Who is copying who?

I haven't blogged in a while and you would think I would devote this post to how Emmy is recovering from her strep throat (much better!) or my busy work schedule (stressful) or my very important papers for school (extremely important!), but no, I am going to write about the similarities between some of the series I have been reading this past year:

The first is Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, the second is Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books (AKA the Southern Vampire series, and inspiration for the True Blood TV show), and the third is the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.

I have noticed some strong similarities between these books. If you have also read these and have noticed others, please leave a comment!

1. All three involve vampires as well as werewolves. Why are these creatures always together in the same stories? They form a foil to eachother since they are so opposite.
2. The main characters are young women who are dating/have dated either a vampire or a werewolf, but also have an attraction to or are attractive to vampires and werewolves. Human men apparently are just not enough.
3. Each young woman happens to have powers of her own. Bella in Twilight is immune to some ofthe vampires' powers. Sookie can read minds, and Mercy can turn into a coyote. However, in all three cases the powers of these women are considered insignificant (which works to their advantge when going up against supernatural beings who think they are "all that'). I am leaving out the totally unrealistic powers that Bella exhibits when she becomes a vampire herself in the last book of the Twilight series, since that book was such a let down.
4. The vampire love interests in these series try to escape their vampire-ness in various ways because of their desire for humanity and love...and of course since the female protagonist is sooooo desirable.
5. The young women in these books get beat up, kicked around, bitten, spelled, and many other things that would kill insignificant side characters, but they recover...often just in time for more danger and injury
6. Speaking of danger, the females in these books are a magnet for danger and trouble. It seems that they just keep digging themselves in deeper over their heads, but then again, if they didn't, there would be less reason for us to read them, right?

None of these series, as you may have guessed, are in the highbrow literature category, but I have so much fun reading them. There is no pretention, just a fun read.