By Andrea Iseman
Life/A&E Editor
Published: April 15, 2009

Vampires? Werewolves? Didn’t sound much like the stuff of a girl’s dreams, but that changed when I gave in to temptation.

Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company and Hachette Book Group

I listened to co-workers and friends talk about the mammoth four-book series that is called Twilight, but refused to be sucked in. I kept thinking, ‘oh no, not more stupid vampire books,’ but then I went to see Twilight – the movie – and everything changed.

The turning point for me was realizing the movie was not like the clichéd vampire films, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I had been exposed to. The vampire’s don’t have fangs, the good ones don’t eat people, and despite their attempts to blend in with humans, their extraordinary model-like beauty makes them stand out.

After I watched it with my best friend, I was shocked and amazed at how good it was. I now understood what my giddy coworkers and friends were going on about. Twilight, book one in the series, is more than a story about a vampire and his girlfriend – it is Romeo and Juliet with vampires. Finally, a good love story I could sink my teeth into! After the movie, I ran to the bookstore. I can now say with pride I am on book four.

I’m sure there are skeptics who believe Twilight is another fad that will fade like Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High. The movie could have easily been cheesy, but surprisingly it wasn’t. It grabbed my attention with its modern-day adaptation of what vampires could be like if they existed in the twenty-first century. The tale of star-crossed lovers, mortal Bella Swan and immortal Edward Cullen, didn’t try and come off as a teenybopper story about superficial love.

The movie has also exploded as Twilight dolls pop-up everywhere and the movie’s actors have become huge pop-icons. I never even knew who Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, was until I saw the movie. Now, I can’t seem to get enough of him. I have even changed my blackberry screensaver display to a picture of him.

The obsession has even grown so strong that people will do anything and everything to learn about Twilight and its culture. An unpublished copy of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edward’s perspective, was recently leaked onto the Internet, upsetting Meyer and halting the completion of the book ‘indefinitely.’

Excited beyond words, I will be first in line when book two, New Moon, opens in theatres in November 2009. I also don’t hide my pre-teen book in shame anymore when I ride the subway. On most days, I can see at least one other woman, usually in her 20s, reading one of the books, and when I notice, a smile lights up my face.

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