Gabriel's Redemption

I'm about 100 pages into the last book of the Gabriel's Inferno trilogy and I've figured out a few more parallels between this series and Twilight.  First of all, the main one, which I can't believe I didn't figure out sooner, but THE ACADEMICS ARE THE VAMPIRES!!  How perfect is that??  And now Julia is becoming one of them instead of just hanging around them (like when Bella became a vampire).  Also, Christa is Victoria (the female vampire who was always trying to kill Bella) and Ann Singer ("Professor Pain") is Jane (who was one of the leaders of the Volturi and had the ability to inflict incredible pain on other vampires just by getting into their minds).

So I think Sylvain Reynard is probably a professor somewhere and these novels are his backdoor hobby.  I also think he (?) is a conservative Catholic, and the homophobia, in these books really bothers me.  Like part of Christa and Ann's "depraved" sexuality is that they will sleep with women as well as men, and Ann tried to seduce Julia in a really sickening scene (sickening because of the way that a woman seducing another woman was portrayed) in either the first or the second book.  Also, part of Gabriel's "redemption" in the last book was going to Italy and volunteering with a Franciscan charity.  So it will be interesting to see how all of this continues to play out in this book.

I definitely think that, in terms of reading this as Twilight fanfiction, there are some very smart parallels, and I think I'm enjoying the series for that more than anything.  If I weren't such a fan of all things and all plotlines Twilight, I'm pretty sure I would not have wasted this much of my life on this particular trilogy.  There is so much to dislike about it.  But it is also compelling, in its own way, though most of the credit for that is due to Stephenie Meyer, not "Sylvain Reynard" whoever he may be.

I'm balancing out my reading of this by also re-reading Interview with the Vampire, which I am halfway through.  Sylvain Reynard is seemingly the anti-Anne Rice, who herself and whose books are sex-positive, queer friendly, and appropriately critical of organized religion.  I definitely want to read her Beauty series at some point, but that might be a ways down the road, since I am first wanting to get through Queen of the Damned so I can read Prince Lestat, and then I think I want to tackle the Mayfair Witches.  But who knows when and if I will make it through all of those books.  Rice's writing actually takes some effort, since she is a quality writer, and I seem to only be able to process large amounts of trash like Reynard right now.  Plus I have the first book of Christina Lauren's Beautiful Bastard series waiting for me -- another Twilight fanfiction.  Not to mention that it's been a while since I've read anything YA, and I'll need to remedy that situation very soon as well.