Vampires, Werewolves and Romance or How Stephenie Meyer Invented a New Formula For Teenage Romance Novels

I am embarrassed to admit it, but I have been reading the Stephanie Meyer teen romance series The Twilight Saga. My niece has already read it twice and there is nothing like a success I don’t understand to make me want to find out more.

Well, my hat is off to Ms. Meyer who has done an excellent job in keeping the series interesting as well as both exciting and adolescent. I admit that the stories take too long to start and there is too much talking at times and not enough showing (is this damning with faint praise?), but she has been clever in so many aspects of her storytelling that I have to cut her a copious amount of slack. The story of the Cullens, Bella Swan and her family, and the Blacks has kept me turning pages long after I thought I would stop.

How much do I like the books? I am starting the fourth in the series, Breaking Dawn
(how cool a title is that?), and I am going to do something only reserved for the books that I find to be the most interesting: I am going to recommend to my daughter (a biochem student at UVM) that she read the series to experience some of the thrill I am sure many of her peers have had even though she is probably too old to really enjoy them (but then so am I and I really have enjoyed them so far).

The Twilight Saga. A teen romance about a teenage girl and a vampire. Whoda thunk?

Great job, Ms. Meyer! Sorry to hear about the fifth book.