Popular Culture Review Vol. 24, No. 1, Winter 2013 | Page 111

BOOK REVIEWS 107 to address their poverty. However, her article is still more significant in light of its central focus upon the Operation of metaphorical race (i.e. human, vampire, and werewolf) within the saga. The section on reception follows the pattem set by the first, presenting numerous chapters on Twilight fandom that nonetheless treat the matter from diverse perspectives and through varying psychological, cultural, and reception theories. DuBois’ article utilizing Freud’s concept of the “death drive” is particularly interesting in its attempts to deconstmct the emotional “trauma” experienced by readers of the series’ concluding novel. However, DriscoH’s exploration of Twilight as a choice between different modes of “being a girl,” as well as Hills, Goletz, and Gilbert’s respective chapters on inter-fandom, anti-fandom, and Twi-haters prove equally compelling, especially through their combined efforts to provide a more inclusive definition of fandom. This section Stands out as the strongest within the collection. The final section, on adaptation, though interesting, contains only three chapters, leaving it underdeveloped alongside the preceding explorations. Still, the articles on the Twilight films provide astute, in-depth analysis. In some ways more appropriate to the second section of this collection, the final chapter, on Korean reception of the franchise, nicely concludes the volume. Demonstrating that the series has been received similarly in both Korea and the United States, this chapter concludes that in Korea, it has nonetheless been relegated to inferior Status due to its specifically female marketing. However, the authors stop short of overtly acknowledging the possibility that this may further link the saga’s reception in both cultures. The collection’s thirteen entries offer fresh approaches to Twilight criticism, which though related, prove distinct even from one another. Moreover, many, if not all, of the chapters refer to the contradictions inherent within not only the series itself, but within its fandom, creating an unspoken cohesion that transcends individual articles. However, the introduction does not appear to acknowledge this cohesion, leaving the collection’s abrupt ending without a formal conclusion to diminish the overall sense of unity. Aside from this lack, the collection’s greatest failing is a reductive general tendency by the majority of the contributors to assume that Twilight fans are universally female. Sarah Pawlak, University of Nevada Las Vegas The Meaning of Superhero Comic Books Terrence R. Wandtke McFarland Publishing, 2012 (mcfarla