"Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series has met with astonishing commercial success--not just amongst adolescent girls, but with college students, middle-aged women, and writers and publishers who hope to capitalize on the author's achievements by tapping into a primed market. For all of these reasons, it becomes a vital enterprise to investigate the themes of the Twilight books and the ways they encourage readers to perceive and interact with the world around them. The essays in this collection approach Meyer's novels from diverse perspectives, and will be of interest to academic and lay readers alike: undergraduates and graduate students; instructors of young adult literature, contemporary U.S. writing, the Gothic, and popular culture; the myriad Twilight fans who seek to explore and re-explore the novels from a variety of angles"--