Vampire Girl...

I can't help it. I'm addicted. I'm a total and complete Twilight junkie and I don't even care. For any of you who have just recently came out from under that rock of yours, I'm talking about the Twilight Book series by Stephenie Meyer.

On my facebook page, I have a little piece of flair that says "Twilight fills my Harry Potter void." This could not be more true. I discovered these books exactly one week after finishing the final installment of Harry Potter. (A week, I might add, spent entirely in my pajamas with the blinds drawn wandering around the house mumbling "just what am I supposed to do NOW" more times than my husband cares to remember.) I was a Potter-head. I still am, but now, I will forever be in debt to my dear friend Michele and her cryptic email about a new series she stumbled upon.

Well, that just got me curious. I called her a few days later to ask about it. I remember being a little unsure about the whole teen vampire romance, but since she was offering me her copy on loan (and the fact that I pretty much consider her opinion final on good reading choices) I took the bait.

Now look at me, I"m completely ridiculous. I read Twilight and New Moon in a matter of days and orchestrated a very large gathering of my friends for the Eclipse release just a month later. With Breaking Dawn's debut just days away, I've begun again. Making t-shirts and stickers, committing to midnight release parties and 7 am lineups for wristbands, checking Meyer's website for the quote of the day before I've even brushed my teeth, I've even secured myself a ticket to Comic-con this year just because there is a panel discussion on the Twilight movie (and I don't even READ comics!) My husband has once again begun to mope around the house, reluctantly joining the leagues of male Twilight widows all across the nation.
I've read each book in the series AT LEAST 4 times, and that doesn't include me picking it up every so often to just peruse over my favorite parts. I think it's time for me to finally figure out just what it is about them I (and the rest of the female reading population) can't get enough of.

Why do we love these books? Or, more personally, why do I? I think I first have to examine the writing. I can't help but love the way Meyer moves a story. I find myself reading them very fast an unable to not turn the page or eek in one more chapter in the wee hours of the night. Secondly, like Meyer herself, am a huge sucker for impossible love stories. I like angst--what can I say. Third, I'm a fan of any book that rejects current reality and offers another; particularly when it's merely an addition to our reality and not a whole new one. That's what drew me to the Harry Potter series so much, it didn't introduce us to a completely parallel universe where wizards and magic existed, instead it opened the door to the possibility that it already did here and we just didn't know about it. It's like reading a good story and finding out a big secret all at the same time. Twilight does the same thing, but with a feeling of it being on an even more intimate level.

Now, don't start throwing tomatoes, but I sometimes feel like the only female in love with these books and NOT in love with Edward Cullen. Don't get me wrong--there's something irresistibly delicious about an abnormally beautiful creature in love with a girl so much that it physically hurts him to be so. I know it's my own "bad boy complex" issues, but I find myself liking him the MOST in the first installment when there was still the possibility of him munching her up. What I am in love with, however, is the relationship BETWEEN Edward and Bella. The impossibility of it all makes me wish for more and the strain that comes from being human and vampire is electric. I also love the underlying currents of good vs. evil, the definition of a soul, and the power of choice; except in this particular story of magic and the undead, there are lots of gray areas in which to explore and they all seem to weave themselves tighter in and around Edward and Bella's connection for each other.

Lastly, I think one of the major reasons I love these books is because they are something to love. I've pretty much realized that I'm finally both old enough and secure enough now to admit that sometimes being a superdork fangirl is just plain fun. I get to read great books and let my imagination go wild. I get to think of silly creative things in the middle of the night when I can't sleep and my ADD is totally out of control. Most dearly to me, I get to have fun with my friends who (by definition of friend) have to love me despite my superdorkness and in turn embrace the dorkness with me and be by my side at the bookstore when the clock strikes 12:01 on August 2nd.

I have to say, I finished my last and final reading of the series this morning and now I am waiting with baited breath for Breaking Dawn. I have lots of theories, and I may be way off, but I'll share them with you, along with lots of other Twilight creative goodness I've made these last few days and can't seem to control.

For the next two weeks, I'll be posting something Twilight related everyday in honor of the upcoming fourth and final installment. Today (along with the above Twilight manifesto) I'll show you the first designs I made for possible t-shirts/buttons for all my friends to wear to the release party, here's just a few: