Soon to be a doubtlessly horrible film adaptation, the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer has droves of foam-mouthed fans. I read the entire series (four incredibly long books) and do not count myself among the fans. The series did have the odd high-point, but for the most part, it was nothing more than drivel and fluff.
I have a lot of issues with this series, and I would like to start with probably the most superficial. The margins and the spacing make the books (in the hardcover and the matching trade paperbacks) much longer than they should be. Even the typeface is quite large compared to other novels of similar page length. This bothers me on a very deep level because the books would've been 100 pages shorter if only the format were condensed a little. I am a book nerd, so you see why I took notice in the first place.
Superficial aside, the heart of the story is somewhat interesting. The human girl-vampire-werewolf love triangle could make for a compelling novel or two, but Meyer's flat, selfish characters kill any chance at that. Bella, the narrator for most of the series, is probably the worst first person narrator I have ever read. She is very flat but also quite self-absorbed despite being self-depreciating at the same time. Edward is somewhat interesting, but with Bella's superficial narrations of the things he's doing or saying it's hard to see what his real motivation and feelings are. Jacob is wholly unlikable in my opinion. He's selfish, immature and manipulative, much more so than even Bella.
Even the secondary characters are incredibly basic and only serve as a further conveyance of Bella's self-involved nature. Her father Charlie, for example, would fit in better in the 1950s than in the modern era which the books are set. He is very out of touch and really seems to have little idea what is going on in his 18 year old daughter's life. He's also quite naive, which is infuriating considering he's supposed to be the police chief in their small town. Edward's family is no better... a family of hundred-plus year old vampires who go against their own nature and don't drink human blood could only be made so flat and boring by Meyer. Edward's "sister" Alice was actually the only character in all four books that I found to be likable or intriguing enough to actually care about.
Meyer's take on the vampire myths is completely detrimental to the work as well. She took most of what modern people accept as vampire myth and threw it out, mainly keeping that they drink blood. I think that the most far-fetched aspect of this is that the vampires "dazzle" or sparkle in the sunlight, hence why they won't go out on a clear day.
I never minded much that Edward and Bella never had sex, but I think Meyer's portrayal of their relationship is wholly unrealistic, vampires or no. Basically, she took a year's old moral standard (date, marry, have babies) and tried to push it on a modern audience. The character's motivations for waiting were pretty weak, as Meyer herself proved after their wedding. I suppose if you make glitter vampires fall in love with hapless, self-involved teenagers then they could fall deeply in love but abstain from sex, then get married and have a half-vampire baby.
One final caveat that really, truly bothered me about this series was the general ending in the fourth book. Clumsy, awkward Bella becomes a vampire and, upon looking at herself in a mirror, says "At least I'm pretty." So on top of the outdated morals we also have some pretty insane vanity to add to the list. I agree with countless reviewers on amazon.com that say that this sends the wrong message to young, impressionable readers. You won't get everything you want in life, more less be beautiful, rich and immortal while doing it. I understand that this is a fantasy series in most aspects, but it's also marketed as a romance series. Bella and Edward's relationship is atypical regardless because he's a vampire and she isn't, but overall Meyer makes it too easy for Bella to get her man in the end.
The first book, Twilight, was mildly entertaining but pretty poorly written in my opinion. I would give it a 2.5 out of 10 just because of the exciting ending and the somewhat interesting basis of the story.
The second book, New Moon, was incredibly boring. Page after page after page of how depressed Bella is intermixed with her hallucinations of Edward's voice. Plus the whole grody Jacob love triangle. 1 out of 5.
Eclipse, the third book, was an improvement. Meyer's writing style improved, plus this book seemed to contain a little more action and excitement. This was the one I hated least out of the four. 3 out of 5.
The final installment, Breaking Dawn, was quite a ways off from the other books. Up until this point it was an Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle, but after Edward and Bella's wedding and honeymoon about half the book was told from Jacob's perspective. Not liking Jacob's character made reading this especially difficult. After Bella's transformation it switches back to her POV and she's even more shallow but ever-so-slightly likable as a vampire. Everything about their child is far-fetched and it seemed to be an easy cop-out for Meyer to have Jacob imprint on the baby, Nessie. The "battle" with the Volturi which had been brewing since the second book was one of the most anti-climactic things I have ever read. Bella uses the shield, they leave, the end. I would give it a 1.5 out of 5. Meyer didn't have the guts (or even the freedom, perhaps) to write anything except the perfect happy ending, which I think is a little disappointing. As I said, it was entirely too easy for Bella to get her man.
Overall, it was something to do while I was bored. The reading level is pretty basic, so I did finish pretty quickly. It took me a while to get in to the first book, but I was curious to see what would happen next. I can't say I was very disappointed with the way that things turned out in the end because I knew that Stephenie Meyer would write exactly what he fans wanted. "They lived happily ever after."
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