Oh my gosh... It seems you must either be obsessed with loving it or obsessed with hating it? Seriously, Twilight doesn't deserve the fuss and riot.
*Shakes head*
I read Twilight a good while before it became the craze it is today. While I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. Sure Stephanie Meyer had some great moments. The ideas were interesting, but she didn't follow through. The writing was tedious and starts to grate on your nerves about halfway through. She repeats the same descriptions over and over, and the spacing in the plot was insane. She takes ages to explain all the minute details in Bella's life as she arrives in Forks, and the blooming romance between Bella and Edward. Near the end of the book, it spins off into this tale about other vampires coming to town and Bella needing to get as far away as possible. From then on, the actual climax seems to be nearing.
Basically, what I'm getting and is she meandered along for the first 3/4 of the book then stuck some major conflict in, developed it and let Edward and Bella come out on top. Both of them are extremely boring characters, and their love is annoying. Bella and Edward's character don't develop at all during the book, and Bella hardly seems like a 'middle-aged' woman at heart. She's definately a teenager who's ready to throw away her whole future for some guy.
After Twilight, I did continue to read the rest of the books. My sister was hooked, and as long as she was buying them I wouldn't let them sit on my shelf unread. I was sad to see that while Stephanie's writing improved a little, the actual story didn't. She got better and spacing the plot and writing in general, but the characters didn't grow or mature at all. In fact, they seemed to become more childish.
Some may argue that this is great literature, and some may say that it is trash. In my opinion, it is mediocre at best. The same 700 some old novel could have been a 100 page novella, for all the value one would get out of it.
Can I point out that I'm in the target audience, and I still think it's not that great? I'm a 14 year old girl. You don't have to study Language or Literature to see that this book isn't genius. You just need some things to compare it to. This book is good for getting reluctant readers to read. It accomplishes at least that much. Once they are into it, you can start to introduce the better, more valuable reads. You don't want to thrust a book like Pride and Prejudice at someone who shudders to even look at a book outside of school.
I definately wouldn't recommend this to one of my friends, but their opinion of the book doesn't affect how I feel about them. If they love it, I tell them I don't and that's the end of it. We don't fight, I don't try to convert them and they don't try to convert me. The fate of the world DOES NOT rest on someone's opinion of a not-to-great story. My advice to anyone who wants a book with both a great story and great writing, is to look up Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
..... but you see im not an old fart who has acne <--------- YOU 
