If you’ve ever sat thru a Literature class where some dinosaur expounds the virtues of a dry English novel that was old before your grandmother read it in ’42, you know what “good writing” is.  And lets face it….no one was surprised when the King of Horror said the Twilight novels are drizzle.  C’mon.  It’s Stephen King.  Not a single person was surprised, not even Stephenie Meyer herself.  And even if it DID offend you, it was only because he struck a nerve….you know he’s right.

But I LOVE Twilight!  And so do millions of other people!  My aunt almost fainted when my mom told her I was going to the premiere….if you knew my aunt, you’d understand.  Really prim, proper, quiet women drool when you start to say a word that sounds like “Edward.”.  And it’s not because of Robert Pattinson’s hair or Taylor Lautner’s abs (those are just a bonus to those of us already on the bandwagon).  So what is it about this little novel that saved a movie studio and is launching careers?

People have always loved Romeo and Juliet.  They immerse themselves in a story of forbidden fruit and smoldering passion.  And they REALLY love the story where some perfect guy falls for the girl on the sidelines….not the cheerleader…the one behind her, reading a book.  Coz that’s who reads these stories!  The plain girl who’s so sure there is no chance in hell someone like that could love her.  Bella is truly an “everygirl”….Everyone who reads the novels imagines themselves as Bella.

Being a Bella is easy.  All you have to do is stand back, look at all the pretty people and sigh, knowing there’s no way the quarterback is ever going to look at you.  In Forks, however, it’s not that the quarterback isn’t paying attention.  It’s just that it’s Edward…the boy “no one here is good enough for” as Jessica so bluntly tells Bella in the first book of the series.  Bella even tells Edward in New Moon that she knows she was never good enough for him.  That’s why it was so easy for her to grasp at why he left her.  The same resigned detachment every girl feels at such a vulnerable point in life.  She gets decent grades, doesn’t have a lot of money, has zero coordination… no one particularly special, she thinks.  And yet the object of everyone’s desire wants no one else but her.  The dreamy, ideal guy that couldn’t possibly look this way… can’t look anywhere else. Who wouldn’t want to be a Bella?

Let’s not forget… People REALLY love a good love story!  And the one thing Stephenie Meyer got right… was the love story.  If you can get past the first part of it, the shaky start, to where Bella and Edward really connect…you’re hooked.  You want to see where this goes.  You watch as Edward dashes away when Bella REALLY responds to his kiss….you can feel your heart pound as he comes so very close and touches her.  You tingle when he reaches out and brushes his hands along her cheekbones.  And it’s REALLY sexy that there’s no sex until book 4, where even then it’s more about what’s NOT there!  You know things went REALLY well when Bella wakes up covered in feathers and there are pieces of the headboard missing.

What woman doesn’t want that??

Edward is romance.  Edward is love.  Edward is passion.  Edward is ideal.  And every girl who picks up that book becomes Bella.  And for a few moments, you get lost in the wonderful world of fantasy where you can live forever and money isn’t an issue and you’re just FREE.   Fantasy.  Escape.

In other words, it’s plain old good storytelling.