I think I haven’t been writing because I’m afraid I won’t top my last entry.

Time to get over that.

Last weekend I read two novels in 24 hours… a product of a rainy day, free time, and potato chip style summer reading.  Okay, okay, I admit it–I read the first two Twilight novels.  They couldn’t be too bad if I read them that fast, but I felt like they were kind of empty and… flat.  I was reading quickly to get through blah, searching for the substantial parts.

What bothered me most, though, was the way characters fit oh-so-neatly into traditional gender stereotypes.  This review sums things up nicely:

First and foremost, the books present a female heroine who can hardly take a step without needing some boy to rescue her. In fact, the books represent sexist views in almost every way-from the fact that Bella gives up her ambitions and plans for college to get married to Edward, the fact that she is portrayed as a modern Eve, begging the noble, moral gentleman for sex while he desires to preserve their virtue, the fact that their relationship is dangerously unhealthy, and finally to the fact that nearly every single female character in the book is a hopelessly negative caricature.

Grah.  While I can try (very, very hard) to overlook these sorts of things as a self-actualized grownup I cringe to think what kinds of impressions this book is leaving on teen minds.  I’m a fan of vampire novels in general but the Twilight series, as popular as it is, ranks pretty low on my list.