night and Vampire Academy 1825.3 A Monster Abused Me: Narrating Rape

and Rape-Revenge 1905.4 Black. Angry. Merciless: Girls’ Violence

and (Self-)Defence 1965.5 Conclusion 202References 207

6 Biting into Books: Supernatural Schoolgirlsand Academic Performance 2156.1 Heaps of Awesome Classes: The Unique Education

of the House of Night 2196.2 Slamming the Math Book Shut: Supernatural Girls

and STEM Education 2246.3 Miss (Im)Perfect Schoolgirl: Girls and Academic

(Dis)Engagement 2306.4 Too Smart? Academic Excellence and Popular

Femininity 2386.5 Conclusion 246References 249

CONTENTS xi

7 Conclusion 257References 266

Index 269

CHAPTER 1

Vampire Fiction, Girls and Shame:Introduction

A lot has gone amiss with Zoey Redbird’s seventeenth birthday. Yet, whenshe unwraps a gift from her grandmother, she is delighted to see a signedcopy of the first American edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Reverentlyturning its leather-bound pages, the heroine confirms that “that spookyold story” has long been her favourite novel (Chosen 30; Betrayed 170).Intrigued, Zoey’s boyfriend Erik begins to read Dracula, but he soonfinds the plotline “a little old school, what with the vamps being monstersand all” (Hunted 85), indicating that the contemporary vampire has littlein common with the Dracula archetype. This remark is not intended as acommentary on the evolution of the vampire’s cultural image, although itcertainly could be read as such. Rather, it is of a personal nature, as bothErik and Zoey, the protagonists of the House of Night series by P.C. andKristin Cast, are themselves young vampires.

In her study on teen vampire fiction, Mia Franck suggests that thevampire phenomenon of today is no longer primarily about horror andabjection. Instead, it is about “the reading girls” (2013, 211). Thefigure of the vampire has long been recognised as holding a particularfascination for young adult consumers. Scholars, librarians and readersalike have pointed to the vampire genre’s ability to respond to young

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer NatureSwitzerland AG 2021A. Stasiewicz-Bienkowska, Girls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction,Palgrave Gothic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71744-5_1

1

2 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

people’s anxieties and hopes about growing up.1Searching for power,autonomy, control and belonging, struggling with unfamiliar yearningsand bodily transformations, breaking rules and rebelling against socialconventions, the vampire can be read, as Byron and Deans propose, as“[t]he adolescent in a nutshell” (2014, 89; cf. Smith and Moruzi 2020,612).

The growing popularity of young adult (YA) vampire fiction in thelate twentieth century marked the beginning of the rise of teen Gothicas a distinct and rich cultural category, with the spectacular success ofJoss Whedon’s TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The WB, 1997–2001)trailblazing the way for the teen vampire boom of the post-2000 era(Byron and Deans 2014, 87; Ramos-García 2020).2 Popular vampirenovels for young readers were published throughout 1990s, grantingvampires a strong position on the young adult literary market; AnnetteCurtis Klause’s The Silver Kiss (1990) or the first four instalments ofL. J. Smith’s prominent The Vampire Diaries series (1991–1992) arenotable examples of this trend. However, it is the new millennium that haswitnessed the unprecedented proliferation of the vampire figure in youthpopular culture; according to Michelle J. Smith and Kristine Moruzi, thevampire has become the central supernatural character of Western young

1See e.g. Dresser (1989), De Marco (1997, 26), Priester (2008, 68, 72), LeMaster(2011, 104), Byron and Deans (2014, 89), Piatti-Farnell (2014, 6), and Wilhelm andSmith (2014, 123–131). The term “genre” in this context, while useful, is more popularthan strictly academic, and should not be read as presenting diverse vampire fiction “as aunivocal form of writing” (Piatti-Farnell 2014, 11). Vampire stories often cross the bound-aries between horror, romance, fantasy, detective fiction, comedy and more; a combinationthat, as Piatti-Farnell proposes, contributes to their appeal (2014, 10–11; cf. George andHughes 2015, 5).

2Many scholars have discussed young adult (YA) fiction as a genre that resists clear-cutcategorisations, appealing to various age cohorts and often crossing over to the adultmarket (see e.g. Cart 2010; Cadden 2011; James 2009). As a socially constructed cate-gory, the notion of “young adult” itself is open to various interpretations, ever-adaptingto the changing cultural, historical and political contexts. In this volume, YA fiction isunderstood as cultural texts typically featuring protagonists in their late teens (16–19) andmarketed to high-school-age readers (while often appealing also to older consumers). Forthe purpose of this study, I use the terms “young adult” (YA), “adolescent”, “youth”and “teenage” interchangeably. I recognise that in other contexts the conflation of theseterms may be problematic or misleading (see e.g. Kokkola 2013, 10).

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 3

adult Gothic fiction, effectively gaining the upper hand over all the otherGothic monsters and ab-humans (2020, 611–612).3

The tremendous commercial success of Stephenie Meyer’s vampiresaga Twilight (2005–2008), dramatised for the big screen in a series offive blockbuster movies (2008–2012), has brought the narratives of girlsand vampires into the cultural spotlight.4 The Twilight books have soldnearly 160 million copies worldwide, with the latest addition to the saga,Midnight Sun, reaching one million copies within the first week afterits release (Milliot 2020). Inspiring frenzy among adolescent and adultfans and anti-fans alike, and riveting both media and scholarly attention,the cultural and commercial phenomenon of Twilight has kindled a newinterest in teen Gothic and paranormal romance, resulting in a rapid risein the numbers of vampire fiction marketed to young readers, especially togirls (Byron and Deans 2014, 88; Franck 2013, 211; Smith and Moruzi2018, 9; Ames 2010).

Yet, despite their mass-market appeal—or possibly for that very reasonfor, as Sady Doyle observes, such popularity “rarely coincides with literaryacclaim” (2009, 31)—vampire stories marketed to adolescent women areoften marginalised, derided and condemned, provoking a sense of disdain,unease and suspicion among critics and educators. Alarmed by their super-natural and sexual content, individuals and organisations have called forthe removal of vampire books from public and school libraries.5 Althoughrarely backed by scholarly evidence, voices of concern have been raisedabout the dangers of vampire fiction and its presumed, if unspecified,

3According to Smith and Moruzi, vampires feature in at least half of the YA Gothicnovels listed on Goodreads and the sites of major booksellers (2020, 611–612).

4Except for the four original novels, the series encompasses three companion volumes:The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (2011); Life and Death (2015)—thereimagining of the original story grounded in the gender-swap of the central protagonists,and the recently released Midnight Sun (2020)—the retelling of the first volume fromEdward’s point of view.

5For instance, the entire House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast and the VampireAcademy series by Richelle Mead, including volumes to be yet written at the time, werebanned in 2009 from a school in Texas “for sexual content and nudity” (Doyle 2010, 4,6). The House of Night series and other YA vampire books were further challenged at theAustin Memorial Library in Cleveland, Texas (2014), where a local minister asked for the“occultic and demonic room be shut down, and these books be purged from the shelves,and that public funds would no longer be used to purchase such material” (Doyle 2015,4). See also Doyle (2011).

4 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

power to encourage unsuspecting adolescent girls to delve “deeper anddeeper into the black hole” of vampire obsession (Basu 2018, 964).6

In “Skamlig flickläsning” (“Shameful Girl-reading”), Franck observesthat girl vampire fiction is inextricably connected to shame (2013, 208–210). An interfusion of urban fantasy, the Gothic, horror, paranormalromance, chick lit and serialised school story, these narratives have beenboth dismissed as a quintessence of “low-status literature” (Franck 2013,208), and condemned as a “threat to the definition of horror genres”(Bode 2010, 711). These objections are often at least partly rooted inage- and gender-related bias; as Doyle observes in relation to Twilight, thecondescending evaluation of girl vampire fiction “is just as much aboutthe fans as it is about the books” (2009, 31; cf. Franck 2013, 208–210;Bode 2010, 716). In their respective journalistic and scholarly analyses ofthe critical reception of Meyer’s saga, Doyle (2009) and Lisa Bode (2010)point to the popular understanding of teen girl culture texts as holdinglittle aesthetic or educative value—a trend that mirrors the persistentperception of fiction written specifically for women as substandard andinferior (Franck 2013, 210; D’Amico 2016, viii). In “Transitional Tastes”,Bode documents the interlacing discourses of the denigration and senti-mentalisation of teen girls and girl culture (2010), while Doyle identifies“the very girliness that has made [Twilight] such a success” as one of thereasons behind the harsh criticism of the saga—a backlash that “shouldmatter to feminists, even if the series makes them shudder” (2009, 31–32). In this light, it is hardly unanticipated that some adolescent womenreport a sense of shame over their investment in vampire fiction, awarethat their reading preferences may be ridiculed or stigmatised (Franck2013, 208; Wilhelm and Smith 2014, 138).

This widespread disapproval of “the vampire for girls” and the percep-tion of its mass teen female fandom as displaying questionable culturaltastes indicate, as Bode contends, the reviewers’ failure to imagine “theadolescent girl mode of engagement [with the text] as rational, mindful orcritical” (2010, 713; cf. Doyle 2009, 31). It further ignores the culturalpower of popular vampire fiction which—with all its fantastic premises—remains relatable to the experiences of the contemporary girl, engagingwith her hopes and concerns and participating in the larger discourseson girlhood. Allie, an adolescent informant in Wilhelm and Smith’s study

6Basu’s text on the alleged negative impact of vampire fiction on girl fans in India andWestern countries can serve as an example of such a trend.

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 5

on the allure of teen vampire books, concludes: “Most of what I readin school I cannot relate to. … But I am so interested in entering intoTwilight because it is about me right now” (2014, 123). She furthercomments on the critique of vampire fiction for girls:

“What makes good literature? Who gets to decide? Twilight has a femalefan base. Is that why it is not regarded highly by critics? It is meant to besomething for women to enjoy. And I enjoy it. Isn’t that good enough? Ijust want to stand up and say that it is good enough! (Wilhelm and Smith2014, 139)

This volume offers a critical analysis of the representations of girls and girl-hood in the twenty-first-century vampire fiction marketed to adolescentfemale readership. With the powerful allure of the vampire in contem-porary popular and youth cultures and the figure of the girl continuingto rivet both public and scholarly attention, these representations offerintriguing possibilities to explore the complexities of growing up a girlin the Western culture of today.7 In Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Powerin Young Adult Horror Fiction, June Pulliam identifies YA horror as“uniquely able to examine the challenges facing young women” and tointerrogate the gender positions and roles that girls are encouraged toadopt (2014, 11). A mirror held up to the complex and often contradic-tory cultural beliefs about women, vampire stories have been recognisedas particularly revealing of social and cultural gendered hierarchies, rulesand regulations (Anyiwo 2016, 173; Hobson 2016, 3; Wisker 2016).Women in vampire texts have long been narrated as either helplessprey and a “motivating force for the vampire hunters”, or sexualisedmonstresses that abjure traditional gender roles and embody the trans-gression of socially sanctioned notions of femininity (Hobson 2016, 3;Anyiwo 2016, 173). Today, vampire fiction for teen female readershipis often seen as aligning with conservative and patriarchal discourses.However, it can also offer radical imageries of young female power, acelebration of girl agency and sexuality, depictions of girls as agents ofsocial and political change and as a force to undermine the cultural

7Although the scope of this project does not allow for a systematic study of fans’interactions with vampire fiction, on several occasions I do look at fans’ reviews anddiscussion fora in order to shed light on the meanings produced by their engagementwith the text, particularly in relation to more controversial topics (all readers’ commentsare quoted as they originally appear online).

6 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

prohibitions inflicted on women; and even the texts that are deemedconservative are not void of moments of resistance and emancipatorypossibilities. Engaging with the scholarship from a number of criticalframeworks and utilising a variety of perspectives originating in culturaland literary studies, sociology, feminism, gender and queer studies, andthe interdisciplinary research on girlhood and on the vampire, this volumeconsiders the figure of the girl in YA vampire fiction as a terrain for nego-tiating a myriad of competing ideologies of girlhood, and as reflecting thechanging expectations surrounding girls in the Western world.

∗ ∗ ∗A horrifying revenant skulking through the folktales across the

centuries, continents and cultures, rising from the dead to brutalise, killand infect, the vampire has since spread onto the pages of countless booksand graphic novels, colonised big and small screen productions, hauntedtheatre stages, lurked in commercials, infiltrated classrooms, entered thetoy industry and frequented fancy-dress parties. These bloodsucking crea-tures have come to populate texts for adults, adolescents and childrenalike, straying away from their folkloric forbearers and, as numerousscholars have observed, endlessly morphing and reincarnating into freshforms and personas, in order to guarantee ever anew their relevance to thedynamics of socio-cultural, political and economic realities.8 A creatureof unprecedented “polymorphic resilience” (LeMaster 2011, 103), aninexhaustible reservoir of metaphors and allegories, a vehicle for culturalangsts and desires and a lens through which to unravel social preoccupa-tions and change, the vampire has been read, among other examples, as avector of non-normative sexual and gender expressions, horrors of conta-gion and foreign invasion, dread of environmental apocalypse, digitalsurveillance and science gone awry; but also as a celebration of differ-ence and non-normative identity, freedom, emancipation and a radicalcritique of socio-economic and political inequities. In short, as Piatti-Farnell concludes, the vampire is “a highly interpretative metaphor forhuman existence” (2014, 64).

As a cultural phenomenon of undying appeal, vampire fiction has longbeen a vibrant, dynamic and profitable area of cultural production, an

8See e.g. Auerbach (1995), Williamson (2005), Ní Fhlainn (2019), George and Hughes(2015, 7, 15) and Butler (2016, 193).

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 7

object of fascination to millions of fans worldwide, and a terrain ofsystematic academic critique. Grounded in a variety of disciplines andfields, a vast body of scholarly literature has been developed aroundthe cultural texts featuring bloodsucking creatures—examining vampirelore in historical perspective; looking at the vampire figure through thediscourses of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, postcolonialism, postmod-ernism, transnationalism, posthumanism, globalisation or environmentalstudies; focusing on thematic threads such as blood, memory, hospitality,rape and power; analysing in depth a particular vampire production; orstudying the real-life communities of vampire fans or even self-identifiedvampires.9

Until fairly recently, however, young adult fiction has been largelyexcluded from “the vampire canon” (Dudek 2018, 17). Debra Dudekpoints to the edited collection Open Graves, Open Minds: Representationsof Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the Present Day(2013) as one of the first to have explicitly recognised the lasting value ofYA vampire texts in the transformation of the genre and the developmentof the figure of the sympathetic vampire (2018, 17). In the introductionto the volume, Sam George and Bill Hughes point to “a stylistic compe-tence and ingenuity and a certain daring” in some of the vampire stories,emphasising that these qualities can be often found in the texts for youngreaders (2015, 6).10 Several years earlier, Deborah Wilson Overstreetpublished Not Your Mother’s Vampire: Vampires in Young Adult Fiction(2006)—a study of over twenty YA vampire novels released mostly inthe 1990s, which considers the representations of both the bloodsuckingcharacters and the humans who are linked to them.11 Vampires in the

9A systematic review of vampire scholarship lies beyond the scope of this volume;however, some recent examples of the trends specified above include Dunn and Housel(2010), Khair and Höglund (2013), Bacon and Bronk (2013), Stephanou (2014),Browning (2015), Baker et al. (2017), and Ní Fhlainn (2019).

10It is noteworthy that, in addition to the chapters on Meyer’s Twilight , L.J. Smith’sThe Vampire Diaries , and Whedon’s Buffy, Open Graves, Open Minds includes other YAvampire texts, like Daniel Waters’s Generation Dead and Marcus Sedgwick’s My SwordhandIs Singing.

11For instance, Wilson Overstreet looks into the ways in which vampires in YA novelsrelate to folkloric conventions and adult vampire texts, or studies the depictions of humanvampire hunters. However, as only two of the volume’s chapters are devoted to theserepresentations (with others encompassing introductory information on vampire fiction,a detailed examination of a non-literary vampire text—Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a

8 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

cultural productions addressed primarily to children and pre-adolescentsare the focus of Simon Bacon and Katarzyna Bronk’s original editedcollection Growing Up with Vampires: Essays on the Undead in Chil-dren’s Media (2018), with several chapters foregrounding the interplaysbetween vampirism and femininity.12 Vampires have been welcomed intolesson plans, with such volumes as Buffy in the Classroom (Kreider andWinchell 2014) or The Vampire Goes to College (Nevárez 2014), whichdiscuss vampire stories as vehicles for teaching feminism, film production,Shakespeare and more; and invited onto the psychotherapist’s couch, withscholars contemplating the usefulness of vampire fiction in the counsellingprocedures for female teenagers.13

Girls and girlhood have been central to a rapidly increasing numberof studies of popular culture and YA narratives, with recent scholarshipincluding such diverse examples as books considering young female trans-formations and rebellion in YA dystopian fiction (see e.g. Day et al. 2016;Hentges 2018), the replications and revisions of the fairy-tale and mytho-logical archetypes in teen series and fantasy texts (Bellas 2017; Blackford2012, both works including Twilight ), and the presence of various femi-nist currents in the narratives for teens and tweens (Seelinger Trites2018). However, with the exception of such international cross-markethits as Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, KevinWilliamson and Julie Plec’s The Vampire Diaries (The CW 2009–2017;based on the books by L. J. Smith), little research has to date addressedthe portrayals of young femininity in vampire texts marketed to adolescentgirls, in particular vampire literature.14 June Pulliam’s compelling analysis

summary of the chosen novels and annotated bibliography), many aspects of the analysedfiction are necessarily dealt with in a cursory manner or left out of the study.

12In the first chapter of the volume, Andrew M. Boylan traces the presence of thevampire in Western European and North American children’s media throughout history(2018). See also Palmer (2013), chapter 14, for an overview of the American literary,cinematic and televised vampire narratives for children.

13Considering Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Paul E. Priester elucidates theways in which the vampire figure can be read by a teenage girl as a metaphor and awarning against drug abuse; or how the contemporary vampires’ agony over their moralchoices can reflect an adolescent’s decision to become a vegetarian (2008, 71). See alsoSchlozman (2000), for the use of Buffy in adolescent therapy.

14The sheer amount of scholarly works considering these three texts, particularly Buffyand Twilight, renders a comprehensive survey both difficult and superfluous for thepurposes of this volume; some of these works are referred to in the relevant chapters.

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 9

of femininity and power in YA horror focuses on the figure of the super-natural girl in ghost, werewolf and witch fiction, excluding vampire storiesas largely featuring human heroines (2014, 19). Lorna Piatti-Farnell’s(2014) seminal study examines the figure of the vampire in contemporaryliterature, and Gina Wisker includes vampire texts in her astute analysisof contemporary Gothic fiction authored by women (2016). Neither,however, investigate specifically the figure of the girl and, with the excep-tion of the cross-market Twilight, both tap into the texts marketed to anadult readership.

This volume explores the narratives of girlhood in vampire fictionaddressed to adolescent women, with the primary focus on four best-selling twenty-first-century vampire series—House of Night (2007–2014)and House of Night: Other World (2017–2020) by P. C. and KristinCast, and Vampire Academy (2007–2010) and Bloodlines (2011–2015)by Richelle Mead. The sheer abundance of the contemporary vampirebooks for girls has made the selection a challenging endeavour, renderingnumerous exclusions inescapable. My focus on literary works is groundedin Piatti-Farnell’s identification of literature as the “original venue forvampiric representations” and the primary vehicle for the popularisationof the bloodsucking character within Western culture (2014, 2). While

The scholarship on Buffy and Twilight encompasses a myriad of diverse approachesand thematic focuses, including the representations of gender, race, religion, sexuality,and power, the series’ interplays with various philosophical and mythological currents,musical trends and historical narratives, or their critical reception and fan engage-ment (see e.g. Iatropoulos and Woodall III 2017; South 2003; Housel and Wisnewski2009; Reagin 2011; Preston Leonard 2011; Stuller 2013). A significant number ofacademic books, journals and conferences are entirely devoted to Meyer’s or Whedon’suniverses (see e.g. Anatol 2011; Click et al. 2010; Wilson 2011; Morey 2016); Slayage:The Journal of Whedon Studies (previously: Slayage: The Online International Journalof Buffy Studies), https://www.whedonstudies.tv/slayage-the-journal-of-whedon-studies.html; Levine and Parks (2007); Wilcox (2005); see also Macnaughtan (2011), for adetailed bibliography of both primary sources and scholarship related to Buffy and itsspin-off Angel. The Vampire Diaries have been analysed, among others, by Rikke Schubartin Mastering Fear (2018, chap. 5) and in the edited collection Gender in the VampireNarrative (2016), which includes DuRocher’s study on vampiric masculinity and Nicol’sanalysis of the show’s depictions of girlhood; the focus of this unique book, however, ison broader gender issues examined through the lens of vampirism, without any particularemphasis placed on girls or girl fiction. See also Dudek (2018), a volume that focuses onall three of these highly popular texts, and studies their representations of vampire–humanromantic relationships; and Łuksza (2015), which compares Twilight, The Vampire Diariesand Charlaine Harris’s The Southern Vampire Mysteries in relation to their gender politicsand female empowerment.

10 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

vampire tales have long been radiating into the world of diverse trans-media, enhancing the impact of vampiric books far beyond their pages,literature remains a rich reservoir of universes and plots for other vampireproductions, leaving an indelible imprint on past and present imageriesof vampirism. In this sense, the vampire “truly is a literary monster”(Piatti-Farnell 2014, 2).

As serialised stories increasingly dominate Gothic and vampire readingmarkets for young adults (Smith and Moruzi 2020, 610) and have longbeen a prominent feature in popular culture for girls, this volume focuseson literary series rather than self-contained novels.15 LuElla D’Amicopoints to the lasting—and often underestimated—value of serialisedfiction as a reservoir of instructions on social decorum for generations ofgirl readers; one offering both socially sanctioned role models and spacefor rebellion (2016, vii). Popularly perceived as facile and catering to anunsophisticated readership—a perspective that disregards their diversityand complex character—serialised stories have long played a significantrole in shaping girls’ experiences and understandings of girlhood (2016,viii–ix; cf. Reimer et al. 2014, 1; Younger 2009, 105–106, 110). Theserialised form, as Jennifer Hayward observes, allows for the explorationof “shifting identities in ways not possible in more traditional narra-tive spaces”, opening the door to change and diversity (1997, 191; cf.Younger 2009, 106). Ultimately, serialisation invites young readers toimmerse themselves in fictional universes for extended periods of timeand often inspires years-long commitment, creating an intimate connec-tion between readers and the text, and a sense of community with otherfans.16

15Following the definition of LuElla D’Amico (2016, x), I understand a book series aspresenting the adventures of the same character(s) for more than three volumes.

16The existing scholarship on serialised fiction for girls focuses primarily on historicalnovels; see e.g. Inness (1997), Hamilton-Honey (2013), Hamilton-Honey and IngallsLewis (2020) and D’Amico (2016), although the latter also encompasses chapters consid-ering contemporary texts (including Vampire Academy). See also Pattee (2011), for acomprehensive analysis of Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High (1983–2003); Younger(2009, ch. 5), for a study of bodily image and sexuality in diverse series for girls, fromNancy Drew to Gossip Girl; Saxton 1998, which looks into the spaces of girlhood indiverse literary works authored by women; or the collection of essays Seriality and Textsfor Young People: The Compulsion to Repeat, ed. Reimer et al. (2014), which examinesnot only particular texts, but the functions of seriality and repetition in the stories foryoung consumers (with a chapter by Debra Dudek focused on Buffy).

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 11

The key fictional works discussed in this volume have all reached largereadership circles, selling millions of copies worldwide, and have repeat-edly ranked high on various best-selling and recommendation lists.17

Their unique take on vampire lore, original universes, complex plotlinesand intriguing characters continue to compel the attention of millions ofreaders and inspire vibrant fan cultures. A large number of reviews, highratings, and a considerable body of fan fiction and discussions in diversesocial media testify, as emphasised by Gaïane Hanser in relation to Houseof Night, that these books engage the readers “deeply enough that theychoose to interact, or at least to become manifestly active in their reading”(2018, 12).

While the majority of vampire characters in YA stories are male, typi-cally romancing mortal heroines (Byron and Deans 2014, 89; Pulliam2014, 19), my interest in the synergies of vampirism and girlhood hasprompted me to focus on the stories featuring adolescent heroines whoare vampire or part-vampire themselves (or reveal another supernaturalstreak), and/or who overthrow the popular paradigm of a vulnerablehuman girl paired with a powerful vampire lover/protector. Removedinto the realms of the fantastic and bestowed with special powers, theseheroines come with the promise (though not always fulfilled) of exper-imenting with alternative girl identities and expanding the possibilitiesof girlhood into previously untrodden terrains. As such, they providea fresh territory for exploring the complex interplays between the girland the vampire. With an impressive array of powerful female protago-nists populating the uncanny universes of vampire high schools, the keytexts discussed in this volume offer a potential for redrawing conventionalboundaries of girlhood, at times declaring openly a feminist agenda and

17These lists include, among others, YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young AdultReaders 2008 and 2009 for the two first volumes of Vampire Academy; YALSA Teens’Top Ten 2008 (Vampire Academy) and 2009 (House of Night: Untamed); Best TeenVampire Fiction on Goodreads (with Mead’s Vampire Academy as no. 1; Bloodlines as no.6, and House of Night as no. 4 among over 360 other books and series); a long-lastingpresence on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, as well as Barnes &Noble and Amazon’s best-selling teen vampire, fantasy and paranormal romance fiction.According to P. C. Cast’s website, the House of Night series has over 20 million booksin print, with the rights sold in nearly forty countries (House of Night: Praise, https://www.pccastauthor.com/house-of-night; House of Night Novellas, Macmillan Publishers,https://us.macmillan.com/series/houseofnightnovellas/). Vampire Academy had sold 8million copies in 35 countries as of 2013 (McClintock 2013). Its Facebook page is likedby over one million fans.

12 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

the intention of “turning patriarchy and misogyny upside down” (Cast2011, loc. 66; cf. Found loc. 5730). First and foremost, they are storiesfor and about girls, addressing themes and raising questions that areimmediately relevant to the contemporary girl reader, and demonstratinga deep investment in larger social, political and cultural conversations onyoung femininity.

Authored by P. C. Cast and her young adult daughter Kristin Cast, theHouse of Night and House of Night: Other World series are set in contem-porary North America where vampires live openly in matriarchal societies,largely separate but peacefully coexisting with humans.18 Throughout thetwelve original and four sequel novels, the series follow adolescent ZoeyRedbird and her circle of friends who—marked as vampire fledglings—transfer from their human high schools into the Tulsa House of Night inOklahoma, a boarding school for future vampires.19 As the Chosen Oneof the vampire goddess Nyx, Zoey is destined to fight against Darkness allthe while grappling with the everyday dilemmas of a high school life.20

Richelle Mead’s fictional universe of Vampire Academy and its sequelBloodlines is populated with two vampire species—the fanged and blood-consuming but generally peaceful Moroi, and the violent Strigoi, whothrive on Moroi blood and come into being through death and darkmagic. Garrisoned in safeguarded vampire boarding schools, Moroiteenagers study along with their dhampir (half-human, half-vampire)peers—young warriors and warrioresses who, once graduated, will be

18According to P. C. Cast, neither of the series has actually been co-written; sheidentifies herself as the author and her daughter as the “frontline editor”, tasked withensuring the authenticity of teenage expression and experience (see e.g. Found loc. 5772).However, the novels’ covers and copyright pages, as well as the publishers’ websites andother promotional materials, all acknowledge Kristin Cast as the co-author; I follow theirlead throughout this volume.

19The series use the spelling “vampyre”. However, for the sake of consistency and toavoid confusion, the common spelling “vampire” is employed throughout this volume,except for in quotations.

20The House of Night universe further encompasses four novellas developing someof the series’ side plotlines, graphic novels (Dark Horse Books) and the multi-authoredcompanion volume Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore, and Religion in the P.C. and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series (BenBella Books 2011), which illuminates the mytho-logical, scientific, folkloric and Gothic inspirations behind the series. The fans’ experienceis further enhanced with The Fledgling Handbook 101 (2010)—a volume that is said tobe presented to every new student of the fictional House of Night. The series is to bedramatised for the small screen by David Films and DCTV (see e.g. Forgotten 253).

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 13

tasked with shielding the Moroi from the vampiric undead. The VampireAcademy series chronicles the adventures of dhampir Rose Hathaway andher best friend, the Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir. The Bloodlines series,in turn, centres on Sydney Sage—a magic-wielding human and a memberof the powerful society of the Alchemists whose sole purpose is to keepvampires hidden from the human eye. The series encompass six novelseach; additional instalments include graphic novels, short stories (Mead2010, 2012, 2016) and the companion volume Vampire Academy: TheUltimate Guide (Rowen and Mead 2011).21

Alongside the vampire series that constitute the core of my study andare discussed in detail, other popular vampire narratives are occasionallyintroduced and explored with the aim of broadening the understandingof the genre’s participation in the Western discourses of girlhood. Thisincludes, among others, Bella Forrest’s A Shade of Vampire (2012–2020),22 Michelle Madow’s Dark World: The Vampire Wish (2017),Bianca Scardoni’s The Marked (2015–2020) and L. J. Smith’s TheVampire Diaries (1991–2014). Furthermore, Twilight, Buffy and thetelevised version of The Vampire Diaries will be referred to throughoutthe volume. However, as these three texts have been studied so compre-hensively in other scholarly works, I include them primarily for thepurposes of contextualisation and comparison, except for a limitednumber of selected threads, which are analysed in depth. While mylist is inevitably far from exhaustive of all the popular contemporaryvampire series for young women, I hope that this book will contributeto the existing scholarship on girls, vampires and YA culture, sheddinglight on the ways in which vampire fiction envisions and addresses thecontemporary complexities of girlhood.

This volume is organised into seven chapters, accommodating thecentral thematic areas that inform the representations of girlhood and

21The first volume of Vampire Academy was adapted as a film in 2014 (dir. MarkWaters); while the production of the following instalments was eventually cancelled, afresh adaptation of the series for the big or small screen is being discussed (https://www.facebook.com/OfficialVampireAcademyMovie/). Mead’s fictional universe can be furtherexperienced through a spin-off merchandise line of clothing and accessories (https://shop.spreadshirt.com/vampireacademy/).

22This series is currently running at 92 books; for the purpose of this analysis, I haveread the first twenty.

14 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

vampires in the series analysed.23 Following the introductory Chapter 1,Chapter 2: “Writing (on) Girls’ Bodies”, maps the complex interactionsbetween girl and vampire corporealities. Examining tattooed vampiricskin and its Gothic and feminist significations, the vampiric silhouetteand the thin-thinking culture, and the anguish of ageing and vampiric“ugliness”, it illuminates the ways in which the vampire body negotiatesand invokes resistance to various social fears and expectations formulatedaround young female bodies and identities. Through analysing questionsof style, consumerism and the subversive possibilities embedded in thenarratives of the female makeover, the chapter further delves into thequestions of female agency, exclusion and belonging, and the power toperform nonconforming girl identities.

As narratives of romance lie at the heart of vampire fiction for girls,Chapter 3, “A Love So Strong That It Aches”, focuses on represen-tations of romantic relationships. Complicating popular readings of YAvampire stories as valorising heteronormativity , the chapter opens with adiscussion of polyandry in the House of Night universe. The narratives ofpolyandry suggest YA vampire’s dalliance with the traditional queerness ofthe genre and speak about the enhancement of female romantic possibil-ities. These radical ideas become entangled with the romantic discoursesof supernatural love bonds and eternal soul mates, analysed further in thechapter. The last section returns to the notion of queerness, evoking thetraditional association between the vampire and homosexuality. Focusingon the representations of gay and lesbian characters and relationships, itexplores the ways in which the series speak of same-sex love and desire,compulsory heterosexuality, homophobia and queer identities.

Chapter 4, “Pangs of Pleasure, Pangs of Guilt: Girls, Sexuality andDesire”, can be partly seen as a continuation of the themes exploredin the previous chapter, as the narratives of sex often interlace with thestories of romantic love. I turn to the tropes of female virginity, sexualawakening, blood consumption and the question of power transpiringthrough sexual relations in order to explore vampire fiction’s multifacetedand often conflicted messages on girl sexual agency and autonomy. Thelarger discourses on social regulations of female sexual expressions and thecomplex dynamics between the respectable and the sexual girl are furtherarticulated through the series’ juxtaposition of human, dhampir and

23The titles of chapters 3, 4 and 5, as well as a number of subtitles, are in part takenfrom the series analysed, and are referenced throughout the volume.

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 15

vampire sexual mores, and explored through the power plays embeddedin slut shaming.

Violence permeates the vampire genre, and experiences of abuse areoften inseparable from growing up a girl in vampiric worlds. There-fore, the next chapter, “Save Your Butt From Getting Raped”, centreson the narratives of girls as survivors and perpetrators of violent acts.Interrogating the stories of intimate partner abuse, rape and rape-revenge, and violent (self-)defence, the chapter explores the ways in whichvampire fiction responds to the popular beliefs of gendered and sexu-alised violence. While many storylines testify to the persistence of rapemythology and can be read as the vampiric retellings of Beauty andthe Beast, presenting violence as forgivable, others deliberately refuseto reshape abuse into romance or to obscure the oppressive discoursesof power as tales of love. Discussing the meanings of consent, denyingthe popular equation between consent and desire, and featuring complexnarratives of rape-revenge and healing, their storylines deglamorise abuseon individual level and operate to expose the structural mechanisms thatnormalise gendered violence.

Chapter 6, “Biting into Books”, ventures into the classrooms ofvampire schools, exploring school-structured learning and academicperformance in the construction of girlhood. Casting their supernaturalheroines as high school students, and placing them within the uncannyeducational systems of vampire societies, the Casts’ and Mead’s seriesoffer a powerful commentary on the interplays between gendered andacademic subjectivities, and address feminist concerns about the designof contemporary classroom practices and programmes. Examining theprotagonists’ academic struggles and achievements, this chapter illumi-nates the ways in which vampire fiction engages with Western discourseson girls and formal education, and negotiates popular gendered expecta-tions about academic excellence. Particular attention is paid to the youngheroines’ relations to the areas of competence traditionally coded as male(STEM subjects) and to the position of academic investment in visions ofdesirable girlhood. “Biting into Books” is followed by concluding remarksin Chapter 7.

16 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

References

Ames, Melissa. 2010. Vamping up Sex: Audience, Age, & Portrayals of Sexualityin Vampire Narratives. Journal of Dracula Studies 12, Article 5. https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol12/iss1/5.

Anatol, Giselle Lisa, ed. 2011. Bringing Light to Twilight: Perspectives on a PopCulture Phenomenon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Anyiwo, U. Melissa. 2016. The Female Vampire in Popular Culture Or Whatto Read or Watch Next. In Gender in the Vampire Narrative, eds. AmandaHobson and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 173–192. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: SensePublishers.

Auerbach, Nina. 1995. Our Vampires, Ourselves. Chicago and London: TheUniversity of Chicago Press.

Bacon, Simon, and Katarzyna Bronk, eds. 2013. Undead Memory: Vampires andHuman Memory in Popular Culture. Bern: Peter Lang.

———. 2018. Growing up with Vampires: Essays on the Undead in Children’sMedia. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Baker, David, Stephanie Green, and Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bienkowska, eds. 2017.Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the WrongOne In. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Basu, Debangana. 2018. Popularity of Vampire Fiction Among Teenage Masses.International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences 3 (6)(November–December): 959–965. doi: https://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.6.6.

Bellas, Athena. 2017. Fairy Tales on the Teen Screen: Rituals of Girlhood. Cham:Palgrave Macmillan.

Best Teen Vampire Fiction. Goodreads. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/616.Best_Teen_Vampire_Fiction?page=1.

Blackford, Holly Virginia. 2012. The Myth of Persephone in Girls’ FantasyLiterature. New York and London: Routledge.

Bode, Lisa. 2010. Transitional Tastes: Teen Girls and Genre in the Critical Recep-tion of Twilight. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 24 (5)(October): 707–719.

Boylan, Andrew M. 2018. Children of the Night. Mainstreaming VampiresThrough Children’s Media. In Growing up with Vampires: Essays on theUndead in Children’s Media, eds. Simon Bacon and Katarzyna Bronk, 17–28.Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland.

Browning, John Edgar. 2015. The Real Vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo:A Research Note Towards Comparative Ethnography. Palgrave Communica-tions, 24 March. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2015.6.

Butler, Andrew M. 2016. Strange Boys, Queer Boys: Gay Representations inYoung Adult Fantastic Fiction. In Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary

1 VAMPIRE FICTION, GIRLS … 17

Popular Fantasy: Beyond Boy Wizards and Kick-ass Chicks, ed. Jude Robertsand Esther MacCallum-Stewart, 53–67. London and New York: Routledge.

Byron, Glennis, and Sharon Deans. 2014. Teen Gothic. In The CambridgeCompanion to the Modern Gothic, ed. Jerrold E. Hogle, 87–106. Cambridge,UK: Cambridge University Press.

Cadden, Mike. 2011. Genre as Nexus: The Novel for Children and YoungAdults. In Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Litera-ture, ed. Shelby Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia A. Enciso, and Christine Jenkins,302–313. New York and London: Routledge.

Cast, P.C. 2011. Introduction. In Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore,and Religion in the P.C. and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series, eds. P.C. Cast withLeah Wilson, loc. 59–110. Dallas, TX: Smart Pop BenbellaBooks.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2007. Betrayed. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.Kindle edition.

———. 2008. Chosen. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. Kindle edition.———. 2009. Hunted. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. Kindle edition.———. 2019. Forgotten. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing. Kindle edition.———. 2020. Found. London: Head of Zeus. Kindle edition.Click, Melissa A., Aubrey Stevens, and Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, eds. 2010.

Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media and the Vampire Franchise. NewYork: Peter Lang.

D’Amico, LuElla. 2016. Introduction. In Girls’ Series Fiction and AmericanPopular Culture, ed. LuElla D’Amico, vii–xviii. Lanham: Lexington Book.

Day, Sara K., Miranda A. Green-Barteet, and Amy L. Montz, eds. 2016.Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction. London and New York:Routledge.

De Marco, Joseph. 1997. Vampire Literature: Something Young Adults can reallySink Their Teeth Into. Emergency Librarian 24 (5) (May/June): 26–28.

Doyle, Robert P. 2010. Think for Yourself and Let Other Do the Same. BooksChallenged or Banned in 2009–2010. Banned Books Week: Celebrate YourFreedom to Read. www.ala.org/bbooks.

———. 2015. Books Challenged or Banned 2010–2011. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/free_downloads/2011banned.pdf 2011.

———. 2015. Books Challenged or Banned 2014–2015. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/2015BannedList.pdf 2015.

Doyle, Sady. 2009. Girls Just Wanna Have Fangs: The Unwarranted BacklashAgainst Fans of the World’s Most Popular Vampire-Romance Series. TheAmerican Prospect 20 (9) (November): 30–32.

Dresser, Norine. 1989. American Vampires: Fans Victims, Practitioners. NewYork: Vintage.

18 A. STASIEWICZ-BIENKOWSKA

Dudek, Debra. 2018. The Beloved Does Not Bite: Moral Vampires and the HumansWho Love Them. New York and London: Routledge.

Dunn, George A., and Rebecca Housel, eds. 2010. True Blood and Philosophy:We Wanna Think Bad Things with You. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

DuRocher, Kristina. Men That Suck: Gender Anxieties and the Evolution ofVampire Men. In Gender in the Vampire Narrative, eds. Amanda Hobson,and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 45–59. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: SensePublishers.

Franck, Mia. 2013. Skamlig flickläsning. Flickvampyrer på internatskola i House ofNight-serien. In Flicktion. Perspektiv på flickan i fiktionen, eds. Eva Söderberg,Mia Österlund, and Bodil Formark, 208–221. Malmö: Universus AcademicPress.

George, Sam, and Bill Hughes. 2015. Introduction. In Open Graves, Open Minds:Representations of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to thePresent Day, ed. Sam George and Bill Hughes, 1–23. Manchester: ManchesterUniversity Press.

Hamilton-Honey, Emily, and Susan Ingalls Lewis. 2020. Girls to the Rescue:Young Heroines in American Series Fiction of World War I . Jefferson, NC:McFarland.

Hamilton-Honey, Emily. 2013. Turning the Pages of American Girlhood: TheEvolution of Girls’ Series Fiction, 1865–1930. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Hanser, Gaïane. 2018. Mary Sues, Sluts and Rapists: The Problematic Depictionof Sexuality in P. C. and Kristin Cast’s Young Adult Series The House of Night.Publije: e-Revue de critique littéraire: Teenage Cultures: From Consumptionto Production, eds. Heather Braun, Elisabeth Lamothe, Delphine Letort, 1:1–14. https://revues.univ-lemans.fr/index.php/publije/article/view/41/52.

Hayward, Jennifer. 1997. Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and SerialFictions from Dickens to Soap Opera. Lexington: The University Press ofKentucky.

Hentges, Sarah. 2018. Girls on Fire: Transformative Heroines in Young AdultDystopian Literature. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Hobson, Amanda. 2016. Introduction. In Gender in the Vampire Narrative, eds.Amanda Hobson, and U. Melissa Anyiwo, 1–8. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei:Sense Publishers.

Housel, Rebecca, and J. Jeremy Wisnewski, eds. 2009. Twilight and Philosophy:Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality. Hoboken: Wiley.

Iatropoulos, Mary Ellen, I.I.I. Woodall, and A. Lowery, eds. 2017. Joss Whedonand Race: Critical Essays. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Inness, Sherrie A., ed. 1997. Nancy Drew and Company: Culture, Gender, andGirls’ Series. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University PopularPress.

Khair, Tabish, and Johan Höglund, eds. 2013. Transnational and PostcolonialVampires: Dark Blood. London: Palgrave Macmillan.