As we have seen the past years, the view of a vampyre could be very different from author to author. In Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight the vampires sparkle and they seem to be like some kind of a superhero, (like Ms B.A. has told us already). In Marked the vampyres has a Mark, a sort of tattoo on their forehead, and they cast circles (like “praying”) for the five elements.
I will now compare the vampyres in Marked with the classical vampyre.
• Creating vampyres
In Marked human teenagers get Marked, they get a half-moon crescent on their forehead. When they get the Mark they start the change to become a vampyre. Hopefully, their body goes through the change, but if their body rejects the change, they will die. (You do not want to witness that scene.)
In other books, movies and legends, you become a vampyre if a vampyre bites you. It is said that you become a vampyre if one bites you three times. But you can also be born as a vampyre.
If I could say what I think I would say that I like the way they use in Marked more, it does not seem to hurt too much, and you get a cool tattoo at the same time! I will go for it! (It is a shame you cannot chose if you want to get Marked)
• Evilness
Vampyres in the past were usually evil, and the only thing they wanted humans for was blood. Nowadays, the vampires are kind, or at least less slaughterous. That is the case in Marked, they are usual teenagers with the only difference that they are Marked and they will become a vampire someday (if their body go through the change).
• Sunlight
It is known in many of the vampyre books that the vampyres’ largest enemy is the sunlight. If they go out in daylight they will burn to death and become nothing more than a bunch of aches. In Marked, they would not burn to death if they went out, but it would feel really uncomfortable for them, so they do not want to be in the sunlight. That is why they have swopped day and night at The House of Night, the vampire school where the book takes place.
• Garlic
It is said that vampyres are allergic to garlic, and they are in many of the books, but in Marked they actually eat garlic! Well, that is very good to hear. Could you even think of a life without garlic? I couldn’t.
• Blood
In some books vampyres need blood to survive, and they cannot drink anything else but blood. In other books vampires eat food and drink blood. In Marked they eat ordinary food, (somewhat healthier) and they only drink blood because they like it so much. If they smell blood they want it very badly, but they do not need it.
• Recognizing vampyres
It can be hard to recognize a vampyre, but I found a few things about how you can recognize one, the vampyre has:
...very pale skin
…an awful breath
…intensively red lips
…hairy palms
…claw-like nails
…a mesmerizing glance
…coadunate eyebrows (I thought that was for werewolves but apparently not).
This was a few things for “ordinary” vampyres. In Marked it is a bit different. There they have Marks in their faces, and that makes it easier to find out that they are vampyres, although it could be a human who has made a nice tattoo in their face, but tattoos in the face is not that usual.
There are many vampyre books and the most famous is probably Dracula. It is not the first vampyre book, but it has a famous take on the vampyre genre, and the vampyres in Dracula are probably explained nearly as the ones I have described above. I have not read or seen Dracula yet, but I have seen a TV-series for children called “Young Dracula”, and I totally adore it. I just had to mention that so I could show you a picture of the handsome count Dracula!
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Now I have told you about some of the differences between regular vampyres and the vampyres in Marked. There are huge differences, although it is clear that Marked is a vampyre book. Well, something tells me that it is not a hard task to write a vampyre book, all you need is to do is to write about a human who have any sort of thirst for human blood. On my opinion, Marked is a rather good vampyre book. The book is not perfect, but it is a teenager book, and we make no demands, obviously. However, I think the vampyres in my book is rather good. Anyway it should probably have been more action if they all fed on blood. But at least, they do not sparkle.
The darkest wishes
Miss T. Vamposaur
They have hairy palms?? O_O Well that's... Ehm... Nice... But mostly hairy, I guess...
ReplyDeleteVery informative post, in contrast to mine; you mentioned quite a few things I didn't know before, even though I spent several hours doing research! xD
I was just thinking; if vampyres in Marked have no real need in blood, do they have fangs at all, or is the change just about reversing their diurnal rhythm and making them (literally) thin-skinned thus easily sunburned? What else do they do after not dying in the changing process, apart from being largely unchanged othan than replcing milk with blood at lunch? ;P
Anyway, good job! And I sincerely hope that I - within the nearest two days or so - in some magical way come across a detailed instruction on how to widen the post space, or we'll soon have serious truoble with orientating here. It's like reading a book published on a toilet roll... X)
Miss B.A. Vamposaur