"Twilight" Has No Bite

Sometime in the three years since the first installment was published, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga gained a cult following to rival that of the Harry Potter series. Meyer has been heralded as the next JK Rowling, and all four Twilight novels were No. 1 New York Times Bestsellers. With all the hype surrounding the series, I gave in to curiosity and started reading "Twilight," expecting the same pleasant surprise as Harry Potter provided.

I was thoroughly disappointed.

I have several problems with Meyer's 500-page debut. First, she should have done a little research on vampires before writing a four-book series about them. I'm still not convinced they sparkle in the sun. One of her main characters, Edward Cullen, dismisses many well-known facts about vampires (i.e., they burn to dust in the sunlight) as "myth." I know it's fiction, but it's like she didn't want to put in the effort to do any research, so she just made things up.

Most of my criticism is aimed at Meyer's writing style. Her characters have no personality, and the storyline is flat. There is no suspense; all mysteries are too quickly revealed, and all problems are too easily solved.

Meyer has a huge problem with redundancy. It seemed as if every page contained a description of beautiful, perfect, angelic Edward with his bronze hair, topaz eyes and godlike body. I found a Facebook group titled "Stephenie Meyer Needs a Thesaurus" that lists the number of times Meyer used certain words in the series. "Chagrin" was used 15 times in the novels, "marble" 30 times and "perfect" 282 times. The final book alone saw "beautiful" used 61 times.

If I could give Meyer a piece of advice, it would be "Show, don't tell." All she does is tell. "Bella is intelligent. Carlisle is compassionate," Meyer tells her readers, but she offers no proof. The book reads like a play-by-play: "I went to the kitchen and ate a bowl of cereal. Then I got in my truck and drove to school." (These are not actual sentences from the novel; I'm just trying to give examples.)

If all the redundant and boring information was cut, "Twilight" would probably be less than 200 pages and a much better read. The editor in me was tempted to go through the whole novel with a red pen, cutting unnecessary adjectives and replacing weak verbs. But that would mean I'd have to read it again.

To give Meyer a fair chance, I'm reading the second book in the series, "New Moon." I haven't seen much improvement. I haven't decided yet if I want to waste my time on "Eclipse" or "Breaking Dawn."