Recommended to me by a friend who fell in love with the series around the time that the hype began, I had no idea what I was in for when I started reading Twilight. The beginning is complex and nuanced: Bella moves in with her father so that her mother can play groupie for her new husband. Despite the fact that Bella loved Arizona, she moves to Washington to make her mom happy. Talk about a complicated, promise-filled opening. The rest of the novel was a huge disappointment. 
 Bella does nothing but complain after she makes this huge move. That complexity disappears and she falls into a terrible habit of making complaint after complaint and ten thousand more complaints. The excitement dries up. The narrative remains painful boring even when Bella stops complaining - Meyer includes weird, unimportant details (like what people eat for breakfast, even though it has zero bearing on the story). 
 The sexism issue annoyed me the most. Bella's entire life - her identity, her dreams, her fantasies, everything - is tied up in her obsessive need to be with Edward. This is a bad message to send teens. No one should be so involved with their boyfriend/girlfriend that they completely lose themselves. It's unhealthy. Just as unhealthy, actually, as Bella's mom dumping her daughter in WA so she can follow her new husband around... 
 The one redeeming point? The book had a few quotes that my angsty, wannabe-emo teenage self could relate to, my favorite being: 
 "If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid." 
 We've all been there. At least I have. School never seemed so exciting as when I had a crush on someone in one of my classes! It was the only moment that I could relate to Bella. 
 I never bothered to read the rest of the series or watch any of the movies. I can see why adults might enjoy the simplicity of this book - adult romances are never as cut-and-dry perfect as Bella and Edward. That being said, Twilight was not for me.