Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

How to begin? I'll start with a breakdown of the story. It was cheesy, with a relatively inane plot, and charcters that from time to time had me wanting to gag. Seriously. Big city, friendless girl moves to the sticks, has every girl (well almost) wanting to befriend her, every boy wanting to date her, and yet she manages to keep her "Aw shucks, I'm so ordinary" thing going throughout the story. Oh, yeah, and there are vampires. Good vampires. Vampires that don't hunt people. Vampires that sparkle in sunlight. Hmmmm.....

So, I find it disconcerting that I could not put the book down. Oh, how I wanted to hate it. There was so much not to like, and yet....Oh, I'll admit it. I really liked it. For lack of a better word, it was comforting. Yes, I know. It's an odd word to associate with a book about vampires, but nonetheless. And, I'm not just talking airplane pillow comforting. It's like coming home from a completely craptastic day, plopping into an overstuffed comfy chair, and having someone hand you warm, fresh from the oven, chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk. Honestly, it's probably not the reaction Stephenie Meyer was going for. Or, maybe it was. Written to the audience of a teenage girl, what better objective than to make her feel good...about herself. Because, let's face it, for most teenage girls that's a fleeting seldom felt experience. I don't really know why it works, but it so does. It's definitely something that fits that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" adage.