I think what really drew me in to twilight when I was a teenager is that, despite the epic vampire whirlwind romance, the teenagers actually do feel like they have REAL lives, and it’s a real shame that that doesn’t translate to the movies (bc a movie with pointless scenes of the main character making enchiladas & doing homework would be crazy boring). I like that Edward enjoys skipping class to sit in his car & listen to Linkin Park CDs, I like that Bella spends her weekends doing laundry and drafting her Macbeth essay, and on sunny days she lays out a blanket to read in her backyard. I like that she drives to her best friend’s house after school to watch him fix cars and do homework together, I like that they have joint family dinners that are just eating spaghetti on fold-out chairs on the deck. I like that her friend group piles in mike’s mom’s van to go hang out at the beach, and when she brings a camera to school they all start a “picture war.” I like that she has a part-time retail job and sits at the kitchen table filling out uni applications with her boyfriend. It definitely loses that quality around eclipse when the focus has to stay on the actual plot, but I like that twilight & new moon feel pretty grounded in what introverted lower-middle class small-town teenagers are actually doing.