Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series

I read the Twilight books before its popularity. Honestly I believe the true appeal is the love story between the two characters. Girls, especially teens, hope to meet that special someone someday and are caught up in the romance that Bella Swan has, and in some ways I think some girls wish they had such a romance. I'm not saying all girls want that. I like the books. I enjoy the characters.

 

Untrue, about the "attractive hero women like" thing. My 40-year-old extremely philosophical father loves it. It's an interpersonal story with well-defined characters and surprising depth... apparently. I've never read it, just going off of what the most deep-thinking guy I know says.

 

I didn't like them myself. I read them as a distraction during radiation.

The premise is good. I think that's what makes it popular. Plus it has that essential element that all young girls love. A handsome hero to swoop in and save them. It left a lot to be desired to me. I did however love her other book The Host. Thought that one was very good. Maybe it was because it's the first thing she wrote. Sorry I'm digressing.

Vampires that are teen friendly, a handsome hero, love triangle, death, battles between good and evil. That's what I think makes it popular.

 

^ I also liked The Host much better, although I would've cut out about 100 pages or so. It dragged a lot.

 

If this turns into another "I hate Twilight" / "I love Twilight" thread, it will be closed like its predecessors.

The question raised was WHY it is as popular as it is.

 

I think everyone else said it all. I read the books myself, and here's what I think.

> The Twilight Saga is extremely popular if you ask, "Is it well-received among a large part of teenage girls?"
> This is not to say it isn't popular among other people, too, but I think we can all agree that this is the foundation of its fanbase.

> Then again, the Twilight Saga won't be as popular among, say, a large part of the people on this forum, from what opinions I've seen.

Like any book/series, this Saga's popularity is extremely subjective. Meyer wrote it with her fanbase in mind, I'm sure. And with any book, it will NEVER win 100% of its readers over. This book just does a great job of appealing to its fans, while doing a wretched job of appealing to other people, and a moderate job among more people, too.

I will say, without any bias at the moment, at least, that the Twilight Saga seems to have almost as much negative reception as positive reception, while the Harry Potter series, which a lot of people in general, have compared Twilight to (I guess as a "super series"), has basically less negativity in proportion to its positive reception.

 

Agreed. I actually skimmed a lot of it when it dragged like that. Too much stuff that wasn't important to the story. It was still very good though. I'm waiting to decide how I feel about her as a writer until she has a few more books under her belt.

 

I read the series while I was in the Phillipines, and I thought it was nice. But it was probably heat stroke.

I think that it takes very appealing themes (vampires, werewolves, love) and condenses them into simple language, making them easy to read for many teenagers on the go, unlike the great such as the Vampire Chronicles, which I've heard are a bit too old-timey and intense.

Also, Meyer captures the ultimate goal for Bella as the perfect man. Understanding, handsome, good-smelling. Okay, maybe not the last one, but I do like guys with cologne. Anyway, it is, in a sense, wish-fulfillment for many girls. The thought that they, normal teens like Bella, could get a guy like that, gives them hope, kind of like how the Chinese practically ate up the concept of Buddhism. And for girls who didn't like Edward, Meyer developed Jacob into your classic juvenile bad boy with a heart.

 

The books on the Twilight series were the first books in english that I read, and it was mostly to improve my english, but I liked. I didn't know if it was a well written book at the time, but after reading others, I realized it had a pretty juvenile vocabulary.

I think, like others have already said, that what appeal most is the improbable love (perfect guy and normal girl) which is probably one of the things teenage girls dream about.

I also believe the sexual tension throughout the four books is something that actually happens in the life of a teenage girl (not in that level, of course), and they can identify themselves with Bella and long for someone like Edward (or Jacob) in their lives.

Stephenie Meyer used in her book what almost every girl want in her life. I believe that was the key to her success.

 

I got a question... since when do girls enjoy being spied on and being watched by a complete stranger as they sleep?

Another thing is the way he treated Bella in the first book. Maybe I went in with a bias already but it just seemed like he kept telling her how she is helpless without him and how he has to save her all the time or something.

That just bugged the hell out of me.

 

I think it's one of those things that in real life people would flip out but in a book it's romantic. It's not something I get myself.. but I suppose that's what a fantasy is. Something that is good in theory but probably not in action. And essentially this book was a fantasy for teen girls.

Teens are impressionable they are still deciding what they want and how they feel about things. I doubt a huge amount of them really took it that seriously. I believe, to them, it was a book about an average girl they could identify with getting a guy that was out of her league. Plus it had some steamy scenes within pg 13 range. At that age I would have taken anything like that I could get my hands on.

 

I remember that. I read an excerpt of Midnight Sun, where Edward went into detail about how he OILED HER WINDOW WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING. But then again, people love that song "Hey There Delilah", which is about a girl the lead singer had just met, who had a boyfriend.... It's like the stalker national anthem, if Twilight is the stalker constitution.

 

I know many people who read the book jst because they wanted to see what the hype was about. Or, people who read it for the lawlz travel in packs as well.

 

Ehhhh... That's just... disturbing. I haven't read that one. I read the others cause I was having radiation and needed a distraction from that abysmal time of my life. haha Plus I was intensely curious about why everyone thought it was so great.

I can't say it's evil because it has brought me a lot of laughter. haha

I can't say if I would have received it differently at a younger age. It's been scientifically proven that the human brain isn't fully developed until somewhere between the ages of 20-25. So young girls probably don't think about what that would be like in real life.

 

It's harmless enough, in my opinion, even in spite of the somewhat unfortunate implications it harbors. It isn't a good book by any stretch of the imagination, certainly, but if you like YA novels, it isn't much worse than the majority of the genre in comparison. I've only read about four authors who fall into that category who are really worth any literary credibility, so the focus on Twilight's poor writing and characterization is simply a result of it being particularly popular, not because it is particularly bad.

 

There's truth to that. I didn't think of that but now that you mention it.. I suppose it's like how when girls are thirteen they scream for boybands (guilty :redface: ) and when we're older we go wtf were we thinking? haha

 

Man, this thread has gone deja vu all over again. Just saying.

 

ah crap sorry. I'll be more careful.

 

This thread has run its course. Again.