# "Teen Paranormal Romance" now has its own section at Barnes & Noble **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951 "2012-05-15T02:05:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/41 "2012-05-16T14:13:53Z")
I am extremely happy that Paranormal Romance has it’s own shelf now. It keeps the stuff out of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy and horror sections where it doesn’t really fit in, and out of YA where it does nothing but make it difficult for male teens to find reading material. In fact I’ve always wished that bookstores would divide shelves into more genres and sub-genres. The fact that I have to wade through hundreds of mystery and thriller novels to find something I want to read in fiction is extremely annoying, and I imagine equally annoying for the other side too. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/42 "2012-05-16T14:40:46Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > \ > If nothing else, the relationship presented is an idealized abusive relationship (of the flavor “he only took the spark plugs out of my truck so I couldn’t see another guy because he LOVES ME SO MUCH”), and the sheer manipulation that goes on is terrible. > \ That is a good point. I haven’t read the books but I’ve heard the basic plot outline, and it definitely sounds like an unhealthy relationship, and he is not a romantic hero that girls should desire their boyfriend to be like. But that is also true of so many pieces of fiction. I haven’t read a whole lot of Young Adult books, but I know from the movies that there are countless heroes that do “romantic” things in the movies that would be creepy or stalkerish or abusive if they did it in real life. > [@rachelellogram](#): > > I really think people who take this tack are overreacting. Twilight isn’t going to convince a mentally healthy girl to run out and get subjugated post-haste by a controlling jerk. Neither can the most heartfelt, impassioned plea convince a girl in an unhealthy relationship to leave it. Even before Twilight’s dastardly influence, there have been _many_ women who willingly stay in abusive relationships. It’ll take a lot more than internet doom-saying to convince me Twilight has had a statistically significant effect on the relationships chosen by young women. > > Twilight has many \*extremely \*vocal critics in the mainstream, and I don’t believe the existence of Twilight has caused a net harm to teenaged girls or womankind in general. MUCH more harm is done to young women who witness their parents’ dysfunctional relationship and believe it’s normal. Twilight is just a fun fantasy. It’s fun and sexy to read about an attractive young girl who’s willing to give up her humanity for an attractive young-looking guy. > > Like I say, as long as they’re reading, that’s what’s important. It’s true that no girl is going to completely change what she wants in a guy just from reading Twilight. No one bases all their life decisions on any one piece of fiction. But books, movies, TV, and other entertainment does affect us to some extent, in influencing us in what we think is cool, exciting, realistic, and in other ways, and in often ways we don’t fully realize. And if it was just Twilight that had a controlling romantic hero, that would be one thing. But it’s in a lot of stories where the hero is semi-abusive but the heroine knows it’s just because he loves her so much. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/43 "2012-05-16T18:19:26Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Urban fantasy isn’t necessarily the same thing as paranormal romance. Urban fantasy just means stories that take place in the modern world and have magic. You can find a book or two that aren’t “Harlequin with fangs” if you look carefully. I know. What do they think Harry Potter was? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/44 "2012-05-16T18:24:11Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Racellelogram – I’ve made the same argument before, but I’ve talked to a few tween girls (which, granted, I don’t make a habit of, a couple were cousins, a couple I met via the magic of forced awkward conversation in various places like on a train to the Grand Canyon) who have said things to the effect of that Twilight is so romantic and that they’re holding out for a guy like Edward. When I point out they should think about it I get a really good “but he cares about her so much, he loves her so much he doesn’t want to lose her to some other guy and protects her from seeing other guys” stuff. > > I was in your camp until I was floored by actually seeing it in the wild, I’m usually in the “kids are smarter than we give them credit for” camp. Now, it’s every possibility that my small sample size is working against me and I just got unlucky, but just anecdotally it seems like it’s **actually affected** the relationship POVs of at least the young women I’ve talked to about it (which, again, is around the ballpark of “about 5 of them”). You’ve mixed up cause and effect. Teen girls already liked guys like Edward. The real question is how these girls feel when they grow up. Keyboard’s broken, or I’d elaborate on this and everything else in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/45 "2012-05-16T18:26:51Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > As long as they’re reading. Yup. If you had tried to force ‘literature’ on me as a teen I would have rebelled hard and just stopped reading anything. Newsflash to dopers: That 14 year old that loves Twilight? At 16 they’ll move on to Anne Rice, at 18 to Wuthering Heights, at 20 to some sort of classic lit y’all worship that I don’t know because I never finished university. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/46 "2012-05-16T19:39:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > See [_101 People Who Are Really Screwing America,_](http://www.amazon.com/101-People-Really-Screwing-America/dp/1560258756/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337128477&sr=1-1#_) by Jack Huberman. #96 is J.K. Rowling. And it’s a fair call. Yes, I liked all the Harry Potter books and the movies too, and, yes, she’s getting kids to read; but, she’s also adding to the amazingly resurgent antirationalism and superstition of this period in our culture. :dubious: I question this diagnosis. Yeah, HP is about magic, but the books don’t in any way encourage **realistic** irrationality (except perhaps in their assumption of the existence of an afterlife for “Muggle” and “magical” dead alike, but a vague assumption of the existence of an afterlife is so common in popular culture and literature that I’m not going to nitpick it). On the contrary, within the framework of the HP universe where some supernatural things can happen, the books actively **discourage** superstitious or antirational thinking like believing in the power of divination practices based on confirmation bias or assuming that everything must turn out all right just because you’re a good person or that sort of thing. On a deeper level below all the surface froth about magic, the HP books are pretty committed to rationalism. Especially in the character of Hermione, which is the one your average girl reader is going to identify with most anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/47 "2012-05-16T20:04:57Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > When I say that I’m usually referring to Cory Doctorow’s **Little Brother**. I was taking a Teen Literature class at the time and read both books back-to-back. Twilight was a mildly amusing throwaway, but Doctorow’s book was just terrible. The fact that it pretended to be IMPORTANT made it worse. Then it won a whole bunch of awards at the same time the Twilight backlash started. > > A few others I hated from that class were **The Chocolate War** by Robert Cormier and **House of Stairs** by William Sleator. Both were just awful, awful reads. Oh no, I loved\* House of Stairs\*! Granted, I was in seventh grade when I first read it, and when I read it now I see it doesn’t hold up as quality writing. However, it did scare the crap out of me and I’ve always treasured that. Now, _The Chocolate War_ sucked ass. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/48 "2012-05-16T20:27:27Z")
So many YA and Children’s award winners I’ve hated. (and I think The Golden Compass = pretentious bullcrap). Twilight ‘saga’ is no better than the ‘Flowers in the Attic’ trash of a few decades ago. it hardly matters. judging from what I see at the high school and middle school libraries where I work, kids don’t read anyway. seriously. 1 or 2 out of a 100 or more I see during a day read for pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/49 "2012-05-16T20:37:06Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > I really think people who take this tack are overreacting. Twilight isn’t going to convince a mentally healthy girl to run out and get subjugated post-haste by a controlling jerk. I agree. It’s like saying all those housewives reading [50 Shades of Grey](http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Grey-Book-Trilogy/dp/0345803485) are going to abandon their families for a little BDSM fun with random strangers. _Really_? It’s a damn good thing we have all these guys who are man enough to tell the little ladies what they should be reading! God only knows what the world will come to if the kids are allowed to read _Flowers in the Attic_, er, _Twilight_. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/50 "2012-05-16T23:04:52Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Oh no, I loved\* House of Stairs\*! Yeah, I think if I first read it when I was 13 I would have thought it was the best book ever. Instead I just noticed all the plot holes and couldn’t believe that this trash was being held up as a classic of YA literature. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/51 "2012-05-17T04:13:45Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > Yup. If you had tried to force ‘literature’ on me as a teen I would have rebelled hard and just stopped reading anything. > > Newsflash to dopers: That 14 year old that loves Twilight? At 16 they’ll move on to Anne Rice, at 18 to Wuthering Heights, at 20 to some sort of classic lit y’all worship that I don’t know because I never finished university. 😛 I hope not. _Wuthering Heights_ is **crap!** ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951/52 "2012-05-17T04:16:45Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > While I don’t like paranormal romance, personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. > > _Twilight_ is a bad book, but it’s not the end of the world. The craze for [the end of the world](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_z) would be a whole 'nother thread . . . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teen-paranormal-romance-now-has-its-own-section-at-barnes-noble/621951.md?page=2)