Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Twilight Saga’ was a best-selling, early 2000s cultural phenomenon that enthralled millions of worldwide readers with its distinctive fusion of supernatural romance and coming-of-age fiction. Its four-book series, ‘Twilight’ (2005), ‘New Moon’ (2006), ‘Eclipse’ (2007), and ‘Breaking Dawn’ (2008), reconfigured vampire lore for a new generation and provoked controversies regarding literary value, gender roles, and the impact of young adult fiction.
The story follows the tale of Bella Swan, an ordinary teenage girl who moves to the rain-forever town of Forks, Washington, and falls in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire trapped in the body of a seventeen-year-old for over a hundred years. Their forbidden love is the series’ overarching conflict, complicated further by the existence of Jacob Black, a human that can turn into a werewolf who vies with Edward for Bella’s affections. That love triangle drove the book four books and over 2,500 pages as Bella navigated how to exist between the supernatural world and her humanity and desires. Meyer’s vampires hugely deviated from tradition.
In contrast to Bram Stoker’s gruesome, blood-sucking fiends in Dracula, the Cullens are “vegetarians” who don’t prey on humans but hunt animals. They go out in the daytime (in which they sparkle, rather than burn), go to high school, drive fancy cars, and suffer over very human feelings. This reimagining of vampires made them acceptable to teenage readers, reshaping them as ideal, albeit tortured, love heroes instead of horror creatures. The saga’s record-breaking success, a total of more than 100 million copies sold worldwide and translation into 37 languages rests on a multitude of reasons. Meyer tapped into common teenage experiences: being an outsider, first love, and the search for identity.
The books also arrived at the perfect cultural time, when the internet was beginning to be a power for fan communities, but before social media had entirely transformed how individuals engage with entertainment. ‘Twilight’ fan sites, message boards, and fanfiction websites proliferated, creating a collective cultural experience that connected individuals across geographic space.
When the film adaptations arrived, beginning with ‘Twilight’ in 2008, the phenomenon reached its peak. The movies, which featured Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, grossed over $3.3 billion at the box office and turned their leads into reluctant celebrities. ‘Twihards,’ as fans referred to themselves, camped out for days at cinemas, purchased merchandise, and turned the fictional Forks, Wash., into a real-life tourist attraction.
Despite its huge popularity, the ‘Twilight’ Saga was not immune to critics. Literary critics routinely dismissed the books, their unoriginal writing and dubious romance lessons being among the reasons. Feminist critics faulted the relationship between Bella and Edward, his controlling, stalker-like behavior masquerading as protectiveness and her readiness to give up her humanity for love being among them. Others decried the saga’s conservative morals, most prominently its premarital chastity and Bella’s decision to carry to term an almost certain death-inducing pregnancy instead of opting for alternatives.
But these complaints obfuscate the actual cultural influence of the saga. ‘Twilight’ demonstrated the book-banning authority of female readers, and female readers young years, whose zeal had been underappreciated by book merchandising and filmmakers for decades. It spawned the teen book that came after it, series like The Hunger Games and Divergent bleeding out the box office clout of “Twilight” while showcasing more assertive heroines.
Fifteen years after the previous book was released, the ‘Twilight’ Saga is a fascinating cultural artifact. It was a creation of its time, but it said some timelessly true things about teenage yearning, the allure of forbidden fruit, and the life-altering power of falling in love with someone who makes you feel incredible. Love it or hate it, ‘Twilight’ irreversibly changed young adult fiction and vampire literature, leaving an indelible mark on popular culture and the psyche of an entire generation of readers. Go to your local bookstore or online to read it!
