I'm so sick of all this Twilight bashing stuff!

I get it:

The book doesn't show girls in the most attractive of lights.
The book makes Edward look like an absolute God.
The book seems to have a pretty shallow plotline.
The book makes the Cullens seem too good to be true.
The book New Moon is just plain depressing.
The books make it seem okay for girls to be accepting of their boyfriends' abusive/stalker-ish tendancies.

Addressing the issues:

1. The books don't show girls in the most attractive of lights.

Neither does "Confessions of a Shopaholic".

Most people would probably go "but all girls aren't going to fall apart for months just because a break-up happens!" or "most girls wouldn't want to kill themselves to be with their boyfriends!" or "most girls wouldn't be okay with their boyfriends taking engines out of their cars".

First of all, Twilight is written in first-person. Which means it was written in someone's perspective. Someone's own point of view. Nobody asked you to agree with it, it's just a fictional testimonial of a girl who fell in love with a vampire.

That being said, one way to look at the argument is that nobody said Bella was a representation of "most girls". So what if she confesses that she isn't a strong person? So what if she has low self-esteem? It's Bella's account of what's happening. Stephenie Meyer wrote it as if it was a personal mental journal of everything that Bella felt and experienced. So if you're going to hate Bella for portryaing herself in a bad light, you might as well condemn every single celebrity autobiography in existence that has any negative influence in it.

On top of that, so what if a lot of girls identify with how Bella feels? Even though I'm a fan of the series, I admit that the emotions and things do sometimes seem a little bit "blown up" or "exaggerated" but I'm also willing to admit that when you're experiencing an emotion, right then and there you would feel like how it was described in the book - exaggerated. It's like making mountains out of molehills, everyone goes through it. So what if a book decides to write about it for what it is?

And how (honestly, HOW?!) is the book supposed to be sexist?

Bella has a vampire, a werewolf and a bunch of humans all going after her. Plus, even if she doesn't see it (if you've read Midnight Sun) Edward LOVES HER. So what if she sees herself as someone weak? Edward and Jacob don't. Maybe physically weak, but that's because they're a VAMPIRE and a WEREWOLF. Again, it's told from her perspective, and honestly, wouldn't you rather read about her not liking herself than read about her praising herself every 10 sentences?

There's a reason the books weren't told from Rosalie's perspective.


2. The book makes Edward out to be some kind of God.

Refer to above point.

Haven't ANY of you ever been in love before?

As in head-over-heels, that person is the centre of your universe kind of in love? Even if you haven't, so what if Bella has? Bella's just expressing how she feels. If you have a problem with it, don't read it.

And, to all of you so-called "Harry Potter devotees who can't understand the Twilight craze", a lot of people couldn't and still can't understand the Harry Potter craze either.

3. The books seem to have a pretty shallow plotline.

What are you expecting, the Lord of the Rings?

And how exactly is this plotline shallow?

You could say the same about the classics. Even though I love Jane Austen, if I were to be harsh, I could say Sense and Sensibility (my favourite Jane Austen book) is shallow because it's all about girls who are looking for marriages and whose parents are always obsessed with money. Which is pretty much the book in a nutshell, but to people who like the book, it's a slow, but captivating insight into the lives of two girls who slowly learn that you need to have a balance between listening to your heart and your head.

Twilight is an account of Bella's LIFE. Deal with it.

3. The books make the Cullens seem too good to be true.

Well, they're not real, are they?

4. New Moon is just plain depressing.

Well, duh. Bella just lost what was her silver lining to moving to Forks.

Look, to be honest, New Moon was the hardest book for me to read because unfortunately, I could identify almost exactly with the way Bella felt. Not for the exact same circumstances, but I felt like she did at some point in my life. I felt low and utterly depressed and I was looking for some way to get out of it. I made bad choices and did things I regret, but I eventually pulled out of it.

If you haven't had that kind of experience, you can't relate with it. But again, it's an account of Bella's own perspective. She broke down because she was living her life around the idea of Edward Cullen. At first, I guess he must have been some consolation for her coming to Forks but then she began to live her whole life around him (note - Bella is what? Seventeen. Since when have any of us made fantastic decisions at that age?). So when that essential part of her was gone, of course she would break down. Wouldn't you if you lost a loved one? In some ways, it was worse that Edward didn't die because she knew he was simply leaving her and that he was still out there somewhere. She would know that he was somehow okay with it, with the way he left her. Wouldn't you be depressed?

5. The books make it seem okay for girls to be accepting of their boyfriends' abusive/stalker-ish tendancies.

My God, have you READ the books? Do you KNOW what Edward and Jacob ARE?

Okay, let me put this in perspective.

You're a vampire. You haven't had proper relations with humans for what - 90 years? You're so strong that you can turn iron to dust in the palm of your hand. You can run so fast that you're a blur.

You're a werewolf. You're just about as strong and as fast, but to top it all off, you're an adolescent - you can't be counted on to make adult decisions, no matter how old you look.

Okay, how consider all the power you have in your hands. Then consider the fact that you have someone you love. Or something vitally important to you.

Are you going to let a rusty old bucket of bolts truck going to stop you from keeping her safe?
Are you NOT going to keep an eye on her as much as possible to make sure she's safe?

Then consider that this is the first time Edward's ever been in love. The same as Bella. They're both still adolescents, despite the fact that Edward may have about 90+ years extra under his belt, he's still new to being in love. Do you really expect him to make good decisions 100% of the time?

And Jake's not free of problems either, he threatened to kill himself if Bella didn't kiss him in Eclipse. But he's still a kid. A 16 year old, in fact. They're still counted as minors by law - hence even the government doesn't think they can make their best decisions by themsleves.

On top of all of that, picture this:

If books were written about people who made good decisions all the time, we wouldn't read them. Nothing would ever go wrong and it wouldn't be the real world.

If books were written where the girls were always on top of thigns, we wouldn't read them. They would be faultless - in essence, fanfiction nightmare - Mary Sues.

If books were written where we all fall in love with the boy next door, we wouldn't read them. There are already tons of them out there, and wouldn't you want something different?

Twilight isn't the real world, but it's something that maybe a lot of teenagers can relate to, what with our hormones and our unbalanced emotions. It's just a book series that a lot of teenagers seem to like, and what's so wrong with that?

A lot more people love Harry Potter, but that series isn't super-duper clean either. Their characters make bad decisions, good decisions and irrational choices but maybe the difference is that it's told in third-person, so the emotions don't come through as much.

At the end of the day, I'm not saying that it's wrong to not like the Twilight series, but at the same time, it's not wrong to like it either. I respect your opinion, so this is mine. Deal with it.