I haven't read the Twilight books, but I did see the first film. I found it both gripping, absurd, and very, very disturbing. Bella is basically a non-entity, an empty vessel, and she submits completely to Edward, regardless of the danger. What does this say to young girls (who are, by and large, the target group for the novels) about love and relationships? If Edward had been a crack-smoking, violent mobster with anger issues, he would scarcely have been more dangerous to be with.

I know it's a fantasy, and the Dangerous Man does have a kind of allure, which I suppose is why the (more-or-less) romantic vampire genre is so big, although the Dangerous Man as romantic hero is not at all limited to that genre. But it does make me uneasy.