[Nyssa]

About 7 years ago a friend and I were both sick to death of hearing about Twilight, but neither of us had read it, and so neither of us could comment one way or the other on the whole phenomenon. We also both agreed that neither of us were quite curious enough to buy the book; luckily we didn't have to, because one of her friends had the whole set. So my friend would read a book then pass it on to me.

We agreed that the first book was pretty lame, not as awful as many still make it out to be, to this day, but pretty sophomoric. Book two was almost just as bad, but books 3 and 4 were markedly better and even quite enjoyable. They were also very much more adult oriented and not at all for young audiences - certainly not for children or even preteens. There is one scene in particular that I would not allow my 11 year olds to read, and they're pretty mature for their age.
Yeah she jumped the shark a bit with one of her plots, but there was so much foreshadowing, I don't know how anyone couldn't see that coming from a mile away. I would have been much more (happily) surprised if she hadn't gone down that particular road - but it is what it is.
I still have absolutely no interest in watching any of the movies, nor do I know if I'll ever want to reread the series again, but I do think people in general go overboard with the whole "hatefest" thrown at Twilight. Its as overplayed and overblown as the series itself.