A former critic, I am astonishingly now a fan. This book/series is sort of Jane Eyre meets X-men saga; it tells the story of a humble, kind, introverted girl who feels incomplete and longs for home, love, connection, intimacy, family, and agency. Within a simple 'boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again' tale there are many layers. To explain the book's appeal and artistry I strongly recommend the Granger lectures on Ancient Faith Radio. Bella, with her shy, self-effacing manner and intense first love, is not a model of career woman efficiency. This is a fairy tale parable of opening our hearts to love, and allowing that love to transform us. This tale is also a coming of age story. We see a smart, capable girl grow up, mature, make her decisions, and blossom. That she chooses being a wife and mother as her adult priority is probably the single most controversial aspect of this book. Now read my earlier negative review from years ago - written in a knee jerk reaction after having read the book only once. My previous review: "Bella is a poor role model for chastity, honesty, and self-care: The book was suspenseful and erotic, but morally 'junk food'. WHY are parents letting young girls read this? Bella pursues only her infatuation w/ the vampire. She makes no female friends; she has no career plans; no extracurricular interests, no religious practice; no sports; no job. She has no interest outside of wanting to give her body to the older powerful attractive male - even if he kills her. She lies to and deceives her father. She hides her boyfriend in her bed at night as he passionately and dangerously kisses her neck. Bella is not an upstanding role model for a young girl." Obviously my feminist hackles were raised the first read through, but strangely enough I delight in the book now and have read the series through several times. In fact I really like everything S. Meyer wrote: The Twilight series, The Host, and especially, Midnight Sun (book 1 from Edward's voice) downloadable from her website. And I no longer think Bella's physical desire for Edward is inappropriate for teens to read. Humans feel desire. What matters is how we handle it. Bella and Edward's restraint and choice of chastity is more of an accomplishment b/c it did take effort. Bella and Edward are fine role models - their maturation takes 4 books, so don't judge them too soon. If interested in the inner life, popular culture, or the power of story to transform, I strongly recommend you read or listen to John Granger on both Twilight, Hunger Games, and Harry Potter at hogwarts professor site.

I am glad to see there are others who saw what I saw when I read this book, as a parent previewing it for my young daughters. My 5th grade daughter was begging me to read it because all of her friends had and a couple of moms whom I would usually trust said, "Oh, Twilight is harmless!" But for me, as a single mom who has just left an abusive relationship, the negative messages of this book stood out as ones my young daughters don't need to be exposed to, especially when they are being glorified. There is way too much desire in this novel for young girls to be reading about, let alone the fact that Bella desires someone who is dangerous, and she is more than willing to ignore the danger in the name of love. This is not a sweet, innocent love story, and I am amazed at how many VERY young girls are not only reading this series and watching the movie, but are obsessed with it, and their parents don't see it as a problem. We need to open our eyes with our daughters at this age and think about what we are teaching them about the world and how they, as women in it, should expect to be treated.

This gives young teens/tweens mad messages. Some teens might think that they can find true love when they're eighteen, and get married and have kids at age nineteen. REALITY CHECK!! NOt many parents want there little girl to get married at that age. Overall Meyer has written a good book, but the plot will be overused.

Edward and Bella's relationship is a textbook for emotional abuse.

I work in a bookstore. So, of course, I have read the Twilight series. The story itself is captivating at first read when it is not thoroughly examined. Now that I have looked back on what I've read; I have to say that I really cannot stand the book! The series features the main character, Bella, as being controlled by her vampire boyfriend, Edward. He controls nearly every aspect of her life and ignores what she has to say about their relationship if it goes against his own desires. It teaches young girls that romance is when you give your entire being over to a boy to the point where you go catatonic when he leaves you. That is not what a healthy love relationship is. We should be teaching girls that they need to be complete in themselves, not that they need a boyfriend to complete their souls. Upon learning that the author is Mormon, I wasn't all that surprised. In the end, I have to say that I wouldn't give this to my daughter. I wouldn't forbid her from reading it, though I strongly dislike how it displays what romance "should" be. Girls, having a guy you don't know watch you sleep without knowing it is NOT ok. It's not romantic. It's creepy. (P.S. This is pretty badly written. It reads like she was pulling words from romance novels and had a thesaurus permanently at her side.)

I'm not even going to go into Twilight's structural issues (the plot is badly organized) and grammatical errors (there are plenty). The main problem I have with this book is the main character, Bella. She is a one-dimensional, weak female character. She is completely obsessed with, and submissive to, her controlling and jealous boyfriend, Edward. The "love" Edward has for Bella, doesn't seem to be love at all. What they have between them is emotionally abusive and more closely resembles a power struggle than a respectful relationship. I can't imagine allowing young girls to read this book, or any other in the series, without a serious discussion about what being in love with another person really entails.

This book idealizes abusive relationships, as well as being incredibly misogynist. Bella's vampire boyfriend is controlling, manipulative and BREAKS INTO HER HOUSE TO WATCH HER SLEEP WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION. This is never portrayed as anything except romantic. Bella herself is selfish and rude to everyone around her, except her boyfriend whom she obeys without a second though. These are not role models for children.

Twilight is an emotional journey about a decision a girl has to make. The difficult decision between necrophilia or beastiality.