You have an evil aunt and cousin. I'd rather rip my own heart out with a spoon.

Thing is, everything about the books (and films) is plain piss poor. Poorly written, poor characterisation, lame plot and complete rape of the supernatural vampire/werewolf genre. Honestly, the author needs to get a Thesaurus and expand her vocab and adjective use as it's just plain repetitive. Even Charlane Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books are better (although written poorly, still not as bad as Twilight), at least they gave birth to True Blood.

I know, I was just watching a guy read the book on youtube. I have never seen such a bad written book. I mean lines like "tears were silently running down my face". WTF is that???!!!

The biggest plot twist was when he read the info about the author and it said that Stephenie Meyer had a degree in English literature.

I often wonder why only Twilight seems to get criticized for not being true to the old Vampire "literature" when none of the other popular Vampire TV shows, movies, and books are either.

I also wouldn't call the Vampire genre hundreds of years old when it was Bram Stoker's Dracula which really began it around the turn of the 20th century. While Coleridge's Christabel and Byron's Vampyre have some similar traits, the figures in these books are not Vampires, they do not drink blood, get killed by sunlight, crosses, or anything like that. Carmilla is probably where Bram Stoker drew his ideas from, Carmilla was written in the 1870's.

The Vampire genre as we know it today began in 1960's and 70's with Marilyn Ross and Anne Rice. It doesn't really have as much of a tradition as many would like to think; particularly considering that most vampire fans don't look further back than stuff from the 1990's; Interview with the Vampire, From Dusk til Dawn, John Carpenter's Vampires, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc...

HAHAHAHA! Really?! Didn't realise that. I don't suppose it says what final grade she got?

First off, vampire myths and legends are believed to have existed throughout most of human history, and the first highly successful vampire novella is (almost) 200 years old, so there is a very long history and tradition surrounding vampires.

Beyond that, you're correct that every author has taken liberties with vampires (as authors do with all subjects) but (from my very limited understanding) Stephenie Meyer has changed so much about "vampires" that they are no longer recognizable; or (at least) that is what I have heard argued (I haven't read the books or watched the movies, and all I know about it is from what others have said).

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the "real crime" Stephenie Meyer committed was simply not integrating her "vampires" with vampire legends in a purposeful way. If/when an author breaks with tradition and their audience understands the point of their changes (possibly to make something more modern or realistic) they tend not to mind those changes; but when these changes are unexplained (or poorly explained) and serve little/no purpose within the story people get very upset.

Of course not. Still, the fact that an University would give her a degree in English literature is amazing, considering the quality (or lack therefore) of her writing.

An English Literature degree isn't a degree in creative writing, it is a degree in the analysis and understanding of other authors' writing.

You should skim the book in a book shop, or try the youtube link I posted with that guy reading from the book. Meyer's biggest crim is simply writing an allround bad book. Even her writing style is bad, with "brilliant" phrases like tears were running silently down my cheeks.

I beleive that this is her major: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_major

Quote: The English Major (alternatively "English concentration," "B.A. in English") is a term for an undergraduate university degree in the United States and a few other countries which focuses on the analysis, production, and consumption of texts in the English language (the term may also be used to describe a student who is concentrating in English).

And even if her major didn't include her learning how to actually write, you'd think that someone who has the skills to analize and understand an author's work could realise they're writing crap.

Mainstream audience has never been cultured and sophisticated. Don't listen to your parents, their generation is not better than ours in any way.