Of course you didn't like it, Gina. Did you even read the whole thing? I attempted to finish the book but stopped when the undead became so dull I wanted to kill myself. These books are written for the very young (not the young at heart, the genuinely young) who believe that Cathy and Heathcliff had a good relationship, as evidenced by their tearing each other apart, only SM doesn't not offer her readers what Bronte does, which is to say unique characters. I'm sticking with The Hunger, I can't recall who wrote it, but I liked the movie, and with everything Anne Rice.

Of course you didn't like it, Gina. Did you even read the whole thing? I attempted to finish the book but stopped when the undead became so dull I wanted to kill myself. These books are written for the very young (not the young at heart, the genuinely young) who believe that Cathy and Heathcliff had a good relationship, as evidenced by their tearing each other apart, only SM doesn't not offer her readers what Bronte does, which is to say unique characters. I'm sticking with The Hunger, I can't recall who wrote it, but I liked the movie, and with everything Anne Rice.

I found this book rather well written. I am and adult reader and read it after buying it for my teen age daughter. I have to say that the book held some interest in the fact that I wanted to see if the Bella would ever realize that she was being selfish, and why she continued to put herself in situations that could cause her and Edward pain. This book gave a bit of role reversal that I found appealing. I like the fact that they made Edward caring. Girls eat this type of stuff up (a guy that cares about whether he is good for you.) It doesn't happen often and most girls love this kind of sap. It lets them believe that guys can be considerate. It also showed Edward exhibiting self-restraint which usually falls upon the female in a relationship. While Bella had low self-esteem, it may help others to see that ones own perception of their self is not always shared by their peers. This book is a good example of how we are set up as young girls to fall for the bad boys, except Edward turns out to be a good vampire, showing that a guy that has been assigned the stereotype of bad boy can be a good decent guy. So I would say I like this book because it can open eyes to the possibility that how society has raised girls to fall for men that are not good for them and in turn produce a low self-esteem for the females in our society. Which can lead me to teach my daughter better skills to pick a mate then, if I didn’t read these types of books and see what was so wrong with the relationship between Belle and Edward.

I found this book rather well written. I am and adult reader and read it after buying it for my teen age daughter. I have to say that the book held some interest in the fact that I wanted to see if the Bella would ever realize that she was being selfish, and why she continued to put herself in situations that could cause her and Edward pain. This book gave a bit of role reversal that I found appealing. I like the fact that they made Edward caring. Girls eat this type of stuff up (a guy that cares about whether he is good for you.) It doesn't happen often and most girls love this kind of sap. It lets them believe that guys can be considerate. It also showed Edward exhibiting self-restraint which usually falls upon the female in a relationship. While Bella had low self-esteem, it may help others to see that ones own perception of their self is not always shared by their peers. This book is a good example of how we are set up as young girls to fall for the bad boys, except Edward turns out to be a good vampire, showing that a guy that has been assigned the stereotype of bad boy can be a good decent guy. So I would say I like this book because it can open eyes to the possibility that how society has raised girls to fall for men that are not good for them and in turn produce a low self-esteem for the females in our society. Which can lead me to teach my daughter better skills to pick a mate then, if I didn’t read these types of books and see what was so wrong with the relationship between Belle and Edward.

i've liked the twilight saga overall,even though there are parts where it gets boring.
i suppose being the sole object of affection of a rich,handsome,strong,considerate,loving guy is a common fantasy among most women/girls so the books do well
plus being a vampire story it adds a little mystery to the character.
And the general curiousity of how the story ends lead me to read the books.

I'm almost 27 and I absolutely loved the Twilight series. Oh and there's 4 books in the series:

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn

The Twilight Saga appeals to our human desires for immortality and passionate love. Nothing very mysterious about that. What's the particular attraction for young women? Check out Sarah Haskins’ amusing “Target Women” investigation into the Twilight fervor at http://current.com/items/89591135/sarah_haskins_in_target_women_vampires...

On a more serious note, I enjoyed the books (especially New Moon, the most melodramatic, suspenseful, and teen-angst-ridden of the four)—despite their lack of literary merit or moral vision. Here’s the hypothetical ethical dilemma I take from the series:

You discover a conspiracy of powerful, sadistic serial killers has been slaughtering and eating people for thousands of years. There may be only hundreds of them, but they live hidden amongst the human race in every country on earth. This secret society of murderers offers you a simple choice: Join or Die. What do you do?

Dear Gina,
The entire TWILIGHT series is like the first 10 pages of a Fay Weldon novel. Or Muriel Spark. Or George Eliot or Jane Austen. The girl likes the guy and all he cares about is her. That's a set-up. That's a premise waiting to be unwound, deconstructed, derided, parodied, anything.

You set it up as literally as possible, holding back laughter, awaiting tears, you keep a straight face, and then, in the case of Austen and Weldon and all the other great ones, comes great literature.

In TWILIGHT--that's it. That premise is all she wrote.

You didn't like it, Gina, because you know that one can't write stuff like that without humor, without an underlying wit, not if you put hard covers on either side. So when you read it, you kept hoping, page after page--that the irony is coming--that at least a JOKE is coming, that Meyer will give us a reason to love Bella because SURELY she will discover something, she will uncover something, she will come to her senses so that we want to follow her into the next book. We'll accept Bella as an innocent, even as a fool, if she improves, gets better, finds a cure.

But she doesn't. And we don't want to identify with her--we don't want to take this journey again--not the journey we worked our whole lives to avoid. To be a self-sacrificing and also selfish fool. To fall for a vampire and risk death, hope for death, just for one "awesome" night.

No thanks. Especially if it's not even funny.

Yes, give me David Bowie and Katherine D.--they GOT the joke...

Give me THE GOOD SOLDIER any day.

Best,
PKB

To add on to Aspiegirl's post, maybe it's also the attraction of thinking that there's a whole part of the world that we know nothing about, that the supernatural is in fact natural—Twilight explores the what if's of such a situation.

I believe that as many others have said before me, some of the reasoning for Twilights attraction is just because you have the hot, rich bad boy, who actually turns out to be good. We live in a time where love letters are nonexistant and chivlrey is not only dead, it has been brutally murdered. I am a freshman in highschool, I know personally that girls, no matter how feminist or cynical, like the idea of a man who would truely love her. A guy who would be kind to her, and just treat her well. which to tell the truth, is an extreamly rare thing. I'm not saying that any other time was better, but its becoming even rarer every day to find lovers who are struggling against romeo and juliet-esk odds. So now people have to use their imaginations more.

I haven't read any of the Twilight Novels, and I doubt I will any time soon. The more I hear about it the more aggressively apathetic I feel about it. It sounds like someone took some of my favourite novels, like Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, then took out the fun bits and made the heroine dull and submissive. I've never really liked traditional chivalry; while I'm not totally adverse to the white knight, I draw the line at sweeping me off my feet. Being in love shouldn't mean slavish devotion from either the knight or the damsel. My hackles rise at the thought.

I haven't read any of the Twilight Novels, and I doubt I will any time soon. The more I hear about it the more aggressively apathetic I feel about it. It sounds like someone took some of my favourite novels, like Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, then took out the fun bits and made the heroine dull and submissive. I've never really liked traditional chivalry; while I'm not totally adverse to the white knight, I draw the line at sweeping me off my feet. Being in love shouldn't mean slavish devotion from either the knight or the damsel. My hackles rise at the thought.

I've been trying to understand why women like the series as well - so far I can see nothing positive about it! I read the first 3 books out of curiosity and while the first was somewhat entertaining in the same way all trash can sometimes be entertaining, it just went downhill from there.

Terrible writing, little to no characterisation, extremely weak lead female with no interests other than cooking, cleaning and becoming the undead (i.e. she has no power/strength as a regular girl), equally pathetic male lead, messy and uninteresting plotline - I would rather let my daughters read a V.C. Andrews incest-fest than this tripe.

The only reason I can see as to why SMART females would like this is that they simply need a totally mindless escape in which so-called doomed romances really can work out and hot, rich, tortured men will devote their undying love to you.

This makes the Harry Potter phenomenon seem like literary genius.

...As a fan of all things Anne Rice, I'm intrigued by the TWILIGHT series, but I just haven't had a chance to read it yet...

I CAN tell you that several of my friends who have teen daughters seem obsessed with the series (both moms AND daughters), and one mom-daughter combo. (who shall remain nameless) have paid to see the film 5 times, so far!

...I guess I'll have to get my hands on a copy STAT so that I can make up my own mind on the subject...

~Good luck, Gina,
Nina : )

...As a fan of all things Anne Rice, I'm intrigued by the TWILIGHT series, but I just haven't had a chance to read it yet...

I CAN tell you that several of my friends who have teen daughters seem obsessed with the series (both moms AND daughters), and one mom-daughter combo. (who shall remain nameless) have paid to see the film 5 times, so far!

...I guess I'll have to get my hands on a copy STAT so that I can make up my own mind on the subject...

~Good luck, Gina,
Nina : )

personally every new best seller confuses me more, there are popular magazines, websites, books and movies that should have never been popular.

the movie sucks but it feeds the missing need for deep emotional love. Since reality is always different than the movies some people escape to movies to feel better especially if the movie provides them with something that they need and can't find like the exaggerated romantic love emotions in twilight.

You may want to want to alert the webmaster that this entry has an unusual number of double posts. Other blogs typically don't have this many, though it happens once in a while.

I believe my title says it all.

*I apologize for any grammar mistakes, but since my native language isn't English ;)*

I live in the Netherlands, and am not quite swept up by the Twilight hype. I'm sixteen years old, yes, a high school student, and I did, I honestly did! try to read Twilight.
A good friend recommended it to me, however not telling me anything, and so I agreed to read it. Hearing that it was about vampires and a human girl, which is quite a cliche.
I purposely didn't read any reviews, and started reading with no opinions beforehand. At the first page, the first thing popping up in my head was a bad fanfiction, seeing that Bella moves to Forks because of complications within family, an annoying excuse often used at the start of a story.
But I decided to give the writer a break, and continued reading about our little .. what was it? Isabelle Swann.
Ah, yes. Beautiful swann. Good start.
Especially if she starts telling the readers that she is shy and uncertain and plain. Which I can't find in the books anywhere. She is described as perfect, actually. At the start of the books, in a completely new school, she immediately makes friends and gets five guys to adore her.
but, well, since everybody did read Twilight, I don't find it necessary to give summaries.

At first, trying to forget the cliches crossing my path, I liked the first two chapters. Why?
Because Edward seemed to hate Bella. Well, that's interesting. Why hate anyone you have never met before? With such intense hatred, and even trying to switch classes?
But Meyer throws away this which could have turned into something great, and portrays Edward as some kind of god. I don't know what Meyer was trying to pull, but to me, it was fairly annoying. Now I know that the average teenage girl has been blinded by the media about what is really important for a long time, but that it was this bad is just.. wow. Shocking.

Now, most of the Twilight fans are crazy teenage girls idealizing Hottie McHot pants (Edward). Saying he's perfect, and protective and so cute.
I don't know what is so appealing to a guy sabotaging your car, watching you sleep, or what is so nice about kissing a guy with cold marble lips. But at the beginning of the book, when the word marble hasn't started haunting your dreams yet, you can be charmed by Edward, and, convinced you like Edward, you start neglecting the things actually happening. So, actually, to my opinion, the main reason people like Twilight is because of Edward. And him being the perfect man at the start of the book (not to me, but to the other teenage girls blinded by media)
And everyone is ignoring what a creep he really is. *seriously, if someone would watch me sleep for months..*

I can't even progress how shocked I am by the reaction teenage girls have. I have read an article about a 15-year old teenage girl who got pregnant from a guy named, yes, Edward. Since he was named Edward.
At first, she wanted an abortion. Something I find a smart choice for a fifteen year old. But, when the fourth book of Twilight got published, she decided to keep the baby.
(In book four Bella indeed gets a baby from Edward. When she's still a teenager. The baby is named Renesmee.)
Yes. So the teenage girl decides to have the baby. Now, what has she called the kid? Indeed. Renesmee and then something, I believe Isabelle and then another Twilight name following, I think Edward.

Ain't this shocking?

What is wrong with Stephenie Meyer?
Where are her morals? She's encouraging young confused teenagers to get married and have children! The only thing in her books I could find was the godliness of Edward!
While Edward himself is stalkish, obsessive and abusive!
Bella is selfish, has no opinion whatsoever, pretty (though she claims not to be) and is the most pathetic female character I have ever read about.

Now, I do know why the characters are made this way. The writer of the Twilight series is a Mormon. That's a religion in which the male is superior to the female, ( I believe) a trait which I can indeed find in the Twilight series.
Next to that, it is believed that a white skin is better then a dark skin in this religion. (See the Edward-Jacob conflict) Next to that, the Mormon don't believe in birth-control. May that be why Bella, even though she was a teenager, had Renesmee. But I won't make any claims as to I'm not a Mormon myself, and I could be wrong.

Now, I believe that the only reason Twilight got popular is because some brainwashed teenagers started adoring Edward. Then followed the people, scared to be left behind, claiming they LOVE Twilight, just to fit in. Then the complete hype, in which everybody believes Twilight is fantastic, before they even start reading. (And that's why I avoid critics before I start reading)
By my opinion, Twilight isn't as popular as everyone really thinks. It just happens so that everybody is afraid to state their real opinion. Since they get attacked when they do so!

I guess this is my opinion about why Twilight is so popular.
and it seems it turned out pretty long.

Twilight iss very well written and easy to read, because of the fact that it is filled to the max with grammar errors and sentence fragments. It contains maybe one or two litarary devices. The only one that comes to mind is forshadowing because it was so predictable. Thought being predictable was not the athours fault she did pick a story that has been done a million times. :)

Twilight isn't your typical fairytale...if you read all four books its an actual struggle, while yes its about vampires which makes it unreal...for me and a few others i've talked to its simply because its not like cinderella or snow white or something like that. Its has parts that make your heart jump. Bad things do happen. The bond between bella and edward though is what makes everyone so drawn to it. Their complete opposites yet similar in little ways. The disagree and fight, yet their love is unconditional. I believe it wasn't predictable at all. The writer did an amazing job, and its a huge hit to girls and guys. I can think of about 10 guys off the top of my head from ages 14-17 who have read all four books some more than once.

Grammar errors and sentence fragments? Whatever happened to getting lost in a book just for the fun of it? I am 42 and I loved the books. I think they are fun and remind me of being 17 again! All those exciting first love feelings. It's a story, fantasy, fun!

personally, I am not a fan of Twilight, books and movie(s), because I like reading books with more depth and more thought than just "girl love boy, boy loves girl, boy is vampire". (no offense to lovers of Twilight). however I can understand why people like it so much.
I think girls (and women) enjoy Twilight so much because it's a love story. no matter what, every girl likes a good love story. Edward can be considered as a "bad boy".. because he's a vampire.. and a lot of girls are attracted to that. not to mention that he's described as pretty much the definition of "perfect". (at least, in the eyes of the girls this book is focused on). because most of the people who are in love with the Twilight series are in their teens, I think that they want to find someone like Edward, and can imagine themselves in Bella's position.
content aside, this book is an easy read (not necessarily a good thing), which a lot of people like because you don't have to think too much about what you're reading, but you're still getting a good story.

i'm not a teenager myself..i'm a 26 yr old mother of 2, however i've read the twilight series..and i'd be lying if i said i didn't enjoy it at least somewhat...and my guesses as to why it's such a big hit with teens are as follows:
1. Robert Pattinson
2. girls feel they can relate to Bella's character
3. it's a teen romance novel about vampires..everyone loves a good vampire novel,am i right?
4. the boy gets the girl, boy bites the girl, they have kids....a happy ending...

Twilight's popularity is largely due to the superdose of pure romance it delivers to young girls in today's decidedly unromantic world. But the very distilled (middle school moonshine practically) emotion which makes Twilight so appealing to lovelorn tweenagers is precisely what renders it appalling to many others. Meyer's characters have zero subtlety or emotional dexterity; Edward is the perfect man: Gorgeous lifesaver with a heart of gold and the pepper dash of his vampirism for "bad boy" appeal, but that is all you ever need to know about him. He is only ever infuriated or infatuated, oftentimes alternating between the two extremes in the space of a page. Bella is not interesting. Twilight is fan fiction perfected, a romance novel for kids -most of the sex+the supernatural. For indulgence it might due in a pinch, but never will it be a provocative work of literature that I would expect "smart" girls to go bonkers over.
P.S. Any high school boy attempting to get girls by emulating Edward would be shunned as a "creeper" and avoided even by the most die hard Twilight fans.

I am sitting at work reading all of this and I am in WOW mode i guess! this is crazy! i am going to be honest and say that i am a 23 year old mother of 3 beautiful little boys! I have never really read a book they make me sleepy! But before you judge because im young and have children i am a great mother i work very hard! I have read all the books and I LOVE THEM they are great.. Some of you are just reading way to much into this just trying to find a reason to hate it so much! Its not just about edward! the thought of man that cares so much and wants to be there and love her is great! but its more that love like that doesn't exsist anymore at all! Men are dogs these day "most" they only care about one thing and thats it! thats just the fact of it! in this story he doesn't even want that he just loves her for her! he is not abusive at all that was just silly! he is a vampire who is trying very hard to control his self and NOT hurt bella! and besides the fact that everyone thinks bella is selfish thats stupid to! its just a story if people were to read it w/o trying to pick it apart in the process you might like it!
anyway im getting off the point..i just think that its silly for people to want to or hate it so much! its fine if you hate it but there is no reason to critize the people that like it?! i personally like the book b/c its an escape from reality just for a little while! besides that its very sweet how much edward and bella love eachother and even how good of a friend jacob is! its hard to find men that love you like this anyway ... and its harder to keep friends...i don't think that stephanie meyer was saying that you should go out and get pregnant and married at all..but that had more to do with edward hes how old?? she was trying to do things his way and back when he was a kid the way to do it was get married young and start a family! and its not like he wanted a kid they weren't trying who would of thought vamps and humans could make kids that just odd..but yet interresting to read about! look at the way girls are these days 12 13 getting pregnant having sex with all kinds of men is sick!! So to say thats what she was saying is ridiculous!
i don't really know why im writing on here i just think i got annoyed at some of the silly things people were saying.. i think that if you like the book great its nice to read about someone else and there problems and not to think about your own for a while.. or to have a fantasy of beeing loved as much as he loves her and she loves him! and she didnt' just keep the baby b/c it was part of edward! when you get pregnant you keep a child b/c of love and the fact that, that child is half of you and you created that child is was not selfish it was love! she would die for the person she loves and a their child and he the same! and thats not really a fantasy or stupid at all! i would give my life for any of my kids if i ever had to!!! thats how parents are! well i have to get back to work! if you don't like that book thats great to its your opinion everyone is entitled to that.. but people stop takeing the book out of context just to find a reason to hate it! if you don't like it then just say i dont' like it you don't have to analize the whole book when you didn't even read it right or get out of it what you were meant to! and the movie is NOT as good as the book at all!!!
Have a good night/day everyone!
sorry about all the proper english and stuff im in a hurry i don't have time for all of that! sorry!