Stephanie Meyer’s vampire series has inundated the current pop culture and with the release of New Moon this weekend, the fans and critics alike will discuss every possible angle.  My two cents may not interest anyone but I feel compelled to put it out there all the same.

Now, I would not criticize books or author without having read them. I wasted about six weeks not including the time I waited in the library queue for them to become available.  No way would I waste money on purchasing them.  I categorize the books as “beach reading” with absolutely no intellectual value.  I had the misfortune of watching the first movie, which I have to label ridiculous and the sort of thing one watches while drinking in order to make it the least bit entertaining.  Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson don’t bring the characters alive for me but that is a different critique altogether.

Everyone has commented on Bella as a poor role model.  The love story between her and Edward, the obsessiveness, all of it gives tween and teen girls the wrong impression of love, relationships, and how teenage boys really behave.  Meyer makes both her lead characters obsessive and selfish. They ignore everyone around them to the point of causing others pain.  Their awareness of that fact doesn’t change that it makes them crappy “people.”  Yes, I know Edward technically isn’t people but that is a trivial argument, don’t you think?

As a writer of young adult fiction, I have to comment on the selfishness of the character’s author.  Meyer has discussed how Bella and Edward came to her in a dream and I can appreciate the sense of urgency involved with getting the story out of your head and into print.  I’ve lain awake myself, characters running around my head and not shutting up until I got a scene on paper.  How, as a woman, could you write such a weak female protagonist?  How could you create such an implausible love story?  Did she consider her readers when she wrote these novels or was her story more important than the hearts and minds of the children who would read them?

When writing young adult fiction, you have a higher level of responsibility to your reader.  In addition to giving them something entertaining, you have an opportunity to teach them, to incorporate values into your characters that can help teens navigate their own lives.  I believe that and I try to incorporate that philosophy when I write. Maybe it’s part of having an English degree (which Meyer also has) and actually taking a course that focused on young adult literature but I think our readers deserve more than entertainment.

You know what? I take that back.  It has nothing to do with my degree.  I have read great young adult fiction.  I know what it looks like, how it feels, and Meyer does not have it.  Bella cannot compare with Rowling’s Harry Potter who cares about something outside of himself or Buffy the Vampire Slayer who killed her vampire true love to save the world.  Teens will like what they like but as an author, you owe them more than fluff.  You owe them realistic portrayals of love and loss, bravery and fear, strength and weakness.  A hero is not born, they are made by the strength of their values and choices.  Writers have to breathe those values into life through story and character development.  For those that might argue my criticism stems from professional jealously.  Please don’t insult me. I will see my novel published eventually and I hope I can provide a better example of good young adult fiction than the insipid drivel Meyer has produced.  I can name a dozen authors out there right now with more imaginative plots, smarter characters, and a writing style that I aspire to achieve.

To those parents with teen daughters, I offer my sympathies. You are traversing a cultural rope bridge with frayed knots at both ends. Good luck.