Twilight

Scott bought me the 4 Twilight books for Christmas, along with this rockin' laptop I'm currently using :) We saw the movie on our little vaca away from the kiddos in Nov, and I thought it would be fun to see how the whole saga played out.
Now, I wouldn't say that I'm the target audience for these books. They are incredibly "teen angsty". Think Dawson's Creek meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you'd be close. They are, as an old college prof would have said "everything that is wrong in modern American Lit". That being said, I read all 4 books (over 2,500 pages) in under 5 days. And yes, I did do other things in that 5 days (saw The Lion King-Thanks Alley!, played with the kids, watched 2 movies, hit the post Christmas clearance sales, went out to eat, all that jazz). I devoured these books, not because they were particularly well written, or that the story was THAT compelling, but it was good enough that I HAD to know what happened next. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'll try not to spoil it for you, but no promises...
First of all, Bella bugs me. Let me explain. She's weak. She's clumsy. She's running low on self confidence. She obviously subscribes to the Disney Doctrine (you know, the "someday my prince will come" ideology). She ALWAYS has a man to watch over her/take care of her/save her life. As a woman, this irks me. As a mom of a little girl, it REALLY bothers me. I want her to be stronger, and more self assure. I want her to have a life outside of a boy. BUT, I can remember being in high school, being self conscious, falling in love, and having a first kiss...so I'll forgive her. But, if Livie ever reads these books, she's going to get an earful of self actualization and a stern lecture on how no other person can be responsible for her happiness!
But any who, through the 4 books she changes and by the end she's a much more palatable "person" to me and for that I am grateful. There are plenty of WAY sci-fi moments (it is about a vampire after all), but all in all, not a bad way to waste some time on a snowy day. And finally, a book that has the characters wait until marriage, and it's not the girl putting the breaks on the action!
Just please, don't let them suck you in. Scott has an acquaintance at school that was so into the books that she made her husband stand outside in the cold so that she could hug him and pretend he was Edward (the vampire). Creepy.