Or maybe the comparison isn’t exactly useful. But like most of the Harry Potter volumes, Stephenie Meyer’s latest book Breaking Dawn is selling fast and selling out.
The latest in a series started by the best-selling Twilight, these young adult books follow a romance between a teenage girl and a hundred-year-old vampire. Breaking Dawn is the fourth and last book (preceded by New Moon and Eclipse), and everyone and their mother is reading these books. Every teenage girl, that is, and more than a handful of twenty-somethings. Why so popular? Who knows? Critics are questioning everything from protagonist Bella’s self-esteem to whether the writing’s even any good. But the books are readable, compelling, and Meyer seems to have struck that mythical vein of luck that seems to have more to do with bestseller-ing than anything. Oh, and the feature film of Twilight will be released in January 2009.