Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

This book was originally titled, Don't Leave Me! The main character, Bella, is constantly screaming this to her non-human eating vampire love interest - Edward and it's so incredibly annoying.

Stephenie Meyer has created a novel for the teenage girl in Twilight. Now that Harry Potter is complete, teens need a new sensation to hit. If you walk though the Young Adult section of any book store, you will see the many attempts by publishers and their authors to catch that pop culture fire. Because this book is about vampires and teenagers, how can you go wrong?

Bella moves to Washington State to be with her father. She's a very shy and self-loathing kind of person. Throughout the entire first third of the story, Bella is obsessed with a certain boy who looks different and gives her fierce looks.

Let me amend that, she's obsessed with him for the entire story. And that's what I don't quite like about this. Edward, the vampire boy who she can't stop thinking about, is very authoritarian. He literally orders her around in every circumstance. And when things go wrong, it's always her fault.

The romantic part comes because, since he's a vampire, he's attracted to her because she's a good meal. But because he loves her he fights that urge. Whenever he gets a little carried away, he blames her. And Bella takes it!

Of course, it's been a few years since I was in high school so I may be fuzzy on the whole boy/girl relationship thing for teenagers. I kept thinking, "Stop taking all that crap from him". Maybe that means I was sucked into the story and characters Meyer was telling - I've fallen into the trap.

So, while I don't consider this a work of literary genius, I am going to have to finish the series.

Curse you series writers!