I just feel the need to throw this point out there. And please, let this be the last - or one of the last - words on this trite and reviled subject.
Stephanie Meyer is not a good writer. Just open any of her books at any page and, within moments, you will see that. So why is she so successful? One simple reason:
She has a winning formula.
Back in the Good Old Days, vampires were monsters. Go back to Slavic folklore, for example, or Bram Stoker's hallmark novel Dracula; they were creatures to be feared and loathed. Even though Count Dracula was a stylish aristocrat - especially as portrayed by a one Mr. Bela Lugosi - he was also a wicked being, an evil man who used other people for his own selfish purposes. Skip forward a few decades to the Anne Rice era. Suddenly, vampires are not the scary, brooding, haemophiliac demons they once were. Why? Well, obviously Ms. Rice took the "style" portion from Count Dracula's "stylish villainy" and transformed that into a romantic anti-hero in the form of Lestat. Vampires were no longer monsters or demons; they were attractive, seductive and misunderstood misanthropes. Female readers swooned. Vampires began to lose credibility. The "goth" subculture/social clique, in particular, were fascinated by this concept - a handsome, sophisticated and elegant, yet socially shunned and feared Casanova! The kind of character they could admire and adore. The trend continued. Gradually, it seemed, the idea of a monstrous and evil vampire was fading.
Now look to Stephanie Meyer's work. She obviously understood - and, presumably, still understands - why these "new-age" vampires are so admirable and beloved, especially by gothic literature enthusiasts and teenage girls. She is not only taking advantage of this fascination with the romantic vampire (whether her work is plagiarism or not is left to one's own opinion), she is taking advantage of her target demograph. Now, I don't like generalising. But it would not be much of a stretch to say that "tweenage" girls are, more often than not, not very well gifted with the faculty of good judgement (there are exceptions, of course, and I don't mean to offend anyone; but that is another argument entirely). They see a book that promises angsty teenage romance, and they lap it up. Throw in a vampire or two - or however many there are in these god-forsaken atrocities upon the literary scene - for that eerie supernatural edge, and you have yourself one winning formula to go. As for why these vampires - and I use the term loosely - are scarcely anything like Mr. Stoker's eponymous antagonist or the vampires of old Slavic folklore...well, these books are still aimed at tweenage girls. And we can't have shadowy-dwelling demons ripping young maidens' throats out and feasting on their fresh virgin blood in such a book, now, can we? At least, Stephanie Meyer seems to think so; Darren Shan would like to point out that you can still have proper, scary vampires in a children's book and be a big success. But I digress. Meyer, instead, chose to make them brooding, anti-social loners, albeit incredibly handsome ones. This gives them that "mysterious" edge that these young ladies tend to fawn over. It also lends itself to a "plot" (and, again, I use the term loosely) point, when our young protagonist finds out that the object of her affections is, in fact, a vampire! Gasp! Oh, and as for the sparkles; quite simple, really. First of all, having the heroes shrivel up and decay into dust and bone in the sunlight would not only be rather gruesome for young ladies, it would also raise the problem of finding one's paramour in a pile of dust because of shoddy window blinds. Not to mention the fact that it would lead to some rather awkward situations of not being able to go out during midday. And, secondly, what do tweenage girls love? That's right, sparkly things! It's a winning formula - plus one! Huzzah!
Perhaps if Meyer could tell a good story, her series wouldn't be so reviled by just about everyone outside its targeted demograph of young girls. But wait! Stop the presses! According to this writer's mother, who is an avid reader and knows very well what it takes to make a good book, Stephanie Meyer has written a good book - The Host! Gasp! So what's stopping her from making the Twilight series actually a decent read instead of fireplace fodder for cold Winter nights? The answer is, of course, two things: rabid fans and vampires. Those God damned vampires ruin everything.
So, to sum up this entire argument...
Don't blame Stephanie Meyer for unleashing this evil upon us, at least not her alone: blame Anne Rice, rabid fans and inexperienced movie directors! But then, of course, one must consider that Stephanie Meyer is likely just writing with her "winning formula" because she knows it will make a quick buck - from books, movies, promotional merchandise, and so forth.
Oh dear.