I began the series when it was still relatively unknown, and honestly did not read too much into it. I saw it as a decent story, not terribly complicated or well written, but entertaining. It wasn’t until recently, when I picked it up again, that I saw some of the more disturbing elements of the story. I have to agree, there are definite themes of abuse in the action of the story, whether they were intentional or not. That so many young girls now view this as the epitome of a romantic relationship is even more concerning – I have heard several accounts of a true and honest belief that Edward will find and love these girls, or of relationships ending due to the fact that the poor boy “isn’t like Edward”. This escapism and inability to separate fact from fiction is the scariest part of the entire phenomenon.

Apart from the fact that when a man (whom you are not even friends with) a) watches you sleep without your knowledge for months; b) follows you out of “concern for your welfare”; and c) reiterates constantly how dangerous it is to be around him – he is not going to love you eternally. Chances are, he is a crazy stalker who will KILL YOU to “keep you with him always”.

Cheers!

I found that the “Twilight Saga” was just enough to get me through the rough time between college semesters when I wanted to do anything but really think. As I tell all of my friends who brag about me “seeing the light,” I did not hate Twilight, but it is by no means great literature or anything worth reading twice. It does not deserve the fan-girl status it has risen to and I shudder to think of the sheer amount of money they’re making from all of the random strange products that came from this series.

I read the series before the movie came out and before a great deal of the uh, craziness? and fame of it started. I grew up with, what I consider true classics – SlaughterhouseFive, 1984, Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, you name it, I’ve read it, so I never even considered the series to be masterpieces (the word choice and grammar were like nails on chalkboard for me). However, because I read the series as a teen, I can truly understand the appeal they had (have?) on my peers. There is something really compelling about the passive-abusive relationship between B&E where E does everything “out of love” and B can just sit back and let E be in charge of the relationship as a whole. The readers of the books are probably barely starting to date and the appeal of a fool-proof, easy, sensual relationship is very alluring to them. Also, beyond B&E’s relationship, there is also the fact that B, a simple girl, gets thrown in into an amazing world of love, danger, magic and adventure! We all dream of escaping our boring lives and suddenly getting to live an amazing life, which B surely got. So, as you can see, one of the greatest points of the book is this escape into the idealized lifestyle!

Anyways, that is not to say I like the books. In fact, they make me cringe a little to just think about them. Why? I think the 150~ reviews before me have covered that topic very extensively, so I don’t think I need to rewrite it. I would never EVER recommend it to anyone, BUT, I truly do understand why my peers are so badly in love with the series.

Twilight will never even compare to Harry Potter. In a couple years, everyone will have forgotten about Twilight, while the world of Harry Potter will still be popular, in the book world, the movie world and the theme park world. I mean come on, HP has it’s own theme park now! Harry Potter is a work of modern day literature, while Twilight is just a fantasy the writer wanted played out somewhere else besides her mind.