When I read Twilight at the beginning of this school year I was nothing short of obsessed. I was one of those girls who dreamt about Edward Cullen, and realized that no guy could ever possibly be good enough, because no guy is a god-like, chiseled vampire who is completely enamored with me.

Nonetheless, I laughed and cried with Bella as we both fell hopelessly in love with Edward Cullen. So naturally, I was one of the people who went to see the midnight showing of the film at Northpark.

It was then that my picturesque idea of Twilight began to change. I began to notice the weird things that happen in the book. For example, Edward stares. A lot. Not an excusable zoning-out and simultaneously people watching sort of stare. No, Edward Cullen stares at Bella like he is a serial killer and she is his next victim. I don’t care how gorgeous a guy is, if he stares at me like that for more than 15 seconds I’m freaked out. Not only that, I’m pulling out a can of pepper spray, just in case.

Going right along with the staring, Edward Cullen sneaks into Bella’s room at night to watch her sleep. While reading the books, I failed to notice how terrifying this is. I merely thought, “Oh he likes her so much!” No. You like someone that much you ask them to the movies. You don’t creep through windows at 3 a.m. and mutter to yourself while the person you’re crushing on is completely unconscious. That’s called breaking, entering and being a psycho.

Example three: the face touch. Edward doesn’t hug, and it takes him an eternity to muster up a peck on the lips. No, he strokes Bella’s face. This is annoying. I do that to my dog. She likes it, but like I said, she’s a dog. Do it to me and I might punch you in the nose.

I will now hate on both Edward and Bella. This crazy couple falls in love after never even having a full-blown conversation in the span a month or something. Not only are they completely, wonderfully in love, but Bella wants to become immortal so she can spend, not just 50 or 60 years with this kid, but an eternity. When I was 16 my longest relationship was about three months. And that seemed like forever. Sure Edward is hot, but I guarantee somebody gets bored at some point.

And finally, the writing is pretty bad. Stephanie Meyer stumbled upon an awesome plot and got lucky. Even while I read the book I couldn’t help thinking how much better it could have been had a different author written it. If you disagree, do yourself a favor and read some more books.

Edward Cullen may be a bit creepy, and Bella probably deserves to get dumped for being the annoying girl who falls in love within two minutes, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a fabulous time reading it. Will I ever crack Twilight open again? No way. That will only add more fuel to the “Edward Cullen is a total creeper” fire, and I want to preserve the good memories I have.

-Liz Ford

Managing Editor