I've read the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. They were okay, a good fast read. After I read those books, I noticed books like it popping up everywhere. I haven't read any others, but reading the reviews, they're all the same. Teenage girl, sad and different that nobody gets, falls in love with a vampire... da da da. I'm a teenager, these books are targeted for my age group, and even I'm like... what the hell? Seriously?! One thing I do have to praise Stephanie Meyer for is that her books were a nice vacation. Thinking wasn't necessary for this easy read. Yet she didn't make me feel completely ashamed for being a teenager. The others I've opened just seem to be quickly written, and a little too dumbed down, in an attempt to think as a teenager.

So what is your opinion on this whole new genre of book?

I think that teen literature shouldn't be dumbed down. Period. That's the last thing these teens need, since most are so ignorant to begin with. Thinking should be necessary, especially when a teen is actually taking the time to read something. A lot of teens won't even try! Then again, I never read teen books and I've always hated a lazy read.
I did read Demon in My View by the request of a classmate in middle school. The author was a kid when she wrote it, and it was actually quite good if I recall. I'm sure you know it's one of the "girl meets vampire" books. The whole GMV theme irks me. I've seen countless little weirdos struggle to emulate the lead female, desperately hoping a vampire will save them (from themselves). I just want to slap them, to tell them no vampire is going to come, and they're only committing social suicide.
Let me just that I did state "most" and not "all" about teen ignorance, so you shouldn't take any offense.

I haven't read the Twilight books, or any book similar for that matter. I've read pretty mixed reviews on that book, but teenage girls seem to be eating it up. It has no appeal to me whatsoever, and although I am glad teens are actually reading I wish they would check into some of the classics rather than the quick read that these books offer.

I'm 22, and love all her books. hmm.. well if you didn't enjoy her teen books, maybe you should try The Host, its aimed towards adults. Maybe it didn't appeal to you since meyer's vampires were pretty different from most hollywood vampires( stake to the heart, sunlight, garlic, fangs)? She took am different approach to what we are all used to seeing in most hollywood movies, and books.
If you ever visit twilight fansites.... many fans just cherish the relationship between bella and edward. If you didn't like the sappy romance, then of course this book won't be so appealing to you.
now... i really enjoy reading teen books even though i'm not a teen anymore, but if you compare old century books with today's books, the writing style will be completely different. is that what you mean by today's books being dumbed down? because we don't use the same writing style, and old vocabulary words?

This is the reality of the publishing industry, not just with teen vampire love books, or whatever.

If a book sells well, publishers will accept and publish more books like it to ride the profit wave.

Eventually that particular market will crash or become saturated and there will be another hot seller to emulate.

Its basic economics really.

I'm 32, and I loved Twilight. The 2nd and 3rd ones were great. The 4th one was horrible. It's too bad they have to ruin a good thing with too many sequels. It takes an excellent author to pull sequels off, and honestly there just aren't a lot of people with that kind of talent.

I think this is right on the money. Whether or not Meyer's books are "good" is a different question from whether they sell, though. (With my vote -- having read them all -- being a solid "double plus ungood": too hackneyed, too vague and far too melodramatic. But they are entertaining.)

But it's not just you: there are a lot of crappy teen vampire books out now. My best friends, who turned me on to Meyers) owns a bookstore, and when I was down there for the Breaking Dawn release party, there were tonnes of them.

--Jaylemurph

it's like everybody is trying to emulate LJ Smith or Rowling these days.

I don't like the suggestion of dumbing down teens book. It' shard enough to get most of these teens to read nowadays. Horror genre seems to be the n thing these days. so I guess people are running out of ideas so the storylines are just "repetitive" =/

Well obviously there had do be a book which targeted the Buffy demographic of teenage girls.

Actually, I think that BTVS might be a couple of years before the target demographic for Meyers books.

From memory, my favourite GMV book was the tacky, yet very addictive Last Vampire Chronicles from Christopher Pike. They, I thought, almost broke the genre in the end.

I loved Christopher Pike as a teen, and I think those are the only books from back then that I have kept all these years.
His vampire books were good because they were different.