Twilight

Author: Stephenie Meyer

First line: I'd never given much thought to how I would die--though I'd had reason enough in the last few months--but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

Why you should read this book: Described in some literary circles as “abstinence porn,” this book is the perfect companion for the lonely teen who believes herself less pretty, less graceful, less interesting than other girls and dreams of a handsome, dangerous, mysterious man to validate her in his eyes and set her above, rather than apart from, the rest of her high school world. Bella is the perpetual martyr who exiles herself to the rainy Pacific Northwest so her mother can travel the country with her pro athlete boyfriend; Edward is the achingly beautiful vampire who cannot stay away from the hapless heroine, his supernatural and immortal love trumping his immediate, omnipresent, and almost overwhelming desire to kill her and drink her blood. Their love defies the expectations of family, friends, acquaintances, and enemies, as Edward spends well over four hundred pages not biting the most delicious thing he has ever smelled.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: If you had eternal youth and beauty, the last place you’d sequester yourself would be a small-town high school, or any locale where human teenagers are known to congregate. This book also suffers from a surfeit of adverbs, adjectives, repetition, and overblown adolescent emotions and dialog.