Rowling VS. Meyer

     At the age of five, my mother and I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone every night before bed. I can remember sitting on my bed, trying to hold the massive hardcover novel in my tiny hands, trying to figure out how to pronounce 'Voldemort'. I can remember waiting by my bedroom window for an owl with my letter from Hogwarts. I can remember hoping to see Albus Dumbledore walking along my street, flicking the lights out from suspicious Muggles. Since those nights, I have grown up with the Potter series, and now, at the age of fifteen, I am still a fan. Every year, I always seem to have at least one novel from the series in my locker for the occasions in which I simply MUST read a chapter or two. I can not list the countless times in which I cried from Sirius Black's death. I have always looked up to Ms. Rowling for her immensely hard work on the Potter series. She, much like the late Prof. J.R.R. Tolkien, created a world where magic ruled in the darkest of times, and the most unlikely heroes imaginable prevailed in the end by destroying evil. Both Ms. Rowling & Professor Tolkien empowered me to write. Without their work, I wouldn't be the aspiring writer that I am today.
     Now, many people ask me why-seeing as I love the Potter series and am an avid fan of Anne Rice- hate the Twilight 'saga' so much. Well, to answer that question, I read the Twilight series.
     To be perfectly honest, I did find amusement in the first book. I read it because I heard it was a decent novel. A few months after I read Twilight, I bought New Moon...HUGE mistake on my part. The entire 'novel' as some would call it, consisted of nothing but Bella Swan trying to kill herself because her sparkling love Edward Cullen left her for her own safety. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Chapter after chapter, the book just got more and more unrealistic and boring. I finished the book in about a week. The next several months went by, and a good friend of mine had just read Eclipse. Every day, she kept telling me how good the book was, and how it was impeccably different from New Moon, with more battles and action. After having enough of my friend's incessant whining, I gave in and read Eclipse. Quite frankly, I was surprised by how much better it was than the two previous books. I guiltily admit that I did enjoy it, though it wasn't my favorite series.
     Then, I read something that would scar me forevermore, leave a malignant tumor of rotting idiocy on my bookshelf until I was finished. Breaking Dawn completely shattered my opinion on the series. (Mind you, I did always hate Stephenie Meyer's use of the word chagrin in every other sentence, and her so-called 'perfect' description of Edward Cullen.) The fourth novel was nothing but a disgusting lump of paper. Now, I always thought Jacob Black was strange, but to use pedophilia in a romance novel for teens? Stephenie Meyer, you are a disgrace; That completely crossed the line. Yet, all of her fans seem to think that Renesmee is 'adorable and a lovely child!' Is she really? I always seemed to think that Renesmee was a demon child who Bella had dreams about and who you basically knew about from page one. After I finished the book, I sat there at my desk, stunned, no words to describe what I had just read.
     Many people asked me what I thought of the book once I finished, asking me, "Oh, didn't you just LOVE it?" and "OHMYGOD, Edward and Bella are vampires together and happy and have a child!" Yes. A demon child who is nicknamed after the Loch-Ness monster. Everyone around me was a rabid Twilight fan, and I was one of the  many few who read the series as a guilty pleasure. I have been threatened countless times by not always carrying a copy of Twilight under my arm. (Sorry, but that place is reserved for a Rowling or Tolkien novel.) Quite honestly, Stephenie Meyer's writing style rivals that of an 11 year-old girl's fantasy of vampire fan-fiction. My love of the vampire myth will stick with Anne Rice novels, and her novels ALONE. Lestat would rip Bella's throat out before telling her she smelled of flowers. (Good Lord, blood smells like blood. Not FREESIAS.)
     Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Quidditch match to attend. Ravenclaw VS. Slytherin! I have a bet with the Weasley twins that Draco Malfoy will end up with a bludger to the head...heh.