Thinking about paranormal romances today... (My copy of Lover Avenged finally arrived!!! And I'm reading Melissa Marr... So lots of vamp and sympath and faery action in my literary life right now.)
And wondering... Those of you who read/write in the genre, do you like humans in your paranormals? Is part of the thrill, imagining the heroine with someone/something dangerous and not quite controllable? Or do you think monster/monster books work better or just as well?
Seems like a lot of authors get around this by having heroines who are half-human and half-demon, half-vamp, half-whatever...
Sorry this isn't a meatier post, but hoping some of you will add some beef in the comments... OMG, we're back to paranormal beef, zombie cows and all that jazz.
5 comments:
Not sure on that one. Most of the paranormals I've read have had a monster hero and human heroine.
Which I like, but I can see the appeal of the monster on monster action.
My paranormal beef has more to do with pacing and creating a different paranormals from the ones I've read.
I was thinking the same thing, Sinead... That most had monster hero, human heroine... Then I thought. JR Ward... Only one of her heroines is human, right? Jane? And Larissa Ione, no humans, I don't think... and Kelley Armstrong... and the Jeanine Frost I just read. No humans.
Got me thinking. Cause depending on the premise, humans really mess things up and not necessarily in a good way.
Marjorie Liu none of the characters are "normal" either are they?
Just questioning something I'd been taken as a given in the genre without really thinking about it.
Interesting question! My urban fantasy has a paranormal heroine with human and non-human heroes. (THe main hero is human, though). I hadn't really stopped to question why I did that. I guess I wanted her to be special. Plus a lot of the internal conflict has to do with her being caught between the two worlds. If she's not at least partly paranormal, she can't be all that stuck, right?
Eileen, I am so excited about your UF.
Yes, I think in UF protag is usually female and usually "special".
What I'm less sure about is paranormal romance that's more focused on the monster-hero... Do readers want a human heroine? I guess as long as lots of conflict, and the heroine has some relatable human traits... it maybe doesn't matter.
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