Fay mentioned a whole bunch of the books I was going to recommend for your teens, Kristin, but I'll add just a couple more: The House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast (starting with Marked ) has been very popular at my library among the Twilight crowd, as have Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy and Frostbite (first two books in a series, IIRC). I haven't read anything from either series yet, but they both look darker & edgier than the Twilight books. Both series are published as YA.

My sister's stepdaughter really liked Blue Blood. She's currently reading the Twilight series and agrees with my niece that, while it's not well-written, it is unputdownable.

When I go out there to visit next month, I'm going to bring out some Marjorie Liu vampire romances for her to read. I've gotten some good recs on her books from customers at the bookstore.

Kelley Armstrong has started a YA series in the same universe as her Women of the Otherworld series. The first book, The Summoning is out, and I really liked it. There weren't any vampires (the main character sees ghosts), but they do exist in the universe (although judging by Armstrong's other books, we'll probably see a lot more werewolves than vampires in future books).

I had bought World War Z for my students last year. It's worth a look, then?

I'd say so. The conceit is neat (and adds to the creepy).

And it's by the same guy who wrote "The Zombie Survival Handbook". So you know he knows what he's talking about. I guess.

Well he hasn't been murdered by zombies yet, so there you are.

Also, Claudia Grey's Evernight will hopefully be good - she's a TERRIFIC fanfic writer (under another name, natch). The premise is rather too familiar, but I've adored her fanfic for years, so I'll certainly be buying the book as soon as it's available in my bookshop.

REALLY? Nancy Collins?! Color me surpised. That seems a weird...turnaround. I mean, usually an author goes from the frothier stuff to the edgier stuff later.

We're talking "Sunglasses After Dark" Collins, right?

Yep, same author. It's really strange. Vamps reads like a Nancy A. Collins book, just with the edges wrapped in fluff and a thick coating of Vogue magazine on top.

Nancy Collins and her partner performance artist Joe Christ at one time had one of the greatest voicemail messages of all time. "The Whore of Babylon and the Anti-Christ can't come to the phone by now, but if you leave a message we'll be happy to return your call."

Skipping to see if anyone else had The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature when you were young: [link] I"m writing a (fun) paper for my YA Lit class about my reading history. I had forgotten about this book. I loved it like whoa as a kid. I remember seeing it at the bookstore and begging for it. If I recall correctly, I got it as a Christmas gift. Anyway, just cruising down reading memory lane.

Oh, wow, GC-- I had that book. I think it was given to me as a third birthday present. In fact, that's the book I taught myself to read from because I'd pestered everyone to death and they wouldn't read to me anymore, so I decided fie on them and started reading to myself.

Wow-- talk about a trip down memory lane.