Forget Twilight Reboot, This Is The Vampire Story We All Need Right Now

Vampires are perhaps the most versatile type of evil in popular culture.

In various movies and games, they range in appearance from swarms of humanoid insects to sophisticated aristocrats masquerading as humans.

The most notorious pop culture event associated with vampires was, of course, Twilight – first the books by Stephenie Meyer and then the movie adaptation.

The series of works on which the films were based tells about the love of a vampire and a schoolgirl, which in itself is a copy of a typical teenage movie, where the plot is based on the romantic relationship of a "tough guy" and a "ordinary girl."

It cannot be denied that one of the most commercially successful franchises not only doesn't use the richest material in the history of vampire cinema, but also takes a big step back, presenting the vampire on the screen only as a new shell for the "prince Charming."

Recently it was announced that a TV series based on Twilight is being prepared.

It can already be said that it will be popular, but many are already tired of reboots, especially when there is a huge amount of fresh material that would serve as an excellent basis for a new project.

For example, Suzy McKee Charnas' novella, The Vampire Tapestry, tells the story of an unusual vampire who, like Edward Cullen, has some of the vampire's charm, but deviates from the most commonly used trope.

The story follows a vampire named Dr. Edward Lewis Weyland, who preys on humans while trying to discover who and what he really is.

Weyland differs from many traditional vampires in that his condition is biological rather than supernatural.

It is also interesting that the novel consists of five separate chapters, the first three of which tell and gradually reveal the history of Weyland from the point of view of the people who intersect with him, and only the last two chapters are told from the point of view of the protagonist himself.

Charnas' work also features strong female characters.

Instead of portraying women as damsels in distress, as is often the case in vampire fiction, the two main female characters are fully realized and complex entities who explore the vampire and prove in their own way to be serious challenges to the immortal predator.

Although the novella is still not the most popular work on vampires, it has been well received by critics and readers.

A certain image of vampires has become firmly entrenched in popular culture over the past few decades, and The Vampire Tapestry seems like the perfect way to break that trend and offer something different, but no less exciting.