Yes, Twilight Is Banned!

Twilight tells the story of Bella Swan, a teenager who moves to the perpetually overcast town of Forks, Washington, and falls in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire who has spent over a century trying not to kill people. The novel launched a four-book series that sold over 100 million copies worldwide and spawned a massive film franchise. Stephenie Meyer became one of the best-selling authors of the 2000s, and the series defined a generation of YA paranormal romance.

The Twilight series landed on the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books list in 2009 and 2010. In September 2008, the Capistrano Unified School District in California temporarily pulled the books from middle school libraries before reversing the decision. A parent in Magna, Utah, challenged Breaking Dawn at Brockbank Junior High for sexual content. Religious groups objected to the romanticization of vampires and the occult, while other parents called the relationship between Bella and Edward too sexually charged for young readers. The irony: Meyer is a devout Mormon, and the books are arguably among the most sexually conservative in all of YA fiction.

Why You Should Read This

Love it or hate it, Twilight reshaped the publishing industry. It proved that YA books could generate blockbuster-level revenue and cultural conversation. Before Twilight, YA was a quiet corner of the bookstore. After Twilight, it was the bookstore. The Hunger Games, Divergent, and the entire YA boom of the 2010s owe a debt to Meyer’s vampires.

The ban attempts are almost comically contradictory. Some parents thought the books promoted the occult. Others thought they were too sexual (they contain no sex scenes until the fourth book, and even that one fades to black). A few objected because the series supposedly encouraged teens to seek “dangerous” relationships. What the books actually contain is a fairly old-fashioned love story wrapped in supernatural trappings, written by an author who doesn’t drink coffee.

You don’t have to think Twilight is great literature to recognize that banning it is absurd. Millions of teenagers read these books and discovered a love of reading. That’s not a crisis. That’s the whole point of libraries.