Peer Pressure.

The first time I heard about stupid Twilight, (mind you, if it weren't for the redundancy of the word, I would put "stupid" before "Twilight" all throughout this post) was when I visited my dear friend Kim. I respect her, and admire her for her accomplishments and choices in life. But when she broached the subject of this book, the first description she gave me was "this book will make you want to cheat on your husband."

Of course, I now understand what she meant. That Stephanie Meyer's explicit and creative manner of describing the character "Edward" would make you want to fall in love with him as much as the character "Bella" does.

If- that is humanly possible.

I must admit first that I HAVE NOT read the book. I never thought that it would be worth the time. I would hear so many things about "vampire's" and "Edward's eyes" that I felt like I already had suffered through the entire novel- just by overhearing everyone's conversations. Another thing that held me back was how adolescent it appeared. It was about 17 year olds, and all these 25-35 year old women were obsessed with it. "HOW could this be?" I'd ask myself. "What IS it about this thing that is so fascinating?"

Yet, I refused to read it. When asked "Have you read Twilight?" I would raise my eyebrows and proudly say "No" anticipating the shock that would follow. People were always surprised.

Soon, the people I least expected to ever pick up the book would tell me they've read it. "It was good, you know, not the best thing I've ever read", they would confess. Nevertheless I was still taken aback that they'd admit it was a good read. I decided I needed to find out what all the fuss was about. But I was going to go about it the wussy way, and like ripping a bandaid off nice and quick, I would watch the movie- and get it over with really fast.

So to Redbox. One dollar and seven cents later, I sat down with my willing husband, to watch "Twilight." I had a lot of questions. My husband hates when I ask questions.

"Why does he act like that?"

"Do vampire's have glitter-skin?"

"Why isn't she offended by the horrible things he says to her?"

"Why doesn't he just bite her and turn her into a vampire?"

"Why doesn't Bella wear garlic?"

"Why do all the vampire's look like they are seventeen?"

"Where did these people come from?"

"Why is Bella so stupid?"

"Why is Bella such a brat?"

"What does he think Bella can bring to the relationship?"

..and so on.

My final conclusion was that this was a teen movie, for all those girls out there that love everything sexual about a man (except sex, of course) and love to see the hot boy protect the young, vulnerable girl from EVIL all the while being DANGEROUS himself. It's a simple story dressed up with vampire's. And I never did like vampire's.

Gob bless Stephanie Meyer for giving young (and old) girls something to escape to, through reading. Something delicious for their imaginations to taste, guilt-free. But like my sister-in-law stated, if this is the kind of love story my daughter will refer to when talking about romance and passion, then I am sorely disgusted. The girl in this story is weak, naive, reckless and selfish; lusting after a man she KNOWS she shouldn't. There's no attribute this character holds that I would tell my daughter to admire or live up to.

As for the book, I should read it to justify my dislike for it. It is only fair. So someday- when I have time and money to waste, I'll get right on that.

(PS. Kim, my darling, I still love you, and hold you in the highest regard. )