Michael Tolkin in the Los Angeles Times

This is one of those essays you wished you had written:

The Vampirization of America

An era of fear and uncertainty has helped fuel a sex-and-death wave in pop culture.

"If we look to the Young Adult shelf now for another character type to use as a little reference point, we find death. In the last decade, the four types being found on the shelves of Young Adult Fiction have replaced all previous human character types. We no longer have anima/animus, ego/id/superego, saint/sinner. We have Wizards, Werewolves, Zombies and Vampires."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-tolkin20-2009dec20,0,4813009.story