Stephenie Meyer's vampire books are pure literary gold
By PATRICK HUGUENIN

Sunday, August 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM

Writer Stephenie Meyer has the kind of popularity that turns legions of teen readers into clamoring, costumed fanatics even as their parents ask, "Stephenie who?"

The 34-year-old mother of three authored the "Twilight" series, the fourth and final book of which, "Breaking Dawn," hit shelves Saturday at midnight with the kind of release parties previously reserved for "Harry Potter."

Meyer's books follow high-school loner Isabella Swan, nicknamed Bella, a transplant from sunny Arizona (where Meyer lives) to the rainiest town in Washington.

Bella catches the eye of classmate Edward Cullen, a stunningly studly 17-year-old who also happens to be a member of an ancient race of vampires. Edward calls himself "a vegetarian" - a vampire who avoids snacking on humans by feeding on big game. His romance with Bella is both fueled and occasionally flatlined by the fact that she looks and smells delicious.

Meyer's mix of fantasy and teen romance is noticeably chaste. The erotic tension of Edward learning to be close to Bella without devouring her is relieved by little more than the occasional kiss.

A graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in English, Meyer is an observant Mormon. She abstains from alcohol and - with the occasional exception - caffeine. A scene in "Twilight" in which Bella swallows too much cold medicine in an effort to get a good night's sleep, comes with a disclaimer that the character knows what she's doing is wrong.

Meyer has said that her beliefs show up in her books in the form of themes of free agency and sacrifice. Even so, her choice to write what can be hastily classified as Gothic fiction raised eyebrows in the Latter-Day Saints, even among close friends and family members.

In New York, meanwhile, Meyer's refusal to include the expected romance-novel payoff may have at first baffled her editors.

"When my editor wanted premarital sex in my story, I explained that I won't write that," Meyer told the Mormon cultural Web site www.motleyvision.com in 2005. "And she let it go."

But in spite of the erotic teasing of the series - or, more likely, because of it - fans approach the books with thirst. "Twilight," the first in the series, was published in 2005 and spent 56 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Counting the 3.2 million-copy first printing of the new "Breaking Dawn," Meyer will have just under 13 million books in print around the world. The movie version of "Twilight," starring Kristen Stewart, will be released in December.

Loads of my America flisters who read it hated it and were pretty dissapointed ...

a friend of ours said that it was writting from a completely different POV than the other three books?

I still haven't read the third book. I fail. :lol:

LMAO um ya dont Paula, I didnt even read ANY of them coz Im not interested...LOL

i haven't read any of them either... but that wasn't my fault -_-

LOL...if I don't find those damn books soon, I'll throw a fit, yell, cry and THAN loose interest

how's that stephanie meyer! :lol:

NOTE: i'm about to talk about the point of view that breaking dawn is told through. no plot points are given away, however if you still consider it a spoiler skip this next paragraph.

only a portion of it. it's divided up into three books. Book One is Bella, Book Two is Jacob, and Book Three is also Bella. Only book two is told through Jacob's point of view, and trust me, it's better that way. i wouldn't have wanted to be in Bella's head through that portion of the book.

yeah, it was a bit disappointing, but the expectations were high. i think everyone was expecting something epic, and breaking dawn wasn't exactly epic. some parts were good, some parts weren't so good, but for the most part i liked the ending.